“’I imagine that your son, instead of the thirty-sixth verse, meant to quote the thirty-second, which says:  “And all who shall say word against the son of man will be forgiven; but he who says word against the Holy Ghost, shall not be pardoned; neither in this life nor in the next.”  From this they have tried to derive the existence of a Purgatory.  What a fertile imagination!

“’4th.  Because Saint Ireneus, St. Clement of Alexandria, and Origenes, three in all, although not being the first Christian, had some remote idea of Purgatory, it does not follow that the Christians of the first century did believe in it, unless it could be previously established that three persons represent a totality, even if amongst such a totality existed, contradictory ideas.  But, as a proof that was it not so, you, yourself, Holy Doctor, being their father, having flourished in the fourth and fifth century, and supposed to be the greatest amongst the Fathers of the Church, denied most emphatically, in various instances, the existence of a Purgatory.  In your CCXCV cermon, beginning by:  ‘Frecuenter charitatem vestra,’ etc., you said very decidedly:  ’Nemo se slecipiat fratres; Duo cuim loca sunt et terius non est ullus.  Qui cum Christo reguare non meruerit, cum diabolo absque dubitatione ulla perebit.’  This translated means, ’Do not deceive yourselves, brethren; there are but two places for the soul and there is no third place.  He who should not deserve to live with Christ, undoubtedly will perish.’

“’Further on, in de Consolatione mortuorum, you say:  ’Sed recedus anima quoe carnalibus oculis non videtur, ab angelis susciptur et collocatur, aut in sinu, Abrahae, si fidelis est, aut in carcerio inferni custodia si peccatrix est.’  This means, ’But at the departure of that soul which the eyes of the flesh cannot see, the angels will receive and carry it to the Bosom of Abraham, if it has been faithful; or to Hell, if sinful.’  On the other hand, I could quote a large number of your own texts showing that for you, Purgatory was not an impossibility.  Add to all this what Saint Fulgentius, who flourished after you during the fifth and sixth century, says in Chapter XIV., of his ‘de incarnatione et gratia,’ etc.:  ’Quicumque regnum Dei non ingreditur, poenis oeternis cruciatur.’  That is to say, ’He who could not enter the Kingdom of God, will suffer eternal punishment.’

“’5th.  Your son either cannot read, or else acts in bad faith; otherwise, how could he, from my estatement, ’The Protestants do not believe in it; neither do the Greek Fathers, because they miss,’ etc., try to make ‘The Greek Fathers DID NOT believe in a Purgatory?’

“’How could he deduct from a present, a past tense and twist the sentences to make from it ‘The Holy Greek Fathers?’

“’I used ‘believe,’ the present tense, although in my time the Holy Greek Fathers did not exist, but simply the fathers belonging to the Greek Church.  Moreover, as I was following an historical order, how could I refer to the Protestants, first, and to the Holy Greek Fathers afterwards, who believed what they wished, and who at the time of my earthly life were a past to me?