The Council of Trent, at its twenty-fifth ses sion (1563), condemned those who assert that indulgences are useless, or deny that the Church has power to grant them; but in reaffirming its belief the Church decreed the abolition of all evil gains and other abuses which had grown up in connection with the indulgence system. Since that time the Church has attempted to guard against misinterpretations of the doctrine, and to safeguard it from the criticisms to which it had previously been exposed.
From what has been said it will be evident that Roman Catholics do not understand by an indulgence a remission of siu itself, much less a permit to sin, or a pardon for the future. They hold that its benefits can he enjoyed only by a sinner who has repented and resolved to lead a new life, and they deny the charge that the in dulgence system has introduced any laxity of principle into the Church.
The power to grant indulgences for the whole Church resides only in the Pope, but primates, archbishops, and bishops have power to grant them within their own jurisdictions. The in dulgence may be either plenary or partial, the former remitting the whole of the temporal pun ishment, the latter something less than the whole. For example. an indulgence of forty days
is understood to remit as much as would have required forty days of penance without it. In dulgences may be attached to certain articles (e.g. a crucifix), or to certain places (as a shrine). In these cases the original possessor of the article, or the pilgrim to the shrine, re ceives the benefit of the indulgence. A custom of granting indulgences for the dead grew up in the Ages. The right and efficacy- of such grants has been much debated; but the Church holds them to be salutary, even though their precise scope cannot be defined. As limited by Sixtus IV. (Constitution of 1477), they are 'only by way of suffrage'—i.e. the Church does not assume direct authority over the dead.
Consult: E. Amort, De Origine, Progressu, Valore ac Prueta I ndulgent ( A ugsburg, 1735) ; Palmieri. Trartat us de Pc•nitentia (2d ed., Prati, 18961; H. C. Lea, History of Auricu lar Confession and Indulgences in the Lat in Church, vol. iii., "Ind 1 ) : "The Roman Cathcflic Doctrine of Indul gences," by the Bishop of Newport, in the Nine teenth Celli Uri, (January, 1901) ; Addis and Arnold, Catholic Diet ionary (2d ed., London. MI), article "Indulgence."