Prayers for the Dead. 47
18. The vows which nowadays are made unto the saints were altogether unknown till Lombard's time. For he defines a vow, dist.
38, lit. A, to be a certain testifying of a voluntary promise, which ought properly to be made concerning God and the things that belong unto God.
Prayers for the Dead 1. Before 170 years after Christ there were no memories of martyrs kept in churches, nor any prayers, offerings, or sacrifices for the dead, until 200 years after the passion. The first mention of them is in Tertullian, and they had their beginning from tradition, as he affirms in his book de coron. Militum, c. 3. "Of these and other orders," says he, "if you require the reasons, you shall find no Scripture for them, tradition will be pretended for the increaser, custom for the confirmer, and faith for the keeper hereof."
2. The fathers of the first 400 years were of opinion that we must pray for all the dead, even for the faithless and the damned. Yet are they uncertain whether the dead may be helped anything by our prayers and alms deeds, or no. And if in any place they set down any certainty hereof, yet not in that sense the papists now do hold it.
"The sacrifices," says Augustine, Enchir., c. 110, "either of the altar or of alms-deeds, are propitiations for the dead which were not very wicked; and for the very wicked, they are means," says he doubtfully,
"to make their damnation the more tolerable."
And so holds Prudentius, lib. Cathemerinon, in hymno 5, ad incensum cerei pasch:
Yearly that night, wherein our Lord arose From the Acherontic lake, the cage of woes,
The torments of the afflicted ghosts do stay, And all the damned crew keeps holy-day.
And a little after:
Then hell slumbers in soft punishment:
And all the souls in that vast prison spent, Rejoice in rest: the fire then hurts not sore,
Nor boil the floods with sulfur, as before.
Of these prayers Chrysostom speaks very doubtfully, Homily 3, in Philip. "Say, I pray you," quotes he, "what hope can remain for them that go from hence burdened with their sins, unto a place where they cannot be disburdened of them? For while they were in this world, there was still hope and expectation that they would be converted and become better men. Let us help them so far as we may; let us procure them some ease (though it can be but little); yet let us help them somewhat. This yet affords some comfort unto them." And afterward he will have us to pray for all the dead, as we do for all the living, for thieves and robbers, because perhaps there may be some conversion of them. And in this manner he doubts in divers places, viz. Homily 69, ad pop. Antioch. and 70. Again, Hom. 21, in Act: "If we do offer," says he, "continual prayers, and give continual alms for him, though he be unworthy of them, yet God will be more pacified towards us." And Hom. 32, in Matth.: "Unto your dead son give his due, that therewith he may cleanse away his spots of sin from him."
So Epiphanius, Haeres. 75, confesses these prayers to have no foundation in God's Word, but only are appointed by the church to be made, and that they do benefit the dead, although they do not take away the guilt of the whole fault. Damascene, Grat. de fidelibus
defunct., brings in certain examples to prove that the prayers of the faithful do in some part help the unfaithful, and such as are damned unto everlasting torments. And yet in the same place, speaking of the opinion whether the souls of the Christians may by alms-deeds be released of their pains, as also the freeing of the ungodly out of hell, he says thus, "But we define or determine nothing; only we reason of it in brotherly love." And a little after, "Then is there no time to seek help, for every man shall bear his own burden; but now is the time of aid, now is the time of entreaty, now is the time of reconciliation."
Augustine, de cura pro mort., c. 5, is uncertain whether prayers for the dead are of any efficacy or no. And if he believed that his soul was helped by the martyrs' merits, this belief was a kind of supplication, and helped him that way, if he had any help any way. And, cap. 1, he affirms these prayers to be according unto the use of the church.
After the same manner he doubts also in other places, de Civit. 21, 27. And truly it is very likely that this kind of prayer had its first spring from the Montanists, the inventors of purgatory. Look at Tertullian, in his book de castitate & monogamia. But there were some that disallowed of these prayers, as Gratian can testify, c. 13. q.
2, cap. In praesent., in one place citing Jerome, in Gal. 6, saying thus: "In this life we may help one another by prayers, or by good counsel, but when we come before the judgment seat of Christ, then neither Job, Daniel, nor Noah can speak for any man, but every man must carry his own burden." And Petrus Cluniacensis, lib. 1, ad
Petrobrusi, confesses plainly that there have been some Catholics that have doubted of this praying for the dead. And so Augustine says, Serm. 17, de verb. Apost., "He injures a martyr, that prays for him."
3. The prayers for the dead in their first beginning were but thanksgivings and praises, wherein the martyrs' names were yearly
rehearsed. So Cyprian, speaking of martyrs, Epist. 5, lib. 4, says, "We offer continual sacrifice for them." And Epiphanius, haeres. 75, contra Aerium: "Let us solemnize the memories of all the just, the prophets, patriarchs, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, and bishops," whom a little before he affirmed to live with God. And in like manner says Chrysostom, Homil. 12, in Acts, "It is offered for the martyrs, and for all the faithful departed."
4. The fathers prayed for the dead, not that they might have remission of their sins, as touching the temporal pains of purgatory
(for they prayed for all the dead in general without exception, as Cyril testifies, c. 5, Myst.). Wherefore their prayers were made for other ends, and namely:
1. to show their zeal unto them, and their desire to commend them unto God. So does Ambrose, concerning his brother Satyrus, in oratione funebri., "Unto Thee (O Almighty God) do I commend his innocent soul, unto Thee I do offer my sacrifice. Graciously and favorably accept of a brother's gift and a priest's sacrifice." Now lest we should suppose him to be in purgatory, he had said before, he is entered into heaven, because he believed on the Word of God. And likewise, upon the death of Valentinian, he says, "No day shall be passed by me in silence of you; no speech of mine shall pass without your honorable mention; no night shall be spent without some prayer of mine bestowed upon you; and in all mine oblations shall I remember you often." But he had said before, "Let us believe that he is gone up out of the desert, that is, out of this barren and evil tilled earth, unto those sweet and pleasant delights, where being adjoined unto his brother's company, he lives in eternal felicity." As also of Theodosius he says thus: "Theodosius lives in the light, and glories in the armies of the saints." And yet before he had prayed for him also in these words: "Grant that consummate repose unto your servant
Theodosius, that rest which Thou hast prepared for all your saints."
And in like manner Augustine, being about to pray for his mother Monica, Conf., lib. 9, cap. 13, says, "I believe, O Lord, that Thou hast already fulfilled my request, but Lord approve my voluntary petitions." So Matthew of Westminster says that Charles, about the year 797, wrote unto Offa, king of Mercia, to command his subjects to make intercession for Pope Adrian, yet he adds, "Having no doubt that his soul is in rest, but only to show our most dear love and affection unto him."
2. The fathers prayed for the dead, to cherish the hope of the resurrection and the desire of hastening it on. So Ambrose, orat. de
Valen., says, "We pray Thee Almighty God to raise up these two young men (Valentinian and Gratian) with a timely resurrection, and recompense their untimely course of this life with as timely a resurrection."
3. They pray for them, that their glory increase until the day of judgment, and that then their sins be not imputed unto them. So says Chrysostom, hom. 32, in Matt.: "Do you think he departed in the corruption of sin? Give him his own wherewith he may cleanse himself from the blots thereof. Do you think he departed in the purity of righteousness? Give him of yours that his reward and payment may be the more ample." And the fathers used to offer their prayers in this manner: "Grant we beseech Thee (O Lord) that this offering may benefit the soul of blessed Leo." Witness Innocentius
III, in his decretals, cap. Cum Martha, extra de celeb. mis.
4: "They pray for them that their damnation might be the more tolerable." So says Augustine in his Enchir., c. 110 and 112. "They may think (if this please them) that the pains of the damned souls at some certain times are somewhat mitigated, even so that we must
still understand that the wrath of God, that is, their damnation, remains still unto them." In this sense, Paulinus, epist. 19, prays for ease for a soul that was tormented in hell; and no marvel, since
Prudentius, lib. Cathemer., hymno 5, de Pasch. (before him), affirms that at such and such times:
The torments of the afflicted ghosts do stay, And all the damned crew keeps holy day.
Damascene affirms (Orat. de defunct.) that Trajan and Falconella were delivered out of hell by the prayers of Gregory and Tecla.
Wherefore these prayers were properly the vow of such as wished them happiness, or else they were thanksgivings. And in these the fathers regarded the fullness or end of the time, not the midst of it, for they believed all the saints to be kept in one common place of custody until the last judgment, and therefore they wished the region of light and peace unto all good men. And albeit they thought the dead to be helped by the prayers of the living, yet they held not this benefit to fall unto them being in purgatory, rather than in heaven or hell.
5. Their prayer for the dead was an admonition unto the living of the goodness of God unto the dead and of the future reward which they should obtain in following their virtues. So says the author of the book called Hierarchia Ecclesiastica, c. 7: "And therefore the fathers prayed for the dead for other ends than the papists nowadays do."
5. Offerings for the dead at the first were not sacrifices of expiation, but only eucharistical, that is, thanksgivings, or banquets, and gifts and legacies of the dead unto the poor, given as alms, and as we here in England call them, doales; as also they were foundings of churches and schools, or yearly annuities bequeathed unto either of them.