II. 14.

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consider it extremely probable that such is the case.
a) The phrase employed by the Florentine Council, "animas poenis purgatoriis purgari" seems to point to the existence of some positive torment over and above the poena damnu This assumption gains strength from the concurrent teaching of the Fathers and Schoolmen.
The difficulty begins when we attempt to ascertain the precise nature of the sensitive pain experienced by the poor souls. The Church has issued no definition with regard to the existence of a purgatorial fire, and hence nothing can be asserted on this head as of faith or even as fidei proximum. When Cardinal Bessarion at the Council of Florence argued against the existence of a real fire in Purgatory, the Greeks were assured that the Roman Church had never pronounced dogmatically on the subject, and nothing was said about it in the Decree of Union. The Greek view that Purgatory is a place of darkness, smoke, and mourning (locus caliginis, tenebra- rum, turbinis, moeroris) is too vague to enable us to form any positive idea as to its nature. 6
b) In the Western Church belief in the exist- ence of a material purgatorial fire, analogous to the fire of a Hell, is common. Hence the name "ignis purgatorius" ( German, Fegefeuer) . This view derives a certain probability from i Cor. Ill, ii sqq.
6 On the teaching of the Russian der Auffassung der russischen Or- schismatics see A. Bukowski, S.J., thodoxie, pp. 143 sqq., Paderborn Die Genugtuung fUr die S&nde nach 19".
86 THE LAST THINGS OF MAN
a) In warning the faithful of Corinth against cer- tain dangerous doctrines that were propagated among them, the Apostle says : " Foundation can no man lay other than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if a man buildeth upon the foundation, [whether it be] gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass [or] straw, — the work of each man shall become mani- fest. For the Day shall declare it, because [that day] is to be disclosed in fire, and the worth of each man's work shall that fire assay. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive reward: if any man's work be burnt up, he shall lose his reward, but himself shall be saved, yet as [one that hath passed] through fire." 7 No doubt the test by fire is quite as much a figure of speech as building upon a foundation of gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass o.r straw. But the concluding sentence, which asserts that a man shall be saved as through fire, seems to indicate that there is a real fire in Purgatory. 8
P) The Pauline passage is interpreted literally by some of the Fathers. Thus St. Ambrose writes : " When Paul says, ' yet as through fire/ he means that he will indeed be saved, but will have to suffer the pain of fire, in order that, purged by fire, he be saved." • St. Augustine, on
7 i Cor. Ill, i2 sqq.: El 84 rtf iwoucotiopei iwl rbv OefxfKiov rovrov Xpv Zv\a, x^prop, Ka\dfir)v, ixdarov rb tpyov ilfiipa drjXwaei, Bti ip irvpl diroica- Xtorerait koI kK&arov rb ipyop bwoiSp itrriv, rb wvp boKin&vei- Ef tipos rb tpyov ficvci 8 iwoiKO- dSfirjffep, fiurObp X^i^ercu* et nvos rb ipyop KaraicaJjffeTai, topuoBJiffe- rait airbs 6k in 5ia trvp6s.
8 On i Cor. XII, n sqq., see Bell-
armine, De Purgatorio, I, 5; Al. Schafer, Erklarung der beiden Brief e an die Korinther, pp. 70 sqq.; J. MacRory, The Epistles of St. Paul to the Corinthians, Part I, pp. 38 sqq.; Hugh Pope, O.P., in the Irish Theoh Quarterly, Vol. IV (1909), No. 16, pp. 44X-4S6.
9 In Ps. t 118: "Quum Paulus d«- tit: 'sic tarn en, quasi per ignem, ostendit quidem ilium salvum fu- turum, sed poenam ignis passurum, ut per ignetn purgatus Hat salvus."
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the other hand, interprets the phrase " quasi per ignem " figuratively, applying it to " the fiery furnace of earthly tribulations." Origen says : " Whoever is saved, is saved through fire, in order that, if he contains an admixture of dross, it be dissolved by fire, so that all may become solid gold." 10 This passage and another similar one in Ori- gen's writings 11 show that he regarded the purgatorial fire as a figure of speech. In this he followed his master, Clement of Alexandria, who called Purgatory " a spiritual fire." 12 On the whole it may be said that the number of Greek Fathers who believe in the existence of a real fire in Purgatory is quite small. Among the Fathers of the Latin Church some favor the literal interpretation. Thus St. Gregory the Great speaks of those who after this life " will expiate their faults by purgatorial flames," and adds that the pain will be more intense than any that can be suffered in this life. 18 * In another place he says : " But it must be believed that there is a purgatorial fire for [the expiation of] venial sins before the [Gen- eral] Judgment." 14 But even in the West there is not a sufficient consensus patrum for a solid argument from Tradition.
y) This fact did not, however, prevent the Scholastics from confidently asserting the existence of a material fire in Purgatory. The value of their teaching is discounted by the fact that they were uncritical, ascribed too much importance to unauthenticated visions and private rev- elations, and tried to prove the reality of the purga- torial fire from the existence of volcanoes, and so forth. We need not wonder, in view of such insufficient argu-
10 Horn, in Exod., 6. uDial., IV, 39: " Sed tamen
11 De Principiis, II, 10. de quibusdam levibus culpis ante
12 rh p6vifio» irvp. (Stromato, indicium [universale] . esse purga- VII, 6). tortus ignis credendus est."
13 Pj. HI Poenit., n. x.
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ments, that a number of modern theologians (e. g. Klee, Mohler, Dieringer) deny, or at least doubt, the exist- ence of a material fire in Purgatory. However, it is well to remember, in the words of Cardinal Bellarmine, that " If there is no real fire, there will be something much more terrible, which God has prepared in order to demon- strate His power. ,, 15
3. How the Poor Souls are Cleansed in Purgatory. — Clement of Alexandria taught 16 that the poor souls can effect their own spiritual amendment by submitting patiently to the tor- ments of Purgatory. 17 Whatever we may hold on this subject, one thing is certain, namely, that no merits can be acquired in Purgatory, 18
A more important and more practical problem is, how the poor souls expiate their venial sins and the punishments due to their forgiven mortal sins, and how they get rid of their evil habits.
a) Forgiveness of venial sins can be obtained in three different ways : ( 1 ) by unconditional re- mission on the part of God; (2) by suffering and the performance of penitential works, and (3) by an act of contrition.
(1) Absolutely speaking, God can forgive all sins un- conditionally. But in the present economy He has chosen to make contrition a condition of forgiveness, and hence it
15 De Purg., II, 14: "Si ibi est ostendere voluit."
verus ignis, erit otnnino acerrimus i« See Stromata, VII, 12.
. . . si non ignis verus, erit aliquid it devripa icai8ela>
multo horribilius, quale Deus parare 1* Cfr. Oswald, Eschatologie, p.
potuit, qui potentiam suam in hoc xij.
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is not reasonable to suppose that venial sins are forgiven unconditionally in Purgatory.
(2) What does God demand of the poor souls as a condition of forgiveness? Can it be mere passive suf- fering (satis passio) ? This might wipe out the reatus poenae, but it could never wipe out the reatus culpae, of which a sinner can rid himself only by an act of contrition (motus displicentiae) . Hence the only means by which venial sins can be forgiven in Purgatory is contrition. St. Thomas says : " Venial sins are remit- ted after this life, even with regard to guilt, in the same way in which they are remitted in this life, namely, by an act of charity towards God, expressing re- pugnance for the venial sins committed in this life. However, since it is no longer possible to acquire merits in the world beyond, such an act of love, while it removes the impediment of venial guilt, does not deserve absolu- tion or a decrease of punishment." 19
When does the soul make the act of contrition which wipes out venial sin? Most probably immediately after its separation from the body, when the soul is for the first time alone with God. 20 Some theologians, however, think that the process of purgation is gradual. 21
b) It is not difficult to understand how the tem- poral punishments due to sin are expiated in Pur- gatory. The soul is no longer able to make satis-
19 De Malo, qu. 7, art. iz: dilectionis motus in eis tollit quid em
" Venialia remit tuntur eis post hanc impedimentum venialis culpae, non
vitatn etiam quantum ad culpam eo tamen meretur absolutionem vel di-
modo, quo remittuntur in hac vita, minutionem poenae/*
scil. per actum caritatis in Deum re* 20 Cfr. Suarez, Comment in S.
pugnantem venialibus in hac vita TheoL, III, disp. 11, sect. 4.
commissi*. Quia tamen post hanc 21 Cfr. Fr. Schmid, Die Seelen-
vitam non est status merendi, ill* lauterung %m Jenseits, Brixcn 1907.
90 THE LAST THINGS OF MAN
faction, and hence can atone only by suffering. This suffering, technically called satis passio, 22 has neither meritorious nor satisfactory value be- cause the poor souls are no longer able to do any- thing for themselves, but have entered into the night "in which no man can labor/'
The duration of Purgatory is entirely a matter of con- jecture. Some theologians think that the poor souls are detained for a long time; others, that the period of purgation is brief. The truth probably lies between these two extremes. God, being infinitely just, owes it to Himself to punish every sin according to its guilt and to exclude from Heaven whatever is unclean. But He is also infinitely merciful, and His mercy has provided an effective means of shortening the sufferings of the poor souls through the intercession of the Church and the faithful on earth.
Dominicus Soto and Maldonatus maintained that no one remains in Purgatory longer than ten years. This view is untenable, and one of the practical conclusions drawn from it, namely, that legacies for the saying of masses for the dead become invalid after ten years, has been formally condemned by Alexander VII. 28 How- ever, from her acceptance of unlimited mass stipends it does not follow that the Church believes the sufferings of the poor souls in Purgatory to be of extremely long dura- tion. God, in consideration of a great number of masses and suffrages which He has foreseen from all eternity, may release a soul immediately after death. On the other
22 On the nature of satispassio see 1666, prop. 43 : " Annuum legatum
St. Bonaventure, Comment, in Sent, pro anima relictum non durat plus
IV, dist. 20, p. x t art. x, qu. 3. quam per decern annos," (Den.
2* Prop. Damn, die 18, Martii, zinger-Bannwart, n. 1x43).
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9i
hand, no one can be sure that Purgatory does not last for centuries in the case of souls who enter eternity with an exceptionally heavy load of venial sins and temporal punishments.
The faithful who will be alive at the second coming of our Lord will not, of course, be able to expiate their venial sins and temporal punishments in Purgatory, for there will be no Purgatory after the Last Judgment. With regard to these survivors it is piously believed that God will grant them a general indulgence, or that the tribulations and sufferings they will have to undergo will make up for their deficiencies.
c) A word concerning the evil habits which re- main in the soul after conversion.
There are two classes of evil habits (habitus), viz.: those which are rooted in the sensitive faculties (drunk- enness, impurity, etc.), and those which are based on the spiritual powers of the will (pride, excessive ambi- tion, etc.). The former are eradicated as it were auto- matically at the moment of death, when the sensitive fac- ulties become inoperative. The latter accompany the soul into Purgatory, but are probably destroyed by an act of love elicited at the threshold of eternity. Should these habits continue to exist in Purgatory, there can be no doubt that they are eventually cast off at the gate of Heaven. They cannot be expiated by suffering because they have already been the subject of contrition, and, like concupiscence, are neither sins nor deserving of punishment.