JUBILEE YEAR, an institution in the Roman Catholic Church, observed every twenty-fifth year, from Christmas to Christmas. During its continuance plenary indulgence is ob tainable by all the faithful, on condition of their penitently con fessing their sins and visiting certain churches a stated number of times, or doing an equivalent amount of meritorious work. The institution dates from the time of Boniface VIII., whose bull Antiquorum habet fidem is dated the 22nd of February 1300. According to contemporary statements, a rumour spread through Rome at the close of 1299 that every one visiting St. Peter's on the 1st of January 1300 would receive full absolution. The result was an enormous influx of pilgrims to Rome, which stirred the pope's attention. Nothing was found in the archives, but an old peasant 107 years of age avowed that his father had been similarly benefited a century previously. The bull was then issued, and
the pilgrims became even more numerous, to the profit of both clergy and citizens. At the request of the Roman people, which was supported by St. Bridget of Sweden and by Petrarch, Clement VI. in 1343 appointed, by the bull Unigenitus Dei filius, that the jubilee should recur every fifty years instead of every hundred years as had been originally contemplated in the constitution of Boniface ; Urban VI., who was badly in need of money, by the bull Salvator noster in 1389 reduced the interval still further to thirty-three years (the supposed duration of the earthly life of Christ) ; and Paul II. by the bull Ineffabilis (April 19, 1470) finally fixed it at twenty-five years.
See H. Thurston, art. "Jubilee" in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.