Kiss the crucifix for an indulgence. Suitable for cutting out. Unrecorded.

[Indulgence]. Wer das Crucifix mit andacht Cisset ist von Pabst Joannes den 4ten ein Jahr und 40 tag ablas verlichen worden. S.l.: s.n., s.a. [18th century]. [21.0 x 10.0 cm], [1] f. engraving. Trimmed on or just inside platemark, bottom left corner clipped, pinholes from mounting, minor toning and staining.
 
 
Unrecorded 18th-century German etching of a crucifix, the base of which carries an inscription advising its owner that an indulgence of 1 year and 40 days of relief from purgatory were granted by Pope John IV (640-42) to those who devoutly kissed a crucifix. The printed image here is suitable for cutting out and pasting to a hand-held wooden cross, but in this example, pinholes indicate that the sheet was formerly affixed to a wall or a piece of furniture. I see no evidence of kissing.
 
The print depicts Christ suffering on the cross, with the INRI titulus (Jesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum) visible at the top of the cross. The Virgin Mary, depicted as the Virgin of Sorrows with her heart pierced by a sword, gazes up at him.
 
The attribution of a 1 year, 40 day indulgence to Pope John IV is an error or a willful elision by the printmaker, who had only a very small space to add text. It is known that Pope John XXII (1249-1344) granted a 1-year indulgence and that Pope Clement IV (1190-1268) granted a 40-day indulgence to those who devoutly kissed a crucifix. This etching conflates the popes and compresses the two indulgences into one.
 
Small indulgence prints of this sort (Ablasszetteln) were produced in great numbers in the early modern period, but today individual examples are very rare. Their low survival rates no doubt results from the tendency of owners to carry them about as amulets or to use them (or, as here, to kiss them) to pieces. This example likely owes its survival to not being cut out and pasted as intended. 
 
The 1-year and 40-day indulgences were widely known from at least the middle of the 18th century through their inclusion in Lucius Ferrari’s (1687-1763) Prompta Bibliotheca canonica, juridica, moralis, theologica … (1746) and they were acted out in both private and public spaces: In the first half of the 19th century, W. M. Gould wrote of Padua, “In many parts of the city, I noticed small crosses sculpted upon blocks of marble fixed in the walls of houses and churches, and observed those figures to be habitually kissed by all classes. The advantage connected with this operation is fully explained in the following inscription: ‘Indulgenza di giorni quaranta dal Sommo Pontifice Giovanni XXII., e di un anno da Papa Clemente IV., a chi biacciera a S. Croce.’ ‘Indulgence of forty days conceded by the High Pontiff John XXII., and of one year by Pope Clement IV., to whoever shall kiss the Holy Cross’” (Zephyrs from Italy and Sicily [1850], p. 250).
 
 
This print is not located by OCLC, KVK, Omnia, or the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek.
 
*A. Spamer, Das kleine Andachtsbild vom XIV bis zum XX Jahrhundert; Horst Heres, Das private Andachtsbild: Devotionale, Andenken, Amulett.