What is the treasury of merit?

INDULGENCES LESSEN TIME SPENT IN PURGATORY

Catholics believe that those in purgatory cannot help themselves, but Catholics left back on Earth can enable them to obtain heaven more quickly by praying for them, offering Mass for them and doing forms of good works, which includes gaining indulgences. According to the Catechism, those seeking indulgences want to shorten their own or someone else's time in purgatory.

Prayers and good deeds are two acts that can be endowed with the privilege of indulgences. According to the Catechism, the Church uses the power originally given to Peter to bind and loose sins (see Matt. 16:19) and can intervene in favor of individual Christians by opening for them a "treasury" of the merits of Christ and the saints (the spiritual treasury of the Church). So, in effect, when we speak of indulgences we are speaking of God "indulging" (being kind to) a believer by giving to the believer from an inexhaustible supply of spiritual merits that have accumulated in the Church's treasury through the work of Christ and the prayers and good works of the Virgin Mary and the saints. These merits are then used to cover the temporal punishment for venial or mortal sins that the believer did not finish paying for before death.

An indulgence is a kind of "pardon for sin" that can be partial or plenary (complete). A plenary indulgence can be granted only by the pope for the remission of a believer's entire temporal punishment. Much more common are partial indulgences, which can be granted by bishops, archbishops and cardinals. These partial indulgences are usually expressed in units of time - so many days or even years.

The chief feature in the new doctrine of indulgences was the discovery of a resource or treasury in the church, by the application of which sins were remitted, without the painful or humiliating process of penance, and without the observance of the sacraments. It was alleged by the deep contriver of this sweeping dogma, that there was an infinite treasure of merit in Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the other saints, which was more than sufficient for themselves. Although the Saviour Himself was said to be the source of all merit, the merits of the saints were also much spoken of, and this gave rise to the new idea of works of supererogation. By their works of penance, and by their undeserved sufferings in this world, they had done more than was necessary for their own salvation, and by these works of supererogation, with the superabundant merits of Christ, a treasury was formed, of which the pope possessed the keys, and which he could apply for the relief of offenders, both in this life and in purgatory. The power of the keys was thus substituted for the efficacy of the sacrament.

The pope was not slow to perceive the advantages that might be derived from so lucrative a system of exchange; and in due time Clement VII. advanced the startling dogma, that a belief in indulgences was a necessary article of faith. He asserted that one drop of Christ's blood had been sufficient to reconcile man to God; the rest was shed to ensure a sinking fund for the treasury of the church. Moreover, there was a balance of good works to the account of the saints, works which "they had finished over and above what was requisite for their own salvation," and these also became a marketable commodity. Nor were the indulgences of Rome confined to the living: they were carried beyond the grave, and the wailing souls in purgatory were supposed to be delivered by their means.

M. Yes, that is, the temporal punishment due to sin.

N*. Is it not by virtue of the surplus of merits of Christ and the saints?

"We have resolved, by virtue of the authority given to us from heaven, fully to unlock that sacred treasure composed of the merits, sufferings, and virtues of Christ our Lord, and of his virgin mother, and of all the saints which the Author of human salvation has entrusted to our dispensation. To you, therefore, venerable brethren, patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops, it belongs to explain with perspicuity the power of indulgences; what is their efficacy in the remission, not only of the canonical penance, but also of the temporal punishment due to the divine justice for past sin; and what succour is afforded out of this heavenly treasure, from the merits of Christ and His saints, to such as have departed real penitents in God's love, yet before they had duly satisfied by fruits worthy of penance, for sins of omission and commission, and are now purifying in the fire of purgatory."*

He carefully prepared his answer. Luther denied that "the treasure of indulgences is the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ and the saints," which the Roman Catholics maintained. Neither could indulgences consist in the merits of Christ alone; for they excused men from good works; whereas God quickened us to perform them.

Though he speaks of the merits and death of Christ as alone the source of salvation, yet he, strangely to our ears, held that the merits of the saints could work wonders and give aid to the church on earth. He mentions St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Laurence (but never mentions the Virgin Mary) as helping in this way; but does not make direct appeal to them.

Creature merit is thus impossible, ― a doctrine which destroys at once not only the supererogatory works and merits of the saints as Rome teaches them, but very much else held quite outside of Rome; while it makes eternal life for the sinner (such as we all are) only possible to grace.

"Because all men be sinners and offenders against God and breakers of His law and commandments, therefore can no man by his own acts, works and deeds, (seem they never so good,) be justified and made righteous before God: but every man of necessity is constrained to seek for another righteousness of justification, to be received at God's own hands, that is to say, the forgiveness of his sins and trespasses in such things as he hath offended. And this justification or righteousness which we so receive of God's mercy and Christ's merits embraced by faith, is taken, accepted, and allowed of God for our perfect and full justification; for (latter part of the same Homily) it pleased our heavenly Father, of His infinite mercy, without any our desert or deserving, to prepare. for us the most precious jewels of Christ's body and blood whereby our ransom might be fully paid, the law fulfilled, and His justice fully satisfied. So that Christ is now the righteousness of all them that truly do believe in Him." — Homily on the Salvation of Mankind.

God, then, can righteously cancel the charges of sins against sinners. This is founded on the sacrificial death of Christ. Christ's exaltation in heaven is the proclamation of it, and that God is exercising it on the principle of faith. Thus, believers in Jesus who was here in this world as sent of God to make propitiation, are released from receiving the due of their sins, and stand before the face of God judicially cleared from every charge of guilt. They have been justified gratuitously through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; no merit in them or their works entering into the justification they have received from Him who has the righteous title to bestow it.