In form, an Indulgence emanates from the Pope; leaving out of account the limited power exercised by Bishops in favour of their flocks and by Cardinals, Nuncios and others; and it is registered in a Decree or Rescript of the Congregation of Indulgences, or some similar document. It attaches to a specified prayer or good work an additional satisfactory value, such value being expressed in the terms of an ancient canonical penance, viz., so many days, Quarantines (which lasted forty days), or years, to which the Indulgence is there by declared to be equivalent. The earliest Indulgences were, in fact, remissions of these very penances.
Indulgences are either Plenary or Partial, according as a remission of all, or of part, of the debt of punishment due is granted. In either case the actual benefit obtained depends upon the dispositions of the penitent, and the care and accuracy he employs in fulfilling the conditions laid down. For the sake of clearness and facility of reference, the general and special conditions required for obtaining Indulgences are set out in tabular form below.
It only remains to add that, though the Church has no direct jurisdiction over the souls in Purgatory, she authorizes and encourages, as a work of supreme charity, the application of Indulgences, by way of suffrage, to the needs of those afflicted souls; and we may confidently assure ourselves that these suffrages are most acceptable to the Divine Majesty, and that what the Church would thus, as it were, indirectly loose in Purgatory is speedily loosed also in Heaven, amid the rejoicing of all the heavenly court, to the great glory of GOD, and to the incalculable benefit, as well of the suffering souls as of their earthly benefactors.
General Conditions required for all Indulgences.
1. STATE OF GRACE. (See Decisions i, 2,)
2. INTENTION. (See Decisions 3, 4,)
3. ACCURACY and DEVOTION in fulfilling the specified conditions. (See N.B. ibid.)
Special Conditions usually required for Plenary, and sometimes for Partial, Indulgences.
i. CONFESSION.
ii. COMMUNION.
iii. VISIT to a church or public chapel. (See p, xiii.)
iv. PRAYER according to the intention of the Pope. (See p. xiii.)
