Des usages de la grace began as papers delivered at three conferences on indulgences held in France in 2016, 2017 and 2018; they marked the five-hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The volume contains the contributions of twenty-eight historians, most of whom have written about the French history of indulgences from High Middle Ages to the meeting of the Second Vatican Council.

The book begins with an account of the historiography of indulgences. The contributors focus on the practice of indulgences, rather than their historical theology. The contextualization of indulgences is the great strength of this volume, putting “flesh and blood” on the subject. The narrow focus of the articles means that they will be most useful by scholars who are conducting advanced study. That a number of the articles treat indulgences of the last three centuries constitutes another strength. This last group of studies likewise highlights the strong continuities in the history of indulgences. Most modern indulgences were granted for much the same reasons as their medieval antecedents. Modern bishops and popes hoped to encourage pilgrimages, devotions, and works of charity through grants of indulgence. One point of departure came in the period after the French Revolution, when some prelates hoped to demonstrate the continuing vitality of Catholicism through indulgences. In the twentieth century, some modern bishops hoped that pardons might wither be abrogated, for they believed indulgences to be embarrassing archaisms. This view had its sympathizers, but they ran up against the strength of tradition. The reformers could not even employ the Second Vatican Council against indulgences; the best they could do was to win a promise from the Vatican to study the issue after the council adjourned. Paul VI honored that request, but instead of repudiating indulgences, he published a set of guidelines for the distribution of indulgences that owed much to historical theology and practice.

The articles included in this collection have been carefully crafted. The authors and editors are to be commended for extending what is known about indulgences, particularly for the modern period.