"If the barbarians," saith St. Chrysostom, "do bury with their dead the things that belong unto them, it is much more reason that thou shouldst send with the deceased the things that are his; not that they may be made ashes as they were, but, that they may add greater glory unto him; and if he be departed hence, a sinner, that they may loose his sins; but if righteous, that an addition may be made to his reward and retribution."
Yea, in the very latter days, Ivo Carnotensis, writing unto Maud, Queen of England, concerning the prayers that were to be made for the King, her brother's soul, saith, that
"it doth not seem idle if we make intercessions for those who already enjoy rest, that their rest may be increased."
Whereupon, Pope Innocent the Third doth bring this for one of the answers wherewith he laboureth to salve the prayers which were used in the Church of Rome, that
"such or such an oblation might profit such or such a saint unto glory;" that "many repute it no indignity, that the glory of the saints should be augmented until the day of judgment; and, therefore, in the mean time, the Church may wish the increase of their glorification."
So likewise for the mitigation of the pains of them whose souls were doubted to be in torment, this form of prayer was of old used in the same Church, as in Grimoldus' Sacramentary may be seen, and retained in the Roman Missal itself, until in the late Reformation thereof it was removed.
"O Almighty and merciful God, incline, we beseech thee, thy holy ears unto our poor prayers, which we do humbly pour forth before the sight of thy Majesty, for the soul of thy servant N., that forasmuch as we are distrustful of the quality of his life, by the abundance of thy pity we may be comforted; and if his soul cannot obtain full pardon, yet at least in the midst of the torments themselves, which peradventure it suffereth, out of the abundance of thy compassion it may feel refreshment."
Which prayer whither it tendeth may appear partly by that which Prudentius writeth of the play-days, which he supposeth the souls in hell sometimes do obtain:
Sunt et spiritibus sæpe nocentibus
Pœnarum celebres sub Styge feriæ, &c.
Marcent suppliciis Tartara mitibus,
Exultatque sui carceris otio
Umbrarum populus, liber ab ignibus;
Nec fervent solito flumina sulphure—
partly by the doubtful conceits of God's merciful dealing with the wicked, in the world to come, which are found in others, but es-
