SECTION I

THE EXISTENCE OF PURGATORY
i. Definition. — Purgatory (purgatorium) signifies a process of cleansing.
a) Whether it is a place or a state is a contro- verted question. The poor souls are in a state of transi- tion, but it is not necessary to hold that they are confined in any particular place. St. Thomas intimates that Pur- gatory is somehow " connected with Hell." 1 We might with equal probability argue that it is connected with Heaven, because the poor souls are children of God, who are sure sooner or later to be admitted to the abode of the Blessed. 2
b) Not all who depart this life in the state of grace are fit to enter forthwith into the beatific vision of God. Some are burdened with venial transgressions. Others have not yet fully ex-
1 Summa The oh, Appendix, qu. z, be, Dt Purgatorio, II, 6. That art. 2. Purgatory is situated in the bowels
2 The various views regarding the of the earth is as undemonstrable as location of Purgatory are set forth the location of Heaven and Hell, by Cardinal Bellarmine in his treat-
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piated the temporal punishments due to their sins. 8 It Would be repugnant to divine justice to admit such souls to Heaven, into which, according to Holy Writ, nothing defiled shall enter. 4 Nor can God in his justice consign these souls to Hell. Hence there must be a middle state in which they are cleansed of venial sins, or, if they have not yet fully paid the temporal punishments due to their forgiven sins, must expiate the remainder of them. St. Thomas says: 'There may be some impediment on the part of the good in the way of their souls receiving their final reward in the vis- ion of God immediately upon their departure from the body. To that vision, transcending as it does all natural created capacity, the creature cannot be raised before it is entirely purified : hence it is said that nothing defiled can enter into it (Wisd. VII, 25), and that the polluted shall not pass through it (Is. XXXV, 8). Now the pollution of the soul is by sin, which is an inordinate union with lower things ; from which pollution it is puri- fied in this life by Penance and other Sacraments. Now it happens sometimes that this process of purification is not entirely accomplished in this life, and the offender remains still a debtor with a debt of punishment upon him, owing to some neg-
8Cfr. Condi Trident, Sess. IV, can. 30; Pohlc-Preuss, The Sacra- ments, Vol. Ill, p. up.
4 Apoc. XXI, 27 : " Non intrabit
in earn £ scil. civitateni] aliquot coin- quinatum, aut abomination*** fa* ciens, ef mendacium . . ."
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ligence or distraction, or to death overtaking him before his debt is paid. Not for this does he de- serve to be entirely shut out from reward : because all this may happen without mortal sin, and it is only mortal sin that occasions the loss of charity, to which the reward of life everlasting is due. Such persons, then, must be cleansed in the next life, before entering upon their eternal reward. This cleansing is done by penal inflictions, as even in this life it might have been completed by penal works of satisfaction: otherwise the negligent would be better off than the careful, if the penalty that men do not pay here for their sins is not to be undergone by them in the life to come. The souls, then, of the good, who have upon them in this world something that needs cleansing, are kept back from their reward, while they endure cleansing purgatorial pains. And this is the rea- son why we posit a purgatory or place of cleans- ing." 6
Purgatory may therefore be defined as a state of temporary punishment for those who, depart- ing this life in the grace of God, are not entirely free from venial sins or have not yet fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.
2. Proof from Revelation. — The existence of Purgatory was denied by Aerius in the fourth
5 Summa c. Gent, IV, 91. (Rickaby, Of God and His Creatures, p. 415.)
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century, by the Albigenses, Waldenses, and Hus- sites in the Middle Ages, and more recently by Luther and Calvin. 6 Calvin termed the Catholic dogma " a pernicious invention of Satan, which renders the cross of Christ useless." 7 This teach- ing of the Reformers is quite consistent with their false idea of justification. If a man is justified by faith alone, and all his sins are "covered up" by the grace of Christ, there can be nothing left for him to expiate after death.
The Church defined the existence of Purgatory in the Decree of Union adopted at Florence (1439), by saying that "the souls are cleansed by purgatorial pains after death, and in order that they may be rescued from these pains, they are benefitted by the suffrages of the living faithful, viz.: the sacrifice of the Mass, prayers, alms, and other works of piety." 8 The Council of Trent repeated this definition in substance : . . The Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has, from the sacred writings and the ancient tra- dition of the Fathers, taught in sacred councils, and very recently in this ecumenical Synod, 9 that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls detained
6 Cfr. Bellarmine, De Purgatorio, iusmodi releventur, prodesse eis
I, 2. fide Hum vivorum suffragia, missarum
7 u BxitiaIe satanae commentum, scil. sacrificia, orationes et elemosy-
quod Christi crucem evacuat." nas et alia pietatis oMcia" (Denz-
(Inst., Ill, 5, 9 6). inger-Bannwart, n. 693).
8" Animas poenis purgatoriis post 9 Sess. VI, can. 30; Sess. XXII,
mortem purgari et, ut a poenis hu~ cap. 2 and 3.
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in it are helped by the suffrages of the faith- ful." 10 Pope Leo X solemnly condemned Lu- ther's assertion that "Purgatory cannot be proved from the canonical Scriptures." 11
a) The scriptural locus classicus for our dogma is 2 Mach. XII, 43 sqq. When Judas had put Gorgias to flight, and came with his company to take away the bodies of the slain, he found that some of them had under their coats treasures which they had robbed from the idols of Jamnia. In committing this robbery the soldiers had probably been moved by avarice rather than idolatrous intent. Yet their conduct was plainly a transgression of the Mosaic law, which said: "Their graven things thou shalt burn with fire; thou shalt not covet the silver and gold of which they are made, neither shalt thou make to thee any thing thereof, lest thou offend, because it is an abomination to the Lord thy God." 13 However, what these soldiers had done was not necessarily a mortal sin, and so Judas and his men, after bless- ing the just judgment of God, betook themselves to prayer, and "making a gathering [taking up a collection], he sent twelve thousand drachmas of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead." Both Judas and his
XO Seas. XXV: " Purgaiorium U Prop. Damn, a Leone X., prop.
esse animasque ibi detentas Udelium 37: "Purgatorium non potest pro-
suftragiis, potissimum vero acceptor bari ex Scripturo, quae sit in ca-
bili altaris sacrificio iuvari." (Den- none."
zingcr-Bannwart, n. 983). 12 Deut. VII, 25.
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people, as well as the priests of the Temple, evi- dently believed that those who die in the grace of God can obtain forgiveness of venial sins and temporal punishments through the suf- frages of the living. This belief is confirmed by the sacred writer when he adds : "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought 13 to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." 14
Protestants deny the cogency of this argument on the ground that the Book of Machabees is apocryphal. But the historical authenticity of the incident sufficiently proves that belief in Purgatory, so far from being an in- vention of the " Papists," was common among the Jews long before the beginning of the Christian era. 15
From the New Testament we will quote the remarkable utterance of our Lord recorded in Matth. XII, 32: "Whosoever shall speak . . . against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world, nor in the world to come." 16 The "world to come" /acAAov) plainly means life after death. Hence, ac- cording to our Saviour's own testimony, there must be some sins that are forgiven after death. 17
18 fold Kol €V
i*r>}S Apaprlas auroXvOrjvat' (a Mach. XII. 45).
IB Cfr. Mayer, Das Judentutn, pp. 465 sqq.» Ratisbon 1893.
10 Matth. XII, 32: "Qui autem dixerit {verbum] contra Spiritum sanctum, non remittetur ei neque in hoc saeculo neque in futuro,"
17 This interpretation is favored by Augustine (De Civ. Dei, XXI, 24) and other Fathers (see Hurter, Compendium Thcol. Dogmat., Vol. Ill, n. 823). St. Gregory the Great, #. g., teaches: "In qua sententia datur intellegi, quasdam culpas in hoc saeculo, quasdam veto in futuro posse relaxari." (Dial, IV, 29).
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b) The belief of the early Church is evident from the immemorial custom of praying for the dead, offering the Holy Sacrifice, and giving alms for their benefit.
Tertullian mentions anniversary masses for the dead. 18 That he had Purgatory in mind appears from his advice to a widow, " to pray for the soul of her husband, beg- ging repose for him, and ... to have sacrifice offered up for him every year on the day of his death." 19
This pious custom is confirmed by many sepulchral inscriptions found in the catacombs, in which the de- parted ask for the prayers of their surviving friends or beg God for " peace and refreshment." 20
The Fathers expressly inculcate the doctrine which inspired these pious practices. In the Acts of St. Per- petua we read that she beheld her brother Dinocrates, who had died a heathen and was " suffering terrible torments, released from the place of punishment through her prayers." 21 St. Basil affirms the existence of " a place for the purification of souls " and of " a cleansing fire." 22 St. Augustine appeals to his friends to pray for his pious mother, St. Monica, and instructs them as to the most effective way of helping her soul. 28 There is no doubt," he says in another place, " that the dead are
18 De Corona Mil., 3 : " Obla- tiones pro dtfunctis annua die fact- mus."
.10 De Monogamia, 10: "Debet pro anima eius orare et refrigerium interim adpostulare ei et . . . of- fer re annuls diebus dormitionis suae." — For other Patristic testimo- nies see Pohle-Preuss, The Sacra- ments, Vol. II, pp. 376 sq.
20 " Pax et refrigeration* as #. g. in the formula: " Spintum tuum
Deus refrigeret." — Cfr. Kraus, Real- ensyklopadie der Christ lichen Alter- turner, Vol. II, s. v. " Refrigerium," Freiburg 1886; J. P. Kirsch, Die Akklamationen und Gebete der alt- christlichen Grabinschriften, Co- logne 1898.
21 Acta Martyr. S. Perpetuae et Socior.
22 x^plov Kadapicfiov y/nfx^'* — KaOdpotov irvp. (/» Is., IX, 19).
23 Confess., IX, 13.
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aided by the prayers of holy Church, by the salutary sacri- fice, and by the alms which are poured out for their souls." 24
These passages from the writings of the Fathers could easily be multiplied. Even Calvin was constrained to admit that the custom of praying for the dead may be traced to the early days of Christianity. 25 Thinking Prot- estants keenly feel the gap in their theological system caused by the denial of Purgatory. Thus Dr. Hase says : " Most people when they die are probably too good for Hell, yet surely too bad for Heaven. It must be frankly confessed that the Protestantism of the Reformers is un- clear on this point, its justified denial [ ?] not yet having advanced to the stage of affirmation." 29 The Catholic dogma in this as in so many other cases agrees per- fectly with the postulates of reason.
24 Sermones, 172: " Orationibus sanctae Ecclesiae et sacrificio salu- tari et elemosynis, quae pro eorum spiritibus erogantur, non est dubi- tandum mortuos adiuvari, ut cum eis misericordius agatur a Domino, quam eorum peccata meruerunt; hoe enim a Patribus traditum universa observat Ecclesia," (Cfr. the same writer's Bnchirid., 60). — The argu- ment from Tradition is developed more fully by Pesch, Praelect, Dog- mat., Vol. IX, 2nd ed., pp. 283 sqq.
25 Inst., Ill, s, I 10: " Ante mille
et trecentos annos usu receptum fuit, ut precationes Herent pro defunctis."
26 Handbuch der protestantischen Polemik gegen die romisck-kath. Kir c he, p. 445, Leipzig 1862: ">Die meisten Sterbenden sind wohl su gut fUr die Holle, aber sicker su schlecht fUr den Himmel. Man muss often zugestehen, doss hier im reformatory schen Protestantismus eine Unklor- heit vorliegt, indent seine berechtigte Verneinung nock nicht zur Be- jahung fortgeschritten war,"
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