Indulgence, in Roman Catholic theology, means a remission, by church authority, to a repentant sinner of the temporal punishment which, in the Catholic theory, remains due after the sin and its eternal punishment have been remitted. By the discipline of the first centuries a severe course of penitential observance was exacted of all who fell into any grievous crime, especially apostasy, murder, and adultery, such sinners being excluded from church communion for various periods, in some cases even till the hour of death. These penitential observances, which Protestants regard as purely disciplinary, were designed, according to the Catholic view, as an expiation on the part of the penitent for the temporal punishment which, after sin and the eternal punishment due to it have been remitted by God, still remains to be undergone: and some of the most acrimonious of the early controversies, the Montanist and the Novatian, arose as to the power of the church to relax these penitential observances, and to admit grievous sinners to communion. These ancient relaxations (of which they regard that referred to in 1 Cor. v. 5 and in 2 Cor. ii. 10 as a type) are considered by Catholics as examples of the modern indulgence; and the practice which grew up in the 3d and 4th centuries, and which even then was carried to great extremes, of granting such relaxations on the recommendation of martyrs or confessors, is held by Catholic theologians to be an illustration of that principle of vicarious atonement according to which, in the theory of indulgences, the church is supposed to supply from the inexhaustible treasure of the merits of Christ, and of the 'supererogatory' works of the saints, what may be wanting to the completeness of the atonement of the less perfect but yet truly penitent sinner to whom she grants the indulgence. That this practice of relaxation, whatever may have been its real import, was to be used according to the judgment of the bishop as to the disposition of the penitent, is expressly laid down by the Council of Ancyra in 308 and by that of Nice in 325. In all cases, however, the person granting the relaxation was to impose certain good works as a partial substitute for the penalty which had been relaxed; and among these works, which had at first been purely personal, came by degrees to be included money payments for certain religious or charitable objects, as the building of a church or the foundation of a monastery or hospital.
The name indulgence appears to have originated late, the first recorded instance of its use being by Alexander II. in the 11th century; but the institution itself is found in full development during the wars of the Crusades, the serving, or the contributing to service in which, 'provided it were for devotion alone, and not from motives of greed or of glory,' was accepted in the Council of Clermont 'as an equivalent substitute for all penance.' Such an indulgence was called 'plenary;' where a portion only of the penitential works was relaxed it was called 'partial;' and in order to put a bar to their excessive multiplication and to other abuses Innocent III. declared the power of granting 'plenary indulgences' to be reserved to the pope alone, bishops being only authorised to grant the 'partial' or limited indulgences described above. The fourth Lateran council condemns the 'indiscreet and superfluous' granting of indulgences; and among the abuses which grew up in the church during the western schism one of the most remarkable was the lavish dispensation of indulgences, in the granting of which the contending popes rivalled each other in prodigality. The last extreme, however, was not reached until the beginning of the 16th century, when, with a view to raising the funds necessary for the erection of the great church of St Peter's at Rome, the pope, Leo X., published a plenary indulgence, the principal condition for the gaining of which was a contribution to this work. Catholic historians contend that in itself such a condition was perfectly justifiable, and that if duly explained to the people it might be lawfully and even meritoriously complied with; but they admit that Tetzel and many more preachers of the indulgence in extolling its natural effects went to indefensible extremes, and that, even making the fullest allowance for exaggeration, it cannot be denied that grievous abuses both of doctrine and of practice were committed in Germany and in Switzerland. Hence the decree of the Council of Trent, while it affirms that the use of indulgences, as being 'most salutary for the Christian people, and approved by the authority of councils, is to be retained in the church,' yet orders that 'in granting them moderation be observed, lest by excessive facility discipline may be enervated.' Upon the special instructions of this council all the modern legislation on the subject of indulgences has been founded; but as the decree of the council does not explicitly declare what is the precise effect of an indulgence it is further explained by Pope Pius VI., in his celebrated bull Auctorem Fidei, that an indulgence received with due dispositions remits not alone the canonical penance attached to certain crimes in this life, but also the temporal punishment which would await the penitent after death to be endured by him in purgatory.
From the above explanation it will be gathered that Catholics do not understand by an indulgence a remission of sin, much less a permission to commit sin or a promise of forgiveness of future sin. They contend, moreover, that, since the benefit of an indulgence can only be enjoyed by a sinner who has repented of sin and resolved to embrace a new life, the imputation of introducing laxity of principle and easy self-indulgence is entirely unwarranted. And although for the most part the good works which are required as the condition of obtaining indulgences may appear easy and even trivial, yet the one indispensable preliminary—sorrow for sin and sincere purpose of amendment—involves the highest effort of Christian virtue.
See vol. iii., H. C. Lea's History of Auricular Confession and Indulgence (1896).
THE DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE, proclaimed by James II. in 1687, promised to suspend all laws which tended to force the consciences of his subjects. His real aim was, of course, merely to relieve the Roman Catholics; hence the declaration was very unpopular, and the refusal of the Seven Bishops to command their clergy to read it from their pulpits was but the culminating point of universal public dissatisfaction. Two similar indulgences in English history were those issued by Charles II. in 1662 and 1672, both of which were equally unpleasing to the dissenters alike in England and Scotland, who declined to share their toleration with their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects.