The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

INDULGENCES. 431AndBishops granted what we call an Indulgence.this sentence of remission on the part of the Bishopgwas valid not only in the sight of the Church, butalso in the sight of God. And although the Churchimposes canonical penances no longer, God has neverceased to inflict temporal punishment for sin. HenceIndulgences continue to be necessary now, if not asa substitute for canonical penances, at least as amild and merciful payment of the temporal debtdue to God.An Indulgenceis called plenary or partial, according as it remits the whole or a part of the temporalpunishment due to sin. An Indulgence for instance,of forty days, remits, before God, so much of thetemporal punishment as would have been expiatedin the primitive Church by a canonical penance offorty days.Although the very name of Indulgences is now sorepugnant to our dissenting brethren, there was atime when the Protestant church professed to grantthem. In the canons of the church of England,reference is made to Indulgences, and to the disposi1tion which is to be made of the money paid for them.1 Articuli pro Clero, A. D. 1584. Sparrow, 194. I admit,indeed, that Protestant canons have but a fleeting and ephemeral authority even among themselves, and that the canonsmust yield to the spirit of the times, not the times to thecanons. I dare say that even few Protestant theologians arcfamiliar with the canons to which 1 have referred. Somepeople have a convenient faculty of Forgetting unpleasanttraditions