purgatorIan

& 8. [Eng. purgatory; -an.] A. As adj.: Of or pertaining to purgatory. "The apparitions of purgatorian ghosts."-Mede: Apostasy of Latter Times, p. 45. B. As subst.: A believer in, or supporter of, the doctrine of purgatory. "With many Divines and all Purgatorians ."-Boswell: Life of Johnson, iii. 193. *pür-ga-tör-i-ous, a. [Lat. pur gator i us , from purgatus , pa. par. of pur go to purge (q. v.).] Connected with, or having the nature of, purgatory. ( Milton .) pur-ga-tōr-, *pur-ga-tor-ie, a. . [French purgatorie, from Lat. pur gator i us.] *A. As adj .: Tending to purge or cleanse; cleans ing, purgative. "This purgatory interval is not unfavorable to a faithle representative." -Burke: French Revolution. B. As substantive: 1. Compar . Religions : Any place or state succeeding the present life, and serving as a means of moral purification. (See extract under PURGATORIAL.) 2. Roman Theol .: A place in which souls who depart this life in the grace of God suffer for a time, because they still need to be cleansed from venial, or have still to pay the temporal punishment due to mortal sins, the guilt and eternal punishment of which have been reinitted. ( Addis & Arnold.) The existence of a purgatory was defined by the Councils of Florence (1438-9) and Trent. At the latter council (se . xxv., Dec. 3, 4, 1563) it was declared that the "souls in Purgatory a isted by the suffrages of the faithful, and especially by the Sacrifice of the altar." Beyond this nothing is defined, and the same decree enjoins bishops" to abstain from difficult and subtle questions" in their discourses on the subject, and prohibits curious inquiries, superstitious practices, and the making of purgatory a source of gain as "scandals and stumbling-blocks to the faithful.” 3. Anglican: Art. XXII. treats of Purgatory, and most Protestants consider that it denies Scriptural evidence for the existence of such a place. High Churchmen, on the contrary, hold that the Anglican Church has no authoritative teaching on the point, and that the article is rather directed against an erroneous view of the Roman doctrine than chat doctrine itself. Prayers for the dead-the natural outcome of the doctrine of purgatory-are in many instances offered privately by her members, and in some few instances publicly requested in her churches.