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Synopsis
It would be nearly impossible to
exaggerate the significance of purgatory in the life of the medieval church,
especially in the way that life was lived by individual Christians. The
antechamber of heaven where the good but not perfect souls suffer their
temporary punishment had a fixed place in the beliefs of virtually all
Christians in the Western Church and deeply affected their religious practices.
Apart from heretics like the Waldensians and the Cathars
and, later, John Wyclif, purgatory was believed in
as firmly as the Eucharist, the divinity of
Christ, the Trinity and other central beliegfs of the church and played a role
almost as large as the Eucharist and the Virgin
in the daily devotional lives of people. The one could assist one's deceased
father and mother and other loved ones and shorten their stay in purgatory led
to the development of a rich variety of religious devotions and practices, from
which, it is safe to say, no parish in Christendom was exempt.
Cited
from F. Donald Logan, A History of the Church in the Middle Ages. London
& New York: Routledge, 2002. Pbk. ISBN: 0415132886. p.287. Logan's section
on purgatory (pp.287-294) is excellent.
 |
 Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the
English People, D.H. Farmer, editor, Leo Sherley-Price, translator.
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1955. Pbk. ISBN: 014044565X. Book 5, Chapter
12. {Amazon.com} |
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Michael
J. Curley, Saint Patrick's Purgatory: A Poem by Marie De France.
Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, No 94. Cornell Univ Press,
1993. Hbk. ISBN: 086698108X. pp.178. {Amazon.com} |
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Dante, The
Divine Comedy, 3 Vols. Charles S. Singleton, translator. Princeton,
1070-75. |
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 Dante, The Divine Comedy,
Canticle II: Purgatorio (Purgatory) [E-BOOK: ADOBE READER]. {Amazon.com} |
|
 Eileen Gardiner, Visions of Heaven and
Hell Before Dante. New York: Italica Press, 1989. Pbk. ISBN: 0934977143.
pp.318. {Amazon.com} |
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Joseph
McGuinness, Lough Derg: St Patrick's Purgatory. Columba Press, 2003.
Pbk. ISBN: 1856072959. pp.96. {Amazon.com} |
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Jean-Michel
Picard, Saint Patrick's purgatory : a twelfth century tale of a journey to
the other world. Four Courts Press, 1985. Pbk. ISBN: 0906127904. pp.78.
{Amazon.com} |
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Saint
Patrick's Purgatory: A Record from History and Literature, J.R.S. Leslie,
trans. 1932. pp.195-215. |
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R.R. Atwell,
"From Augustine to Gregory the Great: An Evaluation of the Emergence of the
Doctrine of Purgatory," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 38.2 (1987):
173-186. |
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David Brown,
"No Heaven without Purgatory," Religious Studies 21.4 (1985):
427-456. |
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C.
Burgess, "'A Fond Thing Vainly Invented': An Essay on Purgatory and Pious
Motive in Later Medieval England," Sarah Jane Wright, ed. Parish, Church and
People: Local studies in lay religion 1350-1750. London: Harper Collins,
1988. Hbk. 0091731445. pp.56-84. {Amazon.com} |
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Robert
Easting, ed., St Patrick's Purgatory. Early English Text Society,
Original Series, No. 298. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952. Hbk. ISBN:
0197223001. pp.432. {Amazon.com} |
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Graham Robert
Edwards, "Purgatory: `Birth' or Evolution?" Journal of Ecclesiastical
History 36.4 (1985): 634-646. |
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 Richard K. Fenn, The
Persistence of Purgatory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pbk.
ISBN: 0521568552. pp.217. {Amazon.com} |
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Sylvia
Federico, "Transgressive Teaching and Censorship in a Fifteenth-Century Vision
of Purgatory," Mystics Quarterly 21.2 (1995): 59-67. |
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Joseph
Gill, The Council of Florence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1959. Reprints AMS Press, 1982. Hbk. ISBN: 0404170161. pp.452. Amazon.com |
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Jacques
LeGoff, The Birth of Purgatory, new edn. Arthur Goldhammer, translator.
Scolar Press, 1991. Pbk. ISBN: 0859678652. pp.440. {Amazon.com}
Should be read in conjunction with the article by Gurevich
(below). |
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Aron J.
Gurevich, "Popular and Scholarly Medieval Traditions: Notes in the Margins of
Jacques Le Goff's Book," Journal of Medieval History 9 (1983):
71-90. |
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M. Haren
& Y. de Pontfarey, eds. The Medieval Pilgrimage to St. Patrick's
Purgatory: Lough Derg and the European Tradition. Clogher Historical
Society. Enniskillen, 1988. ISBN: 094901205X. pp.242. {Amazon.com} |
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 Seamus Heaney, Station Island. London
& Boston: Noonday Press, 1986. Pbk. ISBN: 0374519358. pp.124. {Amazon.com} |
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James
Jorgenson, "The Debate over the Patristic Texts on Purgatory at the Council of
Ferrara-Florence, 1438," St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 30.4
(1986): 309-334. |
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Shane Leslie,
Saint Patrick's Purgatory: a record from history and literature. London:
Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1932. pp.xlvii + 215. |
|
 F. Donald Logan, A History of the Church
in the Middle Ages. London & New York: Routledge, 2002. Pbk. ISBN:
0415132894. pp.287-294. {Amazon.com} |
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J.R.
McNally, Patrick's Purgatory. Lion and Lamb Press, 2001. Hbk. ISBN:
0967828627. pp.340. {Amazon.com} |
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 Takami Matsuda, Death and
Purgatory in Middle English Didactic Poetry. Woodbridge, Suffolk /
Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 1997. Hbk. ISBN: 0859915077. pp.288. {Amazon.com} |
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Gerhard
Ludwig Muller, "Purgatory," Theology Digest 33.4 (1986):
31-36. |
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Barbara
Newman, ."Hildegard of Bingen and the Birth of Purgatory," Mystics
Quarterly 19.3 (1993): 90-97. |
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Robert
Ombres, OP, The Theology of Purgatory. Theology Today, 24. Dublin:
Mercier Press, 1978. ISBN: 0853426139. |
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Robert
Ombres, OP, "The Doctrine of Purgatory According to St. Thomas Aquinas,"
Downside Review 99 (1981): 279-87. |
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Robert
Ombres, "The Latins and Greek in Debate Over Purgatory, 1230 - 1439,"
Journal of Ecclesiastical History 35.1 (1984): 1-14. |
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 Thomas W. Petrisko, Inside Purgatory: What
History Theology and the Mystics Tell Us About Purgatory. St. Andrew's
Productions, 2000. Pbk. ISBN: 1891903241. pp.108. {Amazon.com} |
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