The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

S52OF PURGATORY.trines is not their truth, nor their bearing on man's benefitand God's glory, but their value in money. How much willthey bring? is the first question which she puts. And itmust be confessed, that inpurgatory she has found a raredevice for replenishing her coffers, of which she has notfailed to make the very most. We need go no farther thanIreland as an instance. For a poor man, when he dies, aprivate mass is offered, for which the priest is paid from twoand-sixpenceto ten shillings. For rich men there is aHIGH or chanted mass. In this instance, a number ofpriests assemble, and each receives from seven-and-sixpenceto a pound. At the end of the month after the death, massis again celebrated. The same number of priests again assemble,and receive payment over again.* Anniversary orannual masses are also appointed for the rich, when thesame routine is gone through, and the same expenses areincurred. There are, moreover, in almost every parish inIreland, purgatorial societies.The person becomes a memberon the payment of a certain sum, and the subscriptionof a penny a-week ;and the funds thus raised are given tothe priest, to be laid out for the deliverance of souls frompurgatory. There is, besides. All Souls' Day, which fallson the2d of November, on which an extraordinary collectionis taken up from all Catholics for the same purpose.-f-In short, there is no end of the expedients and pretenceswhich purgatory furnishes to an avaricious priesthood forextorting money.Popery, says the author of Kirwan's Letters,meets men " at the cradle, and dogs them to the grave,and beyond it, with its demands for money ."JThe writer* Both occasions, Mr Nolan informs iis, are concluded with a sumptuousdinner, consisting of flesh, and fowl, and of every delicacy, which is washeddown with enormous potations of wine and whisky. Half the priests ofa district often contrive to live on these dinners, (Nolan's Pamphlet,p, 46.)+ Nolan's Pamphlet, pp. 44-48.+ Letters to the Right Rev, John Hughes, by Kirwan,—letter v.; Johnstone& Hunter ; Edin. 1851.