Jubilee (Christianity) - The First Christian Jubilee

The First Christian Jubilee

On February 22, 1300, Boniface published the Bull "Antiquorum fida relatio", in which, appealing vaguely the precedent of past ages, he declares that he grants afresh and renews certain "great remissions and indulgences for sins" which are to be obtained "by visiting the city of Rome and the venerable basilica of the Prince of the Apostles". Coming to more precise detail, he specifies that he concedes "not only full and copious, but the most full, pardon of all their sins", to those who fulfill certain conditions. These are, first, that being truly penitent they confess their sins, and secondly, that they visit the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome, at least once a day for a specified time—in the case of the inhabitants of the city for thirty days, in the case of strangers for fifteen.

No explicit mention is made of Communion as a requirement to receive the indulgence, nor does the word jubilee occur in the Bull—indeed the pope speaks rather of a celebration which is to occur every hundred years—but writers both Roman and foreign described this year as annus jubileus, and the name jubilee (though others, such as the "holy year" or "the golden year" have been used as well) has been applied to such celebrations ever since. Dante, who is himself supposed by some to have visited Rome during this year to gain the Jubilee indulgence, refers to it under the name Giubbileo in the Inferno and indirectly bears witness to the enormous concourse of pilgrims by comparing the sinners passing along one of the bridges of Malebolge in opposite directions, to the throngs crossing the bridge of the Castel Sant'Angelo on their way to and from St. Peter's. Similarly, the chronicler Giovanni Villani was so impressed on this occasion by the sight of the monuments of Rome and the people who flocked thither that he then and there formed the resolution of his great chronicle, in the course of which he gives a remarkable account of what he witnessed. Other attendees may have included the artists, Cimabue and Giotto, as well as Charles de Valois brother of the King of France.

Villani describes the indulgence connected with this jubilee as a full and entire remission of all sins di culpa e di pena (Italian: of guilt and of punishment), and he dwells upon the great contentment and good order of the people, despite the fact that during the greater part of that year there were two hundred thousand pilgrims on an average present in Rome over and above the ordinary population. With regard to the phrase just noticed, a culpa et a poena (in Latin), which was often popularly used of the Jubilee and other similar indulgences, it should be observed that it means no more than what is now understood by a "plenary indulgence". It implied, however, that any approved Roman confessor had faculties to absolve from reserved cases (sins whose forgiveness can only be granted by certain priests), and that the liberty thus virtually accorded of selecting a confessor was regarded as a privilege. The phrase was an unscientific one, and was not commonly used by theologians. It certainly did not mean, as some have pretended, that the indulgence of itself released from guilt (which could be punished by Hell) as well as penalty (for sins already forgiven, usually removed in Purgatory). Guilt is actually remitted in the Catholic Church only in virtue of sacramental confession and the sorrow of the penitent. The sovereign pontiff never claimed any power of absolving in grievous matters apart from the sacrament. "All theologians", remarks Maldonatus, "unanimously without a single exception, reply that an indulgence is not a remission of guilt but of the penalty."