Indulgence

Background

The English word indulgence comes from the Latin indulgentia ("gracious leniency"). The term also refers to the document certifying an indulgence's effect. In Korean, indulgences were long called myeonjoebu (免罪符, "certificate of remission of sin"). In Catholic doctrine, however, an indulgence remits not sin itself but the temporal punishment that remains for sins already forgiven. For this reason, Korean scholarship and history education now widely use the term myeonbeolbu (免罰符, "certificate of remission of punishment"). The Korean Catholic Church calls this grace daesa (大赦).

The medieval Western Church taught that even when sins were forgiven through the sacrament of penance, the punishment due for those sins still had to be paid, either through satisfaction (acts making amends for sin) in this world or in purgatory after death. Indulgences were at first granted as substitutes for, or reductions of, penitential works such as pilgrimage, fasting, and almsgiving. They spread widely after 1095, when Pope Urban II, at the Council of Clermont, promised crusaders a full remission of punishment. In 1343 Clement VI formally defined the teaching that the merits of Christ and the saints are stored in a "treasury of the Church," which the Church can dispense. In 1476 Sixtus IV declared that indulgences could also be obtained on behalf of the dead in purgatory. Alongside these developments grew the practice of exchanging monetary offerings for indulgences.

Development

In 1506 Julius II began the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica. To raise funds for the project, Leo X renewed authorization for the sale of indulgences. In Germany, Albrecht of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, who had incurred debts by holding several sees at once, agreed to receive a share of the proceeds and entrusted the preaching of the indulgence to the Dominican friar Johann Tetzel. The saying "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs" is traditionally attributed to Tetzel and is often quoted to illustrate the sales methods of the time.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a professor at the University of Wittenberg, sent his Ninety-five Theses criticizing the practice to Archbishop Albrecht. The first thesis states that when Christ said "Repent," he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. As the theses were printed and circulated, the dispute broadened into questions about papal authority and the basis of salvation, and Luther was excommunicated in 1521.

Consequences and Influence

The indulgence controversy was the immediate catalyst of the Reformation. Protestants established the doctrine of justification, that a person is justified by faith, and rejected both purgatory and indulgences.

At the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the Catholic Church upheld the doctrine of indulgences itself. It did, however, prohibit improper financial gain and other abuses connected with indulgences, and it abolished the office of the alms collectors who gathered offerings while preaching indulgences. In 1967 Pope Paul VI reorganized the system through the apostolic constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina. Today Catholic indulgences are not bought or sold; they are granted when conditions such as sacramental confession, Holy Communion, and prayer are fulfilled.

Assessment

Protestants, including Lutheran and Reformed churches, regard indulgences as a prime example of binding salvation to human merit and ecclesiastical institutions. Indulgences are therefore frequently cited as an illustration when explaining "grace alone" and "faith alone" among the Five Solas.

The Catholic Church acknowledges that the sales practices of that era were wrong. It explains, however, that an indulgence is not the purchase of forgiveness of sins but a reduction, through the merits of Christ, of the punishment due for sins already forgiven.

In Korean Protestantism, indulgences are frequently discussed in Reformation Sunday sermons and in church history education. In everyday Korean usage, myeonjoebu is also used figuratively to mean a pretext for excusing wrongdoing.