for those who
have died in venial sin, or who have not satisfied the justice of God for
sins already forgiven. She also teaches us that, although the souls
consigned to this intermediate state, commonly called purgatory, cannot
help themselves, they may be aided by the suffrages of the faithful on
earth. The existence of purgatory naturally implies the correlative
dogma--the utility of praying for the dead--for the souls consigned to this
middle state have not reached the term of their journey. They are still
exiles from heaven and fit subjects for Divine clemency.

The doctrine of an intermediate state is thus succinctly asserted by the
Council of Trent: "There is a Purgatory, and souls there detained, are
helped by the prayers of the faithful, and especially by the acceptable
Sacrifice of the Altar."(281)

It is to be noted that the Council studiously abstains from specifying the
nature of the expiating sufferings endured therein.

Is it not strange that this cherished doctrine should also be called in
question by the leveling innovators of the sixteenth century, when we
consider that it is clearly taught in the Old Testament; that it is, at
least, insinuated in the New Testament; that it is unanimously proclaimed
by the Fathers of the Church; that it is embodied in all the ancient
liturgies of the Oriental and the Western church, and that it is a
doctrine alike consonant with our reason and eminently consoling to the
human heart?

First--It is a doctrine plainly contained in the Old Testament and piously
practiced by the Hebrew people. At the close of an engagement which Judas
Machabeus had with the enemy he ordered prayers and sacrifices to be
offered up for his slain comrades. "And making a gathering, he sent twelve
thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for
the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the
resurrection. For, if he had not hoped that they that were slain should
rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the
dead.... It is, therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the
dead, that they may be loosed from sins."(282)

These words are so forcible that no comment of mine could render them
clearer. The passage proved a great stumbling-block to the Reformers.
Finding that they could not by any evasion weaken the force of the text,
they impiously threw overboard the Books of Machabees, like a man who
assassinates a hostile