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Page 48
Had the specter-form of the deceased, leaving the shadowy band of
the spirit-world, risen on the granite slab before them the two girls
could not have been more startled. Tightly they clung one to another,
their eyes riveted on the face of the Padre. There was a long pause;
then Florence lifted herself proudly up, and cold and haughty was her
tone: "It is not for me to deny your statement. If my father sinned,
peace to his memory, and may God forgive him. One so sinful and
malignant as yourself cannot be invested with divine prerogatives.
I have known your intentions with regard to myself since the hour
I knelt in confession. I was destined for a convent, and I tacitly
acquiesced in your plans, hoping that so secluded from the world I
should be comparatively happy; but my feelings are changed on many
points, and any further interference from you will be received with
the scorn it merits. No love for me actuates your movements, else you
would have spared me the suffering of this hour."
"You defy me, then?"
Florence had turned away, and heeded not his question; but Mary,
clasping her hands, looked appealingly in his face; "Oh, Padre, by the
tie which you declare exists between yourself and Florry--for the sake
of your lost parent--do not put your threat in execution. Spare an
unprotected orphan. You will not harm your sister!"
"Know you not, girl, that when a Jesuit priest takes the oath of his
order, he tears his heart from his breast and lays it at the feet of
his superior? Appeal not to ties of relationship: we repudiate them,
and pity is unknown among us."
With a shudder Mary joined her cousin, and rapidly and in perfect
silence they retraced their steps homeward. When they reached their
gate, Mary would have opened it, but her cousin, taking her hand, led
the way to their old seat beside the river.
Florence seated herself as near the water as possible, and then
tightly clasping the hand she held, asked in a voice of suppressed
emotion; "Tell me, Mary, is there a purgatory?"
"No, Florry; I think there is less foundation for that doctrine than
any advanced by your church."
"Mary, you speak truth, and all that you say I can implicitly believe.
Tell me what grounds support the theory?"
"You remember the words of our Saviour. 'All sin shall be forgiven,
save blasphemy of the Holy Ghost; that shall not be forgiven, either
in this world or the next.' Now Papists argue in this way: Then other
sins can be forgiven in another world; there is no sin in heaven, in
hell no forgiveness, consequently, there must exist a middle place,
or, in other words, a purgatory. Florry, you smile, yet I assure you I
have seen this advanced as unanswerable. In the book of Maccabees is a
very remarkable passage authorizing prayers for the dead, and on this
passage they build their theory and sanction their practise. Yet you
know full well it is one of the Apocryphal books rejected by the Jews,
because not originally written in their language. It was never quoted
by our Saviour, nor even received as inspired by your own church
till the Council of Trent, when it was admitted to substantiate the
doctrine of purgatory, and sanction prayers for the dead. I admit that
on this point St. Augustine's practise was in favor of it; though it
was only near the close of his long life that he speaks of the soul
of his mother. Yet already history informs us that the practise of
praying for the dead was gaining ground in the church, along with
image worship. St. Cyprian, who lived long before him, and during
a purer state of the church, leaves no doubt on our minds as to his
sentiments on this subject; his words are these: 'When ye depart
hence, there will be no room for repentance--no method of being
reconciled to God. Here eternal life is either lost or won. Here,
by the worship of God, and the fruit of faith, provision is made for
eternal salvation. And let no man be retarded, either by his sins or
years, from coming to obtain it. No repentance is too late while a man
remains in this world.' Our Saviour nowhere gives any encouragement
for such a doctrine. On the contrary, he said to the dying thief:
'This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.' I know of no other
argument which Papists advance in favor of their darling theory, save
the practise of the latter Fathers of their church."
"Mary, I cannot believe this doctrine, without further proof of Divine
sanction."
"Indeed, Florry, I know of no other reason in its favor, and have long
supposed it a system of extortion in connection with indulgences, now
used, only as a means of gain by the dissolute clergy of the Romish
faith. I need scarcely say, that the abuse of this latter doctrine
drove Luther to reformation. It is a well-known fact, that in the 16th
century, Tetzel, a Dominican monk high in his order, drove through
Germany in a wagon, containing two boxes--one holding indulgences,
the other the money received for them. You will smile, Florry, when I
repeat a translation of the German lines Written on the outside of the
latter box:
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