And thus hath yet even the first and most base kind of tribulation, though not fully so great as the second and very far less than the third, far greater cause of comfort yet than I spoke of before.

XII

Vincent:  Verily, good uncle, this pleaseth me very well.  But yet are there, you know, some of these things now brought in question.  For as for any pain due for our sin, to be diminished in purgatory by the patient sufferance of tribulation here, there are, you know, many who utterly deny that, and affirm for a sure truth that there is no purgatory at all.  And then, if they say true, is the cause of the comfort gone, if the comfort that we should take be but in vain and needless.

They say, you know, also that men merit nothing at all, but God giveth all for faith alone, and that it would be sin and sacrilege to look for reward in heaven either for our patience and glad suffering for God’s sake, or for any other good deed.  And then is there gone, if this be thus, the other cause of our further comfort too.

Anthony:  Cousin, if some things were as they be not, then should some things be as they shall not!  I cannot indeed deny that some men have of late brought up some such opinions, and many more than these besides, and have spread them abroad.  And it is a right heavy thing to see such variousness in our belief rise and grow among ourselves, to the great encouragement of the common enemies of us all, whereby they have our faith in derision and catch hope to overwhelm us all.  Yet do three things not a little comfort my mind.  The first is that, in some communications had of late together, there hath appeared good likelihood of some good agreement to grow together in one accord of our faith.  The second is that in the meanwhile, till this may come to pass, contentions, disputations, and uncharitable behaviour are prohibited and forbidden in effect upon all parties—­all such parties, I mean, as fell before to fight for it.  The third is that in Germany, for all their diverse opinions, yet as they agree together in profession of Christ’s name, so agree they now together in preparation of a common power, in defence of Christendom against our common enemy the Turk.  And I trust in God that this shall not only help us here to strengthen us in this war, but also that, as God hath caused them to agree together in the defence of his name, so shall he graciously bring them to agree together in the truth of his faith.  Therefore will I let God work, and leave off contention.  And I shall now say nothing but that with which they who are themselves of the contrary mind shall in reason have no cause to be discontented.

First, as for purgatory:  Though they think there be none, yet since they deny not that all the corps of Christendom for so many hundred years have believed the contrary, and among them all the old interpreters of scripture from the apostles’ days down to our time, many of whom they deny not for holy saints, these men must, of their courtesy, hold my poor fear excused, that I dare not now believe them against all those.  And I beseech our Lord heartily for them, that when they depart out of this wretched world, they find no purgatory at all—­provided God keep them from hell!