St.Augustine also speaks of purgatory and, if not affirming its existence, yet he did not believe it impossible, conjecturing that in another existence there might continue the punishments that we receive in this life for our sins." "The devil with St.Augustine!" ejaculated Don Filipo.

"He wasn't satisfied with what we suffer here but wished a continuance." "Well, so it went" some believed it and others didn't.

Although St.Gregory finally came to admit it in his _de quibusdam levibus culpis esse ante judicium purgatorius ignis credendus est_, [57] yet nothing definite was done until the year 1439, that is, eight centuries later, when the Council of Florence declared that there must exist a purifying fire for the souls of those who have died in the love of God but without having satisfied divine Justice.

Lastly, the Council of Trent under Pius IV in 1563, in the twenty-fifth session, issued the purgatorial decree beginning _Cura catholica ecclesia, Spiritu Santo edocta_, wherein it deduces that, after the office of the mass, the petitions of the living, their prayers, alms, and other pious works are the surest means of freeing the souls.

Nevertheless, the Protestants do not believe in it nor do the Greek Fathers, since they reject any Biblical authority for it and say that our responsibility ends with death, and that the '_Quodcumque ligaberis in terra_,' [58] does not mean '_usque ad purgatorium,_' [59] but to this the answer can be made that since purgatory is located in the center of the earth it fell naturally under the control of St.Peter.But I should never get through if I had to relate all that has been said on the subject.