Jubilee, Year of

JOWETT, JOHN HENRY: English Congregationalist; b. at Halifax, Yorkshire, Aug. 25, 1864. He was educated in Hipperholme grammar-school and in the universities of Edinburgh (1883-87) and Oxford (1888-89). His first ministerial charge was as minister of St. James' Congregational Church in Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he was settled from 1889 till 1895, when he was called to succeed Robert William Dale (q.v.) as minister of Carr's Lane Congregational Church in Birmingham, and has ever since ministered to that people. In the summer of 1909 he visited the United States and was a prominent speaker in the Northfield Conference. His publications embrace: From Strength to Strength (London, 1898); Meditations for Quiet Moments (1899); Brooks by the Traveller's Way: 26 Week-night Addresses (1902); Thirsting for Souls: 26 Week-night Meditations (1902); Yet Another Day: a Prayer for Every Day in the Year (1904); The Passion. for Souls (1905); The Epistles of Peter (1905); The Silver Lining (1907); The High Calling: Meditations on St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians (1909).

JUBILEE, YEAR OF: An institution of the Roman Catholic Church the origin of which is very closely connected with the tendency increasingly prevalent throughout the Middle Ages to make pilgrimages to the tombs of the apostles in Rome. Toward the end of the thirteenth century this tendency was stronger than ever, and the throng of pilgrims was increased by the rumor that on the first day of the new century a plenary indulgence might be obtained, and throughout the remainder of that year one valid for a hundred years. It was found impossible to trace the rumor to any authoritative source; but an aged peasant professed to remember that his father had gone to Rome a hundred years before to win a great indulgence, and had admonished him to look, if he were alive, for the recurrence of the opportunity a century later. Finally, Feb. 22, 1300, by the bull Antiquorum habet fidem, Boniface VIII. officially proclaimed a plenary indulgence that might be gained from Christmas throughout the next year, on condition of visits paid during thirty days by Romans, fifteen by strangers, to the basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul. Such indulgences bad never previously been granted for more than seven years, and this liberal extension caused immense crowds to throng to Rome. If there had been no other cause for

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the maintenance of the institution, the large revenues which flowed from it into not only the papal coffers but the pockets of the townspeople would have been a reason to await eagerly the time of its recurrence. In 1342 the Romans sent a deputation to Clement VI. at Avignon to ask him to shorten the interval to fifty years. The request was supported by St. Bridget of Sweden and by Petrarch, and in response to it the pope proclaimed a similar indulgence for 1350. In spite of the Black Death and the obstacles offered by the Hundred Years' War, a greater multitude visited Rome than on the first occasion. The pilgrimage was rendered more desirable by the suspension for the year of all the ordinary indulgences, and easier by the permission given to all conditions of men to make it without obtaining the leave of their immediate superiors; while those who were lawfully hindered from taking the journey might gain the indulgence by proxy. An innovation to be later of great importance was the granting of the indulgence to certain royalties without pilgrimage; the same privilege was conceded to the Augustinians assembled in chapter at Basel, and to the archbishop of Brindisi for thirty persons, these latter paying a sum equivalent to the cost of the visit to Rome. Urban VI. in the bull Salvator noster (Apr. 8, 1389) altered the period to thirty-three years, in honor of the earthly life of Christ. The third jubilee was thus held in 1390, and the fourth in 1423 under Martin V., this time with diminished numbers and not without protests such as had been heard at the councils of Pisa and Constance against the impoverishment of the nations by the avarice of the Curia. Nicholas V., returning to the older period, proclaimed the fifth jubilee for 1450.

Through the bull Ineffabilis (Apr. 19, 1470), having regard to the shortness of human life, Paul II. established the interval at twenty-five years. The sixth jubilee under Sixtus IV. in 1475 was comparatively poorly attended. The seventh, under Alexander VI. (1500), was more important, and in connection with it the ritual since in the main observed for the opening and closing of the "golden door" in the vestibule of St. Peter's was settled. The eighth, under Clement VII. (1525), was only notable for the sharp criticisms of Luther on the "bull of indiction." The ninth, proclaimed by Paul III. in 1549, shortly before his death, could not be inaugurated until the coronation of his successor Julius III., Feb. 22, 1550. The tenth, under Gregory XIII. (1575), was rendered notable by the lavish hospitality offered to the pilgrims by the Roman sodalities, and by the fact that the influence of the Reformation is seen in there being no mention of money payments. The succeeding jubilees, at regular intervals of twenty-five years from 1600 to 1775, present no special features. The troublous situation did not allow one to be held, in 1800, and the nineteenth, proclaimed by Leo XII. in 1825, found few participants from outside, of Italy. After a break of seventy-five years, the twentieth was held with all the traditional ceremonies under Leo XIII. in 1900. For the Year of Jubilee among the Hebrews, see SABBATICAL YEAR AND YEAR OF JUBILEE.

(T. KOLDE.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. C. Lea. History' of Auricular Confession and Indulgences, vol. iii., Philadelphia, 1896: F. Beringer, Die Ablasse, ihr Wesen und Gebrauch, Paderborn, 1895; Creighton, Papacy, i. 30, 103, 113, 166-167, ii. 115, iv. 79, v. 8-9, vi. 68-75; V. Prinzivalli, Gli anni santi, Rome, 1899; A. de Waal, Das heilige Jahr in Rom, Frankfort, 1899; J. C. Hedley, The Holy Year, London, 1900; H. Thurston, The Holy Year of Jubilee, ib. 1900.