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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
indulgence
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Swiss chocolate is my only indulgence.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Indulgence

Indulgence \In*dul"gence\, v. t. To grant an indulgence to.

Indulgence

Indulgence \In*dul"gence\, n. [L. indulgentia: cf. F. 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. (R. C. Ch.) 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.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
indulgence

mid-14c., "freeing from temporal punishment for sin," from Old French indulgence or directly from Latin indulgentia "complaisance, fondness, remission," from indulgentem (nominative indulgens) "indulgent, kind, tender, fond," present participle of indulgere "be kind, yield," of unknown origin; perhaps from in- "in" + derivative of PIE root *dlegh- "to engage oneself."\n

\nSense of "gratification of another's desire or humor" is attested from late 14c. That of "yielding to one's inclinations" (technically self-indulgence) is from 1640s. In British history, Indulgence also refers to grants of certain liberties to Nonconformists under Charles II and James II, as special favors rather than legal rights; specifically the Declarations of Indulgence of 1672, 1687, and 1688 in England and 1669, 1672, and 1687 in Scotland.

Wiktionary
indulgence

n. 1 the act of indulging 2 tolerance 3 catering to someone's every desire 4 something in which someone indulges 5 An indulgent act; favour granted; gratification. 6 (context Roman Catholicism English) A pardon or release from the expectation of punishment in purgatory, after the sinner has been granted absolution. vb. (context transitive English) (''Roman Catholic Church'') to provide with an indulgence

WordNet
indulgence
  1. n. an inability to resist the gratification of whims and desires [syn: self-indulgence]

  2. a disposition to yield to the wishes of someone; "too much indulgence spoils a child" [syn: lenience, leniency]

  3. the act of indulging or gratifying a desire [syn: indulging, pampering, humoring]

  4. foolish or senseless behavior [syn: folly, foolery, tomfoolery, craziness, lunacy]

  5. the remission by the pope of the temporal punishment in purgatory that is still due for sins even after absolution; "in the Middle Ages the unrestricted sale of indulgences by pardoners became a widespread abuse"

Wikipedia
Indulgence

In the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, an indulgence is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins" which may reduce either or both of the penance required after a sin has been forgiven, or after death, the temporal punishment, (not "time," as Purgatory like Heaven and Hell is said to exist "outside of time,") in the state or process of purification called Purgatory.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes an indulgence as "a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints".

The recipient of an indulgence must perform an action to receive it. This is most often the saying (once, or many times) of a specified prayer, but may also include the visiting of a particular place, or the performance of specific good works.

Indulgences were introduced to allow for the remission of the severe penances of the early Church and granted at the intercession of Christians awaiting martyrdom or at least imprisoned for the faith. They draw on the Treasury of Merit accumulated by Christ's superabundantly meritorious sacrifice on the cross and the virtues and penances of the saints. They are granted for specific good works and prayers in proportion to the devotion with which those good works are performed or prayers recited.

By the late Middle Ages, the abuse of indulgences, mainly through commercialization, had become a serious problem which the Church recognized but was unable to restrain effectively. Indulgences were from the beginning of the Protestant Reformation a target of attacks by Martin Luther and all other Protestant theologians. Eventually the Catholic Counter-Reformation curbed the excesses, but indulgences continue to play a role in modern Catholic religious life. Reforms in the 20th century largely abolished the quantification of indulgences, which had been expressed in terms of days or years. These days or years were meant to represent the equivalent of time spent in penance, although it was widely taken to mean time spent in Purgatory. The reforms also greatly reduced the number of indulgences granted for visiting particular churches and other locations.

Usage examples of "indulgence".

I think Papa will agree that Arabella is a good girl, and deserves this indulgence more than any of you.

Indulgence to the effect following, namely, that as long as they continue in the verity of the faith, the unity of the Holy Roman Church, in obedience and in devotion to your holiness and your successors, the Chief Pontiffs of the Holy Roman Church, who shall be canonically elected, so long a suitable Confessor chosen by them shall have power under the authority of the Apostolic See to grant to them when in articulo mortis full remission of all sin which they may have confessed with contrition of heart.

Armed with this, the Wittenberg professor appeared before Cajetan at Augsburg, was asked to recant two of his statements on indulgences, and refused.

He had been amused to note that there was a night not long after the night of Optol when he had urged her to abstain from further indulgence in a certain diversion that had no name that anyone used, an Avernian pleasure the penalties against which were so severe that one would not compromise himself so far as admitting that he knew it existed and was practiced.

When that business was over, he applied to Miss Bingley and Elizabeth for the indulgence of some music.

After devoting some ten minutes to steady brainwork she permitted herself the indulgence of a few tears.

That, in the company of innumerable small and wounded animals, bums on the street, near-dying and lost to God, he was only another means to grace or indulgence for Fina.

To him the conquest of Paris meant greedy indulgence in the coarsest pleasures such as he had dreamt of in his village.

If that be not the case I count on the indulgence of my readers, who should remember that I have only written my story to prevent my going mad in the midst of all the petty insults and disagreeables which I have to bear day by day from the envious rascals who live with me in this castle of Count Waldstein, or Wallenstein, at Dux.

Or rather, she had had the wit to learn that Miss Dunstable was to be won, not by the indulgence of caprice, but by free and easy intercourse, with a dash of fun, and, at any rate, a semblance of honesty.

But your benevolent countenance, so different from those to which I have been long accustomed, fills me with such confidence, that I dare hope for your indulgence, when I intreat you to spare yourself a useless labour, and to leave in peace the last hours of my life.

The chief steward, like a dame on breaking-up day, had unearthed dainties from the depths of his lazarette that gave an air of Sunday festivity to the dessert--notably the ginger, stringy and lacksyrupy, and a pyramid of shrivelled apples, sacred hitherto to Sabbath indulgences.

To indulge somewhat, I repeat: for whoever allow themselves much of that indulgence, incur the risk of something worse than disparaging speeches- they are in peril of a commission de lunatico, and of having their property taken from them and given to their relations.

Accept then the offering and render happy he who makes it with your indulgence.

On the other hand, intemperate indulgence not only prevents fruitfulness, but ultimately, if persisted in, renders the husband entirely impotent, and undermines and destroys the constitution of the wife.