History of purgatory
A sort of proto-purgatory called the "celestial Hades" appears in the writings of Plato and Heraclides Ponticus, among many other Classical writers.
In contrast, the celestial Hades was understood as an intermediary place where souls spent an undetermined time after death before either moving on to a higher level of existence or being reincarnated back on Earth.
Its exact location varied from author to author: Heraclides Ponticua thought it was in the Milky Way; the Academicians, the Stoics, Cicero, Virgil, Plutarch, and Hermetical writings situated it between the Moon and the Earth or around the Moon; while Numenius and the Latin Neoplatonists thought it was located between the sphere of the fixed stars and the Earth.
[6] Roman Catholics who believe in purgatory interpret New Testament passages such as 2 Timothy 1:18, Matthew 12:32, Luke 23:43, 1 Corinthians 3:11–3:15 and Hebrews 12:29 as supporting prayer for souls who are believed to be alive in an active, interim state after death, undergoing purifying flames (which could be interpreted as analogy or allegory) until they are cleansed and admitted into Heaven.
[7] Some modern speculation also includes Luke 16:19–16:26 as support for the concept of purgatory, but through the ages the Church has taught that the rich man of the parable had already received his final judgment,[8][further explanation needed] and the text itself refers to a chasm which may not be crossed.
[citation needed][11] The Roman Catholic Church believes that the living faithful can help souls complete their purification from sins by praying for them, and by gaining indulgences for them[12] as an act of intercession.
[13] The Late Middle Ages saw the growth of considerable abuses, such as the unrestricted sale of indulgences by professional "pardoners"[13] sent to collect contributions to projects such as the rebuilding of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Modern Catholic theologians have softened the punitive aspects of purgatory, and instead stress the willingness of the dead to undergo temporary purification as preparation for the everlasting joys of heaven.
[4] The English Anglican scholar John Henry Newman argued, in a book that he wrote before converting to Catholicism, that the essence of the doctrine on purgatory is locatable in ancient tradition, and that the core consistency of such beliefs are evidence that Christianity was "originally given to us from heaven".
[16] In Christianity, prayer for the dead is attested since at least the 2nd century,[17] evidenced in part by the tomb inscription of Abercius, Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia (d. c.
[20] Irenaeus (c. 130-202) mentioned an abode where the souls of the dead remained until the universal judgment, a process that has been described as one which "contains the concept of...
Pope Gregory the Great's Dialogues, written in the late 6th century, evidence a development in the understanding of the afterlife distinctive of the direction that Latin Christendom would take: As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire.
The establishment, at the end of the 10th century, of this remembrance helped focus popular imagination on the fate of the departed, and fostered a sense of solidarity between the living and the dead.
[43] Le Goff also considered Peter the Lombard (d. 1160), in expounding on the teachings of St. Augustine and Gregory the Great, to have contributed significantly to the birth of purgatory in the sense of a physical place.
[44] The legend of St Patrick's Purgatory (Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii) written in that century by Hugh of Saltry, also known as Henry of Sawtry, was "part of a huge, repetitive contemporary genre of literature of which the most familiar today is Dante's";[45] another is the Visio Tnugdali.
What has been called the classic formulation of the doctrine of purgatory, namely the means by which any unforgiven guilt of venial sins is expiated and punishment for any kind of sins is borne, is attributed to Thomas Aquinas[7] although he ceased work on his Summa Theologica before reaching the part in which he would have dealt with Purgatory, which is treated in the "Supplement" added after his death.
According to Aquinas and other scholastics, the dead in purgatory are at peace because they are sure of salvation, and may be helped by the prayers of the faithful and especially the offering of the Eucharist, because they are still part of the Communion of Saints, from which only those in hell or limbo are excluded.
[7] At the Second Council of Lyon in 1274, the Catholic Church defined, for the first time, its teaching on purgatory, in two points: The council declared: [I]f they die truly repentant in charity before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for (sins) committed and omitted, their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorical or purifying punishments, as Brother John has explained to us.
The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that "there is a state beyond death where believers continue to be perfected and led to full divinization".
[59] Later speculations include the idea advocated by Saints Robert Bellarmine and Alphonsus Liguori of asking for the prayers of the souls in purgatory,[7] a notion not accepted by all theologians.
[60] Frederick William Faber said that there have been private revelations of souls who "abide their purification in the air, or by their graves, or near altars where the Blessed Sacrament is, or in the rooms of those who pray for them, or amid the scenes of their former vanity and frivolity".
