Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 8.djvu/103

87 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ORIGIN OF CY PR^S. 8/ "purchase a pardon from Rome as large as might be had for plein remission of sins of all those who shall be confessed and contrite at Long brigge from evensong to evensong at the feast of the Trinity, and there say paternosters and three aves for my soul," &c. But this business was carried on on a much larger scale. Years of jubilee were ordained to be celebrated at Rome, whereto the pious pilgrim resorting should receive for his journey a remission or indulgence of sin, in greater or less measure. Such were the great jubilee of Boniface VIII. in 1300, and that of the exem- plary Borgia, Alexander VI., in 1 500. To all those who were unable 'to attend in person the further grace was extended in this latter case,^ that, upon payment of a commutation in money to the well- beloved deputy and special ambassador of the Pope, the right rev- erend father in God, Jasper Pon, he in return would " absolve of all maner of crimes, trespasses, transgressions, and sins whatsoever," excepting only conspiring against the Pope, forgery of his bulls, or assaulting bishops or higher officials of the Church. The tariflf charged is exactly stated at the end of this interesting document, and is graduated on the rental of the offender. The ostenible pur- pose was to obtain funds for a crusade against the Turks, a well- worn pretext, which was employed by Borgia's successor, Leo X. It is perhaps needless to say that the money was never so applied, and it was only the secular arms of Hunniades, Sobieski, or Corvinus, or the unfeed services of the Knights of St. John at Rhodes and Malta that were found to rescue Christendom from the victorious hordes of Mahomet and the navies of Solyman. The growing addiction to the superstitious worship of relics and idle pilgrimages, with their gross excesses and inevitable liability to perversion and abuse, through the vicious practice of a money commutation ^ or of an indulgence sold at a price,^ thus doubly defeating the true action and natural objects of charity, early re- ceived the animadversion of those who sought to reform the Church 1 See this indulgence in full text, Lett. Rich. III. and Hen. VII. ii. 93. It was Clement VI., circa 1350, who first formulated the treasury of merits theory. Jusserand, Eng. Wayf. Life, 311 ; Migne, Nouv. Encyc. Theol. xxvii. 183-184. 2 Lea, Hist. Inq. i. 40-47; 471-480. And this was enforced against the estate of a heretic after death, sometimes after a lapse of three or four generations. lb. 3 It was condemned by Pope Boniface IX. See Bull of 1390 against pardoners who sell indulgences from vows for pilgrimages, but take small sums which they do not remit ; concluding " Horret et merito indignatur animus talia reminisci." Baronius Annales Eccl. Raynaldi, continuatio, vii. 525. Jusserand, Eng. Wayf. Life, 435-