Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 3.djvu/99

Rh greedily take hold thereof, and make it the main foundation upon which they laid the hay and stubble of their devised Purgatory.

A private exposition I call this; not only because it is not to be found in the writings of the former Fathers, but also because it suiteth not well with the general practice of the Church, which it intendeth to interpret. It may indeed fit in some sort that part of the Church service, wherein there was made a several commemoration, first of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, after one manner; and then of the other dead, after another; which together with the conceit, that

was it that first occasioned St. Augustine to think of the former distinction. But in the

to imagine that one and the same act of praying should be a petition for some, and for others a thanksgiving only, is somewhat too harsh an interpretation: especially where we find it propounded by way of petition, and the intention thereof directly expressed, as in the Greek Liturgy attributed to St. James, the brother of our Lord:

And in the offices compiled by Alcuinus:

{{fine block|"O Lord, holy Father, Almighty and everlasting {{sc|God}}, we humbly make request unto thee for the spirits of thy servants and handmaids, which from the beginning of this world thou hast called unto thee; that thou wouldest vouchsafe, O Lord, to give unto them a lightsome place, a place of refreshing and ease, and that they may pass by the gates of hell and the ways of darkness, and may abide in the mansions of the saints, and in the holy light which thou didst promise of old unto Abraham and his seed."

So the "commemoration of the faithful departed," retained as yet in the Roman missal, is begun with this orison:

{{fine block|"Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let everlasting light shine unto them."}} {{nop}}