end of the opinion was taken, and made an article of faith; and damnation threatened to them that believed it not; she had reason to consider it, and finding it to be chaff, wholly to scatter it away. 3. The church of England is not therefore to be blamed, if in any case she see more than St. Austin did, and proceed accordingly; for it is certain the church of Rome does decree against divers things, of which St. Austin indeed did not doubt, but affirmed confidently; I instance in the necessity of communicating infants, and the matter of appeals to Rome. The next authority to be examined is, that of Otho Frisingensis, concerning which there is a heavy quarrel against the Dissuasive, for making him to speak of a purgatory before, whereas he speaks of one after, the day of judgment, with a 'quidam asserunt,'' some affirm it,' viz. that there is a place of purgatory after death; nay, but you are deceived, says E. W. and the rest of the adversaries; he means, that some affirm there is a place of purgatory after the day of judgment. Now truly, that is more than I said; but that Otho said it, is by these men confessed. But his words are these; "I think it ought to be searched, whether the judgment being passed, besides the lower hell, there remain a place for lighter punishments; for that there is below (or in hell) a purgatory-place, in which they, that are to be saved, are either affected ('afficiantur, invested, punished) with darkness only, or else are boiled in the fire of expiation, some do affirm'." What is or can be more plainly said of purgatory; for the places of Scripture brought to confirm this opinion are such, which relate to the interval between death and the last judgment; "Juxta illud patriarchæ, 'lugens descendam ad inferos;' et illud apostoli, ipse autem salvus erit, sic tamen quasi per ignem;"" I hope the Roman doctors will not deny, but these are meant of purgatory before the last day: and therefore so is the opinion for the proof of which these places are brought. 2. By 'post judicium' in the title, and 'transacto judicio' in the chapter, Otho means the particular judgment passing upon every one at their death: which he in a few lines after, calls "terminatis in judicio causis singulorum." 3. He must mean it to be before the last great day; because that which he says, " some 1 Esse quippe apud inferos locum purgationum, in quo salvandi vel tenebris tantum afficiantur, vel expiationis igne decoquantur, quidam asserunt. do affirm," "quidam asserunt;" is, that those which are 'salvandi,' 'to be saved hereafter,' are either in darkness or in a purgatory-fire; which therefore must be meant of the interval; for after the day of judgment is passed, and the books shut, and the sentence pronounced, none can be saved that are not then acquitted; unless Origen's opinion of the salvation of devils and damned souls be reintroduced, which the church, before Otho, many ages had exploded, and therefore so good and great a person would not have thought that fit to be then disputed: and it was not then a question, nor a thing undetermined in the church. 4. Whether Otho means it of a purgatory before or after the day of the last judgment, it makes very much against the present Roman doctrine; for Otho applies the question to the case of infants dying without baptism: now if their purgatory be before the day of judgment, then I quoted Otho according to my own sense and his; but if he means it to be after the day of judgment, then the limbus infantum' of the Roman church is vanished;-for the scruple was moved about infants. "Quid de parvulis, qui solo originali delicto tenentur, fiet?" And there is none such till after doomsday; so that, let it be as it will, the Roman church is a loser, and therefore let them take their choice on which side they will fall. But now after St. Austin's time, especially in the time of St. Gregory, and since, there were many strange stories told of souls appearing after death, and telling strange things of their torments below: many of which being gathered together by the Speculum Exemplorum,' the Legend of Lombardy and others, some of them were noted by the Dissuasive to this purpose to shew, that in the time, when these stories were told, the fire of purgatory did not burn clear; but they found purgatory in baths, in eves of houses, and cold rains, upon spits roasting like pigs or geese, upon pieces of ice. Now to this there is nothing said; but that in the place quoted in the 'Speculum' there is no such thing: which saying as it was spoken invidiously, so it was to no purpose; for if the objector ever hath read the distinction which is quoted, throughout; he should have found the whole story at large. It is the 31st example, page 205, col. 1, printed at Doway, 1603. And the same words are exactly in an ancienter edition printed at the imperial town of Hagenaw, 1519, impensis Johannis Rynman.'-But these gentlemen care not for the force of any argument, if they can any way put it off from being believed upon any foolish pretence. But then, as to the thing itself, though learned men deny the Dialogues of St. Gregory, from whence many of the like stories are derived, to be his, as Possevine confesses, and Melchior Camus, though a little timorously, affirms; yet I am willing to admit them for his, but yet I cannot but note, that those Dialogues have in them many foolish, ridiculous, and improbable stories", but yet they and their like are made a great ground of purgatory; but then the right also may be done to St. Gregory, his doctrine of purgatory cannot consist with the present article of the church of Rome; so fond they are in the alleging of authorities, that they destroy their own hypothesis by their undiscerning quotations. For, 1. St. Gregory Pope affirms that which is perfectly inconsistent with the whole doctrine of purgatory. For" he says, "that it is a fruit of our redemption by the grace of Christ our author, that when we are drawn from our dwelling in the body, mox,' 'forthwith' we are led to celestial rewards;" and a little after speaking of those words of Job, "In profundissimum infernum descendunt omnia mea "," he says thus; "Since it is certain, that in the lower region the just are not in penal places, but are held in the superior bosom of rest, a great question arises, What is the meaning of blessed Job?" If purgatory can stand with this hypothesis of St. Gregory, then fire and water can be reconciled. This is the doctrine of St. Gregory in his own works; for whether the Dialogues under his name be his or no, I shall not dispute; but if I were studying to do honour to his memory, I should Post hoc apparuit eidem presbytero columna quædam jubaris immensi, cujus claritas ultra communem solis valentiam coruscare videbatur, de cœlo usque ad terram porrecta, per quam anima quædam angelico ductu ad sydera contendebat. Sciscitante verò presbytero, quidnam hoc esset? Respondit alter, ipsa est anima Constantini quondam judicis et domini Turritani; hæc autem per novem annos ventis et pluviis et algoribus semper exposita, à die exitus sui usque nunc, in stillicidio domus suæ constitit,ibique suorum excessuum pœnas luit: sed qui misericors et liberalis in pauperes exstitit, et judicium injuriam patientibus fecit, insuper etiam de malis quæ commisit, confessa et pœnitens à corpore exivit, idcircò misericordiam à Deo consecuta, hodiernâ die meretur ab omnibus malis liberari, &c. Hæc et multa alia sacerdos ille vidit et audivit de secretis alterius vitæ. n S. Greg. M. lib. 13. in Jobum, c. 15. c. 17. • Cum constat quod apud inferos justi non in locis pœnalibus, sed in superiori quietis sinu tenerentur, magna nobis oboritur quæstio quidnam sit, quod B. Jobus asserit. never admit them to be his, and so much the rather because the doctrine of the Dialogues contradicts the doctrine of his Commentaries, and yet even the purgatory which is in the Dialogues is unlike that which was declared at Basil; for the Gregorian purgatory supposed only an expiation of small and light faults, as immoderate laughter, impertinent talking, which nevertheless he himself says are expiable by fear of death; and, Victoria' and Jacobus de Graffis' say, are to be taken away by beating the breast, holy water, the bishop's blessing; and St. Austin says, they are to be taken off by daily saying the Lord's prayer; and therefore, being so easily, so readily, so many ways, to be purged here, it will not be worth establishing a purgatory for such alone, but he admits not of remaining punishment due to greater sins forgiven by the blood of Christ. But concerning St. Gregory I shall say no more, but refer the reader to the Apology of the Greeks, who affirm that St. Gregory admitted a kind of purgatory, but whether allegorically or no, or thinking so really, they know not; but what he said was κar' oikovoμíav, and by way of dispensation,' and as it were, constrained to it by the arguments of those who would have all sins expiable after death, against whom he could not so likely prevail, if he had said that none was; and therefore he thought himself forced to go a middle way, and admit a purgatory only for little or venial sins, which yet will do no advantage to the church of Rome. And besides all this, St. Gregory, or whoever is the author of these Dialogues, hath nothing definite, or determined, concerning the time, manner, measure, or place; so wholly new was this doctrine then, that it had not gotten any shape or feature. Next I am to account concerning the Greeks, whom I affirm always to have differed from the Latins, since they had forged this new doctrine of purgatory in the Roman laboratories and to prove something of this, I affirmed that' in the council of Basil they published an Apology directly disapproving the doctrine of purgatory. Against this, up starts a man fierce and angry, and says 'there was no such Apology published in the council of Basil, for he had ex P Lib. 4. Dialog. c. 39. 4 Cap. 46. r In Summa Saoram. Eccles. n. 110. Decis. Cas. Couscient. part. 1. lib. 1. c. 6. n. 10. The Letter, p. 14. amined it all over, and can find no such Apology.' I am sorry for the gentleman's loss of his labour, but if he had taken me along with him, I could have helped the learned man. This Apology was written by Marcus, metropolitan of Ephesus, as Sixtus Senensis" confesses, and that he offered it to the council of Basil. That it was given and read to the deputies of the council, June 14, 1438, is attested by Cusanus, and Martinus Crusius in his Turco-Græcia *. But it is no wonder, if this over-learned author of the Letter missed this Apology in his search of the council of Basil, for this is not the only material thing, that is missing in the editions of the council of Basil; for Linwood, that great and excellent English canonist, made an appeal in that council, and prosecuted it with effect in behalf of King Henry of England," Cum in temporalibus non recognoscat superiorem in terris," &c. But nothing of this now appears, though it was then registered: but it is no new thing to forge or to suppress acts of councils: but besides this, I did not suppose he would have been so indiscreet as to have looked for that Apology in the editions of the council of Basil, but it was delivered to the council by the Greeks, and the council was wise enough not to keep that upon public record; however, if the gentleman please to see it, he may have it among the booksellers, if he will please to ask for the "Apologia Græcorum de Igne Purgatorio," published by Salmasius; it was supposed to be made by Mark, archbishop; but for saving the gentleman's charge or trouble, I shall tell him a few words out of that Apology, which will serve his turn: Aià raūra vử kaì Tò προκείμενον δόγμα του καθαρτηρίου πυρὸς ἀποβλητέον ἂν εἴη τῆς EKKAŋolas, &c." For these reasons, the doctrine of a purgatory-fire is to be cast out of the church, as that which slackens the endeavours of the diligent, as persuading them not to use all means of contention to be purged in this life, since another purgation is expected after it." And it is infinitely to be wondered at, the confidence of Bellarmine" (for as for this objector, it matters not so much), that he should, in the face of all the world, say, that the Greek church never doubted of purgatory: whereas he hath not brought one single true and pertinent testimony out of the Greek fathers. " Biblioth. lib. 6. annot. 259. * Lib. 2. p. 186. De Purgatorio, lib. 1. c. 15. sect. Ad secundum dico. |