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Heterodoxy in Dante's Purgatory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Extract

In his “Dante as a Religious Teacher” Dr. Edward Moore makes the following significant remarks with regard to Dante's teaching on the subject of Purgatory: “Dante's conception of the nature and purpose of the pains of Purgatory stands in very marked contrast to the popular ideas of the Middle Ages, and not only to the popular ideas, but also to the teaching and practice of the Roman Church both then and in later times… This difference of attitude on the part of Dante applies not only to the general conception of Purgatory itself, but still more strikingly to the practical consequences flowing from it, in teaching respecting indulgences, transference of merits, and means of remission of, or escape from, Purgatorial penalties.” However, the eminent Dantist minimizes the significance of this difference of attitude and applies to it what he said in a preceding page concerning Dante's conception of the relation of Church and State, namely, that “it may be held to be contumacious, but scarcely heretical, to criticize and oppose what has been authoritatively declared to be essential as a practical condition for the exercise of the Church's mission.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1923

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References

1 Edward Moore, Studies in Dante. Second Series, p. 43.

2 Ibid., p. 13.

3 Harduin, Concil., VI, II, 1861-2. For this and other references concerning political heresy I am indebted to Henry C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition, Vol. III, Chapter IV.

4 Martène, Ampl. Coll. I, 587-94.

5 Emois Chron. ann. 1227, 1230.

6 Epistt. Selectt. Saec. XIII, T.I, No. 720, 801.

7 Vaissète, Histoire générale de Languedoc, IV, 46.

8 Aquinas, Summa, II-II, Q.11, a. 2-3.

9 Aquinas, Summa, Suppl. Q. 69; Sentent. 3'm, Dist. XXII, Q. 2.

10 Scherillo, Bullettino della Società Dantesca Italiana, VIII, 4.

11 Aquinas, Summa, III, Q.LII, a. 2.

12 Ibid., I-III, Q.CII, a.1.

13 St. Augustine, De vera et falsa Poenit. Cap. XVIII.

14 St. Augustine, Epistle CCV.

15 Aquinas, Summa, Suppl. Q.LXXII, a.1.

16 Moore, op. cit., p. 49.

17 D'Ovidio, Il Purgatorio e il suo preludio, p. 352.

18 Touron, Vie de St. Thomas.

19 Tertullian, De Corona Militie, Cap. 3; De Monogam., Cap. 10; De Exhort. Castit., Cap. 11.

20 Cyprian, Epist. XXXIX.

21 Cyril, Catech. Mystag., 5, 9, 10.

22 Ephrem, Testant., 72, 78.

23 Chrysostom, Ep. ad Phil., 3, 4.

24 Jerome, Serm. III, de Missa.

25 Augustine, De Cura pro Mortuis, Cap. 4, 18; Serm. CLXXII, Cap. 2; Quaestt. in Heptateuch. Lib. I, Q. 172.

26 Lea, History of Confession and Indulgences, Vol. III, pp. 326, 327.

27 Gregory, Dial. IV, 55-59.

28 Harnack, History of Dogma, Vol. V, p. 328.“

29 Haymo of Halberstadt, De Varietate Libror. Lib. III, Cap. 7, 8, 9.

30 Migne, Patrologia: S. Bernardi Vita prima, Liber VII, Cap. II.

31 Damian, Sermo LVIII.

32 Peter Lombard, Sententiarum Lib. IV, Dist. XLV.

33 Bonaventura, Breviloquii, Pars VII, Cap. 3.

34 Aquinas, Summa, Suppl., Q. LXXI.

35 Cyprian, Ep. XVIII.

36 Fleury, Hist. Eccl. I, liii, n. 37.

37 Lea, History of Confession and Indulgences, Vol. III, p. 332.

38 Council of Clermont ann. 1095, Cap. 2.

39 Hist. Compostellana, Lib. I, Cap. 9, 39.

40 Amort, Historia Indulgentiarum, p. 106.

41 Hartzheim, Concil. Ger., IV, 197.

42 P. de Palude, Sentt. IV, Dist. XX, Q. IV. a. 3. concl. 6; Dist. XLV, Q. I, a. 3. concl. 5.

43 Lea, op. cit. III, 14, 15.

44 Chron. Beneventan. in Baronii Annal. ann. 1127, n. 5.

45 Alexander of Hales, Summa, IV, Q. 83; m. I, a. 3 and Im. This and some of the following citations are taken from Otten's Manual of the History of Dogmas, Vol. II.

46 Ibid., a. I ad IVm.

47 Ibid., m. III.

48 Albertus Magnus, Sentt. IV, Dist. XX, a. 16.

49 Bonaventura, Sentt. IV.

50 Aquinas, Summa, Suppl., Q. XXV, a. 1, 2.

51 Lépicier, Indulgences, p. 307-308.

52 E. Moore, Studies in Dante, Second Series, p. 45.

53 Aquinas, Summa, Suppl. Q. 25, a. 1.

54 E. Moore, op. cit., p. 48.

55 Purg. XVI, 31-32; XI, 34; IV, 91-95; XIII, 88-90; XVII, 85-87, etc.

56 E. Moore, op. cit., p. 50-51.

57 Wicksteed, Dante and Aquinas, p. 232-233.

58 Potthast, Regesta, Vol. II, 22414, 22537.

59 E. Moore, op. cit., p. 53.

60 Gregory, Dial. Lib. IV, Cap. XXV.

61 Damian, Serm. LIX.

62 H. of St. Victor, De Sacramentis, Lib. II, P. XVI, Cap. 4.

63 Aquinas, Summa, Suppl., Q. LXIX, a. 2, 4.

64 Chrysostom, Ep. ad Cor., Hom. 42, 3-7.

65 Hilary, Tract. super Ps. II, 49.

66 Basil, Ps. I, Hom. 4—Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. de Mortuis.

67 Aquinas, Summa, III-IV, Q.LXXXIV, a.5; Q. VI, a. 1 of the Supplement.

68 Bartolini, Studi Danteschi, Vol. II., p. 107.

69 Aquinas, Summa, Supplement, Q. X, a. 1.

70 Aquinas, Summa, III-III, Q. LXVIII, a 1.

71 Aquinas, Summa, II-II, Q. LXXXIII, a. 11.

72 E. Moore, op. cit., p. 43.

73 Mansi, Sacr. Concil., VIII, 351.

74 R. Maurus, Cont. Graec., 11, 4.

75 Harduin, Concil. V, 574.

76 Mansi, Sacr. Concil., XIX, 638 B sqq.

77 Gregory VII, Ep. VIII.

78 Gregory VII, Ep. II.

79 St. Bernard, On Consideration, Book II, Chap. VIII.

80 Jaffé, Regesta, Second Edition, N. 4525.

81 Dante, Epistle VIII, 7.

82 Harduin, Concil. VI, ii.

83 Ibid., i, c. 1214.

84 Janus, The Pope and the Council, p. 194.

85 Aquinas, Cont. Gent. IV, 76; Sent. IV, d. 24, 9. 3.

86 Aquinas, Summa, II-II, Q. I, a. 10; Q. XI, a. 2, 3.

87 Aquinas, Quaestiones Quodl. Duedecim, 9, c. 16.

88 St. Bonaventura, Apol. Paupert. c. I.

89 Mansi, Sacr. Concil., XXIV, 70A sqq.

90 Gregory VII, Reg. II, 51, 75.

91 Du Bose, The Ecumenical Councils, p. 45.

92 Janus, op. cit., p. 245.—Martène, Thesaur. Anecdot. i, 338.

98 Baluze and Mansi, Miscell. ii, 275.

94 Janus, op. cit., p. 246.