PURGATORY. The idea of Purgatory (from Latin purgo "to cleanse ") as a developed doctrine may be said to be the work of the Roman Catholic Church. The position, if certain principles are accepted, is a logical one. The purest of earthly souls can hardly be lit to pass immediately into the spiritual presence of God. Purgatory is thought of therefore, not indeed as a place of probation, for those who reach it have already shown their fitness to enter heaven, but as a place of purifica tion. It is "a place in which souls who depart this life in the grace of God suffer for a time because they still need to be cleansed from venial, or have still to pay the temporal punishment due to mortal sins, the guilt and the eternal punishment of which have been remitted " (Calk. Diet.). Not only is there such a place, but. the sufferings of those who are there may he relieved by the prayers of the faithful. The eighth article of the Pro fession of the Tridentine Faith or the Creed of Pius IV.
states : " I firmly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful. Likewise, that the saints reigning with Christ are to be honoured and invoked, and that they offer up prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be had in veneration " (quoted in Schaff-Herzog). It has been widely believed that the purification in purga tory is by fire, and that not merely spiritual but material. This was the belief of Thomas Aquinas, Bonaveutura, Gerson, and other doctors of the Middle Ages. On this point, however, the Greek differed from the Latin Church, and at the Council of Florence (1439) they agreed to differ. The doctrine of a purgatorial fire was opposed by the Cathari, the Waldenses (q.v.), and other sects. The Reformers protested against the whole theory. See Schaff-Herzog: Chambers's Encyel.; the Prot. Diet.; the Oath. Diet.; K. It. Hagenbach.