PURGATORY

PURGATORY, in the creed of the Church of Rome a place in which the souls of the dead, saved from hell by the death of Christ, are chastened and purified from venial sins, a result which is, in great part, ascribed to the prayers of the faithful and the sacrifice of the Mass. The creed of the Church in this matter was first formulated by Gregory the Great, and was based by him, as it has been vindicated since, on passages of Scripture as well as the writings of the Fathers. The conception of it, as wrought out by Dante, Carlyle considers "a noble embodiment of a true noble thought." See his "Heroes."