Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Treasure House of Merit

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. Merge or move can be discussed in the usual fora. GRBerry 20:47, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Treasure House of Merit

Treasure_House_of_Merit (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) - (View log)

This article is completely bogus. The Treasure House of Merit simply does not exist. A simple google search will reveal this. The article claims it has to do with the Catholic teaching on Indulgences. If this were the case, it would show up in the Catholic Encyclopedia online. The fact that searching for "Treasure House of Merit" turns up 10 total results shows this concept is completely made up. Please delete this article promptly. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Philiplynch (talk • contribs) 2007/09/27 00:09:54

• This AfD nomination was incomplete. It is listed now. DumbBOT 12:11, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

• Keep The name of the article is odd, but the concept is historical. The refs to Luther's 95 Theses should validate the concept. There is also an entry, not under that exact name, in the The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology [1]). Yngvarr (t) (c) 12:24, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
• Keep, possibly rename? I found quite a few hits for "Treasury of Merit" rather than Treasure House, it seems to be the more common term for the same thing. MorganaFiolett 12:31, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
• Rename per MorganaFiolett. "Treasury of Merit" seems to be the most commonly used term. "Treasure of Merit" is also more widely used than the current title. --Moonriddengirl 12:35, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
• Keep but possibly rename, and clean-up and expand. Being a tenured professor with doctorate in theology I can confirm that the concept of "Treasure of Merit" exists, [2], [3], [4] etc. It played a part not only in Luther's condemnation of indulgences, but also for example in the Crusades: those brave Christian souls who dared to go to the Holy Land and fight the infidel were supposed to have their (non-mortal) sins [or rather temporal punishments incurred by those sins] canceled by merits drawn from this Treasury, a kind of storehouse of good deeds performed by saints 131.111.8.102 15:20, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Hmmh, "tenured professor with a doctorate in theology" reminds me of something...--Tikiwont 15:34, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

• Although Catholicism for Dummies does not seem to say much about it, the concept is real, nevertheless. I am not opposed to an intelligent merge, either with Works of supererogation, or Indulgence, or anything similar; all I am saying is that it is not a hoax, nor "completely bogus", nor "completely made up" stuff, as the nominator seems to think. To be sure, this is a fairly minor and historical Catholic doctrine, but it is real, nonetheless. 131.111.8.99 23:52, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

• Move to works of supererogation and merge and redirect the existing article on supererogation there, as well as this one, treasury of merit, and similar concepts. This article, while it can use some work, does a better job of explaining the historical meaning of "works of supererogation". - Smerdis of Tlön 18:12, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
• Rename or merge - The concept supererogation doesn't look so similar to me, so if we don't keep Treasure of merit as separate article, I'd rather merge into Indulgence which relates explicitly to it.--Tikiwont 20:49, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
• Keep and rename to something more standard--I wonder where this particular phrase comes from.together with the failure to provide references, it shows a somewhat unsophisticated understanding of the topic. Qe there really no related articles in WP under other headings to merge to.? DGG (talk) 05:18, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
  • References can easily be found. Here's, for example, an extract from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia at Wikisource, article on Indulgences [5], section entitled "The Treasury of the Church":

Christ, as St. John declares in his First Epistle, "is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." Since the satisfaction of Christ is infinite, it constitutes an inexhaustible fund which is more than sufficient to cover the indebtedness contracted by sin. Besides, there are the satisfactory works of the Blessed Virgin Mary undiminished by any penalty due to sin, and the virtues, penances, and sufferings of the saints vastly exceeding any temporal punishment which these servants of God might have incurred. These are added to the treasury of the Church as a secondary deposit, not independent of, but rather acquired through, the merits of Christ. The development of this doctrine in explicit form was the work of the great Schoolmen, notably Alexander of Hales (Summa, IV, Q. xxiii, m. 3, n. 6), Albertus Magnus (In IV Sent., dist. xx, art. 16), and St. Thomas (In IV Sent., dist. xx, q. i, art. 3, sol. 1). As Aquinas declares (Quodlib., II, q. vii, art. 16): " All the saints intended that whatever they did or suffered for God's sake should be profitable not only to themselves but to the whole Church." And he further points out (Contra Gent., III, 158) that what one endures for another being a work of love, is more acceptable as satisfaction in God's sight than what one suffers on one's own account, since this is a matter of necessity. The existence of an infinite treasury of merits in the Church is dogmatically set forth in the Bull "Unigenitus", published by Clement VI, 27 Jan., 1343, and later inserted in the "Corpus Juris" (Extrav. Com., lib. V, tit. ix. c. ii): "Upon the altar of the Cross ", says the pope, "Christ shed of His blood not merely a drop, though this would have sufficed, by reason of the union with the Word, to redeem the whole human race, but a copious torrent. . . thereby laying up an infinite treasure for mankind. This treasure He neither wrapped up in a napkin nor hid in a field, but entrusted to Blessed Peter, the key-bearer, and his successors, that they might, for just and reasonable causes, distribute it to the faithful in full or in partial remission of the temporal punishment due to sin." Hence the condemnation by Leo X of Luther's assertion that "the treasures of the Church from which the pope grants indulgences are not the merits of Christ and the saints" (Enchiridion, 757). For the same reason, Pius VI (1794) branded as false, temerarious, and injurious to the merits of Christ and the saints, the error of the synod of Pistoia that the treasury of the Church was an invention of scholastic subtlety (Enchiridion, 1541). According to Catholic doctrine, therefore, the source of indulgences is constituted by the merits of Christ and the saints. This treasury is left to the keeping, not of the individual Christian, but of the Church. Consequently, to make it available for the faithful, there is required an exercise of authority, which alone can determine in what way, on what terms, and to what extent, indulgences may be granted.

Although the current article clearly needs much work, the basic understanding of the doctrine there is fairly correct. 131.111.8.98 13:25, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

And here's more, from the Apostolic Constitution "Indulgentiarum Doctrina", from the Vatican site [6]:

Thus is explained the "treasury of the Church"(20) which should certainly not be imagined as the sum total of material goods accumulated in the course of the centuries, but the infinite and inexhaustible value the expiation and the merits of Christ Our Lord have before God, offered as they were so that all of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. It is Christ the Redeemer himself in whom the satisfactions and merits of his redemption exist and find their force.(21) This treasury also includes the truly immense, unfathomable and ever pristine value before God of the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, who following in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by his grace have sanctified their lives and fulfilled the mission entrusted to them by the Father. Thus while attaining their own salvation, they have also cooperated in the salvation of their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body.

So, good, reliable references can clearly be found for this doctrine. Perhaps "Treasury of the Church" is more commonly used term for this, but "Treasure of merit" or "Treasury of merits" is also very often used. 131.111.8.98 15:32, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.