66 "sober, and contained in few words, such, in "short, as showed that they only wished to testify incidentally their own charity towards "the dead. The architects, who built up that Purgatory of yours, were not yet in existence."-"I will not suffer, Sadoletus, that "the name of the Church be inscribed on such flagitious tenets,-that you shall so defame 66 66 it, in violation of all that is just or sacred,"and raise against us a prejudice in the minds "of the ignorant, as if we were resolved to 66 wage war with the Church.-For, while I "admit that there were sown long ago certain "seeds of superstition, which were somewhat degenerating from the purity of the Gospel, yet you know well, that the monstrous impieties, against which our warfare is directed, "were but recently either first called into existence, or at least carried to their present magnitude. Against your whole proud sys"tem, to take it by storm, to trample it to the earth, to scatter it to the winds, we are armed "not only with the strength of the divine word, "but also with the authority of the holy Fathers."* 66 * Resp. ad Sadolet. p. 110. Since writing the above, I have found the passage (Inst. 1. 3. c. 5. s. 10.) which you have had in view. It is what I suspected, as will be apparent from the following extracts. "Quum mihi objiciunt adversarii, ante This, Sir, is an account of the Tradition respecting Purgatory given by Calvin, that blasphemer Calvin," as he is called by the meek and holy Dr. Milner. Avail yourself of it if you can. "mille et trecentos annos usu receptum fuisse, ut precationes " fierent pro defunctis, eos vicissim interrogo, quo Dei verbo &c. "factum sit." "Cæterùm ut concedam, vetustis Ecclesiæ "scriptoribus pium esse visum suffragari mortuis," &c. "Verum 66 66 ne glorientur adversarii nostri, quasi veterem ecclesiam erroris "sui sociam habeant, dico esse longum discrimen." Agebant "illi memoriam mortuorum, ne viderentur omnem de ipsis curam abjecisse: sed simul fatebantur, se dubitare de ipsorum "statu. De purgatorio certè adeo nihil assererent, ut pro re "incerta haberent." "Quinetiam nonnulla veterum testi"monia proferre, nobis haud difficile esset, quæ totas illas pro "mortuis preces, quæ tunc usitatæ erant, manifestè evertunt." -It is thus that Calvin "confesses explicitly that during 1300 "years before his time (1600 before ours) it had been the practice to pray for the dead, in the hope of procuring them "relief." LETTER VII. Means of relieving those who are confined in Purgatory stated in the Decree and the Catechism of the Council of Trent. HITHERTO we have been unsuccessful in our search for those reliefs which the unhappy state of souls detained in Purgatory so urgently demands. Let us, however, turn from your and Dr. Milner's pages to other more authoritative quarters. We need not look far. The Council of Trent, in the very decree* from which you quote, gives us some pregnant intimations of the real nature of the help afforded to Souls in Purgatory by the suffrages of the faithful. After explaining these suffrages to be " sa"crifices of the mass, prayers, alms, and other "works of piety," the Council tells us, that they may be, and are accustomed to be, performed by the living faithful on the behalf and in the place of the faithful dead.* This is said with sufficient plainness in the decree; but it is still more expressly declared in the Council's * Sess. XXV. 46 Catechism, where the possibility of this vicarious satisfaction is affirmed for all, dead as well as living. "Herein is the most exalted good"ness and clemency of God worthy of all praise "and thanksgiving, that he has mercifully 'granted to the infirmity of the human race, "that one man may be able to satisfy for another,"* to satisfy, that is, on account of another, for the temporal punishment either in this world or in Purgatory, which remains due for those mortal sins, whose guilt and eternal punishment are already remitted.-" And this," the Catechism proceeds, "is peculiar to this part "of Pœnitentia; for though no one can be con"trite for another, or confess for another, yet "those who are endowed with divine grace," (as all after absolution are supposed to be,) 66 are able in the name of another to discharge "fully what is due to God." And thus we have the comfort of seeing a method devised, by which the Souls in Purgatory may be effectually relieved. Their surviving friends may discharge for them the works worthy of repentance, which they omitted to perform for themselves before they died. *Cat. ad Par. pars ii. cap. 5. + Ibid. Qui divinâ gratiâ præditi sunt, alterius nomine possunt, quod Deo debetur, persolvere. LETTER VII. Means of relieving those who are confined in Purgatory stated in the Decree and the Catechism of the Council of Trent. HITHERTO We have been unsuccessful in our search for those reliefs which the unhappy state of souls detained in Purgatory so urgently demands. Let us, however, turn from your and Dr. Milner's pages to other more authoritative quarters. We need not look far. The Council of Trent, in the very decree* from which you quote, gives us some pregnant intimations of the real nature of the help afforded to Souls in Purgatory by the suffrages of the faithful. After explaining these suffrages to be "sa"crifices of the mass, prayers, alms, and other "works of piety," the Council tells us, that they may be, and are accustomed to be, performed by the living faithful on the behalf and in the place of the faithful dead.* This is said with sufficient plainness in the decree; but it is still more expressly declared in the Council's * Sess. XXV. |