God has granted to the Church the power, after the reconciliation of the sinner with God, of changing the punishments yet remaining due to sin into works of penance, or of remitting them altogether.
- Hence at the time of the great persecutions, the Church used to lay upon repentant sinners public penances for the expiation of the temporal punishment of sin, and afterwards com mute them into lesser ones, or remit them altogether, if the penitent manifested a sincere intention of amendment, or a martyr interceded for him.
- In later times, when public penances were abrogated, the Church permitted the contrite sinner to discharge the debt of temporal punishment due to sin by means of almsdeeds, crusades, or pilgrimages.
- An indulgence is either plenary, when a full and entire remission of all the temporal punishment due to sin is gained, or partial, when only a portion of the temporal punishment is remitted.
- The Pope alone has power to grant indulgences which are for the whole Church ; for in him alone jurisdiction over the whole Church is vested, and he is the steward of the Church's treasures.
- Indulgences may also be applied by way of suffrage to the suffering souls in purgatory, if this be expressly stated respecting the indulgence; a plenary indulgence is gained for them every time the holy sacrifice of the Mass is offered on a privileged altar.
- The graining of indulgences is most salutary (Council of Trent, 25), because we thereby keep far from us temporal evils, and are stimulated to the accomplishment of good works.
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