ABSTRACT
On Purgatory the decree simply lays down that “there is a Purgatory, and that the souls there retained are relieved by the suffrages of the faithful, but chiefly by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar.” During the first three centuries there are only to be found a few traces of a belief in anything like a purgatory between death and judgment. Three indications of such a belief are all that can fairly be claimed during this period, two of which come from the same quarter and from a Montanistic source. The word “indulgentia,” which was originally used of gentleness and tenderness, had come in the language of the Latin jurisconsults to signify definitely a remission of taxation or of punishment; and in all probability this suggested the technical use of the word which grew up in course of time within the Christian Church.
