A reply to Fulke, In defense of M. D. Allens scroll of articles, and booke of purgatorie. By Richard Bristo Doctor of Diuinitie ... perused and allowed by me Th. Stapleton.

Purgatorie.

But to go forwarde with you to your accusation first of Pur∣gatorie, and afterward of Purgatorie fire: To proue that Pur∣gatory came of the Philosophers, as al most notable heresies did,* 1.1 you alleage out of Tertullian De anima, that all Philosophers which graunted the soules immortalitie, assigned three places for the soules departed, heauen, hell, and a third place of purify∣ing. This argument proueth as well, that heauen, and hell, and the Immortalitie of the soule, had their originall of

the Philosophers. Howbeit also to report the truth, there is no word of any third place of purifying: but onely that such Philo∣sophers made two sortes of Receptacles, to wit, Supernas man∣siones, for Philosophers soules onely, and Inferos, for all other soules: and that about the first they did varie, for Plato placed it in aethere: Aerius in aëre: the Stoikes, circa lunam. This is all. Againe you proue out of Irenéeus, that Purgatorie came of Carpocrates the Heretike,* 1.2 because he inuented a kinde of Pur∣gatorie, and proued it out of that place of S. Mathew, Thou shalt not come forth vntil thou hast payd the vttermost farthing,* 1.3 euen as the Papistes do. By this argument againe you will winne much honestie.* 1.4 Ireneus, and after him Epiphanius, as also Ter∣tullian in your owne booke De anima, do write that the Carpo∣cratians helde, that a man must wallow in a••l the filthe of sinne that is in this world, before he can come to life euerlasting: and therefore if he haue missed any sinne, his soule is reuersed into a body, and so againe, and againe, vntill he haue fulfilled all. And for this purpose Iesus (they say) vsed this Parable of agreeing with the aduersarie in the way,* 1.5 &c. Corpus enim dicunt esse car∣cerem, &c. For that prison they say is the body: and that which he saith, Thou shalt not go out thence, vntill thou hast payed the last farthing, they interprete as if the soule should be turned ouer by certayne Angels from body to body, semper quoadvs{que} in om∣ni omnino operatione▪ quae in mundo est, fiat, Continually euen vntill it haue bene in all and euery acte of this world, vt nihil am∣plius relinquatur (saith Epiphanius) ad nefarium quicquam fa∣ciendum, so that nothing remayne that is abhominable but it is fulfilled.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Pur. 416. Tertul. de anima cap 31.32.
• * 1.2

  Iren. li. 1. cap. 24.
• * 1.3

  Mat. 5.
• * 1.4

  Epiph. li. 1. To. 2. Haer. 27. Tertul. de anima. c. 17
• * 1.5

  Matt. 5.