Significantly, the Theses rejected the validity of indulgences ( remissions of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven ).

For this purpose he decreed that partial indulgences, previously granted as the equivalent of a certain number of days, months, " quarantines " ( Lent-like forty-day periods ) or years of canonical penance, simply supplement, and to the same degree, the remission that those performing the indulgenced action already gain by the charity and contrition with which they do it.

His teaching was, in fact, very definite, and quite in harmony with the theology of the Church, as it was then and as it is now, i. e., that indulgences " apply only to the temporal punishment due to sins which have been already repented of and confessed "....

Pope Leo 13, on the 13th day of December 1898, granted the following indulgences: `` An indulgence of three hundred days is granted to all the Faithful who read the Holy Gospels at least a quarter of an hour.

With his bull Cum praeexcelsa of 28 February 1477, in which he referred to the feast as that of the Conception of Mary, without using the word " Immaculate ", he granted indulgences to those who would participate in the specially composed Mass or Office on the feast itself or during its octave, and he used the word " immaculate " of Mary, but applied instead the adjective " miraculous " to her conception.

On 11 June, he confirmed the Minor Observantines in the Holy Land in the privileges and indulgences granted to those who visit the holy places, according to the decree of Popes Alexander VII and Clement IX.

From the 11th century onwards indulgences were granted: In 1064 Pope Alexander II allegedly promised the participants of an expedition against Barbastro ( Tagr al-Andalus, Aragon ) a collective indulgence 30 years before Pope Urban II called the First Crusade.

In Quamquam Pluries Pope Leo XIII related rosary devotions to Saint Joseph and granted indulgences for adding a prayer to St. Joseph to the Rosary during the month of October.

" He insisted that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error.

In spite of all sorts of obstacles, and of the slowness of the Holy See, which in 1693 imparted indulgences to the Confraternities of the Sacred Heart and, in 1697, granted the feast to the Visitandines with the Mass of the Five Wounds, but refused a feast common to all, with special Mass and Office.

In the light of this explicit mention of a jubilee with great remissions of the penalties of sin to be obtained by full confession and purpose of amendment, it seems difficult to reject the statement of Cardinal Giacomo Stefaneschi, the contemporary and counsellor of Pope Boniface VIII, and author of a treatise on the first Jubilee, that the proclamation of the Jubilee owed its origin to the statements of certain aged pilgrims who persuaded Boniface that great indulgences had been granted to all pilgrims in Rome about a hundred years before.

Apart from the recurrences listed in the Enchiridion, special indulgences are granted on occasions of special spiritual significance such as a Jubilee Year or the centenary or similar anniversary of an event such as the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes or the celebration of a World Youth Day.

Theologians looked to God's mercy, the value of the Church's prayers, and the merits of the saints as the basis on which indulgences could be granted.

There was a tendency to forge documents declaring that indulgences had been granted.

The Fourth Lateran Council ( 1215 ) suppressed some abuses connected with indulgences, spelling out, for example, that only a one-year indulgence would be granted for the consecration of churches and no more than a 40-days indulgence for other occasions.

The Council also stated that " Catholics who have girded themselves with the cross for the extermination of the heretics, shall enjoy the indulgences and privileges granted to those who go in defense of the Holy Land.

The image of the Mass of Saint Gregory had been especially associated with large indulgences since the Jubilee Year of 1350 in Rome, when it was at least widely believed that an indulgence of 14, 000 years had been granted for praying in the presence of the Imago Pietatis (" Man of Sorrows "), a popular pilgrimage destination in the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome.

While Luther did not deny the Pope ’ s right to grant pardons for penance imposed by the Church, he made it clear that preachers who claimed indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error.

" He insisted that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error.

On July 1, 1905, Pope Pius X approved and granted indulgences for the practice of the First Saturdays of twelve consecutive months in honor of the Immaculate Conception.

The Blue Scapular of the Immaculate Conception that dates to 1617 was eventually granted a significant number of indulgences, and many graces were promised to those who would honor the Immaculate Conception by wearing the Blue Scapular and live chastely according to their state in life.

To receive the benefits or indulgences granted the scapular generally must be worn constantly.

In 1823, a delegate was sent to Rome and Pope Pius VII heartily approved the new undertaking and granted the indulgences and other spiritual privileges that permanently enrich the society, which judgment has been ratified by all his successors.

The indulgences granted to all these confraternities are very numerous.

In 1330, indulgences were granted to all who assisted in the decoration and completion of the church of St. Gudula at Brussels.

# Other Catholic practices that drew the ire of reformers within the Church, such as indulgences, pilgrimages, the veneration of saints and relics, and the veneration of the Virgin Mary were strongly reaffirmed, though abuses of them, such as the sale of indulgences, were forbidden.

In the twenty-fifth and last session, the doctrines of purgatory, the invocation of saints and the veneration of relics were reaffirmed, as was also the efficacy of indulgences as dispensed by the Church according to the power given her, but with some cautionary recommendations, and a ban on the sale of indulgences.

Decrees were also passed directed against simony, concubinage among the clergy, church robbers, and forgers of Church documents ; the council also reaffirmed indulgences for Crusaders.

Certainly several church documents including a papal letter and two indulgences were printed, one of which was issued in Mainz.

Martin Luther's 95 Theses were printed and circulated widely ; subsequently he issued broadsheets outlining his anti-indulgences position ( certificates of indulgences were one of the first items Gutenberg had printed ).

The popes condemned misunderstandings and abuses, but were too pressed for income to exercise effective control over indulgences.

Several cities of Germany obtained the " privileges of the jubilee ", as indulgences were called, but the preaching of indulgences led to abuses and scandal.

These sums, together with the considerable amounts accruing from indulgences, jubilees, and special fees, vanished as quickly as they were received.

His best known work in this vein was a series of prints for the pamphlet Passional Christi und Antichristi, where scenes from the Passion of Christ were matched by a print mocking practices of the Catholic clergy, so that Christ driving the money-changers from the Temple was matched by the Pope, or Antichrist, signing indulgences over a table spread with cash ( see gallery below ).

These indulgences were repeated in the manuscript tradition of the Books of Hours, and may constitute one major source of the prayers ' popularity in the late Middle Ages.

The sermon was long and quite severe on the topic of extravagance, because the pioneers were starting to buy such indulgences as calico and store-bought tea.

Devotion includes the wearing of the " Cord of Philomena ", a red and white cord, which had a number of indulgences attached to it, including a plenary indulgence on the day on which the cord was worn for the first time, indulgences that were not renewed in the 1967 general revision of the discipline concerning them.

Luther's Theses argued that the sale of indulgences was a gross violation of the original intention of confession and penance, and that Christians were being falsely told that they could find absolution through the purchase of indulgences.

" There were some shenanigans behind the scenes ," remarked director Greg Beeman of the pair's indulgences.

Since the Church on earth has no jurisdiction over the dead, indulgences can be gained for them only per modum suffragii, i. e. by an act of intercession.

The Acts of the Council of Trent show that he wielded tremendous influence there by his vota on issues including justification, Holy Eucharist, penance, purgatory, indulgences, the Sacrifice of the Mass, matrimony and the origin of episcopal jurisdiction.