Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/126

114 P U R P U R Dettingen Te Deum. Purcell did not long survive the production of this great work. He died at his house in Dean's Yard, Westminster, on 21st November 1695, leaving a widow and three children, the former of whom soon after- wards published a number of his works, including the now famous collection called Orpheus Britannicus. Besides the operas we have already mentioned, he wrote Don Quixote, JSonduca, The Indian Queen, The Fairy Queen, and others, a vast quantity of sacred music, and numerous odes, cantatas, and other miscellaneous pieces. (W. S. R. ) PURCHAS, SAMUEL (1577-1626), compiler of works on travel and discovery, was born at Thaxted, Essex, in 1577. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1600, and some time afterwards B.D., with which degree he was also admitted at Oxford in 1615. In 1604 he was presented by James I. to the vicarage of Eastwood, Essex, and in 1615 was collated to the rectory of St Martin's, Ludgate, London. He was also chaplain to Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury. Some years before his ecclesiastical duties called him to London Purchas had given over the care of his vicarage to his brother, and spent most of his time in the metropolis in the compilation of his geographical works. In 1613 he pub- lished Purchas, his Pilgrimage or Relations of the World, and the Religions observed in all Ages, which reached a fourth edition, much enlarged, in 1626 ; in 1619 Purchas, his Pilgrim or Microcosmus, or the Historic of Man ; relat- ing the wonders of his Generation, varieties in his Degenera- tion, and necessity of his Regeneration ; and in 1625, in four volumes, Purchas, his Pilgrimes ; or Relation of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travels, by Englishmen and others. This last work was intended as a continuation of Hakluyt's Voyages, and was partly founded on MSS. left him by Hakluyt. The fourth edition of the Pilgrimage is usually catalogued as vol. v. of the Pilgrimes, but the two works are quite distinct, and essentially different in character, as is indeed indicated in the names, the differ- ence being thus explained by Purchas himself : in the Pil- grimage he makes use of his own matter though borrowed, while in the Pilgrimes the authors themselves act their own parts in their own words. He was also the author of the King's Tower and Triumphal Arch of London, a sermon on 2 Sam. xxii. 51, published in 1623. He died in Sep- tember 1626, according to some in a debtor's prison, and although Anthony Wood affirms that he died in his own house there can be no doubt that the publication of his books had involved him in serious money difficulties. PURGATORY (Purgatorium). The Roman Catholic Church has no more than two declarations of supreme authority on the subject of its distinctive doctrine of purgatory. The first is that of the council of Ferrara- Florence, in which it was defined, as regards the truly penitent who have departed this life in the love of God before they have made satisfaction for their sins of com- mission and omission by fruits meet for repentance, that their souls are cleansed by purgatorial pains after death, and for their relief from these the suffrages of the living the sacrifice of the mass, prayers, alms, and other offices of piety are helpful. The second is that of the council of Trent, which runs as follows : "Since the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Spirit from the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the fathers, hath taught in holy councils, and lastly in this oecumenical council, that there is a purgatory, and that the souls detained there are assisted by the suffrages of the faithful, but especially by the most acceptable sacrifice of the mass, this holy council commands all bishops to have a diligent care that the sound doctrine of purgatory delivered to us by venerable fathers and sacred councils be believed, maintained, taught, and every- where preached." This decree is to be read in the light of an earlier canon of the same council, by which it is con- demned as heretical to say that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt of the penitent sinner is so remitted, and the penalty of eternal punishment so annulled, that no penalty of temporal punishment remains to be paid either in this world or in the future in purgatory before the kingdom of heaven can be opened. Thus the essential point of the doctrine is that Christian souls having any sin upon them at the moment of death pass into a state of expiatory suffering, in which they can be helped by the prayers and other good works of living be- lievers. And this is all that modern Catholic theologians regard as being de fide,. It is hardly necessary to say that the doctrine as popularly held and currently taught is generally much more detailed and explicit. In view of some of these developments, there is on all hands admitted to exist abundant room for the admonition of the council of Trent, when it proceeded to warn the clergy to exclude from popular addresses all the more difficult and subtle questions relating to the subject, and such as do not tend to edification or make for piety. "They must not allow uncertainties or things which have the appearance of falsity to be given forth or handled, and they are to prohibit as scandalous and offensive such things as minister to curiosity or superstition or savour of filthy lucre. Let the bishops see to it that the prayers of the living to wit, the sacri- fices, prayers, alms, and other works of piety which have been wont to be rendered by believers for the departed are done piously and devoutly, according to the institutions of the church, and that those which are due by the wills of testators or otherwise be not rendered in a perfunctory manner but diligently and punctually, by priests and other ministers of the church who are bound to this service." Among the details of the doctrine, which have been the subject of much speculation among Catholics, may be specified the questions relating to the locality of purgatory and the nature and duration of its sufferings. On none of these points has anything authoritative been delivered. It is of course conceived of as having some position in space, and as being distinct from heaven, the place of eternal blessedness, on the one hand, and from hell, the place of eternal woe, on the other. But any theory as to its exact latitude and longitude (such, for example, as underlies Dante's description) must be regarded as the effort merely of the individual imagination. As regards the nature of its pains, there has been a constant disposition to interpret with strict literality the expressions of Scripture as to the cleansing efficacy of fire, but the possibility of interpreting them metaphorically has never been wholly lost sight of. With respect to their duration, it must be inferred from the whole praxis of indulgences as at present authorized by the church that the pains of purgatory are measurable by years and days ; but here also everything is left vague. The thesis of all Protestants, as against the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory, is that " the souls of be- lievers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory." Scripture authority is claimed on both sides, but the argument, which is a some- what complicated one and depends mainly on the view arrived at as to the Scriptural doctrine of sin and satis- faction, cannot be entered upon here. When the two doctrines are compared in the light of ecclesiastical tra- dition it will be found that neither fully coincides with the opinions somewhat vaguely held by the early fathers, whose view of the intermediate state between death and the resurrection was largely affected by the pre-Christian doctrine of Hades or Sheol. On the one hand, Irenseus (Hxr., v. 31) regards as heretical the opinion that the souls of the departed do immediately pass into glory ; he argues that, as Christ tarried for three days "in the lower