Such is the definition of the Doctrine of Purgatory by the Holy Council of Trent. It is brief to a point that is eloquent in its brevity. A single page of Father Waterworth's translation of the Canons and Decrees suffices for it — less space than is devoted to such temporalities as, for instance, " What is lawful to Patrons," or the rule that " Cardinals and all Prelates shall be content with modest furniture and a frugal table." There is t a time to speak; but also a time to be silent; and what is not said, only less than what is said, goes to a right understanding of the definition. At the beginning of a Pontificate signalised by Pius X.'s appeal to teachers and preachers to bring their words into closer and closer conformity with the Decrees of the Council of Trent, we have no choice but to indite on the forefront of a treatise on Purgatory the very words of Definition the Church herself considered adequate, right, and reasonable.
Yet the existence of such a book as this must seem to some readers, and especially to readers of the literal races, a loud contravention of the Council's reticence — almost the reticence of Scripture itself. Indeed, the reverend author himself, in all his long pages on Purgatory, does not, one observes, find room for the words of the Council in their entirety; and we accept as deliberate his conspicuous omission of such words as those condemnatory of the canvassing of such things " as are uncertain or labour under an appearance of error." Strange, in truth, might seem the injunction to avoid what is " curious," if
