Purgatory by Mary Anne Madden Sadlier

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Turning first to Egypt, which is, rightly or wrongly, commonly
considered the cradle of civilization, we may sum up its teaching with
regard to the lot of the dead, and the middle state, in these
interesting remarks of a learned author: "The continuance of the soul
after its death, its judgment in another world, and its sentence
according to its deserts, either to happiness or suffering, were
undoubted parts both of the popular and of the more recondite religion.
It was the universal belief that immediately after death the soul
descended into a lower world, and was conducted to the Hall of Truth
(or, 'of the Two Truths'), where it was judged in the presence of
Osiris and the forty-two demons, the 'Lords of Truth' and judges of the
dead. Anubis, 'the director of the weight,' brought forth a pair of
scales, and, placing on one scale a figure or emblem of Truth, set on
the other a vase containing the good actions of the deceased; Thoth
standing by the while, with a tablet in his hand, whereon to record the
result. According to the side on which the balance inclined, Osiris
delivered the sentence. If the good deeds preponderated, the blessed
soul was allowed to enter the 'boat of the sun,' and was conducted by
good spirits to Aahlu (Elysium), to the 'pools of peace,' and the
dwelling place of Osiris.... The good soul, having first been freed
from its infirmities by passing through the basin of purgatorial fire,
guarded by the four ape-faced genii, and then made the companion of
Osiris three thousand years, returned from Amenti, re-entered its
former body, rose from the dead, and lived once more a human life upon
earth. This process was reiterated until a certain mystic cycle of
years became complete, when finally the good and blessed attained the
crowning joy of union with God, being absorbed into the Divine Essence,
and thus attaining the true end and full perfection of their being."
[1]

[Footnote 1: "History of Ancient Egypt," George Rawlinson, Vol. I., pp.
327-329.]

It may be remarked that all systems of religion which held the doctrine
of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, should be considered
as believing in a middle state of purgation, since they maintained the
necessity of the soul's further purification, after death, before it
was permitted to enter into its final rest.

In the ever-varying phases through which Buddhism, the religion of all
South-eastern Asia, has passed in its protracted existence, it is
difficult to determine with any degree of certainty, precisely what its
disciples hold; but the belief in metempsychosis, which is one of its
fundamental doctrines, must permit us to range it on the side of those
who hold to the idea of a middle state. Certain it is, they believe
that the soul, by a series of new births, becomes, in process of time,
better fitted for the final state in which it is destined for ever to
remain. The same may be said of the religion of the great body of the
Chinese; for, although they have their law-giver Confucius, their
religion at present, as far as it merits the name, appears to be no
more than a certain form of Buddhism.

Coming to the more western nations of Asia, we may remark that, as
their religions were evidently a corruption of primitive revelation,
less removed in point of time, they must, although they had already
become idolatrous, have embodied the idea of a future state of
purgation, notwithstanding that it is impossible to determine at this
distant day, the exact nature of their doctrines. If, however, we turn
from these to the doctrine of Zoroaster, our means of forming an
opinion are more ample.

Zoroaster, or, more correctly, Zarathustra, the founder of the Persian
religion, was born, according to some accounts, in the sixth century
before our era, while others claim for him an antiquity dating at least
from the thirteenth century before Christ. Be that as it may--and it
does not concern us to inquire into it--this much is certain: he was a
firm believer in a middle state, and he transmitted the same to his
followers. But, going a step further than some, he taught that the
souls undergoing purification are helped by the prayers of their
friends upon earth. "The Zoroastrians," says Mr. Rawlinson, "were
devout believers in the immortality of the soul and a conscious future
existence. They taught that immediately after death the souls of men,
both good and bad, proceeded together along an appointed path, to 'the
bridge of the gatherer.' This was a narrow road conducting to heaven or
paradise, over which the souls of the pious alone could pass, while the
wicked fell from it into the gulf below, where they found themselves in
the place of punishment. The good soul was assisted across the bridge
by the Angel Serosh--'the happy, well-formed, swift, tall Serosh'--who
met the weary wayfarer, and sustained his steps as he effected the
difficult passage. The prayers of his friends in this world were of
much avail to the deceased, and greatly helped him on his journey." [1]

[Footnote 1: "Ancient Monarchies." Vol. II, p 339.]

With regard to the opinions held by the Greeks,--and the same may, in
general terms, be applied to the Romans, whose religious views
coincided more or less closely with those of their more polished
neighbors,--it is difficult to form a correct idea. Not that the
classic writers and philosophers have permitted the subject to sink
into oblivion,--on the contrary, they have treated it at considerable
length, as all classic scholars well know,--but while, on the one hand,
as I remarked above, there is a difference between the popular ideas
and those of the learned, there is also here a great difference of
opinion between the various schools of philosophy. Not only so, but it
is difficult to determine how far the philosophers themselves were in
earnest in the opinions they expressed; and how far, too, we understand
them. The opinions of the people, and much more, those of the learned,
vary with the principal periods of Grecian and Roman history. This
much, however, may be safely held, that, while they drew their origin
from Central or Western Asia, their religion must, in the beginning,
have been that of the countries from which they came. But truth only is
immutable; error is ever changing.

I shall not tax the patience of the reader by asking him to pass in
review the more striking periods of the history of these famous
nations, but shall content myself with giving the views of a celebrated
writer on a part, at least, of the question. Speaking of the opinions
held by the Greek philosophers regarding the future state of the soul,
Dr. Dollinger says, "The old and universal tradition admitted, in
general, that man continued to exist after death; but the Greeks of the
Homeric age did not dream of a retribution appointed to all after
death, or of purifying and penitential punishments. It is only some
conspicuous offenders against the gods who, in Homer, are tormented in
distant Erebus. In Hesiod, the earlier races of man continue to live
on, sometimes as good demons, sometimes as souls of men in bliss, or as
heroes; yet, though inculcating moral obligations, he does not point to
a reward to be looked for beyond the grave, but only to the justice
that dominates in this economy.... Plato expressly ascribes to the
Orphic writers the dogma of the soul's finding herself in the body as
in a sepulchre or prison, on the score of previously contracted guilt;
a dogma indubitably ascending to a very high antiquity.

"... It is from this source that Pindar drew, who, of the old Greeks,
generally has expressed notions the most precise and minutely distinct
of trial and tribulation after death, and the circuits and lustrations
of the soul. He assigns the island of the blest as for the everlasting
enjoyment of those who, in a triple existence in the upper and lower
world, have been able to keep their souls perfectly pure from all sin.
On the other hand, the souls of sinners appear after death before the
judgment seat of a judge of the nether world, by whom they are
sentenced to a heavy doom, and are ceaselessly dragged the world over,
suffering bloody torments. But as for those whom Persephone has
released from the old guilt of sin, their souls she sends in the ninth
year back again to the upper sun; of them are born mighty kings, and
men of power and wisdom, who come to be styled saintly heroes by their
posterity." And, again: "Plato was the first of the Greeks to throw
himself, in all sincerity, and with the whole depth of his intellect,
upon the solution of the great question of immortality.... He was, in
truth, the prophet of the doctrine of immortality for his time, and for
the Greek nation.... The metempsychosis which he taught under Orphic
and Pythagorean inspiration is an essential ingredient of his theory of
the world, and is, therefore, perpetually recurring in his more
important works. He connects it with an idea sifted and taken from
popular belief of a state of penance in Hades, though it can hardly be
ascertained how large a portion of mystical ornament or poetical
conjecture he throws into the particular delineation of 'the last
things,' and of transmigration. He adopts ten grades of migration, each
of a thousand years; so that the soul, in each migration, makes a
selection of its life-destiny, and renews its penance ten times, until
it is enabled to return to an incorporeal existence with God, and to
the pure contemplation of Him and the ideal world. Philosophic souls
only escape after a three-fold migration, in each of which they choose
again their first mode of life. All other souls are judged in the
nether world after their first life, and there do penance for their
guilt in different quarters; the incurable only are thrust down forever
into Tartarus. He attaches eternal punishment to certain particularly
abominable sins, while such as have lived justly repose blissfully in
the dwelling of a kindred star until their entrance into a second life.
Plato was clearly acquainted with the fact of the necessity of an
intermediate state between eternal happiness and misery, a state of
penance and purification after death." [1]

[Footnote 1: "The Gentile and the Jew," Vol. I. pp. 301-320.]

The popular notion of Charon, the ferryman of the lower world, refusing
to carry over the river Acheron the souls of such as had not been
buried, but leaving them to wander on the shores for a century before
he would consent, or rather before he was permitted by the rulers of
the Hades to do so, contains a vestige of the belief in a middle state,
where some souls had to suffer for a time before they could enter into
the abode of the blest. But when it is said that the friends of the
deceased could, by interring his remains, secure his entry into the
desired repose, we see a more striking resemblance to the doctrine that
friends on earth are able to assist the souls undergoing purgation. A
remarkable instance of the popular belief in this doctrine is furnished
in Grecian history, where the soldiers were encouraged on a certain
occasion to risk their lives in the service of their country by their
being told to write their names on their arms, so that if any fell his
friends could have him properly interred, and thus secure him against
all fear of having to wander for a century on the bleak shores of the
dividing river. Nothing could better show the hold which this idea had
on the minds of the people.

Roman mythological ideas were, as has been said, nearly related to
those of Greece; they underwent as great modifications, while the
opinions of her philosophers were equally abstruse, varied, and
difficult to understand. The author above quoted, treating of the
notion of the soul and a future state entertained by the Roman
philosophers, proves their ideas to have been extremely vague and ill-
defined. Still, there were not wanting those who held to the belief of
an existence after this life. Plutarch, a Greek, "has left us a view of
the state of the departed. The souls of the dead, ascending through the
air, and in part reaching the highest heaven, are either luminous and
transparent or dark and spotted, on account of sins adhering to them,
and some have even scars upon them. The soul of man, he says elsewhere,
comes from the moon; his mind, intellect,--from the sun; the separation
of the two is only completely effected after death. The soul wanders
awhile between the moon and earth for purposes of punishment--or, if it
be good, of purification, until it rises to the moon, where the
_vouc_ [1] leaves it and returns to its home, the sun; while the
soul is buried in the moon. Lucian, on the other hand, whose writings
for the most part are a pretty faithful mirror of the notions in vogue
among his contemporaries, bears testimony to a continuance of the old
tradition of the good reaching the Elysian fields, and the great
transgressors finding themselves given up to the Erinnys in a place of
torment, where they are torn by vultures, crushed on the wheel, or
otherwise tormented; while such as are neither great sinners nor
distinguished by their virtues stray about in meadows as bodiless
shadows, and are fed on the libations and mortuary sacrifices offered
at their sepulchres. An obolus for Charon was still placed in the mouth
of every dead body." [2] Here, again, we have both the belief in the
existence of a middle state and of the assistance afforded to those
detained there.

[Footnote 1: Mind]

[Footnote 2: "The Gentile and the Jew," Vol. II., p. 146.]

The religion of the Druids is so wrapped in mystery that it is
difficult to determine what they believed on any point, and much more
on that of the future lot of the soul; but as they held the doctrine of
metempsychosis, it is fair to class them among the adherents to the
notion of a period of purgation between death and the soul's entrance
into its final rest. Of the views of the sturdy Norsemen, on the
contrary, there can be no two opinions; in their mythology the idea of
a middle state is expressed in the clearest language. The following
passage from Mr. Anderson, places the matter beyond question. I may
first remark, for the information of the general reader, that by Gimle
is meant the abode of the righteous after the day of judgment; by
Naastrand, the place of punishment after the same dread sentence; by
Ragnarok, the last day; Valhal, the temporary place of happiness to
which the god Odin invites those who have been slain in battle; and
Hel, the goddess of death, whose abode is termed Helheim. With these
explanations the reader will be able to understand the subjoined
passage, which expresses the Norse idea of the future purgation of the
soul.

After speaking of the lot of the departed, the writer says: "But it
must be remembered that Gimle and Naastrand have reference to the state
of things after Ragnarok, the Twilight of the gods; while Valhal and
Hel have reference to the state of things between death and Ragnarok;--
a time of existence corresponding somewhat to what is called
_Purgatory_ by the Catholic Church." [1]

[Footnote 1: "Norse Mythology," p. 393.]

It would appear to be no exaggeration to claim the same belief in a
middle state for the American Indians, in as far as it is possible for
us to draw anything definite from their crude notions of religion. A
good authority on subjects connected with Indian customs and beliefs
says: "The belief respecting the land of souls varied greatly in
different tribes and different individuals." And, again: "An endless
variety of incoherent fancies is connected with the Indian idea of a
future life.... At intervals of ten or twelve years, the Hurons, the
Neutrals, and other kindred tribes, were accustomed to collect the
bones of their dead, and deposit them, with great ceremony, in a common
place of burial. The whole nation was sometimes assembled at this
solemnity; and hundreds of corpses, brought from their temporary
resting-places, were inhumed in one common pit. From this hour the
immortality of their souls began." This evidently implies a period
during which the souls were wandering at a distance from the place of
their eternal repose. Does the following passage throw any light upon
it? The reader must decide the point for himself. "Most of the
traditions," continues the same writer, "agree, however, that the
spirits, on their journey heavenward, were beset with difficulties and
perils. There was a swift river which must be crossed on a log that
shook beneath their feet, while a ferocious dog opposed their passage,
and drove many into the abyss. This river was full of sturgeons and
other fish, which the ghosts speared for their subsistence. Beyond was
a narrow path between moving rocks which each instant crushed together,
grinding to atoms the less nimble of the pilgrims who essayed to pass."
[1] A vestige of the same belief seems to crop out in a custom of some
of the tribes of Central Africa, as appears from the remarks of a
recent traveller. "When a death occurs," says Major Serpa Pinto, "the
body is shrouded in a white cloth, and, being covered with an ox-hide,
is carried to the grave, dug in a place selected for the purpose. The
days following on an interment are days of high festival in the hut of
the deceased. The native kings are buried with some ceremony, and their
bodies, being arrayed in their best clothes, are conveyed to the tomb
in a dressed hide. There is a great feasting on these occasions, and an
enormous sacrifice of cattle; for the heir of the deceased is bound to
sacrifice his whole herd in order to regale his people, and give peace
to the soul of the departed." [2]

[Footnote 1: "The Jesuits in North America," Francis Parkman.
Introduction, pp. 81, 92.]

[Footnote 2: "How I Crossed Africa," Vol. I., p. 63.]

Such a unity of sentiment on the part of so many nations differing in
every other respect can only be attributed either to a natural feeling
inherent in man, or to a primitive revelation, which, amid the
vicissitudes of time, has left its impress on the minds of all nations.
That the doctrine of a middle state of purification was a part of the
primitive revelation cannot, I think, admit of reasonable doubt. To the
true servant of God, this unanimity is another proof of the faith once
revealed to the Saints, and, at the same time, an additional motive for
thanking God for the light vouchsafed him, while so many others are
left to grope in the darkness of error.--_Ave Maria,_ Nov. 17,
1883.

DEVOTION TO THE DEAD AMONGST THE AMERICAN INDIANS OF THE EARLY JESUIT
MISSIONS.

In the "_Relations des Jesuites_," on their early missions in New
France, now Canada, we find many examples, told in the quaint old
French of the seventeenth century, and with true apostolic simplicity,
of the tender devotion for the souls in Purgatory cherished by all the
Indians of every tribe who had embraced Christianity from the teaching
of those zealous missionaries. The few extracts we give below from the
"_Relations_" will serve to show how deeply this touching devotion
to the departed is implanted in our nature, seeing that the doctrine of
a place of purgation in the after life finds so ready a response in the
heart and soul of the untutored children of the forest:

"The devotion which they have for the souls of the departed is another
mark of their faith. Not far from this assembly there is a cemetery, in
the midst of which is seen a fine cross; sepulchres four or five feet
wide and six or seven feet long, rise about four feet from the ground,
carefully covered with bark. At the head and feet of the dead are two
crosses, and on one side a sword, if the dead were a man, or some
domestic article, if a woman. Having arrived there, I was asked to pray
to God for the souls of those who were buried in that place. A good
Christian gave me a beaver skin by the hands of her daughter, about
seven years of age, and said to me, when her daughter presented it:
'Father, this present is to ask you to pray to God for the souls of her
sister and her grandmother.' Many others made the same request; I
promised to comply with their wishes, but, as for their presents, I
could not accept them.

"Some time ago, when the Christians of this place died, their beads
were buried with them; this custom was last year changed for a holier
one, by means of a good Christian who, when dying, gave her chaplet to
another, begging her to keep it and say it for her, at least on feast
days. This charity was done to her, and the custom was introduced from
that time: so it was that when any one died, his or her rosary was
given, with a little present, to some one chosen from the company
present, who is bound to take it, and say it for the departed soul, at
least on Sundays and Festivals."--_Journal of Father Jacques Buteux
in "Relations," Vol. II_.

* * * * *

In one of the Huron missions, an Indian named Joachim Annicouton,
converted after many years of evil courses and, later, of hypocritical
pretense of conversion, was murdered by three drunken savages of his
own tribe, but lived long enough to edify all around him by his pious
resignation, his admirable patience in the most cruel sufferings, and
his generous forgiveness of his enemies. Having given a touching
account of his death, the good Father Claude Dablon goes on to say:

"A very singular circumstance took place at his burial, which was
attended by all the families of the village, with many of the French
residents of the neighborhood. Before the body was laid in the earth,
the widow inquired if the authors of his death were present; being told
that they were not, she begged that they might be sent for. These poor
creatures having come, they drew near to the corpse, with downcast
eyes, sorrow and confusion in their faces. The widow, looking upon
them, said: 'Well! behold poor Joachim Annicouton, you know what
brought him to the state in which you now see him; I ask of you no
other satisfaction but that you pray to God for the repose of his
soul.' ..."

* * * * *

"It is customary amongst the Indians to give all the goods of the dead
to their relatives and friends, to mourn their death; but the husband
of Catherine, in his quality of first captain, assembled the Council of
the Ancients, and told them that they must no longer keep to their
former customs, which profited nothing to the dead; that, as for him,
his thought was to dress up the body of the deceased in her best
garments, as she might rise some day,--and to employ the rest of what
belonged to her in giving alms to the poor. This thought was approved
of by all, and it became a law which was ever after strictly observed.

"The body of his wife was then arrayed in her best clothes, and he
distributed amongst the poor all that remained of her little furniture,
charging them to pray for the dead. The whole might have amounted to
three hundred francs, which is a great deal for an Indian."--
_Relations_, 1673-4.

* * * * *

"They [1] have established amongst them a somewhat singular practice to
help the souls in Purgatory. Besides the offerings they make for that
to the Church, and the alms they give to the poor,--besides the
devotion of the four Sundays of the month, to which is attached an
indulgence for the souls in Purgatory, so great that these days are
like Easter; as soon as any one is dead, his or her nearest relations
make a spiritual collection of communions in every family, begging them
to offer all they can for the repose, of the dead."--_Relations_,
1677-8.

[Footnote 1: The Hurons of Loretto, near Quebec.]

SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEF AMONGST SOME OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

CABRAL.

When they are asked what they think of the soul, they answer that it is
the shadow "or living image" of the body; and it is as a consequence of
this principle that they believe all animated in the universe. It is by
tradition that they suppose the soul immortal. They pretend that,
separated from the body, it retains the inclinations it had during
life; and hence comes the custom of burying with the dead all that had
served to satisfy their wants or their tastes. They are even persuaded
that the soul remains a long time near the body after their separation,
and that it afterwards passes on into a country which they know not,
or, as some will have it, transformed into a turtle. Others give all
men two souls, one such as we have mentioned, the other which never
leaves the body, and goes from one but to pass into another.

For this reason it is that they bury children on the roadside, so that
women passing by may pick up these second souls, which, not having long
enjoyed life, are more eager to begin it anew. They must also be fed;
and for that purpose it is that divers sorts of food are placed on the
graves, but that is only done for a little while, as it is supposed
that in time the souls get accustomed to fasting. The difficulty they
find in supporting the living makes them forget the care for the
nourishment of the dead. It is also customary to bury with them all
that had belonged to them, presents being even added thereto; hence it
is a grievous scandal amongst all those nations when they see Europeans
open graves to take out the beaver robes they have placed therein. The
burial-grounds are places so respected that their profanation is
accounted the most atrocious outrage that can be offered to an Indian
village.

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