editions 2. It seems also agreed that its larger influence dates from S. François de Sales' enthusiastic commendation of it. But it was in the latter part of the next century that it received the approval of the Sorbonne (A. 1666); the authentic approbation of the work by the Congregation of rites at Rome was not until 1675. Bellarmine, although he extols the Beata personally in his "De Arte Moriendi," takes no notice of her doctrine of Purgatory. Since the time of S. Fr. de Sales it has had influence even outside the Roman communion. Perrone traces to it the confession of Leibnitz,

"Almost all agree in a fatherly chastisement or purifying after this life (of whatsoever sort it be) which the souls themselves, on their departure from the body, being illumined, and seeing thoroughly then the imperfection of their past life and the foulness of sin, touched with exceeding sorrow, invite to themselves willingly, and would not wish to attain in any other way to the summit of beatitude. For many have excellently noted that this purifying affliction of the soul, thinking over its acts, is voluntary; among others there is a remarkable passage of [Luis] of Grenada, which brought great consolation to Philip II. in his last illness."

Perrone himself lays down in much the same terms as Veron and the De Walenburchs the points which are alone de fide and what are not de fide; among

2 Acta S. 1. c.

Præf. fin.

4 System. Theol. p. 350, quoted by Perrone, "De Deo Creatore," P. 3. c. 6. art. 2, p. 309, note. He subjoins, "These things he seems to have drawn from that most beautiful tract which S. Catherine of Genoa wrote on Purgatory."

118 An intermediate preparation for seeing

the alternative allowed beliefs is that of S. Catherine,

"As to Purgatory, these two points only are "de fide;" 1) its existence; 2) the benefit of suffrages. All then which relate to place, duration, quality of punishment, do not at all belong to the Catholic faith, or have not been defined by the Church. Whether there is any determined place or no; where it is; whether souls are to be detained in purgatory a short or long time; whether the fire of purgatory is material or metaphorical, i. e. whether it consists in a certain sadness of the soul, arising from the consideration of the past life, the foulness of sin, or other causes, on ground of which this purifying affliction is voluntary and much longed for by them."

In this aspect, I think that the doctrine of a temporary delay after death, in which the soul should be prepared for the sight of God, would commend itself to the consciences of any who had ever meditated on the greatness and holiness of God. We are, up to the last moment upon earth, how unlike God! Could we bear, amid our unlikeness, to gaze on His All-Holiness, before Whom the Seraphim hide their faces? True that God could "in an instant," as S. Macarius thought, ""sever death from the soul (for this is not difficult for Him), and take thee to His Bosom and to light." But our own consciences mostly will not let us think it. Hence Perrone observes that

"Protestants admitted a purgatory, or state of 'expiation,' which they call 'a school of preparation." "If you mention

God, held by Protestants.

119

Purgatory to any Protestant, he kindles up; but if you ask the same person, whether or no a state of ‘expiation,' 'epuration,' or 'a school of preparation, expectation,' &c. can be admitted, he will readily grant it you; yea, sometimes he contends vehemently that such a state is to be admitted'. Such is the power of words."

Yet surely the difference is not of words only. The word "Purgatory" recalls to our mind that picture of unmitigated, unconsoled suffering, which Faber speaks of as "not complete." And the Church of Rome is not asked to reject the word "Purgatory," but to explain it, as it has been explained by some of her accredited writers, as a condition "in which souls at the same time experience the greatest happiness and the most excessive pain; and the one does not prevent the other."

If this one-sided representation were removed, I think that our people would be more open, not only to the meaning of that passage of S. Paul, but to a further meaning of others, of which we accept a traditional interpretation, which does not give

71. c. p. 319. Perrone alleges "Koeppen Philosophia Christianismi, Vol. ii., who transcribes entire texts of Planck from his Verba Pacis, Horst, from his Mysteriosophia, Meyer, &c., whom Hollaz Examen Theol., p. 1221, and Quenstaedt Theol. Did. T. iv. p. 377 sqq. and Holst, Warum beten wir für die Verstorbenen? and others, had preceded. "But all" (he adds) "agree in saying, that it is too violent to admit at once into heaven all those who only repented of their past evil life at the end, or who indulged too much in the sensualities of this life, since 'nothing defiled' enters there; also it is too harsh to assign all such to eternal torments."

120 Fullest force so given to words of H. Scr.

For

their words apparently their fullest force. when our Lord says, "I say that thou shalt not go forth thence, until thou hast paid the very last mite," the word "until" seems to suggest that there will be a time when such shall go forth. And when S. John tells us that " All creatures, in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth," join in that ascription of "blessing, and honour, and glory, and might to Him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb," surely those are right who include in that chorus of thanksgiving, "the departed spirits," who are not yet, like the angels, and martyrs, and glorified saints, in heaven'. And if so, then from both alike, though not equally, there ascends the song of adoring thanksgiving.

I should add that it has been pointed out to me, that Bellarmine2 regards as "not improbable " the doctrine involved in a vision related by Bede, H. E., v. 137, as "not improbable," which vision Bellarmine says is "very probable, and Bede himself hesitated not to believe it. In it there was shown to a soul which afterwards returned to the body, besides hell and purgatory, and the kingdom of heaven, as it were a meadow very flowery, full of light, fragrant, pleasant, in which souls

8 S. Luke xii. 58.

9 Rev. v. 13.

1 So Dean Alford, too: "the departed spirits in Hades" as distinct from those in heaven; "the angels and the glorified saints."-Ad loc.

2 De Purg. ii. 7.

66

Purgatory of desire," as held by some. 121

lived, which suffered nothing, but yet remained there, as not being yet fit for the Divine vision. To which revelation Denys, the Carthusian, adduces many other conformable (De Judicio Particulari, art. 31), and S. Gregory (Dial. iv. 36)." Bellarmine thinks that this place is "the mildest part of Purgatory; and, as it were, a sort of senatorial and honourable prison."

Also that "Bail, whose book is well known and well recommended," says, "Some souls are not

S. Thomas en Méditation, T. v. (Des Sacram. Méd. 33.) p. 265. Elsewhere Bail says, "Consider that, according to some, purgatory has two parts, one, in which the souls suffer the pains of sense through the fire which torments them, and that pain of loss, because they are deprived of the vision of God. The other is that, in which the souls are only tormented by the pain of loss, and are greatly afflicted at the privation of the vision of God, which they desire with inexpressible desires. The Exstatic Doctor puts this as a controverted point; and, adducing many proofs on both sides, is unwilling to resolve it affirmatively, feeling, on the one side, a difficulty in asserting any thing positively against the common opinion of doctors who make no mention of this second part of purgatory, and on the other, being unable to call fantastic or lying the revelations and visions which sanction this purgatory, so long as the Church pronounces nothing; because, he says, those who have taken down and approved these visions were very learned and very religious men, and some of them wise doctors in Theology. But others have held it to be certain, calling this part of purgatory an earthly Paradise or purgatory of desire, where souls sigh for the vision of God with a very ardent desire, which causes them to suffer marvellously at seeing themselves kept from reaching this Sovereign Good." Then, having mentioned the visions in S. Gregory and Bede, he dwells on the statement of S. Brigit, who "divides purgatory, as it were, into