Soul-niass, mass for the dead.
Soul-papers. See SorL-cAKEsj.
Soul's-cot, or Soul's Scot, the payment made at the grave to the parish priest in whose church the service for the departed had been said.
Soul-seat, that place where the friends of a de- parted Christian, in the jMiddle Ages, offered alms, at or near the high-altar, for the use of the clergy, the benefit of the Church, and for the good estate of the de- parted soul. While offering, they recited the psalm iJe Profiindis, and then a versicle and response, asking for eternal rest and peace for the person passing awaj-. — Lee, Gloss, of Liturcjical Ternu, s. v.
Soul-service, mass for the departed.
Soul-sleep is the name given to one among the many conceptions entertained by the human mind with respect to the state of the soul after the death of the body. It a.ssumes that the soul sleeps so long as the body lies in the grave, and that it will arise together with the body at the Kesurrection. The term psi/eho- paiinijvhism (q. v.) has been applied to this doctrine be- cause it teaches a continuous night for the soul "until the day dawn and the day-star arise" (2 Pet. i, 19), or until the eternal day shall begin in which there is no more alternation of light and darkness (Kev. xxi, 25, xxii, 5). The doctrine of psychopannychism originated in the East among the Arabian and Ar- menian sects, and from thence spread into the West of ICurope. Traces of it are found with several of the Church fathers. It was condemned by the Councils of Ferrara (1438) and of Florence (1439), earlier by that of Lyons (1274), and later, in the Kith century, by the Council of Trent (sess. vi, 25). Pope John XXII (died 1304), however, held the doctrine of the soid's sleep himself, and openly promulgated the view that the souls of the |>i(ius dead do not see the face of (Jod until afier the body has been rai.sed. Later, after the rise of Protestantism, certain of the Socinians and also of the .\rminians showed themselves inclined to hold an indef- inite, not thoroughly apprehended, psychoiiannychism ; and the .\iiabaptists (((. v.) allowed the doctrine to at- tain to its complete develoiiment among their adhe- ri'iits. Calvin repeatedly rejected il, tirst in his treatise l>e l'siiclio])auinjrhia (l.")34), and afterwards in his Trac- talus Var. ii, 449 sq. etc. Luther, on the other hand, was inclined to accept the doctrine of the soul's sleep as correct. A related error is that of the soid's de<ith, which was taught as early as A.I). 248 by the Arabian ThiielopsijvliiUs (q. v.). Peter Pomponatius (dieil 1525)
SOULE
893
SOURDIS
became especially prominent among the advocates of this doctrine, and his activit\' led pope Leo X to con- demn this and other similar errors disseminated since the time of Averroes.
The errors in question are based in part upon certain expressions in the Scriptures (see Job xiv, II, 12; Psa. vi, 5; Ixxxviii, 11; cxv, 17, 18; Isa. xxxviii, 18; 1 Thess. iv, 13-lo; v, 10). The exposition of such pas- sages by which soul -sleep is proved certainly rests on a misconception, since the New-Test, language does not refer to the soul's sleep nor to the soul's death, but simply to the soid's 7-est (see liev. xiv, 13, where the deiul are described as blessed). The Old -Test, language usually referred to in behalf of this theory merely regards the life of this earth as a period of gracious opportunity and privilege wliich comes to end at death (see Heb. ix, 27; John ix, 4). It must be conceded that the Old-Test, revelation was incom- plete; it does not disclose everything with reference to eschatological questions, as in otlier departments of inquiry, and much is left for the New-Test, revelation to perfect. But the earlier revelation contains no error that might contradict New-Test, truth.
The principal basis for the soul-sleep view is found, however, not in the Scriptures, l)ut in the assumption that death causes a complete disintegration of the con- stituent parts of the human being. This point has been met by regarding the Ikiiiff soul (Gen. ii, 7) as a con- crete real, and not simply abstract being; but more sat- isfactorily by the scriptural statement of the blessedness of the soul after death, /'ronj henceforth (Rev. xiv, 13) — in other words, by the intermediule state, which is to continue until the final redintegration of the entire man and of the race at the day of the general resurrection. This latter doctrine is expressly taught by Calvin, Insti- tutes, iii, 25. (See also Urginus, M ittelzustand der Seelen; Delitzsch, Bibl. Psi/chol. [Leips. 1859], p. 389-394.)
The idea of soul-sleep has, nevertheless, a measure of truth belonging to it, inasmuch as death may really be likened to sleep as it stands related to a future resurrec- tion. It actually does lead pious souls to a sabbatism of rest, i. e. to the katajxmsis (Heb. iv, 9-11) and the anapdusis (liev. xiv, 13). Nor is it accidental that the God-man rested in the grave on the Subbath, and arose on the tirst day of the week. Finally, the soul-sleep theory claims in its behalf the idea that the night of death is to the sleepers but as a moment, however long it may seem to us who have not entered on its experience. The views entertained by the adherents of the theory are not constant, however, and they are found sometimes to postulate a distinction between soul and spirit (liccles. xii, 7), and at other times to ignore it.