Decree XVIII

We believe that the souls of those that have: fallen asleep are either at) rest) orn torment, according to what each hath wrought ;—for when they are separated from their bodies, they depart immediately either to joy, or to sorrow and lamentation; though confessedly neither their enjoyment, nor condem- nation are complete. For after the common resurrection, when the soul shall be united

with the body, with which it had behaved

itself well or ill, each shall receive the completion of either enjoyment or of condemnation forsooth.

And such as though envolved in mortal sins have not departed in despair, but have, while still living in the body, repented, though without bringing forth any fruits of repentance—by pouring forth tears, forsooth, by kneeling while watching in prayers, by afflicting themselves, by relieving the poor, and in fine by shewing forth by their works their love towards God and their neighbour, and which the Catholic Church hath from the beginning rightly called satisfaction—of these and such like the souls depart into Hades, and there endure the punishment due to the sins they have committed.+ But they are aware of their future release from thence, { and are delivered by the Supreme Goodness, through the prayers

the note :—Notabile, hanc animarum, que in statu quem ajunt medium versantur, de se conscientiam antiquissimis

jam temporibus fuisse a Grecis potissimum traditam.

Gf. Justin: dial ο. Tryph: 80, Irens:it,,-33:) Ambr, de Cain et Ab. i, 3.

of the Priests, and the good works which the relatives of each do for their Departed ; especially the unbloody Sacrifice availing in the highest degree; which each offereth particularly for his relatives that have fallen asleep, and which the Catholic and Apostolic Church offereth daily for all alike ; it being, of course, understood that we know not the time of their release. For that there is deliverance for such from their direful condition,t and that before the common resurrection and judgment we know and believe; but when we know not.