PURGATORY (` a place of expiation,' from the Latin verb purgare, to cleanse') is the name given by Roman Catholics to au intermediate state of souls after death, and before the final judgment, during which they are supposed to expiate by certain punishments the guilt which they have incurred through life. Roman Catholic divines teach that it is only the souls of those who die in a state of repentance and in the communion of the church that are admitted into purgatory ; those who die impenitent, or in a state of unbelief, are doomed to everlasting punishment. As for the duration of the term of expiation in purgatory, that is a matter which rests with divine justice, and varies according to the guilt of the parties, but Roman Catholics believe that the prayers of the living and other pious works may serve to shorten the term of souls in purgatory. This has given rise to the doctrine of indulgences, with which that of purgatory is closely connected. [INDULGENCE.] The Protestant and other churches which dissent from the church of Rome do not believe' in purgatory. No mention of purgatory appears before the time of Augustine, who, in some of his works, speaks of it in terms not very explicit. The doctrine is said to have been first inculcated as a matter of belief by Gregory the Great, at the end of the 6th century.
I'UItITANS, a name first given in the reign of Queen Elizabeth to such clergymen of the Church of England as declined to subscribe to its liturgy, ceremonies, and discipline, according to the requirements of the bishops in their respective dioceses. Fuller assigns the origin
of this name to the year 1564, and Strype to the year 1569; but it seems not very easy to ascertain the exact date when any such name might have been first used. The clergymen so called were advocates for a further reformation than the existing authorities deemed it proper to sanction ; they desired a form of worship more simple and pure than they believed that to be of the church as then established. They were called Puritans probably out of derision, and the name was shortly applied to the laity as well as to the clergy. The Puritans were by other writers of the 17th century generally called non-con formists, a name first applied to men who objected to the clerical vestments about 1550. As Puritans they made a great figure in the Civil War against Charles I., but they very shortly separated into more definite sects, as Presbyterians, Baptists, &c. For a general history of the Puritans, the work of Neal, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the works of Strype and Collier, may be consulted. On the ps litlad influence exercised 11 the Puritans, all histerits of Ensland contain detailed accounts. [DIssesssus; NONCUNrounists.] PURPLE OP CASSIUS. [niotts] •