session the sixth chapter will be treated of, which is now deferred till then, and the remaining chapters on Reformation, which have been already set forth, and other matters pertaining thereunto. But if it shall seem opportune, and the time will permit, certain dogmas may also be treated of, as in their proper season they shall be proposed in the congregations.
The term of the session was abridged
SESSION THE TWENTY-FIFTH.
Being the ninth and last under the Sovereign Pontiff Pius IV, begun on the third, and terminated on the fourth, day of December, 1563.
DECREE TOUCHING PUBGATORY.
Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has, from the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the fathers, taught, in sacred councils, and very recently in this œcumenical synod,[1] that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls there detained are relieved by the suffrages of the faithful, but chiefly by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar; the holy synod enjoins on bishops that they diligently strive that the sound doctrine touching Purgatory, delivered by the holy fathers and sacred councils, be believed, held, taught, and everywhere proclaimed by the faithful of Christ. But let the more difficult and subtle questions, and those which tend not to edification,[2] and from which for the most part there is no increase of piety, be excluded from popular discourses before the uneducated multitude. In like manner, such things as are uncertain, or which labour under an appearance of error, let them not allow to be made public and treated of. But those things which tend to a certain kind of curiosity or superstition, or which savour of filthy lucre, let them prohibit as scandals and stumbling-blocks of the faithful. And let the bishops take care, that the suffrages of the faithful who are living, to wit, the sacrifices of masses, prayers, almsgivings, and other works of piety, which have been wont to be per-
