Breviloquium

Concerning ecclesiastical suffrages, this must be held: that the suffrages of the Church benefit the dead—I mean the suffrages that the Church performs for the dead—such as sacrifices, fasts, almsgiving, and other prayers and penances voluntarily undertaken to expiate their sins more quickly and easily.¹ — They benefit the dead, however, not just any dead, but “the moderately good,” namely those who are in purgatory; “not very evil,” namely those who are in hell; “nor very good,”² namely those who are in heaven; rather, conversely, their merits and prayers benefit the Church militant, for whose members the Blessed obtain many benefits. They benefit the dead to a greater or lesser degree either according to the diversity of merits in the dead or according to the charity of the living, which is more solicitous for some than for others; and this either for the mitigation of punishments or for more rapid release, according as the dispensation of heavenly providence shall have judged it more expedient for them. The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: since the first principle, being the supreme good and therefore of the greatest severity against evil, must likewise be of the greatest gentleness toward good; and therefore, since by reason of the severity of justice the just, in whom there is guilt of sin, must after this life be tormented in purgatory, they must also, by reason of the gentleness of mercy, be relieved and receive aid and protection, especially because they are situated in misery and can no longer help themselves by their works and merits. The governance of divine providence therefore had to arrange that suffrages be conferred upon them by those who can confer them, while preserving the rectitude of justice, from which the sweetness of divine mercy neither should nor can dissent or in any way be separated. Since, therefore, the rectitude of justice requires the preservation of divine honor, the governance of the universe, and the quality of human merit, the supreme providence of the heavenly first principle accordingly ordained that suffrages should avail the dead according to the sweetness of mercy and the rectitude of justice, preserving the dignity of divine honor, the governance of the universe, and the quality of human merit. First, then, since justice must be preserved in such suffrages, and justice is especially the preserver of divine honor; and since divine honor likewise requires satisfactory and penal works to be rendered to it for sins, hence suffrages must be made through those works by which satisfaction is most especially made and honor is repaid to God. Since such works comprise three parts of satisfaction—fasting, prayer, and almsgiving—and the sacrifice of the altar, in which due honor is rendered to God most especially because of the excellence of him who is offered in that sacrifice, hence the suffrages of the Church consist in such satisfactory works, and especially in the celebration of Masses; as Gregory indicates in the fourth book of the Dialogues,³ some were very swiftly freed from great punishments through the benefits of Masses. Therefore the pomp of funerals, care taken with the funeral, and the like should not be counted among the suffrages of the Church. For which reason also Saint

Augustine says in the book On the Care to Be Taken for the Dead,⁴ that “care of the funeral, preparation of the burial, and the pomp of funerals are more consolations of the living than aids of the dead.”

Furthermore, since there the justice that preserves the order and governance of the universe must be maintained; and since this requires that, in the communication of influences, order and conformity be preserved⁵ among those from whom and to whom those influences flow—and consequently what is below should not influence what is above, nor what has been separated by complete distance—hence the suffrages of the Church cannot benefit those who are in hell, because they are entirely separated from the mystical body of Christ; consequently no spiritual influence reaches them or benefits them, just as the influence of the head benefits no members cut off from the body. Hence also they do not benefit the Blessed, because they are altogether superior in status and, already being at the goal, cannot ascend to higher things; rather, conversely, they and their prayers benefit us⁶—for they also merited this in the flesh—and for this reason the divine order arranged that prayers also be offered to those holy ones of God, so that they too may intercede for us to obtain divine benefits. Therefore ecclesiastical suffrages do not benefit them; rather, their suffrages benefit us. It remains, then, that they benefit only the just who are in purgatorial punishments. For by reason of punishment and inability to help themselves they are inferior to the living, but by reason of justice they are joined to the other members of the Church, so that, by reason of conformity and order, the merits of the holy Church can rightly benefit them.

Finally, since the justice that weighs the exigency of merits must be preserved in them,⁷ hence those suffrages that are commonly offered for the dead, although they benefit all the good according to their measure, benefit more those who merited more that they should benefit and avail them while they were in the state of the way. Those, however, that are specially offered for some, because the intention of the one performing them is right and proceeds according to God, and ecclesiastical institution is without doubt not futile, therefore benefit more those for whom they are specifically offered, although they are also communicated in some way to others. Yet they cannot assist the latter as they assist the principal persons, because, although they are spiritual,⁸ divine justice nevertheless requires a greater satisfaction for greater guilt and more satisfactions for more numerous sins. Hence the example of light, which illuminates equally those sitting at one table, is not pleasing, because such suffrages ought rather to be likened to redemptive prices than to such diffusive influences. But how much they avail each person in particular, only he whose task it is to attend to the weight, number, and measure of guilt, punishments, and suffrages can determine with certainty.⁹