Jubilee

Jubilee, among the Jews the Sabbatical year in which all land that had been sold was returned to the original owner, and those who had sold themselves for slaves were made free. It probably gets its name from the word yobel, a kind of horn with which it was proclaimed. A somewhat analogous institution was adopted bythe Latin Church under Pope Boniface VIII., personal emancipation being represented by remission from the penal consequences of sin. During the year 1300 indulgence was granted to all pilgrims who confessed their sins and visiteil the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul fifteen times, or if residents, thirty times. According to Boniface the Jubilee was to have been held every 100th year, but the interval was reduced by Clement VI. (1343) to fifty years, and by Urban VI. and Paul II. (1470) to twenty-five years. Paul II. appointed pilgrimages to churches in different countries, and enjoined the pilgrims to contribute towards the Holy Wars. Leo X. substituted the building of St. Peter's Church for the Holy Wars, and this, with the scandalous behaviour of some preachers of the indulgence, helped to bring about the Reformation. The word is also used to denote the fiftieth anniversary of anything; as the Jubilee of Queen Victoria's accession (1887), the Pope's Jubilee, 1893 (the fiftieth anniversary of his episcopate), and for various festivals.