Lateran Council V, 1512-1517

762. 22. For six kinds of men indulgences are neither necessary nor useful; namely, for the dead and those about to die, the infirm, those legitimately hindered, and those who have not committed crimes, and those who have committed crimes, but not public ones, and those who devote themselves to better things.

763. 23. Excommunications are only external penalties and they do not deprive man of the common spiritual prayers of the Church.

764. 24. Christians must be taught to cherish excommunications rather than to fear them.

765. 25. The Roman Pontiff, the successor of PETER, is not the vicar of Christ over all the churches of the entire world, instituted by Christ Himself in blessed PETER.

766. 26. The word of Christ to PETER: "Whatsoever you shall loose on earth, etc." (Matt. 16) is extended merely to those things bound by Peter himself.

767. 27. It is certain that it is not in the power of the Church or the pope to decide upon the articles of faith, and much less concerning the laws for morals or for good works.

768. 28. If the pope with a great part of the Church thought so and so, he would not err; still it is not a sin or heresy to think the contrary, especially in a matter not necessary for salvation, until one alternative is condemned and another approved by a general Council.

769. 29. A way has been made for us for weakening the authority of Councils, and for freely contradicting their actions, and judging their decrees, and boldly confessing whatever seems true, whether it has been approved, or disapproved by any Council whatsoever.

770. 30. Some articles of John Hus, condemned in the Council of CONSTANCE, are most Christian, wholly true and evangelical; these the universal Church could not condemn.

771. 31. In every good work the just man sins.

772. 32. A good work done very well is a venial sin.

773. 33. That heretics be burned is against the will of the Spirit.

774. 34. To go to war against the Turks is to resist God who punishes our iniquities through them.

775. 35. No one is certain that he is not always sinning mortally; because of the most hidden vice of pride.

776. 36. Free will after sin is a matter of title only; and as long as one does what is in him, one sins mortally.

777. 37. Purgatory cannot be proved from Sacred Scripture, which is in the canon.

778. 38. The souls in purgatory are not sure of their salvation, at least not all; nor is it proved by any arguments or by the Scriptures that they are beyond the state of meriting or of increasing in charity.