e
priest who heard confession. In the administration of the
Sacrament, however, the absolution preceded "satisfaction"
instead of following it, as it had done in the discipline of the
early Church.[16] To justify this apparent inconsistency, the
Doctors further distinguished between the "guilt" and the
"penalty" of sin.[17] Sins were classified as "mortal" and
"venial." [18] Mortal sins for which the offender had not received
absolution were punished eternally, while venial sins were those
which merited only some smaller penalty; but when a mortal sin
was confessed and absolution granted, the guilt of the sin was
done away, and with it the eternal penalty. And yet the
absolution did not open the gate of heaven, though it closed the
door of hell; the eternal penalty was not to be exacted, but
there was a temporal penalty to be paid. The "satisfaction" was
the temporal penalty, and if satisfaction was in arrears at
death, the arrearage must be paid in purgatory, a place of
punishment for mortal sins confessed and repented, but
"unsatisfied," and for venial sins, which were not serious enough
to bring eternal condemnation. The penalties of purgatory were
"temporal," viz., they stopped somewhere this side of eternity,
and their duration could be measured in days and years, though
the number of the years might mount high into the thousands and
tens of thousands.

It was at this point that the practice of indulgences united with
the theory of the Sacrament of Penance. The indulgences had to do
with the "satisfaction." [19] They might be "partial," remitting
only a portion of the penalties, measured by days or years of
purgatory; or they might be "plenary," remitting all penalties
due in this world or the next. _In theory_, however, no
indulgence could remit the guilt or the eternal penalty of
sin,[20] and the purchaser of an indulgence was not only expected
to confess and be absolved, but he was also supposed to be _corde
contritus_, i. e., "truly penitent." [21] A rigid insistence on
the fulfilment of these conditions would have greatly restricted
the value of the indulgences as a means of gain, for the right to
hear confession and grant absolution belonged to the
parish-priests. Consequently, it became the custom to endow the
indulgence-vendors with extraordinary powers. They were given the
authority to hear confession and grant absolution wherever they
might be, and to absolve even from the sins which were normally
"r