Cameron Garden

“The remission of punishments called an indulgence is not an unconditional amnesty, but postulates in the re cipient a moral disposition or worthiness, as well as the performance of certain prescribed acts. For this reason the moral worthiness of the recipient is not endangered by an indulgence, but rather partly taken for granted and partly effected. Charity or the love of God is the font and well-spring as well as the gauge and a necessary con dition of the whole system of indulgences.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3

“8) The fourth period in the history of indul gences, from the Council of Clermont (1095) to the Second Council of Lyons (1274), coincides with the crusades, during which the practice as sumed a new form. At Clermont, for the first time, participation in a crusade was suggested as a ransom from all penance. The Council decreed as follows: " Whoever, out of pure devotion, and not for the purpose of gaining honor or money, shall go to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God, let that journey be counted in lieu of all penance." 27 Pope Urban II, who personally attended this council, said in a sermon: " But we, trusting in the mercy of God and the authority of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, remit to the faithful who take up arms against the Sara cens and assume the burden of this pilgrimage [to Jeru salem], the unmeasured penalties of their sins. Those who shall die there with a truly contrite heart, may rest as sured that they will obtain forgiveness of their sins and the fruit of eternal reward." 28 Urban's example was followed by Callistus II (1123), Eugene III (1146), Alexander III (1179), and other popes. At about the same time the Schoolmen, notably St. Thomas Aquinas (+ I 2 74)> turned their attention to”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3

“The Council warns confessors not to " connive at sins and deal too indulgently with penitents by enjoining certain very light works for very grievous crimes." * 2 The present practice seems to be at variance with this injunction. But it must be regarded not so much from the first of the two points of view mentioned above (the grievousness and specific character of the sins committed), as from the second, i. e. the ability of the penitent. At the present time too great severity would repel rather than benefit the faithful.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3

“as the power of the keys is not limited to this world, 5 an indulgence is more than a mere remission of canonical works of penance; it is a valid abso lution, before God, from the punishments of sin which would otherwise have to be redeemed either by voluntary acts of penance here on earth or by compulsory suffering in purgatory. In other words, an indulgence is valid not only in the external forum of the Church, but likewise in foro divino, that is, before God. This simple explanation incidentally removes the mis taken notion that indulgences neutralize the penal effects of sin (concupiscence, disease, death) or that they can free a person from secular obligations towards others. /?) Where does the Church get the merits by which she blots out the punishments of sin ? She 2 Cfr. 2 Cor. II, 7, 20: x a pt~ * V ' su P ra > Sect - T - 5 Cfr. Matt. XVI, 19; XVIII, 18. 3 Cfr. Is. LXI, i. draws them from a thesaurus of which our Lord Jesus Christ has constituted her the dispenser, and out of which she grants to each individual beneficiary as much as is needed to satisfy the justice of God. This thesaurus consists of the superabundant merits of Jesus Christ and His saints. In dispensing these merits to the faithful whenever there is a iusta causa, the Church acts in accordance with the justice as well as the mercy of God. He who gains an indulgence does not approach God empty-handed, but enriched with the merits of Christ and the saints, and thereby satisfies divine justice. God, on the other hand, in freely accepting these vicarious merits instead of the personal satisfaction due Him from the sinner, manifests His grace and mercy, i. e. His in dulgence in a subjective sense.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3