Purgatory

(pur'ga-to-re.) [From L. pur gator i us, cleansing.) (Eccl.) In the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, a state or place after death where the souls of the faithful are purified from the sins which they are freighted with on leaving this life, before they are admitted to a state of perfect bli . It is a umed to dif" fer from hell in little except that its pains are not eternal, and that they maybe abridged, or even ended, by ma es, indulgences, and so forth. [s. 743]