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Continuatio Sessionis
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Continuation
of the Session, |
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die IV. Decembris.
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on the fourth day of December.
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DECRETUM DE INDULGENTIIS.
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DECREE CONCERNING
INDULGENCES.
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Cum potestas conferendi indulgentias a Christo Ecclesiæ
concessa sit, atque hujusmodi potestate divinitus sibi tradita antiquissimis
etiam temporibus illa usa fuerit, sacrosancta synodus indulgentiarum usum, Christiano
populo maxime salutarem et sacrorum conciliorum auctoritate probatum, in Ecclesia
retinendum esse docet et præcipit, eosque anathemate damnat, qui aut inutiles
esse asserunt, vel eas concedendi in Ecclesia potestatem esse negant. In his
tamen concedendis moderationem juxta veterem et probatam in Ecclesia consuetudinem
adhiberi cupit, ne nimia facilitate ecclesiastica disciplina enervetur.
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Whereas the
power of conferring Indulgences was granted by Christ to the Church, and she
has, even in the most ancient times, used the said power delivered unto her
of God, the sacred holy Synod teaches and enjoins that the use of Indulgences,
for the Christian people most salutary, and approved of by the authority of
sacred Councils, is to be retained in the Church; and it condemns with anathema
those who either assert that they are useless, or who deny that there is in
the Church the power of granting them. In granting them, however, it desires
that, in accordance with the ancient and approved custom in the Church, moderation
be observed; lest, by excessive facility, ecclesiastical discipline be enervated.
And being desirous that the abuses which have crept therein, and by occasion
of which this honorable name of Indulgences is blasphemed by heretics, be amended
and corrected, it |
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Abusus vero, qui in his irrepserunt, et quorum occasione
insigne hoc indulgentiarum nomen ab hæreticis blasphematur, emendatos et correctos
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206
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cupiens, præsenti decreto generaliter statuit, pravos
quæstus omnes pro his consequendis, unde plurima in Christiano populo abusuum
causa fluxit, omnino abolendos esse.
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ordains generally by this decree, that
all evil gains for the obtaining thereof,—whence, a most prolific cause of abuses
amongst the Christian people has been derived,—be wholly abolished. But as regards
the other abuses which have proceeded from superstition, ignorance, irreverence,
or from whatsoever other source, since, by reason of the manifold corruptions
in the places and provinces where the said abuses are committed, they can not
conveniently be specially prohibited, it commands all bishops diligently to
collect, each in his own Church, all abuses of this nature, and to report them
in the first provincial Synod; that, after having been reviewed by the opinions
of the other bishops also, they may forthwith be referred to the Sovereign Roman
Pontiff, by whose authority and prudence that which may be expedient for the
universal Church will be ordained; that thus the gift of holy Indulgences may
be dispensed to all the faithful, piously, holily, and incorruptly. |
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Ceteros vero, qui ex superstitione, ignorantia, irreverentia,
aut aliunde quomodocumque provenerunt, cum ob multiplices locorum et provinciarum,
apud quas hi committuntur, corruptelas commode nequeant specialiter prohiberi;
mandat omnibus episcopis, ut diligenter quisque hujusmodi abusus Ecclesiæ suæ
colligat, eosque in prima synodo provinciali referat; ut, aliorum quoque episcoporum
sententia cognita, statim ad summum Romanum pontificem deferantur, cujus auctoritate
et prudentia, quod universali Ecclesiæ expediet, statuatur; ut ita sanctarum
indulgentiarum munus pie, sancte et incorrupte omnibus fidelibus dispensetur.
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