Source:

Sämtliche schriften und briefe series VI, volume 4
Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften (ed)
pp 2123-2125

Parts of this text can also be found in:
Textes inédits tome 1
Gaston Grua (ed)
pp 150-152


Date: January 1677

Translated from the Latin


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LEIBNIZ: ON PURGATORY


[A VI 4, p2123]

January 1677

     I have examined the many passages of the ancients which are deemed by the writers of the Roman Church to prove purgatory, and having rejected those which seem to have no great force, I have at least considered those which can give some indication of the prevailing opinion of the Roman church today.
     But from that examination I have at least learned this: nearly all the Holy Fathers have thought that some fire of purification or temporary punishment after death [A VI 4 p2124] is to be inflicted even on the majority of the faithful, more painful according to the weight of the sins. Yet with this distinction, that the doctors of the Greek Church have agreed that there is indeed a transition to the fire of Purgatory, which all will have to experience at the time of the resurrection, when they are brought before the Lord, though they too seem to have conceded that there is some delay to this fire. The Western Church ever since Tertullian and Cyprianus seems to have inclined this way, so that it thinks that the soul is immediately subjected to certain punishments after death, and that it is purified and freed from them and admitted to a state of blessedness. Therefore the Western Church's opinion cannot be denied, and it flourishes today in the Roman Church, expressed well enough in the old Latin. But in the Greek Church, neither formerly nor today, as I observe, a purgatory of this sort is not accepted.
     Out of all the passages of the ancients which are brought in to demonstrate purgatory, very few pertain to the matter itself. The Roman Church teaches today that Purgatory is either a place or a state of the souls of the faithful in which they do penitence for their sins for some time after death, and are helped by the prayers and sacrifices of the living, until divine justice is placated and they are purged, and granted beatitude.
     But some passages from the holy Fathers which are brought in to demonstrate this demonstrate only that we should pray for the dead, while others show that there is some such thing as purgatory. But many ancients and more recent authors only accept this at the time of the resurrection, when they think that all men must be tried by fire, and therefore they do not acknowledge the purgatory of the Roman Church.
     I believe that the purgatory of the Roman Church does not follow from an oration on behalf of the dead by the force of such an argument like this one: if we should pray for the dead, it follows that the dead are helped by prayers. If the dead are helped by prayers, it follows that they are neither completely damned nor entirely saved, but are still subject to punishment. If the faithful dead are subject to punishment, it follows that purgatory exists. Thus if we should pray for the dead we should admit that purgatory exists.
     To this argument we can respond, first, by denying that it is necessary that the dead are helped by prayers. But, you will say, are prayers thus useless? I believe they will be useless to the dead themselves, but not entirely to all others. For there will be prayers on behalf of the dead, or at least certain votive offerings. But votive offerings can be, and usually are, made even when the matter is no longer undecided, and they at least have this use: not only that we show our feelings, but also that we trace back everything to the will of God, whom we implore, by some kind of honour and worship. [A VI 4 p2125] Thus we are accustomed to utter votive offerings, and not merely prayers, concerning past affairs. Suppose I was notified of a great battle in which my brother or my friend had taken part. I immediately turn to God and to votive offerings, I wish with all my heart that nothing bad has happened to him; although I will easily understand afterwards, when the matter has subtly sunk in, that what is done cannot be undone, and, if he is ever killed, he is therefore not not-killed, and that if he has escaped unharmed, he will not therefore be killed today in yesterday's battle. I do not know what others do, but certainly to me votive offerings of this sort have often occurred with the first impulse of the mind. Perhaps there is no shortage of people who have also expressed such offerings in a similar case, and having been bound have paid their obligation. Therefore it is hardly surprising that the living break out in votive offerings on behalf of the dead, moved by love, because it concerns the highest matter, namely the happiness of the soul of the one who is dead. For things which are uncertain and unknown to us are accustomed to be considered as not yet done, which is the true reason why we utter prayers concerning past and completed affairs. It is the same concerning the certain and determined future. No one doubts that the beatitude or the damnation of the dead is certain and cannot be changed with any prayers or good deeds, for also according to the opinion of the Roman Church, if they are damned, they will not be saved from hell; if they are brought to heaven, they will not fall from happiness; if they are in purgatory, they are secure in their future happiness. Thus the beatitude and damnation of the dead is not subject to change. Therefore the votive offerings with which we demand from God their eternal salvation will be useless to them. However, no one will deny that this conforms to usage and a certain natural instinct.
     Secondly, we deny that it follows from the fact that the dead are helped by prayers that they are under punishment; for they are able to obtain greater glory by our prayers.
     Thirdly, we deny that it follows from the fact that the faithful dead are punished that the purgatory of the Roman Church exists, for the ancient Greeks understood it with regard to one's own purgatory, which they thought everyone endures on the day of the resurrection.
     And this is the case with the passages in which mention is made of prayers for the dead; I add to the places in which mention is made of the temporary punishment itself after death, of fire, of purification. Such are the passages that say every soul is saved by fire; that say those whose work has been burned, will be saved, so to speak, by fire and that (by an argument from the contrary sense) certain sins will be forgiven in a future world.1 All these can be very neatly explained by the purgatory of the resurrection.




NOTE:

1. Here Leibniz has in mind the passage from 1 Corinthians 3:11-15: 'For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.'


© Lloyd Strickland 2005
With gratitude to John Thorley for advice and suggestions