would remit if performed. As to the extent of that punishment we know not. The judgments of God are an unfathomable abyss. We ought to adore and fear them, without endeavouring to comprehend them. We know that by an Indulgence our punishment is diminished; but whether Indulgences of many years, and Plenary Indulgences reiterated and multiplied, will pay off all our punishment, is of little consequence; if we act prudently or wisely, we will endeavour to gain them, as often and as perfectly as we can; if we only obtain a trifling diminution each time, how precious ought not this appear to us, if we view it in the light of faith, or reflect for a moment on the nature of the pains of Purgatory.

Does an Indulgence remove the obligation of doing Penance?

BY NO MEANS :

1. FOR all men are, without exception, commanded to do penance.

2. We are obliged to imitate Jesus Christ and his Saints, whose lives were one continued penance.

3. Indulgences are given only on certain

conditions, which are in themselves a sort of penance. Therefore an Indulgence is only a means of assisting the sinner to pay the debts due of him to God, and supplying his insufficiency, not a discharge of the obligation to do penance.

Many have so multiplied their faults, or committed such grievous sins, that entire ages of the most rigorous penance would not be sufficient to atone for them. God commands them to do what they can, while the Church comes to their assistance by presenting to them the means of increasing their satisfactions, which are Indulgences. This is the true idea of an indulgence, and understood in this way, they are infinitely precious, and do not at all dispense with the obligation of doing penance.

ON THE EFFECT OF INDULGENCES WITH REGARD TO THE DEAD.

1. It is an article of our faith that we can offer for the dead the holy Sacrifice of the Mass prayers, alms, and other good works: but an Indulgence, besides the pious works which it requires to gain it, is nothing but the application of the superabundant satisfactions

of Christ and of his Saints. Therefore, what is to prevent us from presenting it to God for the intention of the dead for whom we feel interested, and who may have need of our assistance. No reason can be assigned why such an offering is not calculated to disarm the justice of God. Let us therefore conclude that an Indulgence can be applied to the dead.

2. The souls of the faithful detained in Purgatory, though members of the Church, are no longer under ecclesiastical jurisdiction: hence, the Pope and the Bishops cannot by virtue of their divine authority, remit directly their sins. Hence it follows that an Indulgence cannot be applied to them by way of absolution, but merely by way of suffrage or prayer: that is to say, that in virtue of the concession of the Pope, the pious Catholic who fulfils the required conditions, offers to God sufficient satisfactions drawn from the infinite treasure of the Church, and beseeches him to have regard to them in his mercy, and to remit to the soul, which he recommends to him, the punishment due for his sins.

But as to the question, whether God always accepts the satisfactions offered to him for the dead, so as infallibly to produce its effect, re

mitting the total or partial punishment according to the nature of the Indulgence, Theologians are divided.

Without entering deeply into the merits of this speculative question, we may say that we can never be certain of the delivery of a soul from Purgatory by means of an Indulgence, and this for many reasons.

1. It may happen that the cause for which an Indulgence is given is not sufficient, that he who wishes to gain it has not the proper dispositions, that through forgetfulness, ignorance, or otherwise, he omits one or more of the conditions prescribed.

2. Besides, as an Indulgence does not remit even venial sin, a soul which had obtained the remission of all the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven, would not on that account be delivered from Purgatory for it might die guilty of venial sins which would require a long purgation,-which cannot be remitted by an Indulgence.

We must therefore look with suspicion upon those Indulgences which promise the deliverance of a soul from Purgatory, and the learned Maldonatus had reason to condemn inscriptions of this nature over privileged Altars.

In fine, if Indulgences of this nature were authentic, they amount to this, viz. that they are sufficient to free a soul from Purgatory in case they are fully applied to the soul; but as there is always reason to doubt of this perfect application, the above remark retains its full force.

Hence, though we may have often prayed for a departed soul, often offered the Sacrifice of the Mass for the same intention, and often have performed the conditions of a Plenary Indulgence for the same end, it may still want our assistance.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE IN ORDER TO APPLY AN INDULGENCE TO THE DEAD.

1. AN Indulgence being an act of jurisdiction, depends entirely on the will of the Superior to require whatever conditions he chooses: we must therefore adhere strictly to the intention of the Superior. Consequently an Indulgence granted only for the living cannot be applied to the dead. In like manner, an Indulgence granted for the dead, for example, that of a privileged altar, cannot be gained by the