JUBILEE
534
JUBILEE
in the most ample manner possible. Of course, when
first conceded, such an indulgence, and also the privi-
lege annexed of choosing a confessor who had power
to absolve from reserved cases, was a much rarer
spiritual boon than it has since become. So pre-
eminent was the favour then regarded that the cus-
tom arose of suspending all other indulgences during
the Jubilee year, a practice which, with certain
modifications, still obtains at the present day. The
precise conditions for gaining each Jubilee are de-
termined by the Roman pontiff, and they are usually
announced in a special Bull, distinct from that which
it is customary to issue on the preceding feast of the
Ascension giving notice of the forthcoming celebra-
tion. The main conditions, however, which do not
usually vary, are three: confession, Communion, and
visits to the four basilicas during a certain specified
period. The statement made by writers like the
late Dr. H. C. Lea, that the Jubilee indulgence, being
a culpa et a puna, did not of old presuppose either
confession or repentance, is absolutely without
foundation, and is contradicted by every official
document preserved to us. Besides the ordinary
Jubilee indulgence, to be gained only by pilgrims
who pay a visit to Rome, or through special conces-
sion by certain cloistered religious confined within
their monasteries, it has long been customary to ex-
tend this indulgence the following year to the faithful
throughout the world. For this fresh conditions are
appointed, usually including a certain number of
visits to local churches and sometimes fasting or
other works of charity. Further, the popes have
constantly exercised their prerogative of conceding
to all the faithful indulgences ad inslar jubihm (after
the model of a jubilee) which are commonly kiiown
as "extraordinary Jubilees". On these occasions, as
at the Jubilee itself, special facilities are usually ac-
corded for absolution from reserved cases, though,
on the other liand, the great indulgence is only to
be gained by the performance of conditions much
more onerous than those required for an ordinary
plenary indulgence. Such extraordinary Jubilees are
commonly granted by a newly elected pontiff at his
accession or on occasions of some unwonted celebra-
tion, as was done, for example, at the convening of
the Vatican Council, or again at times of great
calamity.
yxREBER in Kirt-henlexikon, s. v." Beringer, Les Indulgences, Fr. trans. (Paris, 1890), 479-94; Prinzivalli, Gli Anni Sanli (Rome, 1899); Bastien, Tractatus de Anno Sancto (Maredsous, 1901); Thurston, The Holy Year of Jubilee (London, 1900); DE Waal, DasheiligeJahriRome.l^QQ); CxnBom, II Giubileo di Bonifazio Vlllela Commedia di Dante (Rome, 1901); Kraus, Das Anno Santo, in Abhandlungen, II (Berlin, 1901), 217-337, originally published in the Allgemeine Zeitung. — There are also many older books, e. g., those of Manni and Zaccaria.
Herbert Thurston.
Jubilee, Year of (Hebrew). — According to the Pentateuchal legislation contained in Leviticus, a Ju- bilee year is the year that follows immediately seven successive Sabbatic years (the Sabbatic year being the seventh year of a seven-year cycle). Accordingly, the Jubilee year takes place at the end of seven times seven years, i. e. at the end of every forty-nine years, or the fiftieth. Hence, the institution of the Jubilee-year system is but an extension or the working out of the Sabbatic-year legislation, viz. that as at the end of every six years there succeeds a Sabbatic year, so at the end of each seven Sabbatic years there succeeds a Jubilee year. Arguing from the analcigous Pentecos- tal system, it is evident that the actual year in which the Jubilee occurs is not the last of the seventh Sab- batic cycle (i. e. the forty-ninth year), but the year, following, namely, the fiftieth. Hence, at the end of each forty-eight years there occur two consecutive fal- low years, viz. the forty-ninth, or the Sabbatic year of the seventh Sabbatic cycle, and the fiftieth, or the Jubilee year. From the nature and purpose of the
Jubilee legislation, it is also evident that the Jubilee
year is to be reckoned with in itself absolutely, and
not in relation to the length of time, or duration, of
each particular event or contract. So that if, for ex-
ample, the year 1950 is Jubilee year, and an Israelite
became a slave in the year 1930, tliis slave is to be set
free not in 1980, but in 1950, which is the appointed
year of Jubilee.
The term jubilee year (Heb. pavn T^\}^>^, Vulg. annus juhilei, or Jubileus) is of Hebrew origin, the etymo- logical meaning of which is, in all probability, " ram ", which metonymically stands for " the horn of a ram " (PDVn ]'\p)- Thus the name "the year of the blow- ing of the ram's horn " (73Vn D JC) exactly corresponds to " the day of the blowing of the horn" (nyiin DV), or the "feast of the new year", and it was, like the latter, announced to the people by the blowing of the horn. In Ezechiel (xlvi, 17) the Jubilee year is called "the year of release" ("imn DJU'); hence some com- mentators have derived the word ^31' (Jubilee) from the stem pT, which means " to emit ", "to liberate". The first derivation, however, is more acceptable.
The legislation concerning the year of Jubilee is found in Leviticus, XXV, 8-54, and xxvii, 16-24. It con- tains three main enactments: (1) rest of the soil; (2) re- version of landed property to its original owner, who had been driven by poverty to sell it ; and (3) the freeing or manumission of those Israelites who, through poverty or otherwise, had become the slaves of their brethren.
The first enactment (contained in Leviticus, xxv, 11-12) enjoinsthatas in the case of each Sabbatic year, so in each Jubilee year the soil is to be at rest, and that there is to be no tillage nor harvest, but that what the land produces spontaneously and of its own accord is free to be utilized by all Israelites, including, of course, the landlord himself, but only for their own actual and immediate use and maintenance, and, consequently, not to be stored by anyone for any other time or pur- pose. The object of this law, as well as of the two fol- lowing, is most commendable, as by it the poor and all those who, mainly on account of poverty, do not ac- tually own any land, are hereby provided for, not only for a whole year every seven years, but also in every fiftieth year.
The second enactment, contained in Leviticus, xxv, 13-34, and xxvii, 16-21, enjoins that any owner of landed property, who, for reason of poverty or other- wise, has been compelled to part with his land, has the right to receive his property back free in the Jubilee year, or to redeem it even before the Jubilee year, if either his own financial circumstances have improved, or if his next of kin will redeem it for him by paying back according to the price which regulated the pur- chase. Hence, among the ancient Hebrews, the trans- fer of property was not, properly speaking, the sale of the land but of its produce for a certain number of years, and the price was fixed according to the number of years which intervened between the year of the sale and that of the next year of jubilee. Accordingly, the right of possession of real estate was inalienable. Whether a landowner was ever allowed to part perma- nently with his property for speculation, or for any purpose other than poverty, is not explicitly stated, although according to later rabbinical interpretation, this was considered as legally milawful. Real estate in walled towns was made an exception to this law. An owner who had sold was permitted to reileem his prop- erty provifled he did so within a year, but not after- wards. Levitical cities, on the other hand, as well as all the property in them, came under the provisions of the general law, reverting back to their original own- ers in the year of jubilee. Land in the suburbs of such cities could not be disposed of, or traded with in any manner. In case a man dedicated property to the Lord, he was permitted to redeem it, provided he added to it one-fifth of its value as reckoned by the
