Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/113

 The Rise of the Papacy 77 When thirty days had passed after his death, my heart began to have compassion on my dead brother, and to ponder prayers with deep grief, and to seek what remedy there might be for him. Then I called before me Pretiosus, superintendent of the monastery, and said sadly : "It is along time that our brother who died has been tormented by fire, and we ought to have charity toward him, and aid him so far as we can, that he may be delivered. Go, therefore, and for thirty successive days from this day offer sacrifices for him. See to it that no day is allowed to pass on which the salvation-bringing mass Jiostia~ is not offered up for his abso- lution." 1 He departed forthwith and obeyed my words. We, however, were busy with other things, and did not HOW the count the days as they rolled by. But lo ! the brother *[. f the who had died appeared by night to a certain brother, even mon k was to Copiosus, his brother in the flesh. When Copiosus saw saved by the him he asked him, saying, " What is it, brother ? How art ^" e g s f thou ? " To which he answered : " Up to this time I have been in torment; but now all is well with me, because to-day I have received the communion." This Copiosus straightway reported to the brethren in the monastery. Then the brethren carefully reckoned the days, and it was the very day on which the thirtieth oblation was made for him. Copiosus did not know what the brethren were doing for his dead brother, and the brethren did not know that Copiosus had seen him ; yet at one and the same time he learned what they had done and they learned what he had seen, and the vision and the sacrifice harmonized. So the fact was plainly shown forth how that the brother who had died had escaped punishment through the salvation- giving mass. Among the works of Gregory the Great, none was 30. Gregory's more highly esteemed than his great Commentary on commentary the Book of Job, his Moralia, as he entitled it. The " f j h e b Book 1 This is, perhaps, the earliest clear reference to masses for the souls of the dead.