Pius VI, 1775-1799

fessions of this sort be rendered too contemptible,—rash, dangerous, contrary to the practice of the saints and the pious which was approved [see n. 899] by the sacred Council of Trent.

Indulgences

[Penance, sec. 16]

1540. 40. The proposition asserting "that an indulgence, according to its precise notion, is nothing else than the remission of that part of the penance which had been established by the canons for the sinner"; as if an indulgence, in addition to the mere remission of the canonical penance, does not also have value for the remission of the temporal punishment due to the divine justice for actual sins,—false, rash, injurious to the merits of Christ, already condemned in article 19 of Luther [see n. 759].

[Ibid.]

1541. 41. Likewise, in this which is added, i.e., that "the scholastics, puffed up by their subtleties, introduced the poorly understood treasury of the merits of Christ and of the saints, and, for the clear notion of absolution from canonical penance, they substituted a confused and false notion of the application of merits"; as if the treasures of the Church, whence the pope grants indulgences, are not the merits of Christ and of the saints,—false, rash, injurious to the merits of Christ and of the saints, previously condemned in art. 17 of Luther [see n. 757; cf. n. 550 ff.].

[Ibid.]

1542. 42. Likewise, in this which it adds, that "it is still more lamentable that that fabulous application is meant to be transferred to the dead,"—false, rash, offensive to pious ears, injurious to the Roman Pontiffs and to the practice and sense of the universal Church, leading to the error fixed [cf. n. 729] in the heretical note in Peter of Osma, again condemned in article 22 of Luther [see n. 762].

[Ibid.]

1543. 43. In this, finally, that it most shamelessly inveighs against lists of indulgences, privileged altars, etc.,—rash, offensive to the ears of the pious, scandalous, abusive to the Supreme Pontiffs, and to the practice common in the whole Church.

The Reservation of Cases

[Penance, sec. 19]

1544. 44. The proposition of the synod asserting that the "reservation of cases at the present time is nothing else than an improvident bond for