Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Indulgences and the Jubilee · Book I: That Indulgences Exist, and What They Are
Chapter 1: On the names indulgence and jubilee
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. VII, De Indulgentiis et Jubilaeo, Book I, a treatise of the Controversies. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
And to begin from the name: indulgence, in the holy Scriptures and in other authors, especially ecclesiastical ones, usually signifies remission, and also easiness, or (if we may so speak) condescension. In the former sense the word is used in Isaiah, chapter 61, as Saint Luke renders it in chapter 4 of the Gospel. For what we read in Isaiah, to preach indulgence to the captives, we see rendered in the Gospel of Luke, to preach remission to the captives. The ancient Fathers used it everywhere in the same sense: Cyprian in the sermon on the lapsed and in the letter to Jubaianus, Jerome in the commentary on chapter 4 of Daniel, and Augustine on Psalm 101, explaining the words, I did eat ashes like bread. In the latter sense, in which the name of indulgence is taken for lenity and, as we said, condescension, the Apostle used it in the first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 7, in the words, But I speak this by indulgence, not by commandment. The same meaning is very frequent in other writers, both sacred and profane.
The Church, therefore, and the schools of the theologians, joining both meanings together, call indulgences the remissions of punishments which often remain to be paid after the remission of faults and the reconciliation obtained in the sacrament of Penance; which remissions the Supreme Pontiffs, out of a fatherly lenity and condescension toward their sons, having compassion on their weakness, are accustomed to grant at certain times, and not without some just and reasonable cause. It seems, moreover, that the Church drew this name for the thing from the usage of the ancient emperors and jurists. For they call indulgence, by a solemn and proper term, that general remission of crimes which the princes of the world sometimes granted for the sake of public rejoicing. See the Theodosian Code, book 4, title 38, which is on indulgences of crimes, and you will find expressly in law 3 that an indulgence was a remission of crimes as regards only the penalty owed by the laws, and in law 4 you will find indulgence called now remission, now absolution. See also the law Lucius at the Senatusconsultum Turpilianum, and the law Indulgentia in the Code, on general abolition, and Ammianus Marcellinus, book 16, where he also indicates that the name of indulgence is ancient and solemn when he says, that not through indulgences, as they call them, and so on. And let this suffice here concerning the name of indulgence, for we shall give an accurate definition of indulgence afterwards in its own place.
Further, jubilee is said from the Hebrew word Jobel, and although some prefer to say jobelee or jobilee rather than jubilee, we nevertheless follow Saint Jerome, who always rendered the word Jobel as jubilaeus. For in the rendering of words we ought not to be so superstitious that on that account we should desert Saint Jerome, a most learned and most prudent man, and one approved by the Church herself. Now the jubilee signifies the year of remission, which among the Hebrews was the fiftieth, as is clear from chapters 25 and 27 of Leviticus and the last chapter of Numbers; since in that year all the labours of agriculture were remitted, for there was no ploughing, nor sowing, nor reaping, but from the fruits of the preceding year, which the Lord supplied threefold, all could be conveniently sustained; fields also and houses that had been sold were restored to their former owners, and those who had been given over to slavery were returned to their former liberty.
As to the etymology of jubilee, the grammarians dispute, and the case is still before the judge. I, however, do not agree with the rabbis, who teach that the jubilee is so named from the sound of the ram's horn, because the year of remission was announced by a sound of that kind. For although in one place, namely Exodus 19, Jobel seems to signify the sound of a trumpet, or the trumpet itself, yet where the jubilee is properly treated, namely Leviticus 25, the sound of the trumpet by which the jubilee was announced is not called Jobel but teruah, which word David also uses in the Psalms wherever he names jubilation or shouting. And certainly, if jubilee were said in Hebrew from the sound of the trumpet, Moses ought altogether, in Leviticus 25, where he says, Then shalt thou sound the trumpet in the seventh month, the tenth day of the month, in the time of the expiation in all your land. And thou shalt sanctify the fiftieth year, and shalt proclaim remission to all the inhabitants of thy land: for it is the year of jubilee, to have used the word Jobel in designating the sound of the trumpet. Yet he did not, but used the word teruah, as we said. And so in Hebrew jubilee is not named from jubilation, since the one is called Jobel and the other teruah; but it is named, as I think, from jabal, which signifies to bring forth and to produce, whence comes the noun jebul, by which all crops and fruits are usually signified. The jubilee, then, is so called as being a year that brings forth, a useful and fruitful year, because without labour it brings the fruits of the earth, and without expense restores fields and houses to their old owners, and without any force gives back to slaves their former liberty.
Now the jubilee of the Hebrews was without any doubt a type and figure of the Gospel, through which men obtain by Christ the remission of sins, deliverance from the slavery of the devil, the possession of paradise and a heavenly home, and finally the fruits of good works, and other benefits without number. Alluding to which, Isaiah in chapter 61, in the person of Christ, says: The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Hence the Supreme Pontiff Clement, the sixth of that name, judged that the famous year in which the greatest indulgences are granted, after the ancient custom, to those who visit the basilicas of the Apostles, should be called by the name of jubilee, especially since, in likeness of the ancient jubilee, he had himself appointed the fiftieth year in place of the hundredth, which had before been in use. Finally, the same name of jubilee has been extended to all indulgences which are from time to time granted in the amplest form, even outside that year which properly bears the name of jubilee. And although the papal indulgence, as we shall prove afterwards in its place, remits only the temporal punishment owed for sins, and on that account has only in part some likeness to the ancient jubilee, yet such fruits of penance, so many conversions of wicked men, so many and so distinguished works of piety, either precede or accompany that indulgence, that the year may deservedly be called holy, acceptable to the Lord, bringing forth and fruitful, which we said is signified by the name of jubilee. There is extant a little book in which are recounted in order the distinguished and almost numberless works of piety which were performed in the last jubilee under Gregory XIII, Supreme Pontiff. Nor do we hope to see lesser ones in that which is now at hand, in the year 1600, under Clement VIII, best and most holy Pontiff.
And so that those who wish may consult the authors who have written excellently on indulgences, I shall set down the names of those whose books have come into my hands. The first, then, are William of Auxerre in the Summa Theologica, book 4, tract 6, chapter 9, and Alexander of Hales likewise in the Summa Theologica, part 4, question 23. These were followed by Albert the Great, Saint Thomas, Saint Bonaventure, and the other scholastic theologians in the commentaries on the fourth book of the Sentences, distinction 19, or 20, or 45; to whom may be added the interpreters of canon law, Panormitanus and others, on various chapters of the title on penances and remissions, both in the Decretal epistles and in the Sext and the Extravagants; and also John of Torquemada in the commentary on Gratian's Decree, on penance, distinction 1, canon Quis aliquando, paragraph Item in Levitico; Felinus in the sermon or tract on indulgences; and Saint Antoninus in the Summa, part 1, title 10, chapter 3. To these last are to be added those who wrote after the birth of the Lutheran heresy: Sylvester Prierias, both in the little book against Luther and in the Summa, under the word Indulgentia; John Eck in the Enchiridion, chapter 24; Pope Adrian VI, in the commentary on the fourth book of the Sentences, in the tract on indulgences; Cardinal Thomas Cajetan in the first volume of his opuscula, tracts 8, 9, 10, 15 and 16; John, Bishop of Rochester, in the refutation of the assertion of Luther's articles, articles 17 through 22; Dominic Soto on the fourth book of the Sentences, distinction 21; Peter Soto in the Institution of Priests, lectures 1, 2 and 3 on indulgences; James Latomus in the defence of the seventh article of the Louvain theologians; Martin Ledesma in the second part on the fourth book of the Sentences, questions 27, 28 and 29; Michael Medina in the disputation on indulgences; Antonio of Cordoba in the questions on indulgences; John Baptist Pauliano in the books on the jubilee and indulgences; Martin Navarrus in the commentary on the jubilee and indulgences; Francis Torres in book 4 on the dogmatic characters of the Word of God; Gregory of Valencia in the book on indulgences; James Nacchianti in tract 10.
Further, of the enemies of the Church, the first who despised and attacked indulgences were the Waldensians, who were called the Poor Men of Lyons. Their errors are reported by Saint Antoninus in the fourth part of the Summa, title 11, chapter 7, paragraph 2, and by John of Torquemada in book 4 of the Summa, part 2, chapter 35. The eighth of their errors was that the indulgences which are granted by the Supreme Pontiff are of no worth whatever. The Waldensians were followed by John Wycliffe, whose errors are recounted and condemned in the Council of Constance, session 8. The forty-second of those errors is that it is foolish to believe in the indulgences of the Pope and of the bishops. Wycliffe was followed by the Hussites, as may be understood from the first book of John Cochlaeus on the history of the Hussites. These Martin Luther had as his elders and parents, who in our age made the censure of indulgences the beginning of the propagation of his sect, as is plain from the Resolutions on Indulgences, from the Assertions of the articles condemned by Leo X, from the beginning of the book on the Babylonian Captivity, and from other little books of his. Luther was followed by his own Achates, Philip Melanchthon, in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, article 12; Matthias Illyricus in the Centuries, century 4, chapter 15, column 1529; Tilmann Heshusius in the book on the errors of the papists, title 32. John Calvin attacked indulgences more copiously in the Christian Institutes, book 3, chapter 5, and in another edition the single book, chapter 9, number 38 and following; but most copiously of all Martin Chemnitz in the fourth part of the Examination of the Council of Trent.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
DE INDULGENTIIS . LIBER PRIMUS CAPUT PRIMUM. De nomine indulgentias et jubilaei. Ac ut a nomine exordiamur, indulgentia remissionem, et facilitatem, sive (ut sic lo¬ quamur) condescensionem in Scripturis san¬ ctis, aliisque auctoribus, praesertim ecclesia¬ sticis, significare solet. Et quidein priore notione usurpatur hoc nomen apud Isaiam cap. lxi. sancto Luca interprete cap. iv. Evangelii. Nam quod legimus in Isaia : Praedicare captivis indulgentiam , in Evange- gelio Lucae redditum vi demus, Praedicare cap - tivis remissionem (1). Eadem notione passim veteres Patres usi sunt, Cyprianus in serm. de lapsis, et in epist. ad Jubajanum, Hiero¬ nymus in comment. ad. cap. iv. Danielis, et Augustinus in Psalm. ci. explicans illa verba, cinerem tamquam panem manducabam, posteriore significatione, qua nomen indul¬ gentiae pro lenitate, et ut diximus, conde- scensione accipitur, usus est Apostolus in priore ad Corinth. cap. vn, in illis verbis; Hoc autem dico secundum indulgentiam , non secundum imperium (2). Eadem significatio apud alios scriptores tum sacros, tum pro¬ fanos frequentissima est. Ecclesia igitur, et Scholae Theologorum utramque significationem conjungentes, in¬ dulgentias vocant remissiones poenarum, quae saepe remanent luendae post remissio- ♦nem culparum, et reconciliationem in sacra¬ mento Poenitentiae adeptam, quas remissio¬ nes Summi Pontifices ex paterna lenitate, et condescensione in filios suos, compatientes eorum infirmitati, certis temporibus, et non sine justa aliqua, et rationabili causa con¬ cedere solent. Videtur autem Ecclesia ad hanc rem significandam nomen hoc deri¬ vasse ab usu veterum imperatorum, et ju¬ reconsultorum. Siquidem illi indulgentiam solemni, proprioque vocabulo appellant re¬ missionem generalem criminum, quam ali¬ quando principes saeculi publicae laetitia causa faciebant, vide Codicem Theodo¬ sianum lib. iv. tit. 38. qui est de Indulgen¬ tiis criminum, et nominatim invenies lege 3. indulgentiam fuisse remissionem criminum, quoad solam poenam legibus debitam, et lege 4. invenies indulgentiam nunc remis¬ sionem, nunc absolutionem appellari. Vide etiam I. Lucius If. ad Senatusconsultum Turpili, et 1. Indulgentia, C. de generali a- bolitione,et Ammianum Marcellinumlib.xvi. ubi etiam indicat, nomen indulgentia esse antiquum, et solemne cum ait, « ne per in¬ dulgentias, quos appellant, etc. », Atque haec de nomine indulgentiae hic sufficiant, nam defitionem accuratam indulgentiae post¬ ea suo loco trademus. Porro jubilaeus dicitur a voce Hebraea bw Jobel, et quamvis aliqui malint johe- laeum, vel jobilaeum, quam jubilaeum dicere, nos tamen S. Hieronymum sequimur, qui vocem Jobel, perpetuo jubilaeum reddidit. Non enim in convertendis vocibus tam su¬ ti) Isai., LVl, 1 ; Luc., IV. 19. - (2) I Corinth., VII, 6. 46 LIBER I. perstitiosi esse debemus, ut propterea S. Hieronymum, virum doctissimum, et pru- dentissimum et ab ipsa Ecclesia approba¬ tum deserere debeamus. Significat autem jubilaeus annum remissionis, qui apud He¬ braeos erat quinquagesimus, ut perspicuum est ex cap. xxv. et xxvii. Levitici, et cap. postremo Numerorum, siquidem eo anno re¬ mittebantur labores omnes agriculturae, non enim arabatur, nec serebatur, nec meteba¬ tur, sed ex frugibus anni superioris, quas Dominus triplo plures suppeditabat, omnes commode sustentari poterant ; restitueban¬ tur etiam agri, ac domus venditae prioribus dominis, et qui servituti addicti fuerant, li¬ bertati pristinae reddebantur. De etimologia vero jubilaei, grammatici certant, et adhuc sub judice lis est. Ego tamen non assentior Rabbinis, qui docent jubilaeum a sonitu cor¬ nu arietini sic nominari, quod ejusmodi so¬ nitu indiceretur annus remissionis. Nam tam¬ etsi uno in loco, videlicet Exod. xix. vi¬ deatur Jobel sonum buccinae , vel ipsam buccinam significare : tamen ubi agitur proprie de jubilaeo, nimirum Levit, xxv. so¬ nitus buccinae, quo indicebatur jubilaeus, non vocatur Jobel, sed filPYin theruha, qua etiam voce utitur David in Psalmis ubicum¬ que jubilum vel jubilationem nominat. Et certe si jubilaeus hebraice diceretur a sonitu buccinae, debuisset omnino Moses Levit, xxv. ubi ait : Et clanges baccina mense septimo, decima die mensis , propitiationis tempore in universa terra vestra , sanctificabisque annum quinquagesimum , et vocabis remissionem cunc¬ tis habitatoribus terree tuae. Ipse est enim Ju¬ bilaeus (4). Debuisset, inquam, uti voce Jo- belin designando sonitum buccinae. Quod tamen non fecit, sed usus est voce theruha, ut diximus. Itaque non dicitur hebraice jubilaeus a jubilatione, cum ille Jobel, ista theruha dicatur : sed dicitur, ut existimo, a Jabal, quod significat germinare, et producere, unde est nomen JIIT Jebul, quo fruges et fructus omnes significari solent. Dicitur igitur jubilaeus, quasi annus germi¬ nans, utilis, et fructuosus, quia sine labore adducit fructus terrae, et sino sumptibus re¬ stituit agros et domos antiquis dominis, et sine ulla vi reddit servis pristinam li¬ bertatem. Fuit autem sine ullo dubio ju¬ bilaeus Hebraeorum typus et figura Evan- gelii, per quod homines remissionem pec¬ ti) Lcv,, XXV. 9; — Isei., LVI, 1. catorum, liberationem a servitute dia - boli, possessionem paradisi, et domum ccelestem, ac denique fructus bonorum operum, et alia innumerabilia beneficia per Christum acquirunt. Ad quod allu¬ dens Isaias cap. lxi. in persona Christi, sic ait : Spmtus Domini super me, eo quod un¬ xerit me, ad annunciandum mansuetis misit me, ut mederer contritis corde , et praedicarem captivis indulgentiam , et clausis apertionem , ut praedicarem annum placabilem Domino (2). Hinc Pontifex Maximus, Clemens ejus no¬ minis sextus, annum illum celebrem, in quo indulgentiae maximae adeuntibus Apostolo¬ rum basilicas more veteri conceduntur, ju¬ bilaei nomine appellandum censuit, praeser¬ tim cum ad similitudinem veteris jubilaei annum quinquagesimum pro centesimo, qui antea fuerat in usu, ipse designasset. Deni¬ que idem jubilaei nomen derivatum est ad omnes indulgentias, quae in amplissima for¬ ma subinde concedi solent, etiam extra an¬ num illum, qui proprie jubilaei nomen inve¬ nit. Quamvis autem indulgentia pontificia, ut postea suo loco probabimus, solam pce- nam temporalem peccatis debitam remittat, atque ob id solum ex parte nonnullam ha- heat cum veteri jubilaeo similitudinem, tanti tamen fructus pcenitentiae, tot conversiones hominum sceleratorum, tam multa, et tam praeclara pietatis opera, indulgentiam illam vel praecedunt, vel comitantur, ut merito annus ille, sanctus, placabilis Domino, ger¬ minans et fructuosus, quod nomine jubilaei significari diximus, appellari possit. Exstat libellus, in quo recensentur ordine opera pietatis egregia, ac pene inuumerabilia, quae in proximo jubilaeo sub Gregono XIII Pon¬ tifice Maximo edita sunt. Nec minora spera¬ mus visuros non esse in eo, qui nunc im¬ minet anno millesimo sexcentissimo sub Clemente VIII Pontifice Optimo, atque san¬ ctissimo. Ac ut possint qui volunt auctores consu¬ lere, qui de indulgentiis praeclare scripse¬ runt, adscribam eorum nomina, quorum li¬ bri ad manus meas venerunt. Primi igitur sunt Gulielmus Altisiodorensis in Summa Theologica lib. iv. tract. 6. cap. 9. et Alexan¬ der Alensis in Summa item Theologica part. 4. q. 23. Hos sequuti sunt Albertus Magnus, 5. Thomas, S. Bonaventura, et caeteri scho¬ lastici Theologi in Comment. ad lib. iv. CAPUT II. 17 Sentent. dist. 19. aut 20. aut 45. quibus ad¬ di possunt interpretes Juris canonici, Panor¬ mitanus, et alii, in varia capita tituli de poenitentiis, et remissionibus : tum in epist. Decretalibus, tum in Sexto, et Extravagan- tibus : necnon Joannes de Turrccremata, in Commentario ad Gratiani Decretum, de poe- nit. dist. 1. can. Quis vidit aliquando, §. Item in Levit. Felinus in serm. sive tract. de Indulgentiis, et S. Antoninus in summ. part. 1. tit. 10. cap. 3. Hispostremo adjun¬ gendi sunt, qui post natam Lutheranam haeresim scripserunt, Sylvester Prieras, tum in libello adversus Lutherum, tum in Sum¬ ma, verbo, Indulgentia. Joannes Eckius in Enchir. cap. 24. Adrianus Papa VI, in com¬ mentar. ad iv. lib. Sentent in tract. de In¬ dulgentiis. Thomas Cajetanus Cardinalis in 1. tom. opuscul. Tract. 8. 9. 10. 15. et 16. Joannes Episcopus Roffensis in refutatione assertionis articulorum Lutheri art. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. et 22. Dominicus a Soto in 4. Sentent. dist. 21. Petrus Soto in Institutione Sacerdotum lect. 1. 2. et 3. de Indulgentiis. Jacobus Latomus in defensione septimi arti¬ culi Lovaniensium. Martinus Ledesmius in 2. part. 4. sent. qu. 27. 28. et 29. Michael Medina in disputat, de Indulgentiis. Anto¬ ninus Cordubensis in quaestionibus de In¬ dulgentiis. Joannes Baptista Paulianus in libris de Jobilaeo, et Indulgentiis. Martinus Navarrus in Commentario de Jubilaeo et In¬ dulgentiis, Franciscus Turrianus lib. iv. de dogmaticis characteribus Verbi Dei. Grego- rius de Valentia in lib. de Indulgentiis, Ja¬ cobus Nachantus tract. 10. Porro ex Ecclesiae hostibus primi, qui indulgentias contempserunt, et oppugnarunt, fuerunt Valdenses, qui Pauperes de Lugduno appellati sunt. Horum errores referuntur a S. Antonino in 4. part. Summ. tit. 11. cap. 7. §. 2. et a Joanne de Turrecremata lib. iv. Summ. part. 2. cap. 35. Octavus eorum error fuit, indulgentias, quee a Sum¬ mo Pontifice conceduntur , nihil prorsus valere. Secutus est Valdenses Joan. Wicletfus, cujus errores recensentur, et damnantur in Synodo Constantiensi sess. 8. Eorum erro¬ rum quadragesimus secundus est, fatuum esse credere Indulgentiis Papae, et Episco¬ porum. Wicleffum secuti sunt Hussitae, ut intelligi potest ex r. lib. Joannis Cochlaei de Historia Hussitarum. Hos majores, et parentes ha- Tom. VII. buit Martinus Lutherus, qui nostro saeculo ab Indulgentiarum reprehensione princi¬ pium fecit sectae suae propagandae, ut per¬ spicuum est ex Resolutionibus de indulgen¬ tiis, ex Assertionibus articulorum a Leo¬ ne X damnatorum, ex initio libri de capti¬ vitate Babylonica , et ex aliis ejus libellis. Lutherum secutus est ipsius Achates Phi¬ lippus Melanchthon, in Apologia Confessio¬ nis Augustanae, articul. 12. Matthias Illyri¬ cus in Centuriis, centur. 4. cap. 15, coi. 1529. Tilmannus Heshusius in lib. de erro¬ ribus Pontificiorum tit. 32. Sic copiosius indulgentias oppugnavit Joan. Calvinus in institutione Christiana lib. m. cap. 5. et in alia editione lib. unie. cap. 9. n. 38. et se¬ quentibus; copiosissime vero Martinus Kem- nitius in 4. part. examinis Tridentini Con¬ cilii.