| indulgence | 1. The act of indulging or humoring; the quality of being indulgent; forbearance of restrain or control. "If I were a judge, that word indulgence should never issue from my lips." (Tooke) "They err, that through indulgence to others, or fondness to any sin in themselves, substitute for repentance anything less." (Hammond) 2. An indulgent act; favor granted; gratification. "If all these gracious indulgences are without any effect on us, we must perish in our own folly." (Rogers) 3. Remission of the temporal punishment due to sins, after the guilt of sin has been remitted by sincere repentance; absolution from the censures and public penances of the church. It is a payment of the debt of justice to God by the application of the merits of Christ and his saints to the contrite soul through the church. It is therefore believed to diminish or destroy for sins the punishment of purgatory. Origin: L. Indulgentia: cf. F. Indulgence. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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