The Collaborative International Dictionary
Plenary \Ple"na*ry\, a. [LL. plenarius, fr. L. plenus full. See Plenty.] Full; entire; complete; absolute; as, a plenary license; plenary authority.
A treatise on a subject should be plenary or full.
--I.
Watts.
Plenary indulgence (R. C. Ch.), an entire remission of temporal punishment due to, or canonical penance for, all sins.
Plenary inspiration. (Theol.) See under Inspiration.
Usage examples of "plenary indulgence".
A crusade, with plenary indulgence, was preached by his command against the schismatic Greeks: he excommunicated their allies and adherents.
In the council of Clermont, that pope proclaimed a plenary indulgence to those who should enlist under the banner of the cross.
A plenary indulgence was granted to anyone taking part in it, and Louis of Savoy, the inquisitors of Lombardy, the Archbishop of Milan were prompt to act.
Soldiers were acquitted, even on fully proved indictments for wilful murder, until at last the judges and magistrates had to announce that what was called the Unwritten Law, which meant simply that a soldier could do what he liked with impunity in civil life, was not the law of the land, and that a Victoria Cross did not carry with it a perpetual plenary indulgence.