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Bible Dictionaries
Purgatory
1910 New Catholic Dictionary
or
(Latin: purgare, to cleanse)
In ecclesiastical language, the state or the abode of temporary punishment for those souls, who having died in the state of grace, are not entirely free from venial sins or have not yet fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions. It is not a state of positive growth in goodness and in merit, but of purification effected by suffering. The Catholic doctrine, defined at the Council of Florence and repeated at the Council of Trent, is: (1) that there is a Purgatory; (2) that the souls suffering there can be helped by the prayers of the faithful, especially by the Sacrifice of the Altar. Although Holy Scripture does not expressly mention Purgatory, it presupposes it, and refers to it clearly enough, e.g., 2Machabees 12; Matthew 5,12; 1 Corinthians 3; Philemon 1:2; 1 Peter 3. Purgatory is firmly established by tradition and confirmed by the constant belief of the Church in suffrages for the dead. The chief punishment consists in being deprived of the beatific vision (pæna damni). Besides this there is the additional punishment (pæna sensus), which, according to the common belief of the Western Church, consists in real fire. They are certain of their salvation, and are confirmed in good, hence can no longer sin. Since they love God perfectly, they bear their sufferings with resignation. This love of God and resignation to His holy Will, according to many theologians, considerably lessens and mitigates the severest sufferings of Purgatory. In the early Church some heretics denied the existence of Purgatory. In the Middle Ages the Cathari, Waldenses, and Hussites rejected it, and in the 16th century Luther and Calvin and their followers did the same. Protestants, therefore, generally reject it. The Greeks have a vague and indefinite notion of it. Belief in Purgatory fosters piety. It deters man from venial sin, begets a spirit of penance, gives him occasion to practise charity to the dead, and awakens salutary thoughts of the life to come.
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Entry for 'Purgatory'. 1910 New Catholic Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ncd/p/purgatory.html. 1910.
