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Of Purgatory.

ARTICLE XXII.

The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardons, worshipping and adoration, as well of images as of reliques, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the word of God.

De Purgatorio.

Doctrina Romanensium de purgatorio, de indulgentiis, de veneratione, et adoratione, tum imaginum tum reliquiarum nec non de invocatione sanctorum, res est futilis, inaniter conficta, et nullis Scripturarum testimoniis innititur : immo verbo Dei contradicit.

NOTES ON THE TEXT OF ARTICLE XXII.

The following equivalents may be noticed. Romish doctrine, Latin, Doctrina Romanensium. Pardons, Latin, Indulgentiæ. In Chaucer the seller of indulgences is called the Pardoner. Worshipping, Latin, veneratio. A fond thing, Latin, res futilis. Fond in the sense of foolish is familiar to every reader of Shakspeare. Vainly invented, Latin, inaniter conficta.

The Article of 1552 read the doctrine of school authors' instead of the Romish doctrine,' which was substituted in 1562. The latter phrase is more popularly intelligible.

OBSERVATIONS ON ARTICLE XXII.

As the Romish doctrine is here specifically condemned, it becomes necessary to obtain distinct statements of that doctrine; and this the more, because the celebrated Tract XC.

played upon this distinction. It urged, first, that doctrine on these subjects which might be shown to be not simply Romish, but also prevalent for many ages through the greater part of Christendom, and from early times, could not be styled distinctly 'Romish,' and might therefore be held; and, secondly, that doctrines which might differ some shades from the received Romish view were not inconsistent with this Article.

That Tract also argued that by 'the Romish doctrine' is not meant the Tridentine statement, because this Article was drawn up before the decree of the Council of Trent. This is true to the letter, whatever it may be in the spirit, for the date of the decree on these subjects in the Council of Trent is December 4, 1563, whilst the word Romanensium was placed in this Article in the previous January. The Tract then quotes some of the mythical stories of Purgatory which were rife in the middle ages, and intimates that these, with the abuses connected with them, constitute the 'Romish doctrine' of purgatory condemned in this Article, and that the Tridentine doctrine is left untouched by it.

It is very important that the theological student should understand the ground taken by the active and conspicuous party in our Church, whose mode of dealing with our formu- . laries has been for some years guided by the principles just described. Nothing but a court of law can decide whether special pleading of this sort might avail on a strictly legal interpretation of the words. But there can be no difficulty in ascertaining whether our Church has or has not wholly cast out, not this or that notion of Purgatory, but the very idea of Purgatory in every shape, from her formularies and her system.

In dealing further with the phrase 'Romish doctrine' in this Article, we shall now assume that we shall find it most fully represented in its binding form in the decrees of the Council of Trent, on these grounds. It is true that the particular decree on the matters contained in this Article was passed nearly a year after the word 'Romanensium' was inserted in it, and that, therefore, the ipsissima verba of that decree were not before the writers of our Article.

But it is notorious that if there ever was a Council under Roman influence, and reflecting, as far as was possible, in the then state of parties, Roman views, as distinguished from French, Spanish, or German, the Council of Trent is that one. It was recognised at the time-it has been recognised ever since as distinctly and truly Romish.

Such writers as Field and others, in our Church, have always written of the Council of Trent as the great agent in severing the Papal Communion formally and specifically from that which was Catholic, and stamping it as Papal and Roman. It cannot be seriously argued that such a Council which had been sitting at intervals for seventeen years when our present Article was revised, and had already enacted the larger part of its decrees, was not in the mind of the revisers of such an Article when they altered the word 'Scholasticorum' to 'Romanensium.' Nor can it be reasonably doubted that when, a year later, the decree of the Council of Trent on the subjects now under consideration did appear, its statement was recognised as an enunciation of the doctrine already called 'Romish' in this Article. Further, we must remember that the Thirtynine Articles have subsequently obtained parliamentary sanction in 1571, and again in 1662, when there can be no question whether or no the word 'Romish' would be fully understood as implying Tridentine. For these reasons we shall not hesitate in alleging the definitions of Trent as properly describing the Romish doctrines' stigmatised in the Article now before us.

Our task, therefore, will be a simple one. We have merely to cite the portions of the Tridentine decrees bearing on the matters indicated in this Article. We shall then have before us what is unquestionable Romish doctrine, and what no one acquainted, even moderately, with the writings of our Reformers, can doubt was meant by them in this place.

1. Purgatory.

Our space will not allow us to sketch in any detail the history of this doctrine. It is traced from the fanciful inter

pretations of Origen in the third century, who thought that at the day of judgment there would be a purgatorial fire by which all should be tested. From his time this idea may be followed in numerous varieties of expression in the subsequent Christian writers. In the dark ages monkish visions and legends laid open the strange and ghastly arrangements of a land of purgatory, from which Dante afterwards derived the horrible pictures of his great poem. The schoolmen fashioned all this into a system, and defined the position, arrangements, and pains of purgatory.

The Council of Trent passed its decree on the subjects named in this Article in the hurry of its final session, which the anticipation of the pope's death brought to a hasty conclusion. The decree on Purgatory is as follows: -'Since the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Spirit out of the sacred writings, and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, hath taught in Holy Councils, and lastly in this Ecumenical Synod that there is a Purgatory; and that the souls detained there are aided by the suffrages of the faithful, but most of all by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar; this Holy Synod enjoins all bishops diligently to endeavour that the wholesome doctrine of purgatory, handed down by Holy Fathers and Sacred Councils be believed by Christ's faithful, held, taught, and everywhere preached. But let the more difficult and subtle questions, and those which do not conduce to edification and from which often there is no increase of piety, be banished from popular discourses before the uneducated people. Moreover, they should not permit uncertain matters, or those which have the appearance of falsity, to be published or handled. But those which tend to curiosity or superstition, or savour of base gain, let them prohibit, as the scandals and offence of the faithful. Let bishops take care that the suffrages of the living faithful, viz., sacrifices of masses, prayers, alms, and other works of piety which have been customably performed by the faithful, for other faithful persons departed, be piously and religiously performed according to the institutions of the Church; and let them take care that the services which are due on behalf of the departed by the 1 Session XXV.

foundations of testators, or in any other manner, be performed, not in a perfunctory way, but diligently and exactly by the priests and ministers of the Church, and others who are under obligation to perform this duty.'

It will be observed, that though this decree includes the whole belief, yet that it is cautiously worded, and avoids pronouncing on matters on which Romish divines were divided, and on which, when not writing for Protestant readers, they have often written very positively. But it follows from this that the prohibition of our Church is the more absolute against the whole system and not against some of its details. We may observe that even so acute a controversialist as Bellarmine follows the schoolmen in placing purgatory in the centre of the earth. He describes its four divisions, and appeals to visions and appearances in volcanic eruptions, in proof of his assertions.

2. Pardons or Indulgences.

The history of these may be traced in Ecclesiastical history from the relaxations of penitential discipline in the restoration of offenders to Church communion. These indulgences became more common as the Church was gradually more and more identified with the world after Constantine's days. And when the notion of purgatory became developed, and the limits of Church authority transcended the bounds of the visible, the indulgence found further place for its exercise in abridging purgatorial pains.

Over

The satirist might not unfairly say that the realm of purgatory, which was so absolutely a medieval creation, must surely be under the control of its creators. The pains of purgatory, together with Church censures, constitute the temporal, as distinguished from the eternal, punishment of sin. these temporal penalties the Roman Church claims full and absolute dispensing power. The results of the audacious sale of indulgences in Switzerland and Germany in the sixteenth century will be fresh in the reader's mind. Tetzel and Sampson had no small share in setting Luther and Zwingle free. Yet the Church of Rome was pledged to the system, and the

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