Opposition to the doctrine of indulgences arose at different times, not because of their alleged novelty or repugnance to the religious sense of the Christian people, but because they did not always approve of the object for which alms were obtained by the preaching of indul gences, or because of the personal defects of those entrusted with their promulgation. It should be distinctly•noted that these purposes were not always strictly religious. They were frequently philanthropic, such as the construc tion of bridges, the erection of hospitals, etc., and in such cases received the unqualified ap proval of princes and people. In order to comprehend the outburst which Luther was able to evoke against the indulgence granted by Leo X we must bear in mind, besides the ques tionable motives that are alleged to have partly inspired the action of that pontiff, also the bitter memories that tarried in the minds of European monarchs after their defeat on the question of investitures, and the death-blow dealt thereby to the feudal system. The entire antipathy aroused, for this and other reasons, against the Holy See in the time of Leo X found vent in the attack initiated by Luther on indulgences.
An indulgence may be acquired directly by the living and applied by them, with the consent of the Church, to the souls of the faithful de parted. All Catholic theologians are unanimous in the opinion that an indulgence should not be granted without grave and substantial reasons, since the ordinary Christian economy demands that each individual should make personal rep aration for the temporal debt due for his sins.
Moreover, in order to participate fruitfully in an indulgence, certain conditions and disposi tions are necessary on the part of the subject. He must be in the state of grace, have a genuine desire to gain the indulgence, and perform cer tain acts prescribed by the Holy See.
The application of indulgences to the dead is not a judicial act of the Church, whose juris diction is limited to the members of the mili tant or visible Church on earth. Remission of the temporal debt due to God for sin by the suffering members of Christ's mystical body in Purgatory is communicated to them by the Church by way of suffrage or supplication. In other words, she authorizes the living to join their petitions with hers that God may gra ciously accept the indulgences which they gain and in the measure in which they gain them, in behalf of the souls of the faithful departed. Indulgences are now dispensed partly by way of absolution and partly by way of commuta tion. The well-known distinction between partial and plenary indulgences should be un derstood in an objective sense. The degree in which any indulgence is actually gained or subjectively appropriated by the individual de pends on his *ubjective disposition, according to the theological maxim: whatever is received is received according to the measure of the re cipient. The most solemn of all plenary in dulgences is that which is granted on the occa sion of a jubilee such as that which was pro claimed for 1904 by His Holiness Pius X to mark the 50th anniversary of the definition of the Immaculate Conception by Pius IX.