The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

334 OF INDULGENCES.common to add the merits of the Virgin, have been all throwninto a common fund, which has been entrusted to the keepingof the Church.Of this treasury the Pope keeps the key,and whoever feels that his merits are not enough to carryhim to heaven, has only to apply at this ghostly depot, wherohe may buy, for a reasonable sum, whatever he needs tosupplement his deficiencies.In this market, which Eome has opened for the sale ofspiritual wai'es, money is not less indispensable than it is inthe emporiums of earthly and perishable merchandise. Theprice varies, being regulated by the same laws which governthe price of earthly commodities. To cover a crime of greatmagnitude, a larger amount of merit is of course required,and for that it is but reasonable that a larger sum shouldbe given.The Roman Catholic Church teaches, that by thesacrament of penance the guilt of sin and its eternal punishmentare remitted, but that the temporal punishment is stilldue, and must be borne either in this life or in purgatory.This is the doctrine of Trent, in support of which the fathersbring their usual proof, an anathema, " Whoever shall affirmthat God always remits the whole punishment, togetherwith the fault, let him be accursed."* The same is tauffhtby the modern theological writers of Rome.f It is in thisway that indulgences are useful. They procure remissionof the temporal punishment, either in whole or in part,that is, the calamities inflicted in this life are alleviated, andthe sojourn in purgatory is very much shortened. Somemodern Papists, such as Bossuet, ashamed of the doctrineof indulgences, have sought to disguise it, or deny it altogether,by representing it as nothing more than a remission ofecclesiastical penances or censures.This is shown incontrovertiblyto be a fraud ; first, by the fact that indulgencesare held to benefit the dead, whom they release from purgatory;and, second, because this account of indulgences is in* Concil. Trid. scss. xiv. cap. ix. can. xii.+ PciTonc's Prailectioncs Theologies^, torn. ii. p. 30'2.