Folio 267

Sixtus IV, 1471-1484

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of benefit to themselves less, by Apostolic authority from the treasure of the Church wishing to come to the aid of the souls who departed from the life united with Christ through charity, and who, while they lived, merited that they be favored by such indulgence; desiring this with paternal affection, in so far as with God's help we can, confident in the mercy of God and in the plenitude of His power, we both concede and grant that, if any parents, friends, or other faithful of Christ, moved in behalf of these souls who are exposed to purgatorial fire for the expiation of punishments due them according to divine justice, during the afore-mentioned ten year period give a certain sum of money for the repair of the church of Xancto, or a value according to an arrangement with the dean or overseer of said church, or our collector by visiting said church or send it during said ten year period through messengers delegated by the same, we grant as a suffrage a plenary remission to assist and intercede for the souls in purgatory, in whose behalf they paid the said sum of money or the value, as mentioned above, for the remission of punishments.

Errors of Peter de Osma (the Sacrament of Penance)1

[Condemned in the Bull "Licet ea," August 9, 1479]

724. (1) That the confession of sins in species will be found really in a statute of the universal Church, not in divine law;

725. (2) that mortal sins with respect to blame and punishment of the other world are abolished without confession, by contrition of heart only;

726. (3) moreover, bad thoughts are forgiven by displeasure only;

727. (4) that it is not demanded of necessity that confession be secret;2

728. (5) that those who confess should not be absolved, if penance has not been done;

729. (6) that the Roman Pontiff cannot remit the punishment of purga-tory;3

  1. MBR 1, 416 f.; DuPl I, II 298 b ff.; Gotti, Verit. rel. christ. II 410 b; cf. Aguirre, Coll. Conc. Hisp. III 687 a; BR(T) 5, 265 a.—Peter Martinez, called "of Osma" from his native city, taught at Salamanca. His errors (among which also is "The Church of the city of Rome can err" [n. 730 in former editions]), rejected by a gathering of theologians at Alcala and afterwards condemned by the Archbishop of Toledo (which condemnation Sixtus IX confirmed by this Bull), he retracted publicly before the publication of the Bull. Cf. Rom. Quartalschr. 43 (1935) 205 ff. [Fr. Stegmüller]. ↩

  2. The Archbishop of Toledo by authority of the Holy Pontiff had proscribed the opinion of Peter of Osma in this sense, that "confession ought to be secret, that is about secret sins, not manifest sins." Cf. Rom. Quartalschr. l.c. 244. ↩

  3. Cf. Zeitschr. f. kath. Theol. 33 (1909) 599-608, where Nic. Paulus proves that Peter of Osma denied that the Highest Pontiff could so concede indulgences to the ↩