few, however, even of true believers, according to Romanists, enter at death. The advocates of the doctrine of an intermediate state, as has been shown, assert that none of the human family, whether patriarch, prophet, Apostle, or martyr, is admitted to the vision of God when he leaves the body ; and that none of the wicked goes into the place of final retribution. Both the righteous and the wicked remain in a middle state, awaiting their final doom and location at the second coming of Christ. As to both these points, Romanists are more nearly agreed with the great body of Protestants.
On this point the Council of Florence says : " Credimus .... illorum animas, qui post baptismum susceptum nullam omnino peccati maculam incurrerunt, illas etiam animas quaa post con- tractam peccati maculam vel in suis corporibus, vel eisdem exutae corporibus sunt purgatae in coelum mox recipi, et intueri clare ipsum Deum trinum et unum sicuti est." This doctrine Roman- ists assert not only in opposition to those who teach that the soul dies with the body and is revived at the resurrection, but also to those who say that the souls even of the perfectly purified " in aliqua requie degere, donee post corporum resurrectionem adipis- cantur aaternam beatitudinem, quam interim expectant." This error, Perrone says, widely disseminated among the Greeks, was adopted by Luther and Calvin.1
Two classes of persons, therefore, according to this view, enter heaven before the resurrection; first, those who are perfectly purified at the time of death ; and second, those who, although not thus perfect when they leave this world, have become per- fect in purgatory.
Purgatory.
According to Romanists, all those who die in the peace of the Church, but are not perfect, pass into purgatory ; with regard to which they teach, (1.) That it is a state of suffering. ^ The commonly received traditional, though not symbolical, doctrine on this point is, that the suffering is from material fire. The design of this suffering is both expiation and purification. (2.) That the duration and intensity of purgatorial pains are proportioned to the guilt and impurity of the sufferers. (3.) That there is no known or defined limit to the continuance of the soul in purga- tory, but the day of judgment. The departed may remain in this state of suffering for a few hours or for thousands of years. (4.) That souls in purgatory may be helped ; that is, their suffer-
* Ut supra, p. 473.
750 PART IV. Ch. I— STATE OF SOUL AFTER DEATH.
ings alleviated or the duration of them shortened by the prayers of the saints, and especially by the sacrifice of the Mass. (5.) That purgatory is under the power of the keys. That is, it is the prerogative of the authorities of the Church, at their discretion, to remit entirely or partially the penalty of sins under which the souls there detained are suffering.
This doctrine is deeply rooted in the whole Romish system. According to that system, (1.) Christ delivers us only from the " reatus culpae," and exposure to eternal death. (2.) For all sins committed after baptism the offender must make satisfaction by penance or good works. (3.) This satisfaction must be com- plete and the soul purified from all sin, before it can enter heaven. (4.) This satisfaction and purification, if not effected in this life, must be accomplished after death. (5.) The eucharist is a propitiatory sacrifice intended to secure the pardon of post- baptismal sins, and takes effect according to the intention of the officiating priest. Therefore, if he intends it for the benefit of any soul in purgatory, it inures to his advantage. (6.) The pope, being the vicar of Christ on earth, has full power to forgive sin ; that is, to exempt offenders from the obligation to make satisfac- tion for their offences.
Moehler, and other philosophical defenders of Romanism, soften down the doctrine by representing purgatory simply as a state of gradual preparation of the imperfectly sanctified for admission into heaven, making no mention of positive suffering, much less of material fire. Cardinal Gousset does not go so far as this, yet he says : a " It is of faith, (1.) That the righteous who die without having entirely satisfied divine justice, must make satisfaction after this life by temporary pains, which are called pains of pur- gatory ; (2.) That the souls in purgatory are relieved by the prayers of the Church. This is what the faith teaches ; but it stops there. Is purgatory a particular place rather than a state, or a state rather than a particular place? Are the pains of purgatory due to fire, or are the pains those which arise from the consciousness of having offended God? What are the severity and duration of those pains ? These and other questions of like kind, are not included in the domain of Catholic doctrine. These are questions about which there exists no decision or judgment of the Church. Nevertheless it should be known that in the opinion of the majority of theologians the torments of purgatory consist in part in those of fire, or, at least, in such as are analogous to
1 Gousset, ut supra, vol. ii. 143.