Whereunto we may add these two prayers, to omit a great number more of the like kind, used of old in the same Church:
"Receive, O holy Trinity, this oblation, which we offer unto thee for all that are departed in the confession of thy name; that thou reaching unto them the right hand of thy help, they may have the rest of everlasting life; and being separated from the punishment of the wicked, they may always persevere in the joy of thy praise." And "this oblation, which we humbly offer unto thee for the commemoration of the souls that sleep in peace, we beseech thee, O Lord, receive graciously; and of thy goodness, grant that both the affection of this piety may profit us, and obtain for them everlasting bliss."
Where you may observe, that the souls unto which "everlasting bliss" was wished for, were yet acknowledged to rest "in peace," and, consequently, not to be disquieted with any purgatory torment. Even as in the canon of the mass itself, the priest, in the commemoration for the dead, prayeth thus:
"Remember, O Lord, thy servants and handmaids, which have gone before us with the ensign of faith, and sleep in the sleep of peace. To them, O Lord, and to all that are at rest in Christ, we beseech thee that thou wouldst grant a place of refreshing, light, and peace."
Nay, the Armenians, in their Liturgy, entreat God to "give eternal peace," not only in general "unto all that have gone before us in the faith of Christ;" but also in particular to the "patriarchs, apostles, prophets, and martyrs." Which maketh directly for the opinion of those, against whom Nicolas Cabasilas both dispute, who held that these "commemorations" contained "a supplication for the saints unto God," and not a "thanksgiving" only. As also do those forms of prayer, which were used in the Roman liturgy in the days of Pope Innocent the Third:
"Let such an oblation profit such or such a saint unto glory."
And especially that for St. Leo, which is found in the elder copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary:
"Grant unto us, O Lord, that this oblation may profit the soul of thy servant Leo."
For which the latter books have chopped in this prayer:
"Grant unto us, O Lord, that by the intercession of thy servant Leo, this oblation may profit us."
Concerning which alteration, when the Archbishop of Lyons propounded such another question unto Pope Innocent, as our challenger at the beginning did unto us,
