Av: - 
 
INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL 
 FACTOR IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
INDULGENCES AS A 
 SOCIAL FACTOR IN 
 THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 By 
 
 Dr. NIKOLAUS PAULUS 
 
 Translated by 
 
 J. ELLIOT ROSS 
 
 With a foreword by 
 
 EUGENE C. BARKER 
 
 Chairman of the School of History 
 University of Texas 
 
 ^ 0 / . 
 
 \ / - , 
 
 — 
 
 DOfdSSTIC 
 
 
 ÜSJUHY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE DEVIN-ADAIR COMPANY 
 
mbH (S)b0tat 
 
 Walter E. Hopper, C.S.P, 
 
 
 Censor Deputatus. 
 
 Cum pcrmi00u superiorum 
 
 Thomas F. Burke, C.S.P., 
 Superior General. 
 
 Imprimatur 
 
 ^C. E. Byrne, 
 Eap. Galvestoneusis. 
 
 September 15, 1921. 
 
 
 Copyright, 1922, by 
 DEVIN-ADAIR COMPANY 
 
 /ill Rights Reserved 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction .13 
 
 SECTION I 
 
 INDULGENCES FOR ECCLESIASTICAL 
 AND CHARITABLE OBJECTS 
 
 1. Churchbuilding .23 
 
 2. Hospitals, Charitable Institutions, 
 
 Works of Mercy, Schools . . 46 
 
 3. The Truce of God.59 
 
 4. The Crusades.62 
 
 SECTION II 
 
 INDULGENCES FOR SOCIALLY USEFUL 
 TEMPORAL OBJECTS 
 
 1. Bridgebuilding.67 
 
 2. Dams and Roads, Harbors and 
 
 Fortifications. Colonization 
 Projects.104 
 
 3. Guilds, Marksmen Clubs . . . iii 
 
 4. Montes Pietatis.119 
 
 5 
 
i 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 ^^INCE the age of Luther and the Protestant 
 eö' Revolt, indulgences have been to non- 
 Catholics one of the least understood and most 
 criticized institutions of the Catholic Church. 
 Some of the misconception is undoubtedly due to 
 the fact that the writings of Catholic historians, 
 lay or cleric, too generally ignore the point of view 
 of the intelligent non-Catholic. Some of it, 
 equally without doubt, is due to the failure of 
 non-Catholic secular historians to avail them¬ 
 selves fully even of the means at hand to under¬ 
 stand the ecclesiastical viewpoint. 
 
 In the present essay, which Fr. Ross has put 
 into such straightforward English, Dr. Paulus has 
 not concerned himself with the doctrine of indul¬ 
 gences, and for that reason, perhaps, his book 
 will make a wider appeal to the non-Catholic 
 mind. Frequently the indulgence was merely a 
 permit to commute one form of penance into 
 another, and Dr. Paulus has pointed out the social 
 significance of this fact. Fasting or some other 
 such penance was changed into a contribution of 
 money or service to some useful public undertak¬ 
 ing, and Dr. Paulus presents an impressive list 
 of these works due to a commutation of penances, 
 or indulgences. 
 
 The list includes the construction and mainte¬ 
 nance of churches, schools, hospitals, and other 
 charitable institutions; bridges, dams, roads, har- 
 
 7 
 
8 
 
 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 bors and fortifications, and the stimulation of 
 such important social movements as Crusades and 
 the Truce of God. This latter was the first really 
 effective step taken to end the almost universal 
 petty warfare, pillage, and banditry of the early 
 Middle Ages, and of itself would give importance 
 to this feature of indulgences. 
 
 In making this contribution to Church history 
 easily accessible in English, Fr. Ross has ren¬ 
 dered a service of genuine value. 
 
 Eugene C. Barker, 
 Chairman of the School of History, 
 University of Texas. 
 
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE 
 
 ^ITHE accompanying essay of Dr. Paulus treats 
 indulgences from a rather unusual stand» 
 point—their social effect on the life of the Middle 
 Ages. Because his purpose is to show the pub¬ 
 licly useful results of indulgences for temporal 
 undertakings, the author almost entirely passes 
 over the theological side. It may be well, there¬ 
 fore, to preface this translation with a short ex¬ 
 planation of this feature of indulgences. 
 
 An indulgence is not a forgiveness of past sin, 
 nor a permission to commit sin in the future. 
 
 On the contrary, an indulgence is merely a re¬ 
 mission, by the application of Christ’s merits, of 
 the whole or a part of the temporal punishment 
 due to forgiven sin. 
 
 Catholic theologians distinguish between the 
 guilt of a sin and the temporal punishment due for 
 the violation of God’s order. The guilt of the sin 
 may be forgiven while the temporal punishment 
 remains. The soundness of this distinction is 
 abundantly evident from Scripture. Thus David’s 
 sin with the wife of Urias was forgiven, but nev¬ 
 ertheless he had to make satisfaction for it 
 through the sorrow of losing the child (II Kings, 
 XII, 13, 14). And the fact that the individual 
 sinner can satisfy for the temporal punishment 
 due his sins is taught in Jonas III; II Paral. 
 (Chron.), XXXIII, 12; Eccles., Ill, 33; Daniel, 
 IV, 24; Luke, XI, 41. 
 
 9 
 
10 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 In the early ages of the Church, apparently, 
 It was the object of the confessor in the Sacrament 
 of Penance to impose a penance that would satisfy 
 for the whole of the temporal punishment due 
 to the sins confessed. Later it was permitted to 
 commute these penances through an indulgence, 
 the merits of Christ being applied to the satisfac¬ 
 tion that otherwise would have been made by the 
 penitent. Originally given in fractions of the 
 imposed penance—as one-half, one-third, and so 
 on—these commutations finally came to be spec¬ 
 ified in days corresponding to the amount of 
 satisfaction that would be made by doing penance 
 for that number of days according to the ancient 
 discipline. Thus a forty days indulgence, or a 
 quarantine, is the satisfaction for such an amount 
 of temporal punishment as would be satisfied for 
 by doing penance for forty days according to the 
 ancient penances—for instance, fasting on bread 
 and water for forty days. 
 
 Indulgences are partial or plenary according 
 as they remit a whole or a part of the temporal 
 punishment due to sin. 
 
 We can, perhaps, better grasp the theory back 
 of indulgences if we consider an illustration from 
 modern business. A man who has ten thousand 
 dollars in a bank can take a piece of paper that is 
 in itself worthless, write an order or a check on 
 that bank for ten thousand dollars, and the worth¬ 
 less piece of paper becomes worth that much 
 money. In somewhat the same way, we say that 
 Christ deposited His infinite merits to the credit 
 of the Church, He gave her authority to check 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 11 
 
 against them. Hence she can take a work that is 
 practically worthless in itself—the giving of a 
 small alms, the recitation of a few prayers—write 
 some figures on it, as it were, sign it, and it be¬ 
 comes worth what she says it is worth. She has 
 drawn a check against her heavenly bank account 
 of the merits of Christ. 
 
 The Church claims the authority to do this be¬ 
 cause Christ told the Apostles, “Whose sins you 
 shall forgive, they are forgiven them” (John, 
 XX, 23) ; and again, “Whatsoever you shall loose 
 upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven” 
 (Matt., XVIII, 18). 
 
 That indulgences, as we have explained them, 
 do not induce to sin by making satisfaction easy 
 is clear from the fact that the recipient of an 
 indulgence must be free from mortal sin. For 
 plenary indulgences confession and Communion 
 are usually required. 
 
 Keeping in mind this theological background 
 of indulgences, we are in a position to profit by 
 Dr. Paulus’s study of their social effect in the 
 Middle Ages. 
 

 
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INTRODUCTION 
 
 3 j 2 ECAUSE of the misunderstandings which 
 even the indulgences for useful public pur¬ 
 poses have often evoked, it will be helpful to 
 preface this historical exposition with a short 
 doctrinal explanation. According to the common 
 Protestant representation an indulgence is noth¬ 
 ing else than the forgiveness of sin. And if one 
 has ever mistaken an indulgence for the pardon 
 of sin and then hears that in the Middle Ages 
 indulgences were connected with a monetary con¬ 
 tribution to this or that good work, the conclusion 
 is unavoidable that according to the teaching .of 
 Catholics men can be freed from their sins for 
 a few cents, and may sin again as often as they 
 are willing to pay the fee. This notion, however, 
 is entirely erroneous. 
 
 In order to understand indulgences at all cor¬ 
 rectly, it is necessary to go back to the penitential 
 discipline of the early Middle Ages. According 
 to the penitential regulations of those days every 
 single mortal sin was covered by its own special 
 penance—often of three, five, seven, ten, or even 
 more years. Apart from other penitential works, 
 more or less strict fasting was most frequently 
 imposed, not rarely on bread and water for 
 months together. 
 
 In course of time, however, it became evident 
 that such strictness could scarcely be kept up in 
 practice. An easing up seemed to be strongly 
 
 13 
 
14 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 demanded. Since the ecclesiastical authorities 
 could in no wise preserve the traditional peni¬ 
 tential regulations and yet wished to save at least 
 their theoretical value, the need of the faithful 
 had to be met in another way. This happened 
 first of all through the so-called redemptions or 
 ransoms, which about the middle of the seventh 
 century first came into existence in Ireland and 
 England, and then gradually spread to the con¬ 
 tinent. They consisted in this, that grievous and 
 long enduring penances, especially very long fasts, 
 could be commuted into something easier, gener¬ 
 ally into prayers and alms for good works. These 
 changes, which actually amounted to a reduction of 
 the penances, were thus from time to time adopted 
 by the confessor in the tribunal of Penance. The 
 changes for the commuting of fasting into alms¬ 
 giving could be applied at will to different good 
 objects; they should be devoted especially, as was 
 often noted in the penance-books, to the poor and 
 imprisoned, as well as to the churches. 
 
 These afore - mentioned penance - changings, 
 which took place now and then in the confessional, 
 prepared the way for other modifications in the 
 discipline of penances, especially for such as the 
 bishops outside the Sacrament of Penance would 
 grant universally. These later modifications are 
 indulgences in the present form, first met with 
 in the eleventh century.^ In connection with the 
 imparting of such indulgences the bishop an- 
 
 'Compare the author’s treatment of the beginning of indul¬ 
 gences in Zeitschrift für Kath. Theologie, XXXIX (1915), 193- 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 15 
 
 nounced: Whoever does this or that—for ex¬ 
 ample, reverently visits a church, makes a con¬ 
 tribution to the building of a church or hospital 
 —will have a part of his penance remitted. 
 Originally the indulgence was usually measured 
 in fractions—a fourth, a third, or a half of the 
 penance was remitted. Soon, however, it became 
 more customary to dispense according to a defi¬ 
 nite time measurement. An indulgence of ten, 
 twenty, forty days, or a year was imparted. 
 
 But in that way the faithful were not only 
 released from the fulfillment of imposed or to-be- 
 imposed ecclesiastical punishments. In addition 
 a supernatural efficacy was from the first attrib¬ 
 uted to the indulgence. It was a remission, avail¬ 
 ing before God, of the temporal punishment due to 
 sin, with the result that one who shared in an 
 indulgence would have a shorter time in Purga¬ 
 tory. For example, one who gained an indulgence 
 of forty days would be freed from that amount 
 of temporal punishment which before God he 
 would have satisfied for by an ecclesiastical pun¬ 
 ishment of forty days. 
 
 However, to gain the indulgence one must not 
 be content with carrying out the prescribed works. 
 The gaining of the indulgence must, if the con¬ 
 science were burdened with mortal sin, be pre¬ 
 ceded by repentance and confession. Only after 
 the forgiveness of the sin could the punishment 
 due to it be remitted. Thus it was not the alms, 
 nor indeed any external work, that here deter¬ 
 mined whether or not anyone was worthy of an 
 indulgence, but the contrite disposition, the earnest 
 
16 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 turning away from sin. Therefore it is well to 
 observe that through the indulgence the peniten¬ 
 tial works were remitted only in so far as they 
 were considered as satisfying for punishment due, 
 and not in so far as they work for holiness and 
 make men stronger in the struggle against evil. 
 
 Now a word upon the so-called alms-indul¬ 
 gences, that is, those indulgences which involved 
 a contribution to some good work. That these 
 indulgences in the course of time were the occa¬ 
 sion of many abuses is universally known. Nev¬ 
 ertheless, the idea by which the ecclesiastical 
 authorities were led to introduce alms-indulgences 
 is fundamentally unassailable: it was the ancient 
 Christian view that alms can contribute towards 
 the blotting out of sin and the punishment due 
 to sin. 
 
 This view is found in Scripture (Tobias, IV, 
 11; XII, 9; Ecclesiasticus, III, 33; Daniel, IV, 
 24; Luke, XI, 41) ; it was often expressed in the 
 works of the Fathers; and how thoroughly the 
 faithful in the early Middle Ages were saturated 
 with this idea is evident from the very numerous 
 deeds of gift of that time. Again and again in 
 the introduction to these deeds the idea is repeated 
 that one can through alms, pious foundations, and 
 gifts to the Church or convents more easily obtain 
 from God the full forgiveness of one’s sins. As 
 the faithful themselves through alms and pious 
 foundations hoped to obtain the full pardon of 
 their sins, so the ecclesiastical authorities could 
 commute the imposed or to-be-imposed penances 
 into alms (redemptions). Or in consideration 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 17 
 
 of the alms which were to be paid, and as a reward 
 therefor, the Church could moderate the penances 
 through the bestowal of indulgences. 
 
 Today collections are taken up for good works, 
 and each one is free to give or to refuse. It was 
 not otherwise in the Middle Ages. That the 
 popes and bishops imparted spiritual favors in 
 order to incite the faithful to greater generosity 
 cannot with justice be condemned. If the support 
 of a useful public work is a good, praiseworthy 
 action, then the ecclesiastical authorities can re¬ 
 ward it even with spiritual favors. Thence it fol¬ 
 lows that the custom of giving indulgences to the 
 promoters of useful public works, and the conse¬ 
 quent connection of indulgences with money, is 
 not to be condemned off-hand. 
 
 This custom that was so widespread in the 
 Middle Ages corresponded to the spirit of that 
 time. “While today lotteries are conducted for 
 charitable purposes, for the building of churches 
 and in favor of useful public institutions, in the 
 Middle Ages indulgences were offered. Both his¬ 
 torical periods are thereby strikingly character¬ 
 ized. In the Middle Ages the soul’s salvation 
 was the mightiest motive of human action; today 
 avarice and the snatching after easy money have 
 become dominant.”^ 
 
 On account of the connection of indulgences 
 with money the Church is, indeed, often accused 
 by her opponents of having “sold” indulgences 
 for money. Similar accusations were decisively 
 
 ®G. Ratzinger, Geschichte der kirchlichen Armenpflege, p. 398. 
 Freiburg, 1884. 
 
18 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 answered as early as the beginning of the thir¬ 
 teenth century by one of the most famous con¬ 
 temporary theologians of Paris, William of Au¬ 
 vergne. Against “the enemies of truth,” the Wal- 
 denses of that time, he proved that in the granting 
 of indulgences there could be no question of “mer¬ 
 chandising,” since they were not granted for 
 money. The bishop who imparted an indulgence 
 for the building of a church did not think of the 
 money, but of the honor of God and the salvation 
 of souls. If the church were built, God would be 
 glorified and graces bestowed on the faithful. 
 But as the church would not be built on account of 
 money, although by means of money; so the in¬ 
 dulgence would be granted not for money, but for 
 the glory of God—although not without money, 
 since the church could not be built without money.^ 
 
 In the sixteenth century, the Bamberger cathe¬ 
 dral preacher, Frederick Förner, sought to justify 
 the alms-indulgences in similar wise: “Beloved, 
 ,tell me, if a man gives a dollar to a poor man, 
 .does it follow that God gives him Heaven for 
 the money? The money is not only not worth 
 Heaven, but it cannot merit Heaven. . It is the 
 good work of mercy, through which the dollar is 
 given to , the poor man that, according to the 
 promise of Christ, merits such heavenly reward/* 
 So also the indulgences are granted “not for 
 money, but only for the good work of alms¬ 
 giving. ^ 
 
 "'Gullelmi AlvernI, Opera omnia, I, 550, Aureliae, 1674. 
 
 Fr. Förner, Vom Ablass und Jubeljahr orthodoxischer und 
 summarischer Bericht, 146, Ingolstadt, i‘;99. * 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 19 
 
 In the light of these introductory remarks 
 one can judge more justly of the indulgences 
 that in the Middle Ages were so frequently 
 granted for objects of public utility. 
 
SECTION I 
 
 INDULGENCES FOR ECCLESIAS¬ 
 TICAL AND CHARITABLE 
 
 OBJECTS 
 

!• CHURCH-BUILDING 
 
 mf MONG the works of public utility that were 
 powerfully aided by indulgences church¬ 
 building easily takes first place. Who could 
 enumerate all the medieval cathedrals, parochial, 
 collegiate, and conventual churches which since 
 the eleventh century have in good part been built, 
 endowed, and supported by money from indul¬ 
 gences? “It would be well worth while,” writes 
 a widely known historian, “to settle what buildings 
 of the gothic period were erected with the help of 
 indulgences, whether granted by bishops or popes. 
 I have known so many of this kind, that I do not 
 think I am going too far in saying that the major¬ 
 ity of the great buildings were put up through the 
 assistance of indulgences.”^ For the late gothic 
 period this is undoubtedly saying too little. In 
 the innumerable church-buildings that were under¬ 
 taken especially in the fifteenth century, the indul¬ 
 gence almost everywhere played a more or less 
 important role.^ 
 
 How significant, oftentimes, was this role, is 
 shown by the history of the Kaiserdom in Speyer. 
 When this celebrated church, which in the year 
 1450 had been partially destroyed by fire,^ was to 
 
 lA. Schulte, Die Fugger in Rome 1495-1523, p. 74. Leipzig, 
 1904. 
 
 'On the activity of that time in church-building consult Jans¬ 
 sen, Geschichte des deutsches Volkes, I, iSsff. 
 
 *J. Geissei, Der Kaiserdom zu Speyer, p. 1570. Köln, 1876. 
 
 23 
 
24 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 be rebuilt, Pope Nicholas V on May i, 1451, 
 granted a plenary indulgence for this purpose. 
 The indulgence might be gained at any time during 
 five months and was to be preached in the dioceses 
 of Speyer, Worms, Strassburg and Basel.^ As to 
 the results of the preaching of this indulgence a 
 contemporary chronicler the Weissenburger patri¬ 
 cian, Eikhardt Artzt, gives a detailed account.® 
 He relates how an indulgence “of all sins from 
 punishment and guilt”—as frequently the plenary 
 indulgences were then called, especially if special 
 jurisdiction for the confessors was connected with 
 them®—had been obtained, and indeed for the 
 faithful of four dioceses. “On this account there 
 was such a great journeying to Speyer that always 
 fifty and often a hundred priests with their stoles 
 sat hearing confessions. And on the church doors 
 in Speyer there was written in big letters in Latin 
 and in German: In this place is full pardon of 
 all sins for punishment and guilt. This indul- 
 
 *A copy of the unpublished indulgence bulls is found in a 
 manuscript in the Munich Staatsbibliothek, Cod. lat. 17833, fol. 
 391: “Nos . . . omnibus vere penitentibus et confessis de dictis 
 civitatibus et dyocesibus qui dictam ecclesian devote visitaverint 
 et pro restauratione ipsius ecclesiae secundum suarum quali- 
 tatem facultatum manus porrexerint adjutrices, plenariam remis- 
 sionem et omnium peccatorum suorum indulgentiam elargimur.” 
 In the same place (fol. 390) is a German translation of the bull. 
 Another German translation is contained in the Speyer chronicle 
 published by F. J. Mone, Quellensammlung der badischen 
 Landes-geschichte, I, 386!!. Karlsruhe, 1848. 
 
 ®Mone, Badisches Archiv für Vaterlandskunde, II, zszff. 
 Karlsruhe, 1827. 
 
 ®On the so-called indulgences from punishment and guilt in 
 the Middle Ages consult the author’s treatment in Zeitschrift 
 für katholische Theologie, XXXVI (1912), 67!!., 253ff. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 25 
 
 gence lasted five months, March, April, May, 
 June and July.” 
 
 In a second bull, in 1452, the Pope allowed 
 the indulgence solemnities to be renewed for the 
 three months of March, April and May. In the 
 first year especially, many pilgrims, even of the 
 upper classes, came to Speyer. “Many great 
 princes, counts, lords, knights and squires from 
 the above-named dioceses sought this grace and 
 indulgence.” Consequently “great good” came 
 to Speyer. ^^Thiis was this cathedral rebuilt and 
 finished through the above-mentioned grace and 
 indulgence. And many people were of the opin¬ 
 ion that God had arranged this thing so that 
 the greatest sins, that otherwise might have been 
 concealed, would be confessed.” 
 
 Therefore, there was the conviction that the 
 indulgence had not only brought much money to 
 Speyer, but that it had also caused many sinners 
 to make a good confession. 
 
 That in those times it was known how to join 
 both objects, the financial and the soul-seeking, in 
 the indulgence solemnities, is shown by the annals 
 of the cathedral of Milan. When the church 
 corporation, with Count Francesco Sforza and 
 Archbishop Giovanni Visconti, at their head, 
 again sought an indulgence in Rome as they had 
 often previously done, they not only represented 
 that it would be useful for the construction of the 
 projected gigantic church; but they likewise 
 pointed out as a foremost consideration that, 
 thanks to the jubilee indulgence, the grievous 
 sins which had been committed in the last fear- 
 
26 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 ful war could through sincere penance be atoned 
 forJ 
 
 In a truly model way the government of Berne 
 understood the value of an indulgence as a source 
 of money and a means of moral regeneration. 
 
 In the year 1421 Berne had begun the erection 
 of a new minster dedicated to St. Vincent. For 
 the completion and fitting up of the vast building 
 no sufficient means were at hand. So the magis¬ 
 trate, according to the custom of the time, had 
 recourse to an indulgence, and in 1473 he sought 
 from Sixtus IV a “Romfahrt.” Thus at that time 
 they called the great indulgence solemnities. In 
 this connection it should be pointed out that during 
 such a solemnity one could gain the same indul¬ 
 gence as by a pilgrimage to Rome in the year of 
 jubilee.® 
 
 In response to the Bernese petition, the Pope 
 on May 30, 1473, issued an indulgence bull in 
 virtue of which anyone in Berne could through a 
 contrite confession, a pious visit to the church, 
 and alms for the completion of the minster, share 
 in the same indulgences that were to be gained in 
 the Eternal City during the jubilee. But the con¬ 
 dition was laid down that the indulgence solem- 
 
 Annali della fabrica del duomo di Milano, II, 145, Milano, 
 1877: “Sed quod ante omnia considerandum est, ut peccata 
 nefanda et gravia, quae (pro dolor) praeteriti belli immanitas 
 parturivit, hac vestra gratiosa indulgentia . . . extinguantur et 
 convertentibus se ad poenitentiae gratiam ... in Domino re- 
 laxentur.” 
 
 ®A. Fluri (Die Beziehungen Berns zu den Buchdruckern in 
 Basel, Zürich und Genf, 1476-1536, p. 9, Bern, 1913) erroneously 
 thinks that the indulgence was so called “because it imparted 
 absolution for such sins as otherwise could be expiated for only 
 by a pilgrimage to Rome.” 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 27 
 
 nities should take place only after the expiration 
 of the great jubilee of the year 1475.® 
 
 So the Bernese Romfahrt was fixed for Michael¬ 
 mas, 1476. The time of grace was to last ten 
 days. Of its progress the Bernese chronicler, 
 Diebold Schilling, has left a detailed account^® 
 Schilling (+ i486), who had been a member of 
 the Great Council since 1468, lived in the midst 
 of the events and wrote down what he himself 
 saw and heard. He is a thoroughly trustworthy 
 historian whose narrative “bears the stamp of 
 truth and absolute honesty.” 
 
 In order to make known in wider circles the 
 favor that had been granted, the Bernese Coun¬ 
 cil had more than a thousand copies of the indul¬ 
 gence bull printed in Basel. These were dis¬ 
 tributed in every direction. Invitations went as 
 far as Cologne.They could therefore count 
 on a great concourse. 
 
 But it was still necessary to find someone who 
 would explain the indulgence bull to the people 
 and who during the Romfahrt would exhort them 
 to penance. This preacher they found in 
 Johannes Heynlin, whom Janssen justly praises 
 as being a man “whose earnestness and strength 
 of character equalled his universal learning, elo- 
 
 “Ablassbulle Sixtus’ IV, zugunsten des St. Vinzen-Münsters, 
 T473. First completely printed by M. Flach in Basel by order 
 of the Municipal Council of Berne. Facsimile reproduction 
 according to the only known copy of the Kestner-Museum in 
 Hanover. 
 
 ^®Die Berner Chronik des Diebold Schilling. Hrsg. von G. 
 Tobler, II, 98ff., Berne, 1901. 
 
 “The pertinent resolutions are given by Tobler in his edition 
 of Schilling, II, 98, Anra. 5. 
 
28 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 quence, and energy.”^“ Heynlin, born in 143^ 
 at Stein near Pforzheim, was at that time pastor 
 of St. Theodore in Little-Basel. Previously he 
 had labored for several years as professor of 
 philosophy and theology in the Paris university. 
 Now he was called to Berne as preacher of the 
 indulgence. 
 
 On the Sunday before the feast of St. Michael 
 —which in 1476 fell on Sunday—the “manifold 
 holy indulgence was ushered in,” narrates Schil¬ 
 ling, “with the ringing of all the bells and with 
 great joy.” First the papal bull must be read and 
 expounded. This was done “by the very learned 
 Fr. John of Stein, doctor of Sacred Scripture,” 
 who explained from the pulpit “how the great 
 indulgence could be gained.” Thereafter Heyn¬ 
 lin spoke daily to the people in the minster. The 
 chronicler relates that every day “two excellent, 
 praiseworthy sermons were preached,” one early 
 in the morning, the other in the afternoon, “by 
 the aforementioned Dr. John of Stein and a 
 pious Franciscan Observant, both of whom had 
 been invited to Berne and had been very honor¬ 
 ably entertained.” 
 
 The preachers could not complain of paucity 
 of hearers. Not only the Bernese, but also many 
 outsiders, wished to avail themselves of the grace 
 of the indulgence time. Even by the opening of 
 the solemnities “very many strangers” were pres- 
 
 ^^Janssen I, 142. 
 
 ^’Hossfeld has devoted an admirable monograph to this pious 
 and distinguished man in the Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte 
 und Altertumskunde, VI (1907), 309-356, VII (1908), 79-219, 
 235-43I' The indulgence solemnity of 1476 is described VII, 
 187!!. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 29 
 
 ent. Full fifty confessors were busy at the start 
 “from early morning till night.” “One might 
 have thought that was enough.” But they could 
 not handle the crowd thronging around the con¬ 
 fessionals, and many had to be sent away un¬ 
 shriven. “The Fathers, as announced in the min¬ 
 ster, have turned in every direction to secure more 
 confessors so that everyone might confess the 
 most serious sins with little ceremony or formal¬ 
 ity because of the crowd of people, and so that 
 everyone might have contrition and come to con¬ 
 fession.” The people followed the urging of 
 the preachers, and in the course of the week there 
 were over eighty confessors. “And could more 
 have been found who were good and useful, they 
 also would have been taken.” 
 
 At that time it was yet customary that persons 
 who had committed some serious public sin should 
 undergo a public penance. In the Bernese Rom- 
 fahrt, according to Schilling, there were “about 
 four thousand” such public penitents—men and 
 women. They were led by appointed priests 
 “into the minster and around it from one con¬ 
 fessor to another, and the men and women sin¬ 
 ners were obliged to receive a public penance 
 from each of the appointed confessors separately, 
 to kneel before them, and to be absolved. And 
 in this no one, either from Berne or elsewhere, 
 was spared; for whosoever had sinned publicly 
 had to do public penance according to the regula¬ 
 tion and command of the confessors.” Also 
 “many public penitents, men and women,” took 
 part in the great procession on the feast of the 
 
so INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 Archangel Michael, “the men naked [that is, as 
 is clear from many contemporary sources, with 
 the upper part of the body stripped] and the 
 women barefoot with their hair hanging down, 
 as is right for such public sinners.” 
 
 Every day “very noble services” were sung by 
 the auxiliary bishops of Basel and Constance and 
 other prelates who had been invited to the indul¬ 
 gence solemnities. On the Sunday after St. Mich¬ 
 ael’s the Bishop of Sitten sang High Mass. On 
 this occasion the great minster was so crowded 
 “that it could not well have accommodated any 
 more.” On the following Monday the indulgence 
 was again announced “with the ringing of all 
 the bells and great devotion.” The sum contrib¬ 
 uted for the minster was not small. “The money 
 was very great,” says Schilling. “And as the 
 Romfahrt ended:, the money in very deep chests 
 was committed and surrendered to the church 
 wardens, so that they could with it provide for 
 the completion of the minster, and might use or 
 spend it in no other way.” The chronicler ends 
 with the pious wish that the indulgence “may 
 result in salvation for all those who have sought 
 it with contrition, confession, and devotion.” 
 
 For the Michaelmas period in 1478 Berne re¬ 
 quested of Sixtus IV a new Romfahrt and “indul¬ 
 gence of all sins for punishment and guilt,” as 
 Schilling expresses it.^^ Of the money that would 
 result, two-thirds would belong to the minster- 
 
 *^Schilling, iSyff. Hossfeld, VII, 2o6ff. C. Wirz, Regesten 
 zur Schweizergeschichte aus den päpstlichen . Archiven 1447-- 
 ,.»513, i28f., Berne, 1913. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 31 
 
 building and one-third to the Pope for “resistance 
 to the Turks and other unbelievers.” 
 
 Heynlin, who in the meantime had been called 
 to Tübingen as pastor and professor of theology, 
 was again pressingly invited to preach the ser¬ 
 mons. So in September, 1478, he came a second 
 time to Berne. The day before St. Michael’s the 
 Romfahrt proper began with the reading and 
 explanation of the indulgence bull. As before, 
 that was Heynlin’s task; who now also during 
 the indulgence time “preached in the minster once 
 or twice every day and gave the people very 
 praiseworthy and good instructions.” “Other 
 doctors and learned Observants” did the same. 
 
 The crowds were again very large. “Many 
 people came to Berne from Germany and Italy.” 
 Confessors were employed “by the hundred.” 
 More than twelve hundred public penitents, men 
 and women, took part in the procession. One of 
 these women, who was separated from her hus¬ 
 band, came from Zürich in order to share in the 
 jubilee’s grace. When she returned the Bernese 
 Council gave her a letter to the Magistrate at 
 Zürich beseeching him “kindly to help the wo¬ 
 man, that she might come again to her husband; 
 for she has here in the Romfahrt confessed and 
 done penance and is willing in the future to con¬ 
 duct herself in a proper wifely manner.”^® How 
 many erring souls, such as this woman, were, 
 thanks to the Romfahrt, led back to a better frame 
 of mind! 
 
 In the following year Berne received for the 
 
 ^'Printed by Tobler in his Schilling, II, 194. 
 
32 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 third time from Pope Sixtus IV an “indulgence 
 of all sins from punishment and guilt in the min¬ 
 ster of St. Vincent for the sake of the noteworthy 
 building of the same.”^® The Romfahrt was to 
 take place in Lent of 1480. 
 
 Again the Bernese thought of the well-remem¬ 
 bered Heynlin, who had recently been appointed 
 pastor in Baden-Baden. In a letter of the sev¬ 
 enth of January, 1480, the Bernese besought the 
 Markgrave Christopher of Baden to give them 
 the celebrated preacher for the Romfahrt, “since 
 they sought an expounder of God’s word who 
 through wholesome teaching knew how to sum¬ 
 mon piety to their souls.” To Heynlin, also, 
 “their tried friend,” they directed a pressing re¬ 
 quest to come to Berne, since they sorely needed 
 his “wholesome teaching.” The Bernese City 
 Council in no wise wished the well-disposed man 
 to come only “in order that they might parade 
 him during the Romfahrt, or only so that they 
 might use him to fill the coffers destined for the 
 church building fund; they really entertained the 
 same God-fearing sentiments as he.”^^ 
 
 Heynlin declared himself ready to grant the 
 wishes of the Bernese. On Laetare Sunday he 
 began his sermons. So thoroughly did he please 
 the Bernese that at the end of the indulgence so¬ 
 lemnities they approached the Markgrave with 
 the request that the distinguished teacher and 
 preacher remain till the end of Lent, since the 
 whole community “has a great desire for him.” 
 
 ^*Schilling, 219^. Hossfeld, VII, 
 
 ‘Tiossfeld, 250. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 33 
 
 Heynlin again perfectly fulfilled the hopes 
 placed in him. “The Lent of 1480,” writes the 
 Bernese church historian, E. Blösch, “was 
 throughout not merely a time of superstitious 
 ceremonies, religious theatricals, or unscrupulous 
 traffic in indulgences, but according to the inten¬ 
 tion of the magistrates and thanks to the compel¬ 
 ling preaching of the doctor it was a period of 
 penance, of conversion, and of spiritual improve¬ 
 ment.”^® The more than a week’s activity of the 
 preacher left its traces also in the public and civic 
 life. Through his influence were enacted a series 
 of municipal ordinances aiming at the sanctifica¬ 
 tion of holy days, the punishment of slander and 
 cursing, the removal of various abuses; more¬ 
 over, by his advice a new school house was built 
 and a better qualified teacher employed.^® 
 
 The above-quoted Protestant historian, Blösch, 
 writes further: “We are led to the conclusion 
 that the vigorous moral preacher during the short 
 time of his stay exercised an unusual influence 
 and that he conveyed in no small degree to wider 
 circles of the Bernese that desire for serious moral 
 conduct in the public life that had moved the City 
 Council to invite him.”^° 
 
 From this one can see that the indulgence so¬ 
 lemnities, when they were well conducted, could 
 work manifold blessings. To be sure, the indul¬ 
 gence practice of the late Middle Ages was often 
 accompanied by grievous abuses. But one would 
 
 “Jahrbuch für Schweizerische Geschichte IX (1884), 53. 
 
 “Hossfeld, 253ff. 
 
 ^“Jahrbuch, IX, 54. 
 
34 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 be guilty of great one-sidedness if he spoke only 
 of abuses. There is not only the financial stand¬ 
 point to be considered in the indulgences of the 
 Middle Ages. Not without reason does Profes¬ 
 sor Emil Göller warn us in this connection “not 
 to forget the religious motive.It cannot be 
 denied that the many indulgence sermons and 
 innumerable confessions connected therewith 
 helped many souls to be saved. On this point 
 the famous Bishop of Hildesheim, Cardinal Ber¬ 
 tram, writes: “Such confessions at the time of the 
 solemn granting of indulgences, bound up as they 
 were with gripping sermons, solemn worship of 
 God, and with works of penance and prayer, had 
 the significance for that time that a Catholic 
 mission has today.”^^ 
 
 Heinrich Schrörs, the Bonn church historian, 
 expressed himself in a similar sense. Together 
 with an energetic stressing of the serious abuses 
 that the indulgence practice of the time carried 
 with it, he called special attention to the circum¬ 
 stances which were appropriate “To make the 
 indulgence preaching an opportunity for penance 
 and the renewal of the religious life.” “Concern¬ 
 ing this side of indulgences,” adds Schrörs, “much 
 of value will perhaps be yielded from local 
 sources.How well founded is this remarks is 
 shown by the indulgence solemnities at Berne. 
 
 Certainly the fact that a man such as Heynlin 
 —whose religious earnestness and vigorous moral 
 
 ^^Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1905, 655. 
 
 *Ad. Bertram, Geschichte des Bistums Hildesheim, I, 477, 
 Hildesheim, 1899. 
 
 ^Wissenschaftliche Beilage zur Germania. 1904, Nr. 14. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 35 
 
 character were praised even by Protestants—re¬ 
 peatedly appeared as the indulgence preacher, and 
 in the year 1476 praised the Bernese jubilee as the 
 “most useful, the most admirable, the most fruit¬ 
 ful, the most joyful message which had ever come 
 to Berne,is proof enough that the indulgence 
 practice of that time was not so “demoralizing” 
 as some present-day opponents of indulgences 
 would like to make us believe. 
 
 Those who know how to speak only of the 
 pernicious consequences of indulgences ought at 
 least to remember that indulgences have contrib¬ 
 uted very largely to making possible the building 
 and support of numerous churches. But since 
 from a cultural standpoint these churches have 
 poured forth immeasurable blessings upon Chris¬ 
 tian peoples, one must attribute to indulgences a 
 share in this prosperous activity. Even present- 
 day Protestants owe to indulgences, in part at 
 least, many beautiful churches and many charitable 
 institutions that have come down from previous 
 Catholic times. In this connection the above- 
 mentioned minster of Berne comes to mind. 
 Though, of course, it is gross hyperbole when a 
 Mecklenburg theologian asserts: “It is a fact, 
 every sinking tower, every crumbling stone, was 
 dressed and set by indulgences.”^^ There is, how¬ 
 ever, no doubt but that many noble churches were 
 built and supported by the help obtained from 
 indulgence alms. But just in that financial as- 
 
 *‘Hossfeld, VII, 188. 
 
 ** 11 . Schnell, Mecklenburg im Zeitalter der Reformation, 42, 
 Berlin, 1900. 
 
36 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 sistance this theologian sees a regrettable aberra¬ 
 tion. “If the Catholic Church produced noble 
 and truly great church buildings in Mecklenburg 
 in the Middle Ages, yet many a stone for them 
 was laid through a mistaken piety of those who 
 thought to make holiness serve their own selfish 
 ends.”^® 
 
 But after piety had been deflected upon other 
 paths through Lutheran teaching, how were the 
 churches of God cared for in Mecklenburg? 
 There was then no more talk of building churches; 
 on the contrary, not a few churches were torn 
 down and princely castles built with their stones; 
 others were turned to worldly uses, while those 
 that remained dedicated to worship fell into the 
 greatest neglect. A Protestant author, son of a 
 Mecklenburg minister, writes on this point: “In 
 the second half of the sixteenth century the visi¬ 
 tation records are full of complaints about the 
 shocking appearance generally presented by the 
 churches and cemeteries throughout the land. 
 This neglect was afterwards much increased 
 through the Thirty Years’ War. The situation 
 was later somewhat improved; but generally these 
 localities remained in that neglected condition 
 until a few years back, and unfortunately some 
 even to our own day. I myself remember having 
 seen in Mecklenburg some churches that abounded 
 in filth and rubbish, and which in their delapi- 
 dated condition looked more like old lumber rooms 
 than like churches. To the honor of the Catholics 
 (at least to those in Germany, where alone I have 
 
 *lbld. 45. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 37 
 
 had the opportunity of observing) I must add 
 that I have never seen among them a similar 
 neglect of churches, but on the contrary even 
 the smallest country churches were always clean 
 and cheerfully arranged.”^^ 
 
 In the Catholic Middle Ages Christians were 
 not content with putting up monumental church 
 buildings; they moreover strove eagerly with the 
 help of painting and sculpture to adorn the monu¬ 
 ments of ecclesiastical architecture. “If the 
 walls of the church were arranged so as to allow 
 it, the staring spaces were usually made alive and 
 filled inside and out with sculptures inculcating 
 the holy teachings and traditions of Christianity, 
 all persons and objects of which sculpture illumi¬ 
 nated spiritual devotion, like ‘the preachers of a 
 higher life.’ The Christian spirit pressed forward 
 for the purpose of adorning and ennobling with 
 the most beautiful and magnificent objects that the 
 earth affords and that the power of the human 
 soul can enhance, the place where the Savior dwells 
 united with men in love and grace. In this way 
 sculpture and painting grew out of architecture 
 and in the service of the Church reached the no¬ 
 blest expression of the Christian spirit and life.”^® 
 
 Likewise in this artistic adornment of God’s 
 houses indulgences have given admirable service. 
 Of this Munich affords an example. 
 
 The Frauenkirche, the second oldest parish 
 church in Munich, had in the course of time be- 
 
 ^E. Boll, Geschichte Mecklenburgs mit besonderer Berück¬ 
 sichtigung der Kulturgeschichte, I, 392 f., Neubrandenburg, 1855. 
 
 ’*Janssen, I, 2C». 
 
38 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 come delapidated; and it was determined accord¬ 
 ingly to raze the old building in order to erect 
 in its place a much larger and more beautiful one. 
 In the year 1468 the cornerstone of the new 
 church, the present cathedral, was laid. The 
 church corporation and the city shared in the 
 expense. The former paid the workmen, while 
 the municipal council furnished the material. After 
 ten years the gigantic building was completed. 
 But with its completion all the available means 
 were exhausted, and the cost of the interior dec¬ 
 oration was still to be defrayed. 
 
 Hence it was decided to call in the help of the 
 Christian folk and to request in Rome a jubilee 
 indulgence in order to elicit the charitable contribu¬ 
 tions. On October 7, 1479, Sixtus IV granted this 
 indulgence and even continued it for three years. 
 The solemnity should take place every Lent from 
 Laetare Sunday until Judica Sunday. In order to 
 make it easier for the people to gain the indul¬ 
 gence, the Pope granted to the confessors, as in 
 time of jubilee, special jurisdiction. Two-thirds 
 of the alms were to go for the decoration of the 
 church, and one-third for the crusade against 
 the Turks.^® 
 
 The town clerk. Dr. Hans Kirchmaier, gives 
 us a report of the Munich jubilee in the municipal 
 council’s records.In the beginning of the year 
 
 ^The indulgence bull is to be found among the posters of the 
 Munich Staatsbibliotek, VI, 5. 
 
 *“Published by K. A. Muffat, Baugeschichte des Domes zu 
 Unserer Lieben Frau in München, ziff., München, i868. Cf. A. 
 Mayer, Die Domkirche zu U. L. Frau in München, 740., 
 München, 1868. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 39 
 
 1480 eight priests with the necessary credentials 
 and with copies of the papal bull rode out to the 
 neighboring dioceses, in fact even to Bamberg 
 and Würzburg, to announce the “grace.” Special 
 messengers had carried the invitations of the 
 City Council to the surrounding cities. They had 
 not counted in vain upon a participation of the 
 faithful in outlying districts. The congestion of 
 strangers surpassed all expectations. In the first 
 year during the indulgence week more than 65,- 
 000 pilgrims came to Munich; in the second year 
 24,000; in the third 34,700; so that the crowd of 
 strangers for all three years amounted to 123,- 
 700. In order to count this immense multitude a 
 very simple expedient was employed. Only the 
 four principal gates were opened; the others re¬ 
 mained closed. “During the three years,” relates 
 the town clerk, “the Council had the people come 
 in through the four gates, and a pea was dropped 
 in a pot for each person who came in for the in¬ 
 dulgence. At night the peas were counted.” 
 
 On the part of the municipal authorities the 
 most far-reaching arrangements were made so that 
 the crowd of pilgrims might not be disorderly 
 and that the visitors might find appropriate ac¬ 
 commodations. Every night 400 armed men made 
 the round of the city in order to keep the streets 
 safe; a watch of 50 men sufficed during the day. 
 “At each of the four principal gates eight men 
 were stationed, while the other gates were locked. 
 It was forbidden to transport filth or manure. All 
 offal was burnt in caldrons. From each trade twp 
 
 2 38 1 9 
 
40 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 men were detailed to go around and show the 
 people hostels.” 
 
 For the spiritual needs of the pilgrims admir¬ 
 able provisions were likewise made. ‘‘On account 
 of the crowd of people two hundred and seventy 
 confessors were at first employed, and thereafter 
 not many less.” Daily during the indulgence time 
 there were “at least two and often three sermons” 
 preached in the Frauenkirche. 
 
 From all this one can see—to make a paren¬ 
 thetical remark—with what little right it has 
 so frequently been asserted, that the indulgence 
 had “long since been identified with the forgive¬ 
 ness of sins.”^^ If the people looked upon an 
 indulgence as the forgiveness of the guilt of sin, 
 then why did they go to confession during the 
 indulgence time? Why, then, during the great 
 indulgence solemnities were so many confessors 
 necessary, as was the case in Munich, Berne, 
 Speyer, and other cities? This point has been ad¬ 
 mirably stressed by the Italian Dominican, Prie- 
 rias, in his work against Luther’s indulgence the- 
 
 ®^Thus again recently O. Vitense, Geschichte von Mecklenburg, 
 150, Gotha, 1920 (Allgemeine Staatengeschichte, III, ii). How 
 little this author is qualified to give judgment in indulgence 
 affairs is proved by his remark (p. 51) on Professor Pegel of 
 the University of Rostock: “As early as 1516 Konrad Pegel 
 came out against the shameless traffic in indulgences.’' For the 
 information of his former pupil, Count Magnus von Mecklen¬ 
 burg, Pegel in 1516 published a little work on penance, Dialo- 
 ogus de poenitentia, printed by D. Schröder, Papistisches 
 Mecklenburg, 2858-2866, Wismar, 1741. In this work Pegel 
 did come out against the indulgence, as different Mecklenburg 
 authorities assert. But the indulgence was not connected with 
 any money. The booklet treats only of penance, and indeed in 
 a thoroughly Catholic sense—“It is papistically written,” as the 
 elder Schröder has remarked. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 41 
 
 sis: Even the less well-informed people know 
 that since they go to confession to obtain for¬ 
 giveness for their sins, the gaining of an indul¬ 
 gence is conditioned upon first removing the guilt 
 of sin.^^ 
 
 The total contributions for the Munich indul¬ 
 gence in the three years reached a total of 15,- 
 232 gulden. Of that a third should have been 
 paid to the papal treasury for the war against 
 the Turks. In Rome they were satisfied with 500 
 ducats.Hence, when we take into considera¬ 
 tion the purchasing power of money at that time, 
 there remained to the church management a goodly 
 sum which could be applied to the artistic decora¬ 
 tion of the new church. 
 
 Such examples, which could easily be multiplied, 
 show the great help that Christian art received 
 from indulgences. Even Protestant scholars have 
 again and again noted this. For example, the 
 American, H. C. Lea, writes: “The stately struc¬ 
 tures in which the devotion of the Catholic Mid¬ 
 dle Ages displayed itself could scarcely have been 
 completed without the means furnished by indul¬ 
 gences, and the arts, which found in the Church 
 their most generous patron, would not otherwise 
 so quickly and so greatly have developed them¬ 
 selves. The noble cathedrals in Paris, Rheims, 
 Cologne, St. Peter’s in Rome, show us in concrete 
 form the results of preaching indulgences through 
 
 *^In presumptuosas M. Luther conclusiones de potestate pape 
 Dialogus. Ohne Ort und Jahr. Bl. C2. Against the remarks 
 of Prierias Luther made no answer. (Luthers Werke, I, 683, 
 Weimarer Ausg.) 
 
 “Schulte, Die Fugger in Rom, I, 258. 
 
42 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 hundreds of years. So art has every reason to be 
 grateful for the advancement that she received 
 through indulgences.”®* 
 
 In a study on Beverley Minster, that was, like 
 so many other medieval churches, built in part 
 with indulgence alms, an English scholar remarks 
 that an indulgence was in no wise, as is popularly 
 supposed, a forgiveness of sins nor a permission 
 according to one’s pleasure to commit sin in the 
 future, but merely a remission of the penance 
 imposed for sins contritely confessed. In and 
 for itself the indulgence was innocent enough; 
 through this means an external penance was re¬ 
 mitted in exchange for an alms for good works. 
 “We cannot entirely condemn a system that has 
 given us Beverley Minster, the Cathedral of York, 
 the chapel of Eton College, and so many other 
 noble buildings. 
 
 Even in the Middle Ages, in order to spur the 
 faithful to charitable contributions, attention was 
 from time to time called to the beauty of the 
 slowly rising architectural monuments. Thus 
 Bishop Konrad of Strassburg in the introduction 
 to an indulgence brief in the year 1275 in behalf 
 of the Strassburg minster pointed out how “the 
 work of the Strassburg church rose to heaven 
 like the flowers of May in manifold beauty, at¬ 
 tracted the eyes of the beholders more and more, 
 and rejoiced them with sweet delightfulness.”^® 
 
 “H. C. Lea, A History of Auricular Confession and Indul¬ 
 gences in the Latin Church, III, 581, Phila., 1896. 
 
 “A. Fr. Leach, Memorials of Beverley Minster, II XXXI, 
 Durham, 1903 (Publications of the Surtees Society, CVIII). 
 
 **Urkundenbuch der Stadt Strassburg, II, 28, Strassburg, 1886. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 43 
 
 The indulgences referred to not only incited to 
 generous almsgiving; they also aroused many of 
 the faithful to gain the indulgence by personally 
 sharing in the work of building. Throughout 
 the whole of the Middle Ages indulgences were 
 frequently granted for personal labor. Thus 
 Bishop Heinrich of Strassburg in the beginning of 
 the thirteenth century promised a special indul¬ 
 gence to all those who would carry or haul stone.^^ 
 Bishop Eberhard of Constance in 1264 granted 
 an indulgence for personal labor in building the 
 Augustinian convent in Mindelheim.^® The same 
 thing was done in 1283 by Auxiliary Bishop Inzel- 
 erius in favor of the parish church in Hagenau.^® 
 Indulgences for furnishing stone and sand are 
 noted repeatedly in the Zürich records of the 
 second half of the thirteenth century."*® In just 
 the same way in England,in France,"*^ in Italy 
 in Spain,indulgences were often given for per¬ 
 sonal service in church building. 
 
 How attractive were indulgences of this kind 
 is shown by an occurrence in Stralsund. Here in 
 the year 1384, as the Pomeranian chronicler, 
 
 *^Urkundenbuch Strassburg, I, 135 (1879). 
 
 *®J. Ph. Brunnenmayr, Geschichte der Stadt Mindelheim, Syff., 
 mindelheira, 1821. 
 
 ®*C. Hanauer, Cartulaire de Peglise S. George de Haguenau, 
 17, Strasbourg, 1898. 
 
 *°Urkundenbuch der Stadt und Landschaft Zürich, IV (1898) 
 260; V (1901) 145, 217, 228. 
 
 Dugdale, The History of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, 
 14, London, 1658. 
 
 H. Albanes, Gallia Christiana novissima, I, Instrumenta 
 53, Montbeliard, 1895. 
 
 “Regestum dementis Papae V, n. 3596, Romae, iSSsff. F. 
 Schneider, Regestum Volaterranum, 302, Roma, 1907 (Regesta 
 chartarum Italiae I). 
 
 **Espana Sagrada XLIV, 320, Madrid, 1826. 
 
44 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 Thomas Kantzow ( + 1542), relates, the tower of 
 the Lady Church had fallen and battered in the 
 roof and the arches of the church. The citizens 
 wished to repair the tower and church. “But they 
 bethought themselves that it would take a long 
 time and cost much money before the stones and 
 the rubbish could be cleared from the site. There¬ 
 fore they received an indulgence from the Bishop 
 of Schwerin that each man who removed a stone 
 or anything else from the site should have an in¬ 
 dulgence of forty days. Wherefore the people 
 came in droves with carts and wagons, and 
 crowded to clean the place. In this way the site 
 was cleared in three weeks, that otherwise could 
 not have been done for an hundred gulden and a 
 longer time.”^® And the Protestant chronicler 
 adds: “Thus one sees what the indulgences were 
 worth at that time.”^® 
 
 In the year 1460, Bishop Dietrich of Branden¬ 
 burg promised for a full day’s work forty days 
 indulgence to those who on work days would help 
 in the rebuilding of a church in Berlin, and ten 
 days indulgence to those who on Sunday or holy 
 days worked four hours after the midday meal. 
 Since it was for a pious work, remarked the bishop 
 in the letter, he held that work on Sunday or holy 
 days was allowable; it was also much better to 
 serve God in this way than to be a slave to inor¬ 
 dinate drink in a public house. 
 
 ‘®Th. Kantzow, Chronik von Pommern, in hochdeutscher 
 Mundart. Hrsg, von G. Gaebel. Letze Bearbeitung, zzyf., 
 Stettin, 1897. 
 
 *®Erste Bearbeitung, 145, 1898. 
 
 *^A. Fr. Riedel, Codex diplomaticus Brandenburgensis, I, 8, 
 421, Berlin, 1847. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 45 
 
 That the papacy also about the middle of the 
 fifteenth century now and then granted indulgences 
 for manual labor is seen from the indulgence bull 
 which Eugene IV issued in favor of the cathedral 
 of St. Lambert in Lüttich, 1443.'^® Through this 
 bull all the faithful who helped in repairing the 
 delapidated cathedral were, entitled to receive 
 from their confessor at the hour of death a plen¬ 
 ary indulgence after having made a good confes¬ 
 sion. For the gaining of this indulgence, in addi¬ 
 tion to a good confession and helping the church, 
 it was also required that one should fast every 
 Friday for a year. In this case, too, the afore¬ 
 mentioned assistance towards the repairs was not 
 inconsiderable. In order to obtain the indulgence 
 one had either personally to share in the labor 
 or to pay the corresponding day’s wage. For the 
 rich thirty days’ work was fixed, for the less well- 
 to-do fifteen days.’ Most of the people preferred 
 to pay a set sum of money; yet there were not 
 lacking many poorer people who declared them¬ 
 selves ready for work.^® 
 
 From Freiburg in Breisgau it is related that 
 during the completion of the local minster “la¬ 
 borers often came from distant parts to give 
 gratuitous service, merely to share in the indul¬ 
 gences to be obtained.”®® 
 
 ‘‘Printed in the Chronique de Jean de Stavelot, publiee par 
 A. Borgnet, 513 f., Bruxelles, i86i. 
 
 **P. Fredericq, Les comptes des indulgences papales emises au 
 profit de la cathedrale de Saint-Lambert ä Liege, iqf., Bruxelles, 
 1903. Reprint from the Memoires de I’Axademie royale de 
 Belgique, Tome LXIII. 
 
 Schreiber, Geschichte und Beschreibung des Münsters zu 
 Freiburg i. Breisgau, 43, Freiburg, 1820- 
 
2. HOSPITALS. CHARITABLE INSTI¬ 
 TUTIONS. WORKS OF MERCY. 
 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 P ESIDES the churches, especially hospitals 
 and manifold charitable institutions were es¬ 
 tablished through numerous grants of indulgences. 
 In the papal and episcopal registers, we find abun¬ 
 dant accounts on this score.^ 
 
 The documents in which the popes and bishops, 
 under the promise of indulgences, commended to 
 the hearts of the faithful the care of the poor and 
 the sick, frequently had a beautiful introduction. 
 What Bishop Guido of Pavia wrote about 1114 
 in an indulgence brief in favor of the hospital in 
 Portalbero is an example of this: The greatest 
 of all the commandments, he says, is the com¬ 
 mandment of love, the love of God and of our 
 neighbor. But this love should occupy itself with 
 works of mercy, whereby we must think that what¬ 
 ever is done to the poor and the sick is done to 
 Christ our Lord.^ In the person of the poor the 
 Lord Himself is clothed and housed and fed and 
 given drink, declared Bishop Meinhard of Hal¬ 
 berstadt in an indulgence brief dated 1245 for 
 
 ^L. Lallemand, Historie de la Charite, 99, Paris, 1906: “C’est 
 surtout lorsqu’il s’agit d’accorder des indulgences en faveur des 
 bicnfaiteurs de maisons pies que les papes interviennent de la 
 fagon la plus active. Ces bulles se comptent par milleurs. . . . 
 Ajoutons les nombreuses indulgences accordes directement par 
 les eveques.” 
 
 *Lcge e Gabotto, Documenti degli Archiv! Tortonensi relativ! 
 alia storia di Voghera, i6f., Pinerolo, 1908 (Bibliotcca della 
 socicta storica subalpina, XXXIX). 
 
 46 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 47 
 
 the Mary Hospital in Brunswick.^ Whoever 
 picks up a sick man and refreshes him does this 
 to Christ the Lord, asserts Boniface VIII in an 
 indulgence brief dated 1297 for the Hospital of 
 Altopascio/ In another indulgence bull of the 
 year 1299 for a hospital in Viterbo, the same pope 
 remarks that a person can hardly offer to God 
 a more pleasing sacrifice than that of taking up 
 the sick and the poor and denying himself some¬ 
 thing to accommodate them.® 
 
 In the indulgence briefs we find the most diverse 
 charitable institutions mentioned. The merit 
 which from the eleventh century the brothers of 
 Mt. St. Bernard have earned from travellers is 
 universally acknowledged. For the support of the 
 hospices on both the little and big St. Bernard, 
 collections had to be instituted. Even in Germany 
 the messengers of the Bernardines were not un¬ 
 known. They, as other hospital orders, were in 
 the field to offer indulgences to their benefactors. 
 John XXII, who in 1323 granted for the mem¬ 
 bers of their brotherhood a remission of a sev¬ 
 enth part of the penance incurred, could in that 
 connection point out that Innocent III and Clem¬ 
 ent IV had already given them the same privilege.® 
 Clement V, also, in the year 1310 repeatedly is¬ 
 sued indulgences in favor of the hospices.'^ 
 
 ^Urkundenbuch der Stadt Braunschweig, hrsg. von L. Haensel- 
 mann, I, 44f., Braunschweig, 1900. 
 
 Tcs registres de Boniface VIII, par Digard, Faucon et 
 Thomas, n. 1780, Paris, i884flF. 
 
 'Registres, n. 1780. 
 
 'Lettres communes de Jean XXII, analysees par G. Mollat, 
 n. 17136, Paris, I90if. 
 
 ’Rcgcstum dementis V, n. 5898, 5924. 
 
48 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 To the papal grants were added many indul¬ 
 gences from cardinals and bishops. They are 
 collected in a printed communication which Bishop 
 George of Bamberg in the beginning of the six¬ 
 teenth century sent out to his clergy.® Julius II 
 soon after confirmed them and added a plenary 
 indulgence at the hour of death for the faithful 
 who would give an alms sufficient at least to sup¬ 
 port one person for one day.® 
 
 According to ecclesiastical regulations bishops 
 might grant an indulgence for only forty days. 
 Clement V (1309), however, allowed them to 
 grant an indulgence of one hundred days to the 
 benefactors of an orphan asylum.^® In the year 
 1311 the same pope granted an indulgence for a 
 hospital in the diocese of Chartres that took care 
 of many blind persons.An institute in Paris 
 exclusively for the blind likewise received an in¬ 
 dulgence from Clement This institute, which 
 Louis IX had founded, had already been favored 
 by the papacy with indulgences, as in the year 
 1291 by Nicholas IV.In 1317 John XXII con¬ 
 firmed all these indulgences and thereto added an- 
 other.^^ Some years later (1326) he granted an¬ 
 other indulgence for the blind institute in Or- 
 
 ®Printed by PI. Sprenger, Alteste Buchdruckergeschichte von 
 Bamberg, 68f., Nürnberg, 1800. 
 
 “Bekanntmachung des Priors von St. Bernhard von Jahre 1507 
 apud J. H. Hottinger, Historia ecclesiastica Novi Testaraenti, 
 VII, 8if., Tiguri, 1665. 
 
 ^"Regestum dementis V, n. 4199. 
 
 “Regestum, n. 6137. 
 
 ^“Regestum, n. 3237. 
 
 “Les registres de Nicolas IV, par E. Langlois, n. 4752, Paris, 
 i886ff. 
 
 ^^Lettrcs communes de Jean XXII, n. 3905. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 49 
 
 leans.^® Especially numerous are the papal and 
 episcopal indulgences for the leper houses, so 
 widespread in the Middle Ages/® 
 
 In the eleventh century the Lazarist order was 
 founded for the care of lepers. This order had 
 its own special indulgences that helped not a 
 little to stimulate the faithful to generous con¬ 
 tributions. The same is true of the Knights 
 Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, of the Teu¬ 
 tonic Knights, of the hospital order of the Holy 
 Ghost, of the Antonius order, of the hospitals of 
 St. Valentine in Rufach (Alsace), of St. Hubert 
 in the Ardennes, of Cornelimiinster near Aachen, 
 and of others known far and wide through their 
 alms-gatherers. 
 
 It happened, indeed, that the alms-gatherers of 
 these institutions and societies, the so-called 
 quaestors, through their offensive conduct often 
 gave occasions for just complaints.’^ On the other 
 hand, it must be granted that the care of the poor 
 and the sick was mightily assisted through the 
 indulgences. The income* from indulgences in 
 large measure defrayed the upkeep of many hos¬ 
 pitals. This has been proved by recent research, 
 as, for example, on the Holy Ghost Hospital in 
 Rome,’® on the hospitals of the German orders 
 
 ^'Lettres communes, n. 26758. 
 
 ^'Les registres de Nicolas IV^, n. 4755. Th. Gousset, Les actes 
 de la Province ecclesiastique de Reims, II, 313, Reims, 1843. 
 Urkundenbuch Strassburg, I, 189. Ulmisches Urkundenbuch, I, 
 187, 252, 280, Stuttgart, 1873. 
 
 ”In this connection consult the author’s essay: Der Haupt¬ 
 schädling des Ablasses un Mittelatter, in Historischen Jahrbuch, 
 XXXV (1914), 509-542. 
 
 ’*P. Brune, Histoire de l’ordre hospitalier du S. Esprit, i3off., 
 Paris, 1892. 
 
50 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOK 
 
 in Prussia,^® or on the great hospital Hotel Dieu 
 in Paris. 
 
 As the nursing orders and the different chari¬ 
 table institutions enjoyed numerous indulgences, 
 so special indulgences were often granted for in¬ 
 dividual works of mercy. John XXII granted 
 an indulgence of this kind in 1329 for the support 
 of poor women in confinement.^^ In Parma the 
 custom arose for pious men to collect alms on 
 specified days in order to support secretly in their 
 homes the poor who were obliged to beg. Boni¬ 
 face VIII in 1297 praised this custom, and granted 
 to the contributors an indulgence of one year and 
 forty days.^^ 
 
 The provincial synod of Ravenna in the year 
 1311 also thought of the deserving poor. It de¬ 
 creed that the bishop should look to it that in 
 every quarter of the episcopal city some pious 
 men should be appointed to take up a collection 
 and according to their best judgment to distribute 
 the results among the deserving poor. Everyone 
 who made a donation for this purpose received 
 an indulgence of forty days. All those who busied 
 themselves to bring about peace received the same 
 indulgence.A previous provincial synod of 
 Ravenna that met in Forli in 1286 had tried to 
 stimulate the clergy especially to charitable ac¬ 
 tivity. To every bishop of the province was 
 
 Rink, Die christliche Liebestätigkeit im Ordensland Preus- 
 sen bis 1525, 4iflF., Freiburg, 1911. 
 
 ®®E. Coyecque, L’Hötel-Dieu de Paris au moyen äge, I, 136!?., 
 Paris, 1891. 
 
 ^^Lettres communes de Jean XXII, n. 11351. 
 
 “Registres de Boniface VIII, n. 1981. 
 
 ‘^Mansi, Concilia, XXV, 473, Venetiis, 1782, 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 51 
 
 granted an indulgence of one hundred days if for 
 a whole week he fed four poor persons once each 
 day. A like indulgence could be gained by abbots 
 who in the same way fed two poor men; by arch¬ 
 deacons, arch-priests, and priors who fed one poor 
 person; and by the other clergy if they would feed 
 a poor man merely once. Whoever gave a poor 
 man a new coat received an indulgence of one 
 year. If, however, the coat were old the donor 
 received an indulgence of only forty days.^^ 
 
 For the support of the poor in the individual 
 parishes (pauperum parochialium) each of the 
 bishops at a provincial synod at Cambrai in the 
 first half of the fourteenth century granted forty 
 days’ indulgence, in all four hundred and eighty 
 days.^® In 1288 Bishop Withego of Meissen 
 granted an indulgence to the pious faithful who 
 visited and consoled the sick in the hospital.^® As 
 the plague raged in Venice in the year 1446 Nich¬ 
 olas V empowered the Patriarch, Laurence Jus¬ 
 tinian, to give an indulgence to all the priests, doc¬ 
 tors, and faithful who would call upon and care 
 for the sick.^^ In the year 1515 Leo X granted 
 an indulgence to those who, according to their 
 means, would lesson the need of the numerous 
 prisoners at that time languishing in the jails of 
 Ferrara almost entirely neglected.^® 
 
 =^Mansi, XXIV, 617; 
 
 “Hartzheim, Concilia Germaniae, IV, 83. Gousset, II, 465. 
 
 ^Urkundenbuch des Hochstifts Meissen, I, 221, Leipzig, 1864 
 (Codex diplom. Saxoniae Regiae, II, i). 
 
 Cornelius, Ecclesiae Venetiae antiquis monumentis illus- 
 tratae, XIII, 27, Venetiis, 1749. 
 
 ’'“Leonis X Regesta, ed. Hergenröther, n. 16259, Freiburg, 
 i 884 ff. 
 
52 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 Innocent VIII in 1488 granted a plenary in¬ 
 dulgence to those who would for a year and a half 
 take into their own home or otherwise provide for 
 one of the children cared for in the Holy Ghost 
 Hospital of Rome. The same reward was prom¬ 
 ised to those who enabled a poor girl to marry by 
 providing a dowry.^® 
 
 For the dowering of poor girls, which through¬ 
 out Christendom was looked upon as a good, God¬ 
 pleasing work^*^ special indulgences were also 
 granted. There is mention of papal indulgences 
 of this kind in a form book dating from the begin¬ 
 ning of the fourteenth century.^^ Faustus Sab- 
 aeus, one of the representatives of the Holy Ghost 
 Hospital in Rome, who in 1516 preached the in¬ 
 dulgences of the order in Silesia, alluded in Bres¬ 
 lau to the fact that a part of the collections would 
 be used as dowries for poor girls.A part of 
 the contributions from the jubilee celebrated in 
 Poland in 1451 likewise served this purpose. 
 
 The benefactors of fallen women, who wished 
 to begin a better life, were in 1322 promised an 
 indulgence of forty days by John XXII.^^ Leo 
 
 ^Acta Pontificum danica, IV, 439!., Kobenhavn, 1910. Cf. G. 
 Schreiber, Mutter und Kind in der Kultur der Kirche, 42, Frei¬ 
 burg, 1918. 
 
 ®Tr. Falk, Die Ehe am Ausgange des Mittelalters, 52!!., Frei¬ 
 burg, 1908 (Erläuterungen und Ergänzungen zu Janssens Ges¬ 
 chichte des deutschen Volkes, 4, VI). 
 
 ®^Mentioned by E. Göller in Götting. Gelehrt. Anzeigen, 645, 
 1905. 
 
 ’^Falk, 53; 
 
 ^A. Theiner, Vetera monumenta Poloniae historiam illus- 
 trantia, II, 8of., Romae, i860. M. Cromeri de origine et rebus 
 gestis Polonorum libri, XXX, 337, Basileae, 1568. 
 
 “Lettres communes de Jean XXII, n. 15749. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 53 
 
 X in 1520 also rewarded with indulgences the 
 care of reformed fallen women.®® 
 
 In Rome there was a whole multitude of broth¬ 
 erhoods having charitable objects, and all of them 
 were richly endowed by the popes with indul¬ 
 gences, especially the following: the brotherhood 
 della Misericordia, whose object was to look after 
 the spiritual needs and the burial of those con¬ 
 demned to death;®® the brotherhood della Carita, 
 founded for the support of the deserving poor, 
 for the visiting of prisoners, and for the burial 
 of paupers;®^ the brotherhood St. Giacomo degli 
 Incurabili, which especially devoted itself to 
 incurables.®® 
 
 Among the indulgences for the support of the 
 needy may be reckoned that granted in the year 
 1256 by Archbishop Albrecht of Riga, acting as 
 papal legate, to those who for God’s sake would 
 help the shipwrecked.®® A similar indulgence 
 was granted in 1266 by the Cardinal Legate 
 Guido.Moreover, in 1509, Julius II rewarded 
 with an indulgence of ten years and ten quaran¬ 
 tines assistance given to the shipwrecked.^^ 
 
 In a time when numerous Christians were taken 
 prisoners by the Turks and the Moors and sold 
 as slaves, it was considered one of the greatest 
 
 “Bullarium romanum, V, 742ff., Augustae Taurinorum, i860. 
 
 “Bull, rom., V, 343ff. Pastor, Geschichte der Päpste III 
 (1899), 36. 
 
 “Bull, rom., V, 739!!. Pastor, IV, 2, 588!!. 
 
 “Bull, rom., V, 639!!. Pastor, IV, 2, 588. 
 
 “Fr. G. V. Bunge, Liv-, Esth- und Kurländisches Urkunden¬ 
 buch, I, 379, Reval, 1853. 
 
 *Tbid., 495f. 
 
 “Bull, rom., V, 477. 
 
54 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 works of mercy to help these unfortunates. Two 
 orders had been founded to ransom the prisoners, 
 that of the Trinitarians and that of the Merce- 
 darians, both of which were given rich indulgences 
 by the Holy Sec in order that they might the more 
 easily obtain the necessary funds. 
 
 But apart from these orders, popes and bishops 
 have granted plentiful indulgences for the afore¬ 
 mentioned purpose. On the complaint of the 
 Bishop of Elno, to a synod held at Narbonne in 
 1135 under the presidency of a papal legate, that 
 many of his subjects had been imprisoned by the 
 Saracens, the synod granted a plenary indulgence 
 to those who according to their means would con¬ 
 tribute to the ransom of these captives. Public 
 sinners, however, were excluded from this indul¬ 
 gence. These had to apply to their bishop. Then, 
 if he deemed it advisable, they could share in the 
 indulgence.^^ 
 
 Bishop Gaufred of Barbastro, in the year 
 11375 ^Iso granted an indulgence for the ransom 
 of prisoners. According to the amount of 
 the alms, the contributors were to receive an in¬ 
 dulgence of forty, twenty, or ten days, respec¬ 
 tively.'^^ 
 
 But above all the popes by the granting of in¬ 
 dulgences sought to further the freeing of poor 
 prisoners and the support of those Christians 
 driven out of their own country by the infidels. 
 We may cite as examples: John XXII,Clement 
 
 "Villanueva, Viage literario, VI, 341, Valencia, i8ai. 
 
 ^^Espana Sagrada, XLVI, 287, Madrid, 1836. 
 
 "Lettres communes de Jean XXII, n. 4558, 13034. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 55 
 
 VII, « Boniface IX,« Martin Nicholas V,« 
 Calixtus III,« Pius II,Sixtus IV,®^ Innocent 
 
 VIII, Alexander VI,®® Leo 
 
 From time to time indulgences were granted 
 for schools and poor students, as by Innocent IV 
 and several bishops in favor of a house of studies 
 that the Cistercians had founded in 1244 at Paris. 
 In a brief that the Parisian Bishop, William of 
 Auvergne, directed to his clergy about the end 
 of 1248 there is a total of eighteen hundred and 
 thirty days given for this purpose.®® Some years 
 later (1262), Urban IV issued an indulgence of 
 one hundred days for the support of poor students 
 who had found a home in the newly established 
 Sorbonne of Paris.®® 
 
 The Cardinal Legate, Romanus, in 1229 
 granted a remarkable privilege to the new Uni¬ 
 versity of Toulouse. On its opening, the Univer- 
 
 *^Eubel, Bullarium Franciscanum, VII, 213, 216, Romae, 1904. 
 Denifle, La desolation des eglises, monasteres et hopitaux en 
 France pendant la guerre de cent ans, II, 686, Paris, 1899. 
 
 **Ripoll, Bullarium ordinis Praedicatorum, II, 361, 366, 403, 
 Romae, 1730. 
 
 ‘‘Raynaldus, Annales ecclesiastici 1429, n. 21. 
 
 *®Raynaldus, 1452, n. 10. Pastor I (1901), 829. 
 
 "'Bull, rom., V, i3if. 
 
 ''“Raynaldus, 1462, n. 40. Theiner, Vetera monumenta Slavo- 
 rum meridionalium historiam illustrantia, I, 442, Romae, 1863. 
 
 '^Gottlob, Aus der camera Apostolica, 187. Päpstliches 
 Geheim-Archiv Regest., 608, f. 275; 623, f. ii. Quoted by Prof. 
 Schlecht. 
 
 “Gottlob, 187. 
 
 “Ibid., 187. 
 
 “Regesta Leonis X, n. 3471, 4559, 5056, 5261, 5409, 550x5, 5585, 
 6505. 6798, 6936, 6937, 7847, H193, 112 ( 50 , 12518, 12747, 12748, 
 14015, 15575. 16520, 16724, 17520. .... 
 
 “Denifle, Chartularium Universitatis Pansiensis, I, 208, 
 Parisiis, 1889. 
 
 “Ibid., 423!. 
 
56 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 sity sent a letter to those studying elsewhere to 
 invite them to Toulouse. In this letter special 
 attention was called to the fact that the Cardinal 
 Legate had promised a plenary indulgence to all 
 the members of the university, professors as well 
 as students. Later it was determined how long 
 one must attend the school in order to obtain the 
 indulgence.^^ 
 
 Since at that time the pope granted plenary 
 indulgences only for the purpose of a crusade, the 
 legate who in 1228 [1208 ?] had been entrusted 
 with the organization of a new crusade against 
 the Albigenses, openly expressed the view that to 
 work and study in a school that opposed heresy 
 was to take part in the crusade. He attributed 
 to the schools great importance as a means for 
 combating error. After the capture of Avignon 
 in 1226, he obliged the city to support a professor 
 and twelve students for the conquest of heresy.®® 
 
 When towards the end of the fifteenth century 
 the Friars Minor conceived the plan of extending 
 and furnishing anew their great house of studies 
 at Paris, Innocent VIII, in order to further the 
 useful undertaking, granted a plenary indulgence 
 which could be preached not only in France, but 
 also in the neighboring countries.®^ The contribu- 
 
 ®Tbid., i3of. 
 
 H. Laborde, Avignon au Xlle slecle, 3of., Paris, 1908. 
 
 “'Different posters which appeared about 1488 refer to this 
 indulgence. Cf. Einblattdrucke des 15. Jahrhunderts. Ein 
 bibliographisches Verzeichnis herausgegeben von den Kom¬ 
 mission für den Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, Nr. 59, 
 376, 439, Halle a. d. S,, 1914. P. Fredericq, Les Comptes des 
 indulgences en 1488 et en 1517-19 dans la diocese d’ Utrecht, 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 57 
 
 tions that were in this way brought together found 
 a good application. When in 1516 the Bavarian 
 Franciscan provincial, Kaspar Schatzgeyer, and 
 his companion, Konrad Pellikan, visited the 
 Parisian cloister they found there no less than 
 three hundred and fifty students, among them also 
 some German brothers.®*^ 
 
 In the beginning of the sixteenth century, Julius 
 II likewise granted a plenary indulgence in favor 
 of another Parisian house of studies, the College 
 Mantaigu.®^ 
 
 James Ridder, auxiliary bishop of Utrecht, 
 granted a remarkable indulgence in 1507 to the 
 Brothers of the Common Life. He promised 
 an indulgence to the young people who would 
 attend the school of the Brothers in Utrecht, 
 humbly obey their teachers, and willingly put up 
 with correction and whipping. The faithful who 
 helped the Brothers with copying, illuminating, 
 and binding books, or who bought copied books 
 from them, were likewise granted indulgences by 
 Bp. Ridder.®^ 
 
 Other bishops supported the art of printing 
 by granting indulgences. When in 1481 Bishop 
 Rudolf of Wurzburg had a new missal printed 
 he granted an indulgence of forty days to all those 
 
 i8ff., Bruzelles, 1899 (Separatdruck aus Memoires publics par 
 I’Academie royale de Belgique (LIX) Archief voor Kerkelijke 
 Geschiedenis, III, 454!!., Leiden, 1831. 
 
 *“Das Chroniken des Konrad Peillikan, hrsg. durch B. Rig¬ 
 genbach, 53, Basel, 1877. 
 
 *An indulgence brief bearing on this is noted in L, Rosen¬ 
 thal’s Katalog, 150, Nr. 2907. 
 
 “A. Matthaeus, Fundationes et fata ecclesiarum praesertim 
 quae Ultrajecti fuerunt, 366!?., Leiden, 1704. 
 
58 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 who by advice and labor helped in the printing, 
 to those who bought a copy of the new missal, 
 and to those who would read Mass out of it. The 
 same was done in connection with the printing 
 of the Würzburger breviary in 1482. Bishop 
 Henry of Ratisbon likewise granted an indulgence 
 in favor of the missal published in 1485.^^ 
 
 * * * * 
 
 ®*Fr. Falk, Die Druckkunst ira Dienste der Kirche, 22, Köln, 
 1879 (Vereinschrift der Görres-Gesellschaft). 
 
3. THE TRUCE OF GOD 
 
 ^fMONG the beneficent arrangements furthered 
 by indulgences belongs the so-called truce of 
 God. After different attempts by bishops of the 
 South of France to check the disastrous feuds and 
 fist-law through covenants of peace, the truce of 
 God was first set up in France shortly before the 
 middle of the eleventh century, and soon spread 
 to the neighboring countries. Even in the begin¬ 
 ning, the forgiveness of sins was held up before 
 those who would support the striving after peace. 
 In this connection, however, no indulgence was 
 granted; there was merely expressed the convic¬ 
 tion that anyone who conscientiously observed the 
 peace could obtain the forgiveness of his sins, as 
 by a pious, God-pleasing work.' Towards the end 
 of the eleventh century indulgences were first 
 granted to those who furthered the attempts at 
 peace. 
 
 Among the earliest indulgences for this pur¬ 
 pose, the one granted by a provincial synod of 
 Rheims, held in 1092 at Soissons, deserves a high 
 place.^ In the statutes of the synod there is men¬ 
 tion of a double indulgence. First it was de- 
 
 *Cf. Zeitschrift für Kath. Theologie, XXXII (1908), 640!. 
 
 *The statutes of this synod have been published simultane¬ 
 ously by M. Sdralek from a Wolfenbüttler MS, Wolfenbüttler 
 Fragmente, i4of., Münster, 1891 (Kirchengeschichtliche Studien, 
 I, 2) and by Wasserschieben in Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung 
 für Rechstgeschichte. Germanistische Abteilung, XII, iiaff., 
 Weimar, 1891. 
 
 59 
 
60 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 termined that the bishops could lessen the penance 
 —according to the measure; of the penitents’ 
 accomplishments—of those who took part in a 
 campaign against the peace-breakers. Then to 
 all who had sworn to observe the peace and had 
 kept their oath, the synod remitted the penance 
 due for a serious confessed sin. 
 
 In the year 1105 at a great gathering of clergy 
 and laity held in Constance under the presidency 
 of a papal legate, it was resolved that the truce 
 of God should be enforced in the diocese. To 
 those who would keep it, Bishop Gebhard III 
 promised a remission of two years, in case they 
 had to perform a seven year penance.^ 
 
 The indulgence granted by the Papal Legate 
 and Archbishop, Diego of Compostella, in the 
 year 1124, with several other bishops of a synod, 
 reads otherwise. It was resolved in it that the 
 peace-breakers should be brought to obedience by 
 force of arms. To the representatives of public 
 order who might fall in this warfare, the bishops 
 promised the same plenary indulgence that the 
 crusaders could gain. A similar indulgence was 
 promised to those who out of obedience to the 
 articles of peace laid down their arms and were 
 afterward killed by their enemies.^ 
 
 In a document whose date we cannot fix very 
 closely. Bishop Arnold of Narbonne (1121- 
 1149), working in common with other grandees 
 of South France for the truce of God, likewise 
 
 ®Monumenta Germaniae historica. Legum Sectio IV, Tom. I, 
 615. 
 
 *Espana Sagrada, XX, 418. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 61 
 
 granted an indulgence to the defenders of the 
 peace union. In what form, however, this indul¬ 
 gence was issued is not known, as the wording of 
 the resolution has not been preserved. The en¬ 
 dorsements of Hadrian IV (1157-1159) contain 
 only a short statement relative to the contents 
 of the decree.® This peace which had, perhaps, 
 been approved as early as the twelfth century by 
 Eugene III (1150-1153)® was later confirmed 
 anew in the indulgence issued by Alexander III 
 (1160-1176) and Clement III (1191).® 
 
 More accurate information is available con¬ 
 cerning the indulgence which the Papal Legate and 
 Archbishop, Wilhelm von Auch, promised about 
 the year 1140 on the announcement of the afore¬ 
 said peace by the Second Lateran Council (1139).® 
 To those who laid down their lives in upholding 
 the truce of God a plenary indulgence was granted/ 
 the other defenders of peace received an indul¬ 
 gence of two years. Yet it was left to the bishops 
 to grant a greater indulgence to those who spent 
 a longer time in service. 
 
 'Hadrian’s writings are found in W. Wiederhold, Papsturk¬ 
 unden in Frankreich. Beiheft zu den Göttinger Nachrichten, 
 ii4ff., 1907. 
 
 'Idem, 115. 
 
 ’P. Kehr, in Göttinger Nachrichten, 392, 1899. 
 
 ®H. Prutz, Malteser Urkunden, 44, München, 1883. 
 
 *Bouquet-Brial, Recueil des historiens des Gaules, XIV, 392, 
 Paris, 1806, 
 
4 . THE CRUSADES 
 
 S THE truce of God must be looked upon 
 as a religious movement, so also the Crusades 
 have to be considered ecclesiastical undertakings. 
 How much western civilization, material as well 
 as spiritual, owes to the Crusades, has often been 
 sufficiently described. “The impetus in trade and 
 commerce, in art and science, that raised the Mid¬ 
 dle Ages to the highest point of their develop¬ 
 ment is undeniably an actual consequence of the 
 intimate contact between East and West accom¬ 
 plished by the Crusades.”^ 
 
 “While important as are the Crusades for what 
 they positively accomplished, they are more im¬ 
 portant still for what they prevented. It is cus¬ 
 tomary, but nevertheless erroneous, to look upon 
 the Crusades as wars of conquest, as an attack of 
 Christendom on Islam proceeding entirely from 
 religious fanaticism. If there ever was a war of 
 defense, then the Crusades must be considered 
 such in their place in world history. 
 
 The crusading movement was a struggle that 
 Christianity waged for its very existence. 
 
 “Instead of complaining of the roving about 
 and restless desire for achievement of our medi¬ 
 eval forefathers, we ought rather to thank them 
 that at the very time of the greatest power of the 
 
 ^A. Knöpfler, Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, 5 Aufi., 415, 
 Freiburg, 1920. 
 
 ^2 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 63 
 
 Moslem peoples they turned back from Europe 
 the stream of Asiatic barbarism and thereby at 
 the same time saved and advanced western civili¬ 
 zation.”^ 
 
 Nor were the Crusades that the popes under¬ 
 took with new zeal and in spite of all failures 
 about the fifteenth century, after the fall of Con¬ 
 stantinople, without lasting effects. “When at 
 that time .... the Turkish power 
 mounted so dangerously in the East, and then to 
 complete the astonishing success of the Janissaries, 
 pressed on to destroy the whole of western civili¬ 
 zation, the popes were the only ones who, even 
 when they were themselves politically powerless, 
 earnestly thought of withstanding the advance. 
 They supported with uncounted sums the fighting 
 Greeks, Rhodesians, and Cyprians, and awaking 
 the recollection of the warlike times of the Cru¬ 
 sades, called for war against Islam. 
 
 As in earlier times the promise of indulgences 
 had played an exceedingly important role, so now 
 the “uncounted sums” with which the Holy See 
 supported the champions of Christianity were in 
 large part raised by the preachers of indulgences. 
 Therefore, if, as is today universally acknow¬ 
 ledged, the Crusades had a surpassing share in 
 the development of western civilization, then the 
 indulgences, by which the Crusades were so 
 
 *F. W. Kampfschulte, Ueber Charakter und Entwicklungs¬ 
 gang der Kreuzzüge, in der Oesterreichischen Vierteljahreschrift 
 für katholische Theologie, II (1863), 2iof. 
 
 ‘Gottlob, Aus der Camera Apostolica, 179. Cf. Pastor, I, 
 655ff. 
 
64 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 strongly assisted, ought to be numbered among 
 the factors of civilization.^ 
 
 ^Cf. Lea, Confession and Indulgences, III, 582: “The crusades 
 . . . found their chief source of support in indulgences, without 
 which they would speedily have languished and have been 
 abandoned.” 
 
I N D U 
 
 SECTION II 
 
 LGENCES FOR SOCIALLY 
 UL TEMPORAL OBJECTS 
 
 USE" 
 
I. BRIDGEBUILDING 
 
 must not be surprised that among the 
 works for whose support indulgences were 
 granted there are found some which today would 
 be considered purely worldly. In the Middle 
 Ages Church and State, eternal and temporal, 
 were not so strictly separated as in a later time; 
 on the contrary, everything temporal was then 
 brought into relation with things eternal. Pro¬ 
 ceeding from this viewpoint, Thomas Aquinas 
 teaches: Indulgences cannot be granted for what 
 is purely worldly, but they can be granted for 
 worldly objects insofar as these are related to 
 spiritual matter.' Moreover, since princes and 
 cities were only too often in financial straits be¬ 
 cause of defective administration of the revenue 
 and frequently called upon the Church to help 
 in their manifold social necessities,^ it is easily 
 explained how so many indulgences were granted 
 for socially useful purposes. 
 
 Of the socially useful temporal works which in 
 the Middle Ages tended to be brought into rela¬ 
 tion with religion, hridgehuilding deserves first 
 place. Some ten years ago the distinguished 
 scholar, Fr. Falk, in a long essay entitled “The 
 Church and Bridgebuilding in the Middle Ages,” 
 showed, from numerous original sources, how 
 
 ^In IV Sent. d. 20. q. unica, a. 3, quaestiuncula 3 (Sura. Theol. 
 Supplementum, q. 25, a. 3). 
 
 'Gottlob, I79ff. 
 
68 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 zealously the Church on her part furthered the 
 building of bridges.^ “As once in Roman times 
 the legionaries of Rome marched forth, and under 
 the protection of arms spanned the then known 
 and accessible world with a network of roads,— 
 so in later times a similar activity came forth from 
 Rome. For the Church’s active orders, bishops, 
 and others through religious motives built bridges, 
 looked after their safe passage, or through the in¬ 
 dulgences granted by popes and bishops in the 
 case of bridges—‘bridge indulgences’—stirred 
 up the necessary zeal in the hearts of the faith¬ 
 ful.”^ 
 
 Along the same lines another scholar has 
 pointed out how “under the charitable influences 
 of Christian teaching” pious believers exerted 
 themselves “to erect special hostels, to keep rafts, 
 and finally to build bridges in the very frequented 
 places of the river banks.” “There arose bridges, 
 especially, to which religious thought and pious 
 opinion gave the impulse. The building of a 
 bridge was valued next to the building of a church, 
 as a most meritorious work; papal and episcopal 
 indulgences were granted therefor.”® 
 
 As early as the Middle of the twelfth century 
 it was customary to grant indulgences for the 
 building of bridges, as is shown by a document of 
 
 *Histor-pol. Blätter, LXXXVII (1881), 89-110, 184-201, 
 
 245-59- 
 
 Idem, 91. 
 
 “J. Becker, Die religiöse Bedeutung des Brückenbaues im Mit¬ 
 telalter mit besonderer Beziehung auf die Frankfurter Main¬ 
 brücke, im Archiv für Frankfurter Geschichte. Neue Folge, 
 IV, IO, Frankfurt, 1869. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 69 
 
 Alexander III to the Archbishop of Canterbury.® 
 The latter had asked in Rome whether others 
 than the subjects of the bishop granting the indul¬ 
 gence could use indulgences granted for the con¬ 
 secration of a church or the building of a bridge 
 (quae hunt in dedicationibus ecclesiarum aut con- 
 ferentibus ad aedificationem pontium). The 
 granting of indulgences at that time was especially 
 concerned with the dedication of churches. The 
 joining of bridge indulgences with the plentiful 
 church dedication indulgences therefore shows 
 clearly enough that the former were at that time 
 already in vogue. Alexander III in his reply made 
 it clear that the subjects of other dioceses could use 
 the indulgences only with the consent of their own 
 superiors. This document afterwards found a 
 place in the official collection of the papal decre¬ 
 tals/ and consequently helped not a little to a 
 wider extension of the bridgebuilding indulgences. 
 
 Moreover, there were not lacking theologians 
 to justify these indulgences. Among the oldest 
 theologians who understandingly discussed indul¬ 
 gences is William of Auvergne, who after serving 
 a long time as teacher in the Paris university, was 
 named Bishop of Paris in 1228 and died in 1249. 
 William treats of indulgences in his work on the 
 sacraments, when he discusses the ordination of 
 priests. He considers as settled the right of bish¬ 
 ops, through the granting of indulgences, to les¬ 
 sen or to change the penance imposed by the con- 
 
 ‘Between ii6i and 1175. Cf. Jaffe-Loewenfeld, Regesta 
 Pontificum Romanorum, II, n. 12411, Lipsiae, 1888. 
 
 ’c. 4 X de poen. ct rem. V, 38. 
 
70 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 fessor, as often as they find it for the honor of 
 God, the salvation of souls, or the good of the 
 whole Church. In this connection he speaks of 
 the indulgences granted for monasteries, hospitals, 
 and the building of bridges and roads. The bene¬ 
 factors of these institutions and undertakings, he 
 proceeds, perform a work of neighborly love 
 pleasing to God, for which the Church rightly 
 rewards them. Moreover, they have a claim to 
 the prayers and good works of the religious who 
 live in the convents, the poor and sick who are 
 brought to the hospitals, the pilgrims and pious 
 travellers who journey over those roads and 
 bridges. In consequence of this spiritual company 
 they are, not without reason, released from the 
 imposed penances, since others by means of pray¬ 
 ers and good works intercede for them with God.® 
 
 An anonymous theologian of the diocese of 
 Metz in his unprinted treatise on the sacraments, 
 composed about the middle of the thirteenth cen¬ 
 tury, has turned to good account the investiga¬ 
 tions of William, and he has copied his discussions 
 on indulgences, in part verbatim. Yet now and 
 then he has added something of his own that is 
 not without interest. 
 
 In a truly popular way he defends the road and 
 bridge indulgences.® The bishops, he explains, 
 are perfectly justified in granting indulgences for 
 the building of roads and bridges, since these 
 rebound to the good of pilgrims and pious trav- 
 
 *GuIielmi Alverni episcopi Parisiensis Opera omnia, I, 552, 
 Aureliae, 1674. 
 
 “Summa sacramentorum. Handschriftlich auf der Münchener 
 Staatsbibliothek, Cod. lat. 22243, 44- 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 71 
 
 ellers. It is a great charity, he proceeds, to level 
 the way, and to remove the stones and mud from 
 the roads. If the roads are bad and dangerous, 
 the travellers would be retarded or they would 
 hurt themselves and suffer all sorts of mishaps: 
 the wagons would turn over, the wine be spilt, 
 the horses fall down, the men get angry and curse 
 all those who should have kept the roads in good 
 condition but failed to do so. Moreover, they 
 would slander God and His holy saints most 
 shamefully. Sometimes they might even lose their 
 lives, as did the driver who in the midst of his 
 cursing and blaspheming fell under the wagon and 
 had his neck broken by the wheels. Now whoever 
 through his alms prevents all these evils not 
 only honors God, and earns blessings and prayers 
 of the travellers, but likewise serves eternity. 
 From this we see that had Julius Caesar, who lived 
 ten years in Gaul and built many level and safe 
 roads, been a believer, he could by such a good 
 work have gained a priceless glory in heaven. 
 
 From this religious valuation of socially useful 
 works, it is readily seen why the great preacher, 
 Berthold of Ratisbon, enumerates road building 
 and path making in the series of works of Chris¬ 
 tian love, and ranks them actually as service of 
 God. He says: “Since God has created all things 
 for the use and service of man and since God 
 Himself serves man . . . so is it reasonable 
 
 that man should serve Him with his whole heart. 
 
 Who is rich ought to give alms and 
 found Masses, make roads and paths, endow 
 convents and hospitals, feed the hungry, give drink 
 
72 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 to the thirsty, clothe the naked, harbor the 
 stranger, and altogether perform the six works 
 of mercy.”^*^ 
 
 Just because labor directed to the building of 
 roads and bridges, insofar as it was done for the 
 honor of God and out of love for one’s neighbor, 
 availed as God’s service, it was from time to time 
 permitted by bishops on Sunday and holy days. 
 The above mentioned theologian, however, makes 
 mention of an abuse connected with this Sunday 
 activity. Many, says he, deprive themselves of 
 the merit of their labor, since they miss Mass on 
 Sunday and holy days, and early in the morning 
 to the sound of drums and foolish music they 
 draw wagons, carry stones, and afterwards loaf 
 in the tavern. They ought first to hear Mass and 
 then do their work in simplicity and humility. 
 
 Let us now see how in the individual countries 
 indulgences were granted for bridgebuilding. 
 Italy will lead, because here the oldest of such 
 indulgences are found. It may well be that similar 
 indulgences were granted elsewhere at an earlier 
 date; but so far no details are known about them. 
 
 In Italy the popes sought especially to promote 
 a bridge across the Arno at Fucecchio (Ficiclo, 
 Ficecclo) between Florence and Pisa. This bridge 
 and the adjacent hospital belonged to the Hos¬ 
 pitallers of St. James of Altopascio, a religious 
 community founded about the middle of the 
 eleventh century for the care of pilgrims and 
 
 ^®Berthold von Regensburg, Deutsche Predigten, hrsg. von 
 Fr. Pfeiffer, I, 190, Wien, 1862. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 73 
 
 trav’^ellers.'^ Altopascio {Altus pass us), formerly 
 of the diocese of Lucca, now of the diocese of 
 Pescia, was with its great hospital (domus hos- 
 pitalis S. Jacobi de Altopassu) the mother house 
 of the order, which first spread over Italy, and 
 later over other countries. 
 
 In 1459 I^ius II wished to suppress the order, 
 which was no longer in keeping with the spirit of 
 the times. He had intended to combine it with 
 the recently planned order of Bethlehemites, that 
 was to oppose the advance of the Turks. But 
 the order of Bethlehemites did not come into exist¬ 
 ence,^^ and so the community of Altopascio re¬ 
 mained until nearly the end of the sixteenth cen¬ 
 tury. It was finally suppressed by Sixtus V in 
 1587.^® That one of its chief tasks was the build¬ 
 ing of bridges, as is so often asserted, is not cor- 
 rect.^"^ It is only true that they cared for one or 
 another bridge, especially for the bridge by Fu- 
 cecchio, where the principal road from Lucca to 
 Florence, Siena, and Rome passes. 
 
 This bridge, which according to all appearances 
 
 ”Cf. Joh. Lamius, Deliciae eruditorium XVI, 1233-2493, 
 Florentiae 1754. T. Lorenzi, L’ospizio e il paese di Altopascio, 
 Prato, 1904. J. Kehr, Regesta Romanorum Pontificum. Italia 
 Pontificia, III, 47off., Berokini, 1908. 
 
 ^*Cf. H. Prutz, Rüstungen zum Türkenkrieg, in den Siztungs- 
 berichten der bayerishen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Phil¬ 
 osophische und histor. Klasse, 4 Abhandlung, S. 6ff., 1912. 
 
 ‘*Kehr, 471. Already m 1572 the Benedictines had the order’s 
 house in Paris (St. Jacques du Haut-Pas). Helyot, Histoire 
 des ordres religieux, II, 278, Paris, 1714. Therefore the state¬ 
 ment found so frequently in recent works that the order of 
 Altopascio was suppressed in 1459 is incorrect. 
 
 ^*In the rule, printed by Lamius, i432ff., there is not one syl¬ 
 lable about bridgebuilding. 
 
74 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 was originally built of wood/® was often seriously 
 weakened by the wild floods, and sometimes even 
 almost entirely destroyed. Hence its upkeep 
 meant no small expense. This explains why the 
 popes through the promise of indulgences so often 
 encouraged the support of this commercially im¬ 
 portant bridge. The first pope mentioned as hav¬ 
 ing granted an indulgence of forty days for the 
 support of the bridge at Fucecchio is Alexander 
 III (1159-81). His example was followed by 
 Lucius III, Urban III, Clement III, Innocent III, 
 Honorius III, Gregory IX, Innocent IV, Alex¬ 
 ander IV, Urban IV. All the indulgence briefs 
 seem to have been lost. Clement IV, however, 
 mentions them in his letter of April 20, 1265, 
 wherein he admonishes the faithful to help the 
 brothers of Altopascio in rebuilding the bridge 
 that had so often been destroyed (qui saepe sub- 
 vertitur). Like his predecessors, he granted an 
 indulgence of forty days for a charitable contri¬ 
 bution. However, the privilege was to last for 
 only three years.^® As the other popes had placed 
 a similar condition on the indulgence its frequent 
 renewal is easily explained. 
 
 Clement IV, following his immediate prede¬ 
 cessor, Alexander IV, granted for Fucecchio a 
 second indulgence, but of a somewhat different 
 
 an indulgence brief of Altopascio of the year 1431 men¬ 
 tion is made of a stone bridge (preciosi pontis lapidei). Zeits¬ 
 chrift für Geschichte des Ober-rheins, XVI, 216 (1864). 
 
 ^®F. Schneider, Regestum Volatteranum, 254, Roma, 1907. 
 Schneider thinks that the indulgence briefs of Alexander III 
 have been preserved; but the writings to which he refers con¬ 
 tain no grant of indulgences; they merely confirm the posses¬ 
 sions and privileges of the order. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 75 
 
 purport. This is referred to in 1297 in an indul¬ 
 gence brief of Boniface VIII. At the Arno bridge 
 in Fucecchio, near the pilgrims’ house, there was 
 a church of the Blessed Virgin, which every year 
 on the feast of the Assumption was visited by 
 numbers of faithful. Many of the pilgrims at this 
 time gave their mite also for the upkeep of the 
 expensive bridge. In order to encourage their 
 generosity still further Boniface VII, like his pred¬ 
 ecessors, Alexander IV and Clement IV, granted 
 an indulgence of one year and forty days to all 
 those who on the feast of the Assumption or dur¬ 
 ing its octave should visit Fucecchio and make a 
 contribution for the bridge: “Whoever shelters 
 and refreshes a poor man, shelters and refreshes 
 Christ the Lord; and whoever through building 
 a bridge makes easy and safe a dilhcult and dan¬ 
 gerous river-crossing, truly loves his neighbor 
 and preserves him from the danger of death. 
 Surely an interesting reason for the bridge indul¬ 
 gences. 
 
 The same reason appears again in a document 
 wherein Clement V, under date of March i, 1314, 
 renewed the indulgence of one year and forty days 
 to be gained on the feast of the Assumption.^® A 
 longer document with the same date renews the 
 indulgence of forty days for charitable contribu¬ 
 tions. The testimonial to the brothers stated that 
 they had at their own expense out of pure neigh¬ 
 borly love (caritatis igni succensi) restored the 
 bridge, destroyed by a flood, at a passage over 
 
 ”Les registres de Boniface VIII, n. 1780. 
 
 “Regestura Clemcutis V, n. 103ii. 
 
76 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 the Arno where many were exposed to the danger 
 of drowning (ubi multi periclitari solebant). 
 
 A third document of March 1314, relates 
 that the very necessary bridge had been destroyed 
 anew in a recent battle. For this reason the faith¬ 
 ful were urged once more to lend a helping hand 
 to the brothers.^® Some years later John XXII 
 also encouraged the rebuilding of the bridge 
 through the promise of an indulgence of forty 
 days.^® 
 
 For a bridge in Terracina Honorius III, in 
 1223, granted an indulgence of ten days.^^ 
 
 In the neighborhood of the port of Pisa a hos¬ 
 pital was founded for poor people in 1155.^^ 
 Some ten years later the brothers of this institu¬ 
 tion began the construction of a bridge. But 
 since they could not complete the work with their 
 own means, they turned to Lucius III with the re¬ 
 quest that he grant an indulgence in favor of 
 their undertaking. The pope granted their peti¬ 
 tion, and under date of April 28, 1185, issued an 
 indulgence of thirty days to the benefactors of 
 the new bridge.^^ In the accompanying document 
 the socially useful character of the new bridge is 
 emphasized (in quo universorum transeuntium 
 per locum ipsum saluti consulitur). Three years 
 later (January ii, 1188) Clement III renewed 
 
 ^®Idera, 10300, 10312. 
 
 *®Lettres communes de Jean XXII, n. 10410. 
 
 ^Titra, Analecta novissima spicilegii Solesmensis, I, 242, 
 Parisiis, 1885. Pressutti (Regesta Honorii III) seems to have 
 overlooked this document, as it is not mentioned by him. 
 
 “Kehr, III, 375. 
 
 ”J. V. Pflugk-Harttung, Acta Pontificum inedita, III, 320, 
 Stuttgart, 1888. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 77 
 
 the indulgence,as did Celestine III in 1191 and 
 Innocent III in 1203.^® 
 
 In the diocese of Genoa a community of broth¬ 
 ers had the hospital and bridge of Lavagna under 
 their care (fratris pontis et hospitalis de Lav- 
 ania). Innocent IV in 1253-54 granted to their 
 benefactors an indulgence of a seventh part of 
 their penance.^® 
 
 Two documents of Urban III (1186-87), 
 which he requests the faithful to contribute 
 towards a bridge in Bologna^^ have also been 
 looked upon as grants of indulgences.^® But 
 neither bull contains any such grant. They are 
 merely recommendations, such as the ecclesiastical 
 authorities today issue from time to time concern¬ 
 ing collections for good objects. 
 
 Numerous bridge-indulgences are found in the 
 South of France. Here arose, as many recent 
 authors assert again and again, a special commu¬ 
 nity, later on very widespread, which from its chief 
 occupation, the building of bridges, was called 
 “fratres pontifices,” that is, bridgebuilding 
 brothers. 
 
 “This community,” writes Ratzinger, “arose in 
 the twelfth century, and the members pledged 
 themselves with a vow to protect merchants and 
 travellers from being plundered, to take them 
 across the rivers free of charge, to build hospices 
 
 356. 
 
 *Kehr, III, 376. 
 
 **G. Erler, Der Liber Cancellariae Apostolicae v. J. 1380, 
 126, Leipzig, 1888. 
 
 *’Jaffe-Loewenfeld, Reg. Rom. Pont., n. 15773, 15874. 
 
 *‘So F. Falk im Kirchenlexikon, II, 1330. 
 
78 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 for the sick and poor travellers on the river 
 banks and in remote regions, and to construct 
 bridges and roads. The founder of this commu¬ 
 nity is a poor shepherd boy, the little Benedict, 
 called Benezet, who excited a universal sensation 
 and won undying fame through the bridge that he 
 built across the Rhone at Avignon. The com¬ 
 munity was approved by Pope Clement III in 
 1189. It spread very rapidly over the whole of 
 France, Italy, Spain, Scotland, and other countries, 
 obtained great possessions and privileges, and for 
 a long time worked most prosperously.^® 
 
 Other authors relate that the order of the 
 “Bridge Brothers” was suppressed by Pius II be¬ 
 cause of inner decay.®® But what is related of 
 this alleged widespread order was long ago shown 
 by a French investigator to be untenable. This 
 scholar, L. Bruguier-Roure, in 1875 published a 
 very worth while essay on this question,®^ wherein 
 the false accounts of the order are set right. Also, 
 what is said about the spread of the “Bridge 
 Brothers” throughout Italy, Spain, Scotland, and 
 other countries, is not at all true. The “Bridge 
 Brothers” working in southern France have been 
 confused with the brothers of St. James of Alto- 
 pascio. Likewise, when it is said that the order 
 of Bridge Brothers was suppressed by Pius II 
 in 1459, the order is confounded with the com- 
 
 ”G, Ratzinger, Geschichte der kirchlichen Armenpflege, 346, 
 Freiburg, 1884. 
 
 “"Kirchenlexikon, II, 1331- Kirchliches Handlexikon, I, 754. 
 Herders Konversationslexikon, II, 395, usw. 
 
 “Bulletin monumental XLI, 225!!., Paris, 1875; Les construc- 
 teurs de ponts au moyen äge. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 79 
 
 munity of Altopascio. It has been clearly estab¬ 
 lished above that the contemplated suppression of 
 the Hospitallers of Altopascio by Pius II was not 
 carried out. 
 
 As for the “Bridge Brothers” of southern 
 France, they formed in no way a genuine order. 
 They were rather independent societies that the 
 same need called into being in different places at 
 the same time.^^ In the beginning they were not 
 a religious order with vows; they were merely 
 brotherhoods, corporations with a religious basis, 
 such as were founded for so many purposes in 
 the Middle Ages. Only In course of time did 
 these brotherhoods develop into religious orders. 
 It should be remarked also that the members of 
 these societies never called themselves “fratres 
 pontifices,” bridge building brothers; nor did their 
 contemporaries so designate them. They were 
 called merely Brothers of the Bridge at Avignon, 
 of the Bridge at Lyons, and so forth. The name 
 “fratres pontifices” is first found among later 
 authors. 
 
 The oldest French “Bridge Brothers” are those 
 of Bonpas, who, so the story goes, had as early as 
 1084 built a bridge over the Durance in the place 
 of that name (Department of Vaucluse).®® In 
 the course of the twelfth century they built still 
 other bridges. At first the association bore a 
 worldly character; later the members took vows 
 
 “Bruguier-Roure, 232: “Des confreries qu’un meme besoin fit 
 surgir simultanement en plusieurs endroits.” So also L. Lal- 
 lemend, Histoire de la Charite, III, 125, Paris, 1906. 
 
 “Brouguier-Roure, 2420. 
 
80 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 and formed a religious community under a prior. 
 After the example of Lucius III (1181-1185), 
 whose document is lost, Clement III in 1189 took 
 it under the apostolic protection and confirmed its 
 possessions, especially the mother-house at Bonpas 
 and the bridge belonging to it.^^ The bull is di¬ 
 rected to the Prior Raymond and the brothers 
 (Raimundo priori domus pontis Bonipassus 
 ejusque fratribus). The brothers received a 
 further bull of confirmation in 1197 from Celes- 
 tine III.®“ 
 
 There is no mention of any indulgences in the 
 papal documents; and we are not otherwise in¬ 
 formed of indulgences received by the Brothers 
 of Bonpas for their bridgebuilding. It is true that 
 John XXII in the year 1316 granted an indulgence 
 of one hundred days for contributions to a stone 
 bridge over the Durance at Noves, the place 
 where Petrarch’s beloved Laura was born.®® 
 However, the building of this bridge was not 
 undertaken by a religious order but by the munici¬ 
 pality (quern homines castri Novarum aedificare 
 coeperunt). The same is true of the bridge which 
 was built with indulgence contributions over the 
 Verdon—a tributary of the Durance—at Castel- 
 lane in 1404.®^ 
 
 With the Brothers of Bonpas, who joined them¬ 
 selves in 1284 to the Hospitallers of St. John of 
 
 *^W. Wiederhold, Papsturkunden in Frankreich. Beiheft zu 
 den Göttinger Nachrichten, i6i, 1907. 
 
 ‘'Idem, 171. 
 
 *®Lettres secretes et curiales de Jean XXII relatives ä la 
 France, par A. Coulon, n. 104. 
 
 Gauthey, Traite de la construction des ponts, I, 64, 
 Liege, 1843. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 81 
 
 Jerusalem, there must not be confused, as often 
 happens, the Brothers of the Bridge at Avignon 
 (fratres pontis Avinionensis), who formed a gen¬ 
 uine community. As founder of this community 
 —indeed as founder of the Bridge Brothers gener¬ 
 ally—St. Benezet (Provengal form of Benedict) 
 is often named. When the life of this Saint is dis¬ 
 entangled from legends, this much is certain— 
 that in 1177 he began the building of a stone 
 bridge over the Rhone at Avignon, and that this 
 vast undertaking was nearly completed at the 
 time of his death (1184.)®® In the year 1188 
 the famous bridge, of which some arches remain 
 even till today, was finished. As elsewhere, the 
 builders of the bridge in Avignon formed a so¬ 
 ciety, at whose head stood Benezet. A document 
 of the year 1180 speaks of “Brother Benedict” 
 as “Superintendent” of the bridge work; his co¬ 
 laborers are called “brothers.”®^ They formed 
 therefore a brotherhood. At that time they still 
 belonged to the laity. But as early as the year 
 1187 John Benedict, the first successor of the 
 Saint, appeared as “prior.”^® To that extent the 
 lay union had in the meantime changed into a re¬ 
 ligious association. 
 
 No indulgences seem to have been given to those 
 who contributed to the building of the bridge; 
 but numerous grants were offered later. Since im- 
 
 **A. B. de Saint-Venant, Saint Benezet, Bourges, 1889. An 
 industrious work, with valuable source materials, but un¬ 
 critical. Compare with it the remarks of the Bollandist, A. 
 Poncelet, in L’Universite catholique, Nouvelle Serie, Tome IV 
 (1900) 296-302. 
 
 “Saint-Venant, ii. 
 
 *®Idcm, 16. 
 
82 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 provements were often necessary, since the bridge 
 was again partly destroyed by war, since, finally, 
 the hospital connected with the bridge afforded 
 shelter for numerous sick and travellers, the 
 brothers had continually to call upon public char¬ 
 ity. In order to further their collections, many 
 popes and bishops granted indulgences to the» 
 benefactors of the work. 
 
 A catalogue of these indulgences that comes 
 from the first half of the fourteenth century has 
 already been published several times.^^ At the 
 head of the indulgence-granting popes stands In¬ 
 nocent IV with an indulgence of one year and forty 
 days.^^ Alexander IV, Urban IV, Clement IV, 
 Nicholas IV,^^ and Boniface VIII granted the 
 same indulgence, whereas Clement V is repre¬ 
 sented in the old list with an indulgence of only 
 forty days. Added to this are twelye cardinals, 
 each of whom granted an indulgence of forty 
 days. It is related of the Bishop of Aix that, in 
 union with the bishops of his province, he granted 
 an indulgence of two hundred days. The same 
 privilege was extended by the Archbishops of 
 Arles, Embrun and Narbonne with their suffra¬ 
 gans. All these indulgences were confirmed by 
 John XXII (1316-1334). Just what this con¬ 
 firmation meant,^^ and whether all the indulgences 
 
 ^^For example, in Th. Raynaldus, Opera, VIII, 170, Lugduni, 
 1665; Saint-Venant, 84!!. 
 
 **This indulgence was granted in 1251. Saint-Venant, 54. 
 
 **On July 28, 1290. Les registres de Nicolas IV, n. 2990. 
 
 **It is highly improbable, since John XXII in 1323 explained 
 to the King of France that the Holy See did not pledge itself 
 to confirm episcopal indulgences. Lettres secretes de Jean XXII, 
 n. 1865. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 83 
 
 specified in the catalogue, with other privileges, 
 were actually granted must remain uncertain. At 
 all events the catalogue contains sundry privileges 
 that have scarcely any claim to be genuine. 
 
 Another catalogue of the papal indulgence 
 briefs for the bridge and hospital work at Avig¬ 
 non, made by the board of directors in 1430, has 
 Very recently been published for the first time.'*® 
 It is noteworthy that in this catalogue there is no 
 reference to the above-mentioned indulgences. 
 Even at that time the documents in the case were 
 no longer available. The following popes were 
 quoted: Martin IV with an indulgence of one 
 year and forty days (March 28, 1281); Nich¬ 
 olas IV, likewise with one year and forty days 
 (March 18, 1290). On December 21, 1343, 
 Clement VI granted an indulgence of three years 
 and three quarantines, besides a plenary indul¬ 
 gence at the hour of death. The bull, however, 
 may have been falsified. An indulgence of one 
 year and forty days was granted by Innocent VI 
 (1353). Then comes a document of Urban V 
 (1366), wherein the benefactors of the work are 
 promised an indulgence of three years and three 
 quarantines together with a remission of the sev¬ 
 enth part of their penance for every alms that 
 they give on Friday. Finally various other priv¬ 
 ileges were extended to them, which appear fre¬ 
 quently in the episcopal documents of that time, 
 but not in the papal ones. 
 
 "Ripert-Monclar, Bullaire des indulgences concedees avant 
 1431 ä I’oeuvre du Pont d’Avignon par les Souverains Pontifes, 
 Paris, 1912. 
 
84 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 One could with equanimity place the bull among 
 the forgeries; just as has been done with a docu¬ 
 ment of 1371 wherein Gregory XI empowers the 
 benefactors to apply to the dying all the indul¬ 
 gences granted for the work in Avignon. In 1430 
 all these documents were laid before Martin V 
 for confirmation by the rector of the hospital. 
 The confirmation bull was ready drawn when the 
 pope died. His successor, Eugene IV, under date 
 of March ii, 1431, confirmed all the indulgences 
 granted by the popes for the support of the 
 bridge and hospital. New confirmations followed 
 under Calixtus III (August 23, 1455) and Pius 
 II (January 20, 1458)."^® In addition Pius II 
 on March 24, 1460, promised a plenary indul¬ 
 gence for several years.^^ A similar grant came 
 from Sixtus IV.^® 
 
 St. Benedict, the builder of the famous bridge 
 in Avignon, also commenced the great bridge de la 
 Guillotiere in Lyons, and in large measure com¬ 
 pleted it. So it has often been asserted very re¬ 
 cently, and indeed on the ground of a bull which 
 Innocent IV, in 1245, issued at Lyons during the 
 general council that was held there.®® But the 
 bull referred to is merely the brothers’ advertise- 
 
 **P. Pansier, Note sur une bulle de Calixte III accordant des 
 indulgences ä L’oeuvre du Pont d’ Avignon, in Annales d’ 
 Avignon et du Comtat Venaissin, I (1912), 169-176. 
 
 ‘Tansier, 171. E. Göller, Der Ausbruch der Reformation 
 und die spätmittelalterliche Ablasspraxis, 121, Freiburg, 1917. 
 
 ^®Pansier, i7iff. 
 
 **Especially by Saint-Venant, igS, 
 
 ’’"First published in Analecta juris Pontificii, Xlle S^rie, 
 iiSSff., Rome, 1873, then again and better by Saint-Venant 
 (8iff.) with a facsimile of the ancient document. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 86 
 
 ment of the bridge work at Lyons.®^ First it is 
 related therein how the shepherd Benedict, 
 scarcely twelve years old, received a commission 
 from God to build a bridge over the Rhone at 
 Avignon. Then we are told that he went to Rome 
 to speak to the pope. On his return he heard that 
 in Lyons many people were exposed to great dan¬ 
 ger in crossing the Rhone; therefore he went to 
 that city in order to build a bridge similar to the 
 one in Avignon, and in addition a hospital. When 
 he died the work was In great part completed.®^ 
 
 For this bridge (prefato ponti), however, many 
 indulgences were Issued.®^ The indulgences ob¬ 
 tained are then enumerated: The Pope (Dom¬ 
 inus Papa, Innocent IV is meant) had granted an 
 indulgence of one year and forty days; his pred¬ 
 ecessor, Gregory IX, forty days; the Archbishop 
 of Lyons, forty days, besides various privileges; 
 in addition, the Archbishops of Rheims, Bourges, 
 Tours, Bordeaux, Rouen, Sens, Vienne and Arles 
 with many of their suffragans granted Indulgences, 
 that altogether amounted to two thousand seven 
 hundred and sixty-nine days. 
 
 The document, which has no signature, bears 
 
 “'Sanctissirais in Christo patribus Archlepiscopis, Episeopis 
 .... “fratres pontem super Rodanum Dei revelatione inceptum 
 peragentes, salutem.” The Brothers of Lyons are meant, not, as 
 Saint-Venant erroneously thinks, the Brothers of Avignon. The 
 bridge in Avignon had been finished long before 1245. 
 
 ®*“Pontem simili modo cum quodam hospital!. . . . Incepit, et 
 antequam moreretur, ex magna parte complevit.” 
 
 “The reference is evidently to the indulgences for the bridge 
 at Lyons, not that at Avignon, as Saint-Venant thinks (p. 29, 
 84). Certainly the words, “prefato ponti,” show that there is 
 question of the bridge mentioned immediately before, that is, 
 the bridge in Lyons; and even the indulgence list itself shows 
 that only the bridge at Lyons can be considered. 
 
86 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 the following date: “Datum in concilio generali 
 celebrato apud Lugdunum pontificatus domini 
 Innocentii pape quarti anno secundo.” Attached 
 to the document hangs the seal of the Pope, In¬ 
 nocent IV. Both date and seal are evidently for¬ 
 geries. The brothers of Lyons wished to invest 
 their proclamation with greater respect. This, 
 perhaps, first appeared after the death of Inno¬ 
 cent IV, and was destined to encourage contribu¬ 
 tions. Or had Innocent IV actually allowed the 
 Brothers to attach the papal seal? 
 
 What is further related in this document of the 
 beginnings of the bridge at Lyons does not cor¬ 
 respond with the historical facts as they are 
 known from other reliable sources. To all ap¬ 
 pearances St. Benedict had nothing to do with 
 the building of this bridge. Towards the end of 
 the twelfth century there was in Lyons only a very 
 poor bridge of wood, which, it appears, had been 
 built in the eighties by a certain Brother Stephan. 
 In a bull of the year 1184 or 1185—somewhat 
 suspected, it is true—Pope Lucius III reports 
 that the Brother Stephan had undertaken the 
 building of a bridge over the Rhone; and in this 
 bull the pope urges bishops and pastors to recom¬ 
 mend this socially useful work to the charity of 
 the faithful under promise of an indulgence.®^ 
 
 When in the year 1190 Philip Augustus of 
 France and Richard the Lion Heart of England 
 
 ®'M. O. Guigue, Bibliotheque historique du Lyonnais, I, 129, 
 Lyon, 1886. U. Chevalier, Regeste Dauphinois, n. 4918, Val¬ 
 ence, 191211. Jaffe-Loewenfeld, Regesta, n. 15243. Loewenfeld 
 notes the bull as a forgery, but without giving any reason. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 87 
 
 undertook the Third Crusade, great armies 
 marched through Lyons and caused the collapse of 
 the all too weak bridge/® Collections were in¬ 
 stituted to rebuild it. The agents of the bridge 
 work w^ent over to England. Richard the Lion 
 Heart with his own hand recommended them to 
 the charity of his subjects.®® 
 
 The building of a stone bridge was first under¬ 
 taken, apparently, under Innocent IV. This Pope 
 lent the work such strong support that an old 
 carved inscription on the bridge calls him the 
 builder of the bridge.®^ Not only did he grant an 
 indulgence of one year and forty days,®® but he 
 also, in the year 1247, took the Brothers of the 
 Bridge under the apostolic protection,®® and in 
 1254 requested the bishops to authorize the agents 
 of the work to take up collections and to announce 
 to the faithful the attached indulgences.®® In the 
 beginning only one pier and the first arch were 
 built of stone.®^ A century was to pass before the 
 difficult undertaking should be brought to a happy 
 
 “C. F. Menestrier, Histoire civile de la ville de Lyon, 283, 
 Lyon, 1696. 
 
 ®®Menestrier, Preuves, S. XXXI. The king recommended 
 “fratres et nuntios de Ponte qui est Lugduni constitutus.” As 
 in so many other places, so accordingly in Lyons, the bridge¬ 
 building was carried out by a religious society. In the year 
 1334 the city council first took over the temporal administration 
 of the work. Menestrier, XXXIIIf. 
 
 ^Menestrier, 283. J. B. Monfalcon, Lugdunensis historiae 
 Monumenta. Supplement, p. XXV, Lugduni, i860. 
 
 ““Mentioned in the inscription and in the above referred to 
 proclamation of the bridge brothers. 
 
 “Les registres d’Innocent IV, n. 2607. 
 
 '"Chevalier, Regeste Dauphinois, n. 9059. Monfalcon (406) 
 and Potthast (Regesta, n. 3799) erroneously attribute it to 
 Innocent III. 
 
 '’Monfalcon, 398. 
 
88 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 conclusion. Like Innocent IV, later popes, as 
 Urban IV, Clement VII, Alexander V, Eugene 
 IV, Leo X, sought to advance the work.®^ Like¬ 
 wise, under Alexander V, in the year 1410, a papal 
 legate granted an indulgence for the building of 
 the bridge in Lyons.®® 
 
 Besides the bridge de la Guillotiere at Lyons, 
 the “Bridge Brothers” are said to have built an¬ 
 other wider bridge over the Rhone, the so-called 
 Holy Ghost bridge.®^ But the latter bridge is a 
 great distance from Lyons; moreover, it was not 
 built by the “Bridge Brothers.” Pont-Saint- 
 Esprit, a town in the Department Gard, today be¬ 
 longing to the diocese of Nimes, was formerly 
 called Saint-Saturnin du Port. The inhabitants of 
 this town began the construction of a bridge across 
 the Rhone in 1265.®® The laborers formed a 
 corporation or brotherhood, as happened at the 
 building of the bridge at Avignon. After the 
 work had been finished, in 1307, and the skilled 
 laborers had departed, the Holy Ghost Brother¬ 
 hood continued to exist as a religious congrega¬ 
 tion. Its members cared for the upkeep of the 
 bridge and devoted themselves to the sick and to 
 poor travellers in the associated hospital. 
 
 As the popes had granted indulgences for the 
 construction of the great bridge, that has endured 
 
 ^Monfalcon, 399. Chevalier, n. 10053 (Urban IV). 
 
 **Menestrier, 284. 
 
 *^So Leger in Ersch und Grubers Allgemeine Enzyklopädie, 
 XIII (1824), 149; J. Becker in Archiv für Frankfurter Ge¬ 
 schichte, 18, 1869; and the anonymous author of an article on 
 the “Bridge Brothers” in the Vienna newspaper, “Die Presse,” 
 Nr. 351, Dez. 20, 1893. 
 
 *®Bruguier-Roure in Bulletin monumental, XLI, 436ff. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 89 
 
 till our own time,®® so they later favored the up¬ 
 keep of the bridge with indulgence privileges. 
 Thus in 1319 John XXII granted an indulgence 
 of forty days for this work.®^ 
 
 As Avignon, Lyons, and Pont-Saint-Esprit, so 
 also Vienne possessed a great bridge across the 
 Rhone,®® that in the first decade of the fourteenth 
 century had to be rebuilt. In 1321 John XXII 
 granted, for the space of two years, an indulgence 
 of sixty days in favor of the rebuilding.®® In the 
 introduction of the indulgence bull the pope ex¬ 
 plained that among the God-pleasing and meri¬ 
 torious works of piety he ranked bridgebuilding 
 as not the least, since commerce was thereby facil¬ 
 itated and the safety of travellers cared for. He 
 therefore looked upon it as a duty of the apos¬ 
 tolic office to reward the promoters of so useful 
 a work. 
 
 The most important tributary of the Rhone, on 
 the left bank, next to the Durance, is the Isere. 
 When in the year 1219 a frightful flood, called 
 the “Deluge of Grenoble,” destroyed the Isere 
 bridge in the latter city, the Bishop, John, issued 
 an appeal to the faithful to encourage them to 
 charitable contributions for a new bridge. Rely¬ 
 ing on the mercy of God and the merits of the 
 
 *®Recent information on these indulgences will be found in 
 Bruguier-Roure, Chronique et cartulaire de I’oeuvre des eglise, 
 maison, pont et hopitaux du Saint-Esprit. Nimes, 1889-95. Un¬ 
 fortunately I did not have access to this work that is no longer 
 in the French book stores. 
 
 *^Lettres communes de Jean XXII, n. 9725. 
 
 **Consult on this Bruguier-Roure, Bulletin monumental, XLI, 
 436ff. 
 
 **Gallia Christiana, XVI, Instrumenta 65, Parisiis, 1865. 
 
90 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 saintly Bishop Hugo (died 1132), the first builder 
 of the bridge (qui primitius pontem nostrum insti- 
 tuit), he remitted to all who helped the Bridge 
 Brotherhood (confratriae nostri pontis) the 
 fourth part of the penance imposed for properly 
 confessed sins; in addition he gave an indulgence 
 for all venial and forgotten sins.^® 
 
 Another tributary of the Rhone on the left 
 bank is the Lez, over which at Bollene, north¬ 
 west of Orange, was a bridge much used by pil¬ 
 grims. In 1426 the administrator of the diocese 
 of Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux, to which Bollene 
 (Abolene) belonged, granted an indulgence of 
 forty days for contributions to the restoration of 
 this bridge. The same indulgence was granted 
 in 1449 and 1459 for money contributions as well 
 as for personal service by the Cardinal Legate, 
 Pierre de Foix.'^^ 
 
 On the right side of the Rhone the Dominicans 
 had built a bridge over the Gardon at Alais. 
 Clement V in 1308 issued in its favor an indul¬ 
 gence of one hundred days.^^ 
 
 In France the valley of the Rhone certainly 
 shows that most of the bridges were built with 
 the help of money given for indulgences; but 
 there are also in other French provinces many 
 bridges whose construction was zealously ad¬ 
 vanced by popes and bishops. Thus in the year 
 
 ’“Idem, 92ff. Chevalier, Regeste Dauphinois, n. 6508. 
 
 ’Albanes-Chevalier, Gallia Christiana novissima, IV, 243, 
 269, 281, Valence, 1909. 
 
 ’■‘H. Grange, Sommaire des lettres pontificales concernant le 
 Gard, emanant des Papes d’Avignon du XlVe siecle, I, 18, 
 Nimes, 1911. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 91 
 
 1222 the Bishop of Rodez besought his subjects 
 to assist in building at Cajarc a bridge, then under 
 construction over the Lot, a tributary of the 
 Garonne. A similar appeal was issued in 1269 
 by the Archbishop of Bourges for another bridge 
 which crossed the Lot at Entraygues. In the 
 short communications that prefaced both episco¬ 
 pal documents,there is, indeed, no mention of 
 any indulgence; yet one may very well conclude 
 that according to the custom of the time indul¬ 
 gences were promised in both cases. When in the 
 year 1339 a bridge was to be built at Rodez over 
 the Aveyron, another tributary of the Garonne, 
 the bishop of that city promised an indulgence 
 to all those who would personally share in the 
 work.”^^ 
 
 In the year 1305 Clement V issued an indul¬ 
 gence of one year and forty days for a bridge at 
 Larunde in the diocese of Bordeaux.”^® Since in 
 that region there is no river, it must have referred 
 to a little bridge over a brook or canal. 
 
 For a bridge over the Lez at Montpellier Clem¬ 
 ent V in 1267 gave an indulgence of forty days.'^® 
 
 If we turn to the north, along the Loire, we 
 find a bridge in Nevers for whose rebuilding Clem¬ 
 ent V in 1306 issued an indulgence of one hundred 
 days.^^ In the year 1375 Gregory XI granted 
 
 ”A. de Gaujal, fitudes historiques sur le Rouergues, II, 97, 
 122, Paris, 1858. 
 
 ’Tdem, 177. 
 
 “Regestum dementis V, n. 1448. 
 
 ‘*Martene, Thesaurus novus anecdotorum, II, 461, Parisiis, 
 1717. 
 
 Regestum dementis V, n. 910, 6016. 
 
92 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 an indulgence for a bridge which crossed the 
 Creuse, a tributary of the Loire, at St. Gaultier 
 (Department Indre).^® 
 
 From Spain we can cite only one bridge indul¬ 
 gence. It consisted of twenty days and was 
 granted by Honorius III in 1222 for a bridge 
 across the Tayo at Talavera.'^^ As it was said in 
 the papal document, the Christians through this 
 bridge would have the power of more quickly 
 bringing help to their brethren on the other 
 side of the Tayo if they were attacked by the 
 Moors. 
 
 The sources for Germany are richer. The old¬ 
 est bridge indulgences are found in the province 
 of Donau. In the year 1220 Kaiser Friedrich II 
 issued the command to replace the wooden bridge 
 in Donauwörth with a stone one. In order to get 
 the means for this purpose, collections had to be 
 instituted. The Kaiser took the alms-gatherers 
 under his protection and commended them to the 
 good will of his subjects.The Church, also, 
 sought to further the useful public work. In the 
 year 1229 Bishop Heinrich of Eichstätt granted 
 an indulgence of thirty days for either labor or a 
 monetary contribution.®^ 
 
 Some years later, February 23, 1236, Bishop 
 Rudiger of Passau granted an indulgence of fif- 
 
 ”Denifle, La desolation des eglises, raonasteres et hopitaux 
 cn france pendant la guerre de cent ans, II, 430, Paris, 1899. 
 
 ’“P. Pressutti, Regesta Honorii III, n. 6182, Romae, 1888-95. 
 
 ‘“MIonumenta boica, XVI, 34, Monachii, 1795. 
 
 *^C. Königsdorfer, Geschichte des Klosters zum Heiligen 
 Kreuz in donauwörth, I, 77, Donauwörth, 1819. M. Lefflad, 
 Regesten der Bischöfe von Eichstätt, II, 2, Eichstätt, 1874. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 93 
 
 teen days for contributions to a bridge over the 
 Traun in Wels.®^ 
 
 On the right side of the Rhine more bridges 
 can be named for which indulgences were granted, 
 and first of all the Neckar bridge in Esslingen. 
 In order to help in the upkeep of this bridge, sev¬ 
 eral foreign bishops in 1286, who were in Rome at 
 the time, issued a joint document encouraging the 
 faithful to charitable contributions for this “very 
 pious work” under promise of an indulgence of 
 forty days.®^ 
 
 It is “noteworthy” that foreign bishops should 
 grant an indulgence for a German undertaking. 
 Yet there is nothing extraordinary in this. In 
 almost every German record book there are doc¬ 
 uments in which several foreign bishops, with the 
 consent of the local bishops, grant an indulgence 
 of forty days for some good work. These joint 
 indulgence briefs were prized especially highly 
 because it was therein explained that each one of 
 the undersigned bishops granted an indulgence 
 of forty days. The greater the number of signers, 
 the more valuable was the indulgence brief. Such 
 indulgences, therefore, were sought especially in 
 
 “Urkundenbuch des Landes ob der Enns, III, syf., Wien, 
 1862. As early as the year 1128 the Bishops of Salzburg, 
 Würzburg, Freissing, Bamberg, Ratisbon, and Passau, had 
 granted an indulgence of forty days for the Weis bridge. How¬ 
 ever, there is question here of a later forgery. Certainly fic¬ 
 titious, also, is the indulgence of fifty days for mortal sins and 
 fifty days for venial sins granted for the same purpose by Pope 
 Alexander in 1138. Cf. J. Lahusen, Zum Welser Brücken¬ 
 privileg, in Mitteilungen für österrreichishee Geschichtsfors¬ 
 chung, XXXI (1910), 361-74. 
 
 **A. Diehl, Urkundenbuch der Stadt Esslingen, I, 77!., Stutt¬ 
 gart, 1899 (Württemb. Geschichtsquellen, IV). 
 
94 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 those places where many bishops congregated. 
 Most of these documents are dated from Rome 
 or Avignon, because a number of bishops were 
 usually to be found at the papal court. 
 
 One of these joint indulgence briefs was issued 
 at Rome in 1300 by fifteen bishops®^ for the Main 
 bridge at Frankfurt. 
 
 But from Avignon is dated the indulgence brief 
 that in 1360 fifteen bishops signed for the Lahn 
 bridge in Dietz. When Archbishop Cuno of 
 Trier in 1365 confirmed this indulgence, which 
 consisted of forty days and was available for con¬ 
 tributions in money and building material as well 
 as for personal service, he himself added another 
 indulgence of forty days. The author to whom 
 we owe this information remarks that the Lahn 
 bridge threatened to collapse. “Foreign help was 
 necessary because of the lack of local means for 
 such an expensive bridgebuilding.” For this 
 reason Count Gerhard of Dietz sought to obtain 
 an indulgence.®® 
 
 On the left side of the Rhine, in Maastrict, the 
 great wooden Maas bridge broke down in 1275 
 as a procession was passing over it. More than 
 four hundred people lost their lives. Six years 
 later the rebuilding in stone was commenced. For 
 the completion of the bridge four archbishops and 
 fifteen bishops in 1284 atOrvieto, where the Curia 
 
 ®*J. Fr. Boehmer-Fr. Lau, Urkundenbuch der Reichsstadt 
 Frankfurt, I, 388f., Frankfurt, 1901. 
 
 ®®J. Arnoldi, Miscellaneen aus der Diplomatik und Geschichte, 
 37ff., Marburg, 1798. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 95 
 
 was then held, each granted an indulgence of forty 
 days.®® 
 
 Since the year 1216 there had existed a canon 
 limiting the indulgence that bishops might grant, 
 apart from the consecration of a church, to forty 
 days. As head of the Church, however, the pope 
 had authority to overstep these limits. Thus 
 Martin V in 1246 issued an indulgence of two 
 years and two quarantines for the building of a 
 stone bridge over the Nahe at Sobernheim.®^ As 
 was remarked in the papal document, the inhabi¬ 
 tants of Sobernheim had petitioned the Holy 
 Father to encourage the building of the bridge— 
 the cost of which they could not defray alone— 
 since often in the past, in their province, persons 
 had lost their lives in crossing the Nahe. The 
 pope readily granted this request. His pastoral 
 office, he explained, placed on him the duty of 
 helping the faithful in their needs and anxieties. 
 Since he looked upon assistance to the building of 
 bridges as a pious, God-pleasing, and meritorious 
 work by which manifold dangers and injuries 
 would be prevented and the general good fur¬ 
 thered, he often urged the faithful to undertake 
 such works, and sought to encourage their gener¬ 
 osity by the promise of spiritual graces, especially 
 of indulgences. 
 
 With the same words begins the indulgence 
 brief of Clement VI, dated August i, 1343, in 
 favor of the Mosel bridge in Coblenz, which Arch- 
 
 **Messagcr des sciences historiques, 383ff., Gand, 1848. 
 
 "J. C. Fuchs, Oratio de dioecesi Beckelnhemensi, 22!., Biponti, 
 1732. 
 
96 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 bishop Baldwin of Trier then had in view.®® This 
 bridge, “a creation that now has endured five hun¬ 
 dred years and served the neighborhood as an 
 ornament, and especially for unending usefulness,” 
 was at all events the most beautiful monument 
 that the Archbishop made for himself.®® The 
 pope granted to the benefactors of the work an 
 indulgence of one year and forty days, which held 
 good until the bridge should be completed. 
 
 Two months later a number of archbishops and 
 bishops who tarried in Avignon issued an indul¬ 
 gence of forty days for the same bridge. In the 
 accompanying document the faithful are urged 
 to contribute to such a praiseworthy and useful 
 public work (ad tarn laudabile opus fundandum 
 pro totius communitatis ac Christi fidelium tran- 
 seuntium commodo ac pro re publica) out of Chris¬ 
 tian charity (caritatis intuitu).®® 
 
 Archbishop Baldwin published both these indul¬ 
 gences in 1344 and took this opportunity to renew 
 the indulgence which he himself had granted in 
 1343 ill favor of the new bridge.®^ Further in¬ 
 dulgences for the Mosel bridge were granted by 
 Pope Urban V (1363),®® the Archbishop Boe- 
 mond II in 1356, and Archbishop Werner in 1390 
 
 ®*‘W. Günther, Codex diplomaticus Rheno-Mosellanus, III, 
 458, Coblenz, 1825. H. V. Sauerland, Urkunden und Regesten 
 zur Geschichte der Rheinlande aus dem Vatikanischen Archiv, 
 82, Bonn, 1905. 
 
 ® A. Dominikus, Baldewin von Lützelburg, Erzbischof und 
 Kurfürst von Trier, 515!., Coblenz, 1862. 
 
 ®®Hontheim, Historia Trevirensis diplomatica et pragmatica, 
 11.^155» Lag. Vind., 1750. 
 
 ®‘A. Goerz, Regesten der Erzbischöfe von Trier, 84f., Trier, 
 1861. 
 
 **Sauerland, V, 39. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 97 
 
 Änd 1409.®^ From the last named document®* 
 it is evident that at that time the bridge was not 
 fet completed. Later the archbishops of Trier 
 granted additional indulgences for the bridge in 
 Coblenz, for example Archbishop Otto in 1422 
 and 1424, and Archbishop James I in 1440.®® 
 
 Leo X on January 13, 1515, granted for twenty 
 Vears the rich indulgences of the Johanniter order 
 to a brotherhood of Trier whose duty it was to 
 improve the neglected roads and bridges of the 
 irchdiocese for the use of pilgrims and merchants; 
 and allowed the indulgences, with the permission 
 of the suffragan bishops, to be announced in the 
 ecclesiastical provinces of Trier and Mainz.®® 
 
 Boniface IX in 1391 granted an indulgence of 
 three years and three quarantines in favor of a 
 bridge crossing the Weser at Hameln.®^ 
 
 Bishop Withego of Meissen, as early as 1275, 
 granted indulgences for the rebuilding of the great 
 Elbe bridge in Dresden.®® In the year 1319 thir¬ 
 teen bishops in Avignon granted an indulgence of 
 forty days. Referring to the admonition of the 
 Apostle that the faithful should support one an- 
 
 **Goerz, 92, 121, 133. 
 
 '^Printed by Günther, IV, i3oflF. 
 
 “Goerz, 150, 153, 174. According to an undated poster, the 
 total sum of the indulgences amounted to 9743 days. Günther, 
 
 Regesta Leonis X, n. 13671. Schulte, Die Fugger, I, 86. 
 St. Beissel, Geschichte der Trierer Kirchen, II, 145, Trier, 
 1889. 
 
 ®^Urkundenbuch des Stiftes und der Stadt Hameln, I, 488f., 
 Hanover, 1887 (Quellen und Darstellungen zur Geschichte 
 Niedersachsens, II). 
 
 *“ürkundcnbuch der Städte Dresden und Pirna, 2, Leipzig, 
 1875 (Codex diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae, II, 5). 
 
98 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 Other, the bishops explain in their document that 
 they gladly recommend and further socially use¬ 
 ful works by which all sorts of misfortunes are 
 averted. Bishop John of Meissen confirmed the 
 indulgence granted by foreign bishops and on his 
 part added an indulgence of forty days and a 
 quarantine (that is, a further indulgence of forty 
 days).^® 
 
 It has often been asserted that Elector Freder¬ 
 ick the Wise, through indulgence money, built 
 another Elbe bridge in Torgau whose cornerstone 
 was laid in 1491. But no indulgence was granted 
 for the building of the Torgau bridge, only a dis¬ 
 pensation from the strict fast which forbade the 
 use of the so-called lacticinia, that is butter and 
 milk. Such dispensations, which were called 
 “Butter-briefs,” were frequently granted in Ger¬ 
 many towards the end of the Middle Ages. Be¬ 
 sides the chancery fee for defraying the fixed 
 expenses of issuing the order, usually an additional 
 contribution (composition) had to be given 
 toward some ecclesiastical or useful public work. 
 So it was with the “Butter-briefs” of Saxony. 
 Elector Frederick the Wise, who wished to build 
 a bridge and a chapel in Torgau but did not have 
 the necessary means therefor, turned to Rome for 
 assistance. Pope Innocent VIII granted the re¬ 
 quest under date of July 28, 1490, in that he al¬ 
 lowed the subjects of the Elector for the space 
 
 •'Urkundenbuch von Dresden, C. Schramm, Historischer 
 Schauplatz, in welchem die nuerkwürdigsten Brücken. . . . 
 beschrieben werden. Leipzig, 1735. Urkunden, 4ff. F. Dibelius, 
 Die alte Elbbrücke in Dresden, in den Beiträgen zur sächsis¬ 
 chen Kirchengeschichte, VI (1890), 1141. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 99 
 
 of twenty years to use butter and milk foods on 
 the condition that each one who took advantage 
 of this indult should give the twentieth part of a 
 Rhenish gulden towards the building of the bridge 
 in Torgau. Count Albrecht of Saxony received 
 an exactly similar privilege in 1491 for the rebuild¬ 
 ing of the burnt parish church in Freiburg.^®® 
 
 While the bridge indulgences played no part in 
 the Torgau undertaking, we meet them again in 
 the city of Leipzig, whose environs even today are 
 frequently flooded by the many branched rivers 
 Elster, Pleisse and Parthe. In order to lessen the 
 danger of the high waters, the magistrate had in 
 1430 undertaken extensive measures for building 
 canals, dams and bridges/®^ Here, too, must the 
 Church help. Since the city could not meet the 
 great cost, messengers were sent out to collect 
 contributions. In a document of the year 1434, 
 Bishop John of Merseburg admonished his clergy 
 to aid the alms-gatherers according to their 
 power; in addition he granted an indulgence of 
 forty days and a quarantine for charitable contri¬ 
 butions. God’s will, he declares, places upon him 
 the duty, not only of bearing the cares of the 
 Church, but also of furthering the building of 
 roads and bridges whereby poor pilgrims and 
 others, who travel here and there for the com- 
 
 '®®Chronicon Torgaviae bei J. B. Menckcnius, Scriptores rerum 
 gerraanicorum, II, 571 ff., Lipsiae, 1728. Schramm, Schauplatz. 
 Urkunden, Szff. H. Ermisch, Urkundenbuch der Stadt Freiberg, 
 I (Codex diplom. Sax. Reg., II, 12), 562^., Leipzig, 1883. 
 
 '"‘“Magnum et sumptuosum asdificium inceperunt ad facien¬ 
 dum passagia, pontes et fossata,” says the Bishop of Merseburg 
 in his indulgence brief. 
 
100 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 mon good, may suffer no misfortune on the way. 
 Since now so many merchants and pilgrims fre¬ 
 quent Leipzig and often encounter dangerous 
 floods, he prayed the faithful to lend a helping 
 hand to the useful public works undertaken by 
 the city.^°^ 
 
 In the year 1461 Pius II granted to the city of 
 Breslau a plenary indulgence, the returns from 
 which were to be applied partly to the municipal 
 hospitals, partly for the bridges, streets, and forti¬ 
 fications.^”® A year previous, at the request of 
 the Breslau city council, the Papal Legate, Hier¬ 
 onymus Lando, had issued an indulgence of forty 
 days for a bridge near the city, to which indulgence 
 the Bishop of Breslau had added another forty 
 days.^”* 
 
 The same Legate in 1463 granted an indulgence 
 of one year and forty days for a bridge over the 
 Oder at Glogau in Silesia.^”® 
 
 By instruction of the local archbishop, indul¬ 
 gences were published about the middle of the 
 fourteenth century for a bridge in Prague.^”® 
 
 Indulgences for bridgebuilding, to judge from 
 contemporary sources, seem likewise to have been 
 granted very frequently in England. A great 
 
 V. Posern-Klett, Urkundenbuch der Stadt Leipzig, I, 
 i24flF. (Codex diplom. Sax. Reg., II, 8). 
 
 ^°*Scriptores rerum silesiacarum, VIII, 55, 60. 
 
 ^“Idem, 37f. 
 
 *®®The indulgence brief has been printed by F. Minsberg, Ges¬ 
 chichte der Stadt und Festung Gross-Glogau, I, 440!., Glogau, 
 
 1853- 
 
 ^®^Formelbuch des ersten Prager Erzbischofs Arnest von 
 Pardubic, hrsg. von F. Tadra ira Archiv für österreichische 
 Geschichte, LXI (1880), 395. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 101 
 
 number of such indulgences are recorded in the 
 acts of Archbishop Walter Gray of York (1215- 
 55). The published acts begin with the year 
 1225. Immediately under the first official business 
 of this year is the grant of an indulgence of ten 
 days for the Elvet bridge in Durham. Then fol¬ 
 low similar grants: in 1228, thirteen days’ indul¬ 
 gence for the Otley bridge in the county York, ten 
 days for an embankment in Podesmed; in 1230, 
 ten days for the high road between Beverley and 
 Bentley, thirteen days for the Hoybel bridge in 
 Nottingham; in 1233, ten days for a bridge in 
 Wetherby.^®^ The contributions for the build¬ 
 ing of roads and bridges were ranked by the Eng¬ 
 lish churchman among the “works of mercy,” 
 on a par with the charitable alms for churches and 
 hospitals, which Archbishop Gray likewise fre¬ 
 quently remembered with indulgences. 
 
 From 1279 to 1285 William Wickwane held 
 the archbishopric of York. Also in his acts 
 bridge-indulgences are frequently mentioned. 
 Thus in 1279 he granted an indulgence of forty 
 days for two bridges at Doncaster, another of 
 twenty days for a bridge and dam in Mattersey.^'’® 
 His successor, John Romanus (1286-95), issued 
 indulgences of twenty days for bridges in Stam¬ 
 ford and Gloucester. 
 
 Still more plentifully did Richard Kellawe, 
 
 Register or Rolls of Walter Gray, 4, 20, 24, 39, 42, 60, 
 Durham, 1872 (Publications of the Surtees Society, LVI). 
 
 ^®®The Register of William Wickwane, 21, 300, Durham, 1907 
 (Surtees Society, CXIV). 
 
 ‘“^The Register of John le Romeyn, I, 7f., 10, Durham, 1913 
 (Surtees Society, CXXIII). 
 
102 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 Bishop of Durham from 13 ii to 1316, distribute 
 such privileges: in 1313, an indulgence of forty 
 days for the Whytton bridge in Weredale; in 
 1314, likewise one of forty days for contributions 
 or personal service for the improvement of a much 
 used road between Brotherton and Ferribridge; 
 in the same year forty days for the Were bridge at 
 Auckland, which some men, moved by God (auc- 
 tore Domino), had begun for the common use, but 
 which they could not finish without foreign aid; 
 besides, forty days for a bridge in Botyton, and 
 again forty days for a bridge and road between 
 Billingham and Noston; and in 1316, forty days 
 for a bridge in Carleton and Hatley.^^® 
 
 The popes, also, granted numerous bridge indul¬ 
 gences for England. Urban V, 1364, for North 
 Stoneham (diocese of Winchester) Clement 
 VII, 1384, for Cowal (diocese of Argyle) 
 Boniface IX, 1391, for Islepe (diocese of Lin¬ 
 coln) and Schelf rod (diocese of Ely) in 1400 
 forToryton (diocese of Exeter), Kerdington (di¬ 
 ocese of Lincoln), and Bradeforde (diocese of 
 Salisbury) in 1401 for Stracerton (diocese of 
 Salisbury) and Corbrig (diocese of Durham) 
 in 1402 for Fordynbrygghe (diocese of Win- 
 
 “’’Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense. The Register of Rich¬ 
 ard Kell awe, I, 442, 507, 525, 615, 642; II, 780, London, 1873-74 
 (Reruni Brkannicarum medii aevi Scriptores, LXII). 
 
 “^Bliss-Twemlow, Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers 
 Relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Papal Letters, IV, 48, 
 London, 1902. 
 
 ^^Tdem, 249. 
 
 “Tdem, 399, 406. 
 
 “‘Papal Letters V (1904), 272, 317, 339. 
 
 “'Idem, 379, 408. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 103 
 
 ehester) Innocent VII, 1405, for a bridge 
 which a priest of the diocese of Lichfield wished 
 to build Martin V, 1420, for a bridge which 
 the pastor at Liston in the diocese of St. Andrew’s 
 intended to build; 1427 for Melrose (diocese of 
 Glasgow), Teynburghe (diocese of Exeter), for 
 a bridge and road at Boston (diocese of Lincoln) ; 
 1429 for Whitby (diocese of York) Eugene 
 IV for Dumfries (diocese of Glasgow) ; 1437 
 for a road and bridge at Winnebornminster (dio- 
 ese of Salisbury) ; in 1440 for a bridge which the 
 pastor had begun to build from his own resources 
 at Dunkeld (diocese of Exeter) ; and in 1445 for 
 Newport (diocese of St. David’s). 
 
 *^*Papal Letters, IV, 351. 
 
 “^Twemlow, Papal Letters, VI (1904), 54. 
 
 ”*Twemlow, VII (1906), 152, 522, 524; VIII (1909), 23, 167. 
 
 ”*Twemlow, VIII, 347, 658; IX (1912), no, 248, 486. 
 
2 . DAMS AND ROADS. HARBORS AND 
 
 FORTIFICATIONS 
 
 COLONIZATION PROJECTS 
 
 EXT to the bridge indulgences stand those 
 for dams, embankments, and roads. Even 
 Albert the Great has enumerated the improve¬ 
 ment of roads (reparatio viarum communium) 
 among the works pleasing to God for which indul¬ 
 gences might be granted.^ Grants for such ob¬ 
 jects have already frequently been mentioned in 
 connection with the indulgences for bridges. But 
 still more can be mentioned, coming as well from 
 popes as from bishops. 
 
 Siegfried of Hildesheim (1281) promised an 
 indulgence of forty days for contributions for 
 the improvement of the “long dam” at Vechelde.* 
 The grant of the indulgence declares that it is a 
 work of mercy to improve dangerous roads. John 
 XXII in 1328 granted an indulgence of sixty days 
 for the rebuilding of a “long dam” belonging to a 
 monastery in Stavoren in the diocese of Utrecht.* 
 In 1401 Boniface IX granted an indulgence of 
 
 ^Opera omnia, XX, 643, Parisiis, 1893. 
 
 ’Urkundenbuch der stadt Braunschweig, II, 139, Braunschweig, • 
 1900. In the Latin document the word used is “pons longus.” 
 But that it does not mean a bridge, but an embankment, is clear 
 from the added remark: “Aflat to dem Damme.” In the North 
 by “bridge” they understand not only what we do by that word, 
 but in general a road built over marshy ground. Cf. Histor¬ 
 isches Jarhbuch 1898, 302. 
 
 *Lettres communes de Jean XXII, n. 40181. G. Brom, Bul- 
 larium Trajectense, I, 327, Haga-Comitis, 1891, In the papal 
 document it is called: “for the repairing of a certain great and 
 very long bridge.” This evidently means an embankment. 
 The monastery stood on the shore of the sea. 
 
 104 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 105 
 
 seven years and seven quarantines for the improve¬ 
 ment of the King’s highway which ran from Glou¬ 
 cester to London, and a further indulgence of 
 seven years for a road near York.'^ Martin V, 
 in 1419, issued indulgences for an embankment 
 in the diocese of St. David’s, and in 1425 for a 
 road near York.® For the rebuilding of the de¬ 
 stroyed dikes in the Netherlands, Leo X in 1515 
 at the solicitation of the Archduke Charles, later 
 the emperor, granted a plenary indulgence, which 
 might be preached during three years.® In the 
 year 1503 the Papal Legate, Cardinal Raymund 
 Peraudi, promised an indulgence of one hundred 
 days to those who would contribute to the build¬ 
 ing and upkeep of various roads in the duchy of 
 Brunswick.'^ 
 
 In the year 1306 the council of Stralsund de¬ 
 termined to erect a lighthouse at a dangerous place 
 of the sound. “However, because there was so 
 much of this building and a whole bulwark had to 
 be erected there (the southern point of the island 
 of Hiddensee), Bishop Olaf of Roskilde an¬ 
 nounced an indulgence for all who would make a 
 contribution to the work.”® 
 
 For the building of a harbor in Reval the local 
 
 ‘Bliss-Twemlow, V, 39of., 398. 
 
 ‘Twemlow, VII, 115, 470. 
 
 *G. Brom, De Dijk-Aflaat vor Karel V in Bijdragen en 
 Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap te Utrecht, 
 XXXII, 407-59, Amsterdam, 1911. 
 
 ^Die Chroniken der deutschen Städte XVI (i88o), 533. 
 
 ®A. G. Schwartz, Kurtze Einleitung zur Geographie^ des 
 Norder-Teutschlandes, 138, Greifswald, 1745. C. G. Fabricius, 
 Urkunden zur Geschichte des Fürstenthums Rügen unter den 
 eingeborenen Fürsten, IV, 1, 51!., Berlin, 1859. 
 
106 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FAÖTOR 
 
 Bishop, Olaus, in the year 1336 issued an indul¬ 
 gence of forty days, and at the same time con¬ 
 firmed the indulgence which Bishop Englebert of 
 Dorpat had granted for the same purpose.® 
 
 For the erection of a breakwater in the harbor 
 of Naples, Boniface VIII (1302) granted an in¬ 
 dulgence of one hundred days, which could be 
 gained either through personal labor or through 
 a monetary contribution.^® An indulgence of ten 
 days, which likewise could be gained either by 
 personal work or money, was granted by John 
 XXII (1317) for an embankment which the city 
 of Aquileja was building as protection against 
 floods.^^ 
 
 Indulgences were also granted for the building 
 of fortifications. Thus in the year 1241 a “great 
 wall” was to be built in Lübeck, “dar wart aflat 
 to gegeben; des drogen dar to vrowen unde man, 
 rike und arm.”^^ For Breslau, at the solicitation 
 of the magistrates, Pius II in 1461 granted a plen¬ 
 ary indulgence, part of whose proceeds were to 
 be devoted to the city’s fortifications.^® In the 
 year 1430, when Leipzig was threatened by the 
 Hussites, the Bishop of Merseburg at the request 
 of the city council issued an indulgence of forty 
 days to all those who on Sundays and holy days 
 would help in the building of the fortifications.^^ 
 
 "Livländisches Urkundenbuch, II, 307, Reval, 1855. 
 
 *®Les Registres de Boniface VIII, n. 4719. 
 
 “Lettres communes de Jean XXII, n. 5649. 
 
 "Chroniken der deutschen Städte, XIX, 88. 
 
 "Scriptures rerum Silesiacarum VIII, 55, 60, 152, 192, Breslau, 
 1873. 
 
 "Urkundenbuch der Stadt Leipzig, I, ii6f. (Codex diplona, 
 S«x. Reg., II, 9). 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 107 
 
 Especially in the border lands where there was 
 a question of protecting the Christian people 
 against the inroads of infidels, indulgences were 
 often granted in favor of fortifications, both for 
 monetary contributions and for personal service. 
 Such indulgences were given by Honorius III 
 (1222) for a fort of the Templars,^^ by Gregory 
 IX (1233) and Innocent IV (1245) for Prus¬ 
 sia,^® by Clement V (1308) for Famagusta on the 
 Island of Cyprus,by Clement VI (1349) for 
 Litauen,^® by John XXII (1317) for Spain,^* 
 by Clement VII (1390) for Smyrna,^® by Nich¬ 
 olas V (1452, 1453) for Ceuta^^ and Medina,^^ 
 by Sixtus IV (1481) for Vienna,^® by Leo X 
 (1519) for Kiev.^"^ 
 
 From Leo X comes another fortification indul¬ 
 gence that, however, did not have the protection 
 of Christendom in view. In the war that broke 
 out in 1513 between England and Scotland, the 
 fortified town of Norham, which belonged to the 
 Bishop of Durham, was stormed and destroyed 
 by the Scots. In 1514 the English sought in 
 
 “Regesta Honorii III, n. 4098. Bliss, Papal Letters, I, 88. 
 
 ^‘Preussisches Urkundenbuch, I, i, 73!., 123, Königsberg, 1882. 
 
 ^’Raynaldus, Annales eccl., 1308, n. 38. 
 
 '"Bliss, Papal Letters, III, 331. 
 
 '"Lettres communes de Jean XXII, n. 4559. 
 
 Bosio, Dell ’Istoria della sacra Religione di. S. Giovanni 
 Gierosolimitano, II, 139, Roma, 1629. 
 
 '■"Fr. Kayser, Papast Nikolaus V und die Maurenkämpfe der 
 Spanier und Portugiesen, im Histor. Jahrbuch, VIII (1887), 
 625. 
 
 “Raynauldus, 1453, n. 18. 
 
 “Quellen zur Geschichte der Stadt Wien, II, 3269, Wien, 
 1904. 
 
 **Schulte, Die Fugger in Rome, I, 66. 
 
108 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 Rome a plenary indulgence for the rebuilding of 
 this border fortress. Leo X knew well that the 
 granting of an indulgence for such an object was 
 something “rare and unusual” (res rara et inso- 
 lita). But since King Henry VIII himself asked 
 it, the Pope thought himself bound to grant the 
 English request.^® 
 
 Greater justification had the indulgence which 
 the Papal Legate, Eudes of Chateauroux, granted 
 in 1252, during the time of the Crusades when 
 there was question of strengthening Jaffa and 
 other cities against the attacks of the Saracens.^® 
 The King of France, St. Louis IX, who was then 
 in Palestine, shared personally in the work; laden 
 with a hamper, he carried stones and mortar “in 
 order to gain the indulgence,” as his companion 
 and biographer, the Sire de Joinville, relates.^^ 
 
 Previously, when Louis IX and the Crusaders 
 were still in Egypt, the Papal Legate had granted 
 an indulgence of one year to all those who would 
 help in filling up the arm of a canal. Also at 
 this time the King set a good example and carried 
 earth in his mantle.^® 
 
 ^^Regesta Leonis X, n. 6684, 7745, 13959. J* S« Brewer, Let¬ 
 ters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of 
 Henry VIII, I, n. 4284, 4461, 4724, 4735; II, n. 108, 109, no, 
 London, 1862-64. 
 
 ^Also Innocent IV in 1253 granted an indulgence in favor 
 of fortifying Jaffa. Berger, Les registres d’Innocent IV, n. 
 6463. 
 
 de Joinville, Histoire de Saint Louis, edition Wailly, 284, 
 Paris, 1874. “Le roy meismes y vis-je mainte foiz porter la hote 
 aus fosses, pour avoir le pardon.” Cf. Vie de S. Louis ecrite 
 par le confesseur de la reine Marguerite. Bouquet, Recueil des 
 historiens des Gaules, XX, 103. 
 
 *®Bouquet, XX, 103: “Le roy portait en giron de sa chape la 
 terre ä cel lieu.” 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 109 
 
 So much did this equally enlightened and pious 
 King prize the indulgences of the Church! And 
 this high appreciation Louis IX sought to instill 
 into his children. In the Christian admonitions 
 which shortly before his death he addressed to his 
 son Philip, he urged the heir apparent to seek 
 often to gain indulgences.^^ A similar admonition 
 he directed to his daughter Isabella, Queen of 
 Navarre.^® 
 
 Finally, we must recall the indulgences that 
 were granted for colonization projects. 
 
 When in 1229 King James I of Aragon suc¬ 
 ceeded in capturing the Island of Majorca, which 
 since 798 had been in the possession of the Moors, 
 Gregory IX shortly afterwards (1230) granted 
 to all those who would settle there the same 
 plenary indulgence that could be gained by taking 
 part in a Crusade to the Holy Land. In stating 
 his reason for this indulgence, the Pope declared 
 that it was not sufficient to conquer foreign lands, 
 it was necessary to colonize them.®^ 
 
 In the year 1253 Innocent IV authorized the 
 Bishop of Aleria on the Island of Corsica to grant 
 to those who would settle in the depopulated city 
 the indulgence that he would find profitable for 
 their salvation.^^ The determination of the 
 
 ’"“Pourchaces volonticrs les pardons.” H. Fr. Delabordc, Le 
 texte primitif des Enseignements de S. Louis a son fils, in 
 Bibliotheque de I’Ecole des Charles, LXXIII (1912), 241, 252» 
 
 *Tdem, 250. 
 
 ®’Auvray, Les registres de Gregoire IX, n. 524. Potthast, 
 Regesta Pontificum Roman., n. 8641. 
 
 'Merger, Les registres d’lnnocent IV, n. 6335. Potthast, 
 n. 14888. 
 
110 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 amount of the indulgence was left to the bishop. 
 
 Alexander VI in 1493 granted a plenary indul¬ 
 gence to those who, with the permission of the 
 Spanish King, would settle in America.^® 
 
 "Raynaldus, Annales eccl., 1493, n. 25. 
 
3. GUILDS. MARKSMEN CLUBS 
 
 äLINCE in the Middle Ages the civil and the 
 ecclesiastical were closely bound together, 
 the guilds stand out with special distinctness. 
 “From the union of labor with religion and the 
 Church, every guild received the character of a 
 religious corporation. Each one had its special 
 patron saints, who according to legend or history 
 had once belonged to the same guild or had been 
 connected with it in some way, and whose feast- 
 day was ushered in with church-going and solemn 
 processions. Moreover, each one made contribu¬ 
 tions to ecclesiastical and charitable objects, stood 
 in close relationship to some special church, and 
 had therein its own pictures and its own altar, not 
 rarely even its own chapel. ... At certain 
 regular times they had Mass read for the living 
 and the dead.”^ 
 
 No wonder, then, that the guilds, like the 
 purely religious brotherhoods, received indul¬ 
 gences from bishops and popes. So, for example, 
 Sixtus IV (1471-84) in confirming the guild or 
 brotherhood of merchants founded in 1466 at 
 Rostock granted to the members the privilege of 
 gaining a plenary indulgence from their confessor 
 once during their lives and again at the hour of 
 death. In the beginning of the sixteenth century 
 the Cardinal Legate, Raimund Peraudi, approved 
 
 ‘Janssen, I, 406. 
 
 Ill 
 
112 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 the Brotherhood anew and on this occasion 
 granted to the members an indulgence of one hun¬ 
 dred days as often as they accompanied the body 
 of a dead member to the grave or lent a helping 
 hand for the support of the brotherhood.^ 
 
 It may seem strange that even the marksmen 
 societies were granted indulgences. But consid¬ 
 ering these societies more closely, one will not be 
 surprised that they were favored by the Church. 
 In the Middle Ages the marksmen clubs, found in 
 almost every city, formed as it were the nucleus 
 of the civil protection and defense.® 
 
 We can readily understand, therefore, that not 
 only the temporal but also the ecclesiastical au¬ 
 thorities should, according to their power, seek 
 to further these very useful organizations. Cer¬ 
 tainly the marksmen clubs had the duty of pro¬ 
 tecting the Church also and the religious institu¬ 
 tions against hostile attack. Hence it comes that 
 these organizations always had a religious char¬ 
 acter. 
 
 “Without exception,” writes a Protestant min¬ 
 ister, every marksmen’s brotherhood had its spe¬ 
 cial relation to the Church. Their own altars 
 with vicars were often erected and endowed in 
 
 ’Jahrbücher des Vereins für mecklenburgische Geschichte, 
 VII, 192, Schwerin, 1842. 
 
 *E. Jacobs, Die Schützenkleinodien und das Papageienschies¬ 
 sen. Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte des Mittelalters, w. f., 
 Wernigerode, 1887. L. A. Delaunay, Etude sur les anciennes 
 compagnies d’archers, d’arbaletriers et d’arquebusiers, 3, Paris, 
 1879: “Au moyen äge, le veritable element de force, de securite 
 et de liberte pour la plupart des villes residait dans les asso¬ 
 ciations bourgeoises connues sous le nom d’arbaletricrs ou 
 d’arquebusiers. Elles etaient la base de la puissance et de 
 rindepcndence du pouvoir communal,” 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 113 
 
 the local church. On appointed days the whole 
 brotherhood appeared at Mass, if services were 
 held for the departed souls of former members 
 or even for the brotherhood itself.”^ The medi¬ 
 eval marksmen’s societies, remarks another Prot¬ 
 estant author, “according to different sources 
 were very pious.“They were the chief up¬ 
 holders of the Romish Church.”® Who, then will 
 wonder that these “pious” organizations were fa¬ 
 vored with indulgences? 
 
 In an old account “Of the Origin of the Praise¬ 
 worthy Brotherhood and Marksmen’s Club of 
 the City of Leipzig, and What the Same Hold 
 for Regulation and Custom,” it is related that in 
 the year 1445 the Bishop of Merseburg at the 
 ratification of the Brotherhood granted to the 
 members an indulgence of forty days.^ 
 
 Not without reason were the Shooting Brothers 
 of Leipzig favored by their ordinary. In the 
 year 1482, “moved by ardent love and eager desire 
 to increase the praise and service of God,” they 
 founded with five hundred Rhenish guldens in the 
 
 ^A. Reinecke, Die Schützenbrüderschaft zu Osterwieck, in der 
 Zeitschrift des Harz-Vereins für Geschichte, XXVII, 683, 
 Wernigerode, 1894. 
 
 ®J. Chr. Hendel, Archiv für deutsche Schützengesellschaften, 
 II, IO, Halle, 1801. 
 
 ®Jakobs, 57. Cf. Delaunay, 75; “En belgique comme en 
 France, dans les antiques confreries (der Schützen), tout prenait 
 un caractere religieux: aussi chacune d’elles possedait une 
 chapelle qui etait entretenue ä ses frais. Tous les ans, au jour 
 du patron, eile y faisait celebrer une messe avec grande pompe; 
 tous les membres de la confrerie etaient tenus de s’y presenter. 
 On y faisait aussi un service funebre pour les confreres decedes. 
 De meme l’ouverture des jeux ou exercises etait toujours 
 precedee d’une messe solenneile du Saint Esprit ä laauelle tous 
 les compagnons assistaient.” 
 
 ’Hendel, III, 176. 
 
114 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 parish church of St. Nicholas, where their broth¬ 
 erhood was obliged to hear Mass, a special bene¬ 
 fice whose incumbent was bound to read five 
 Masses weekly.® 
 
 Two years later they received from the Papal 
 Legate, Bartilmäus de Maraschis, who spent a 
 day in Leipzig in the summer of 1484, a new in¬ 
 dulgence which the Bishop of Merseburg con¬ 
 firmed.® 
 
 Some years earlier, on February 4, 1466, an¬ 
 other Papal Legate in Breslau, Bishop Rudolf 
 von Lavant, likewise granted an indulgence to 
 the local brotherhood of marksmen. The Bres¬ 
 lauer brothers told the papal nuncio how they 
 came together on certain days and “practised 
 themselves in the art of shooting the crossbow and 
 gun,’’ in order that they might the better protect 
 the common good and defend the city against the 
 heretics (Hussites) and other bad people. For 
 the honor of God and out of devotion to the holy 
 martyrs, Fabian and Sebastian, they yearly, on 
 the feast of these Saints, “had Mass celebrated 
 with organ and singing and trumpets, nobly and 
 solemnly.” If now the brotherhood were con¬ 
 firmed by “the papal power” and given an indul¬ 
 gence, then others of their fellow citizens would 
 the more readily join, and the city could be the 
 better defended. 
 
 The legate willingly granted their request. By 
 the papal power he approved the brotherhood 
 
 *Urkundenbuch der Stadt Leipzig, II, 320!. 
 
 *Hendel, III, 177. Here the Legate is erroneously called 
 Bartholomäus Mauritius. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 115 
 
 and granted an indulgence of forty days to all 
 the members, provided they had contritely con¬ 
 fessed their sins, as well as to all the other faith¬ 
 ful who would devoutly assist at the above Mass.^® 
 
 In the year 1481 the same Rudolf, who in the 
 meantime had become Bishop of Breslau, granted 
 another indulgence to the marksmen’s guild in 
 Liebenthal. The brotherhood had pledged itself 
 “always to use its military power for the defense 
 of all Christians”; through zealous church-going 
 and prayer the members “were to be strengthened 
 to constant bravery.”^^ 
 
 Archbishop Dietrich of Cologne in 1420 
 granted an indulgence of forty days to the marks¬ 
 men’s society of Neuss. Archbishop Ruprecht 
 of Cologne in 1473 granted in favor of the 
 brotherhood of marksmen in Bonn a similar indul¬ 
 gence to all those who after contrite confession 
 would attend High Mass and the procession on 
 the feast of St. Sebastian, devoutly recite five 
 Paters and Aves, and make a monetary contri¬ 
 bution to the brotherhood for church purposes.^® 
 
 Chr. Kundraann, Silesii in nummis, oder berühmte Schle¬ 
 sier in Müntzen, 425L, Breslau. 1738. Kundmann (p. 424), 
 whom others follow (for example, A. Edelmann, Schützenwesen 
 und Schützenfeste der deutschen Städte vom 13 bis zum 18 
 Jahrhundert, 10, München, 1890), asserts that the indulgence 
 was granted to those brothers who would attend the shooting 
 and practice. There is nothing to be seen of this condition in 
 the indulgence brief that Kundmann prints. 
 
 “G. Schoenaich, Zur Geschichte des schlesischen Schützen¬ 
 wesens, in der Zeitschrift des Vereins für Geschichte Schlesiens, 
 XL (1906), 200, 206. 
 
 “K. Tücking, Geschichte der kirchlichen Einrichtungen in der 
 Stadt Neuss, 352, Neuss, 1886-90. 
 
 ‘‘Annalen des historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein, 
 XXVIII (1876), 117. 
 
116 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 In the year 1477 Bishop Alexander of Forli, 
 who at that time was papal legate in Basel, gave 
 a brief to the local brotherhood of marksmen, 
 wherein he granted an indulgence of one hundred 
 days to the members as also to others of both 
 sexes who would attend the brotherhood’s re¬ 
 ligious services on certain days. The legate re¬ 
 marked further that he gave this indulgence in 
 order that the people might more zealously attend 
 church. 
 
 In the upper Alsatian town of Rufach, that 
 formerly belonged to the diocese of Basel, a gun 
 and crossbow brotherhood was formed in 1508. 
 The bishop confirmed it with the grant of an indul¬ 
 gence: “Whatever brothers or sisters in this 
 said brotherhood attend divine services, having 
 truly repented and confessed and given their alms 
 thereto, as often as they do this we make them 
 share in an indulgence of forty days.”^® 
 
 Women, therefore, could join the marksmen’s 
 clubs. Not as if the “sisters,” as the female mem¬ 
 bers of the brotherhood were called, took part in 
 the practice of shooting! What duties they un¬ 
 dertook is shown by the charter of foundation in 
 Rufach: “It is permissible for any married man 
 himself and his honorable wife, who so desires, 
 to join the brotherhood; but the wife is not bound 
 to pay anything or to do anything, but only to 
 
 Ochs, Geschichte der Stadt Basel, V, 91, Basel, 1821. 
 That the legate, whom Ochs does not name, was Alexander of 
 Forli, is evident from the Urkundenbuch der Stadt Basel, VIII, 
 414, Basel, 1901. 
 
 ^'Th. Walter, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt Rufach, I, 
 Rufach, 19CX). 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 117 
 
 pray, as she wishes, and as here follows.” Then 
 is set forth how the brothers and sisters are 
 bound to attend the Brotherhood’s Masses.^® 
 
 In other places the sisters had also to pay a 
 yearly fee, as, for example, in Leipzig. “For 
 St. Sebastian’s day,” says the old, above-cited 
 marksmen’s book, “the master general of the 
 day must through the page notify all the brothers 
 and sisters and pray them that they should indi¬ 
 vidually appear at St. Nicholas early in the morn¬ 
 ing of the appointed day for the procession to 
 the Mass and the collection, according to ancient 
 custom.” The page should also be given a list 
 of “all the brothers and sisters who are in arrears 
 so that he can diligently collect this amount.” 
 
 Also in the ember weeks there were common 
 divine services to which the “page” had to sum¬ 
 mon all the brothers and sisters. “On the first 
 minor fast in the first ember week, the page should 
 request all the wives to attend the Wednesday 
 vigil, and they and the men also to attend the 
 Mass and the collection early on Thursday.” The 
 same thing was to be done in the other three ember 
 weeks. 
 
 After the vigil or the afternoon service for 
 the dead members a “collation”—a fast day dish 
 of almonds and peas, “together with Leipzig 
 beer”—was served in the society’s house to the 
 sisters. The society’s servants and their wives 
 were charged with its prompt service. “At such 
 a collation the servant, together with his wife, the 
 
 ^®Idem, 105. 
 
118 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 helper, were bound to be present to run, to draw, 
 to carry.” For pay, “when the wives had all 
 gone, he could take home with him a half quart 
 of beer, if it remained, not more.^^ 
 
 ^’Hendel, III, iSsff. 
 
4. MONTES PIETATIS 
 
 vMNDER the name monies pietatis are to be 
 understood publicly useful credit organiza¬ 
 tions, which in the second half of the fifteenth 
 century were founded in large numbers, especially 
 in upper and middle Italy, for the needs of the 
 poor people, and which worked very successfully/ 
 The chief promoters of these foundations were the 
 Franciscan Observants who were supported by the 
 papacy in their striving to help the needs of the 
 people. Since the securing of working capital 
 at first was a matter of the greatest difficulty, the 
 popes sought to encourage generous contributions 
 through the promise of indulgences. 
 
 Pius II made the beginning, when in 1463 he 
 granted indulgences in favor of the new founda¬ 
 tion in Orvieto.^ Later indulgences were issued 
 by Sixtus IV, for Savona in 1479;^ by Innocent 
 VIII for Mantua in 1486,^ and for Verona in 
 1491by Alexander VI for Padua in 1493,® and 
 for Genoa in 149iL by Julius II for Bologna in 
 1507;® and by Leo X for the same city in 1514/ 
 
 ’H. Holzapfel, Die Anfänge der Montes Pietatis, München, 
 
 1903. 
 
 ■'L. Fumi, Codice diplomatico della Citta d’Orvieto, 723, 
 Firenze, 1884 (Documenti di storia italiana, VIII). 
 
 *Statuti del sacro monte pieta di Roma, II, iiff., Roma, 1776. 
 
 *B. de Bustis, Defensorium montis pietatis, f. 5, Hagenau, 
 
 1503- 
 
 'Wadding, Annales Minorum, XIV, 517, Romae, 1735. 
 
 *Bustis, f. 5. 
 
 ’Wadding, XV, 545. 
 
 “Statuti, il, 22ff. 
 
 ‘Holzapfel, 99. 
 
 119 
 
120 INDULGENCES AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 
 
 In the solemn confirmation which the Lateran 
 Council in 1515 gave to the monies pietatis, which 
 were hated on many sides, the pope referred ex¬ 
 pressly to the indulgences that the promoters of 
 these very useful organizations might gaind® 
 
 From the foregoing discussion, it is sufficiently 
 evident that various socially useful works, insti¬ 
 tutions, societies, enterprises, and organizations 
 were furthered through indulgences. With full 
 right, then, one may assert that civil society has 
 to thank the often granted indulgences for in¬ 
 numerable benefits. 
 
 This social importance of indulgences was noted 
 as early as the end of the fourteenth century by a 
 distinguished German theologian, Heinrich von 
 Langenstein. This scholar treated briefly of in¬ 
 dulgences in his still unpublished commentary on 
 Genesis delivered as a lecture in 1390 at the 
 Vienna university. Therein he remarked that the 
 custom of granting indulgences was helpful to the 
 faithful in many ways. Because of the indulgences 
 to be gained they attended sermons and divine 
 services with more frequency, and for the erection 
 of churches, hospitals and other similar works, 
 which served for the honor of God and the com¬ 
 mon good, they gave alms more generously. 
 From this it is evident that the granting of indul¬ 
 gences redounded to the good of both the church 
 and of temporal society.^^ 
 
 ^“Wadding, XV, 471. 
 
 ^^Lectura super Genesin, handschriftlich auf der Münchener 
 Staatsbibliothek, Cod. lat., 18146. 
 
 ^^Et ita videtur quo concessio indulgenciarum est ad 
 profectum et commodum utriusque reipublicae, scilicet spiritualis 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 121 
 
 The old theologian, however, does not fail to 
 call special attention to the fact that indulgences 
 are also of great importance for the salvation of 
 souls: it would naturally incite sinners to re¬ 
 pentance to hear that in so easy a way, by merely 
 confessing their sins with contrition, they could 
 obtain full forgiveness. “Thereby were many 
 hardened sinners brought to confession who other¬ 
 wise would not have been moved thereto. For 
 this and similar reasons early teachers say that in¬ 
 dulgences have value as introduced by the Holy 
 Spirit.” 
 
 et temporalis.” CIm. 18146, fol. 411. With this expression of 
 a medieval theologian, compare the following from a recent 
 historian: “II ne faut pas oublier les services rendus ä la 
 societe tout entiere par ces usages. . . . L’figlis n’a pas applique 
 seulement les dons ä ses besoins, mais ä ceux de tous; travaille 
 pour elle-meme, mais pour le pays; restaure ses monasteres ou 
 ses cathedrales, mais les Hotels-Dieu, les leproseries, les 
 hospices, tous les asiles de la pauvrete et de la douleur. C’est 
 par I’indulgence encore qu’elle a pu contribuer au progres 
 economique: telle chausse eou telle route, tel pont, comme ä Lyon 
 celui du Rhone, ä Agen, celui de la Garonne, ont pu etre 
 reconstruits.” P. Imbart de la Tour, Les origines de la 
 Reforme, II, 265, Paris, 1909. 
 
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