ABOUT INDULGENCES.

Evening Star, Issue 8775, 16 March 1892, Page 4

ABOUT INDULGENCES.

TO THE EDITOR, Sib,—l read Bishop Moran’s address, published in last Friday’s issue of the SWR, aud I cannot but think he has made out a good case that it would be unwise to allow Catholic children to attend Government schools if it be true that such sentences as those quoted reflecting upon the Catholic Church are read in the Government schools —namely, “To raise fnnds for the building, Leo X. had sent ont monks to sell indulgences. They were first invented by Urban 11. in the days of the Crusades, The people thought that this money paid for these pieces of paper or parchgipnt \yonl(j buy for them the righteousness of the saijits.” Jjut Bishop Moran grounds his objection upon the historical inaccuracy and untrutbfulness of thp statement, which is a totally different matter. For such phuroh historians as Dr Anjphegnic, who narrates what purport to be facts with tbe greatest amplification, in effect makes the same statement in Prescott’s and Robertson's ‘History of Charles V-’ The same facta respecting Telzel aye also set forth; and Hallam in his ‘Middle Ages,’ when treating of the “history of ecclesiastical power during the Middle Ages,” remarks; “The canonical penalties imposed upon repentant offenders, extravagantly severe in themselves, were commuted for money or for immovable possessions a fertile though scandalous source of monastic wealth, which tbe Popes afterwards djrectpd into their own coffers by the use of dispensations and indulgences.” Another authority says: “At the time of thp Crusade, to go to Palestine and take part in tbe struggle against the infidel was held to be » work 0! such extraordinary merit as to render unnecessary any other penitential act on the part of the sinner who engaged In it, Thus, in the Council of Clermont, held under Urban 11. (1095), it was decreed “ inter illud pro omni poenitentia reputetur.' 1 Bishop Moran asserts that “ indulgences are as old as Christianity.” Is this soj Re further remarks; “No, nothing of the sort takes place, or ever took place in the Catholic Church, On the contrary, the Catholic Church teaches, and always has taught, that to sell indulgences is a most gpievous crime. In the second place, w« aye popipelled to pay school teachers to teach their pupils that indulgences were first invented by Urban 11, Indulgences are as old as the Catholic Chprcji—as Chrijffiapity itself. In the third plape, the people did not think that the money paid for these pieces of paper or parchment would boy for them the righteousness of saints; on the contrary, the Catholic Church teaches, and has always taught, that a person in the state of sin or unrighteousness can derive no benefit from an indulgence. And Catholics are, and ever have been, taught this, All this has been explained ppd pointed ont thousands and thousands of times. 1 ’

The only conclusion to be arrived at, in the face of this assertion of Bishop Moran’s, is that all Protpstaut and neutral writers like Fronde are unmitigated liars; or, if what they purport to be facta be true, it is very evident that Leo X< and Tetzel were both heretics.— l am, etc,, Loretto. Dunedin, March 16. [The bishop has unreservedly withdrawn bis charge against the Queenstown School for using Collier’s History,— Ed, E.S.]