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PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 263 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD . Wherever there is a belief in the continued existence of See also:

man's See also:personality through and after See also:death, See also:religion naturally concerns itself with the relations between the living and the dead. And where the See also:idea of a future See also:judgment obtains, prayers are often offered on their behalf to the Higher See also:Powers. Prayers for the dead are mentioned in 2 See also:Maccabees xii. 43-45, where the writer is uncertain whether to regard the See also:sacrifice offered by Judas as a propitiatory See also:sin-offering or as a memorial thank-offering, a distinction of See also:great importance in the later See also:history of the practice. Prayers for the dead See also:form See also:part of the authorized Jewish services. The form in use in See also:England contains the following passage: " Have See also:mercy upon him; See also:pardon all his transgressions . . . Shelter his soul in the See also:shadow of Thy wings. Make known to him the path of See also:life." The only passage in the New Testament which is held to beardirectly on the subject is 2 Tim. i. 18, where, however, it is not certain that Onesiphorus, for whom St See also:Paul prayed, was dead. Outside the See also:Bible the See also:proof of the See also:early use of prayers for the dead has been carried a step farther by See also:Professor See also:Ramsay's discoveries, for it is now impossible to doubt the genuineness of the copy (contained in the See also:spurious acts of the See also:saint) of the inscription on the See also:tomb of Abercius of Hieropolis in See also:Phrygia (see See also:Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, pt. ii. vol. i. p.

492 sqq.). The 19th See also:

line of the inscription runs thus: " Let every friend who observeth this pray for me," i.e. Abercius, who throughout speaks in the first See also:person: he died in the latter part of the 2nd See also:century. The See also:inscriptions in the See also:Roman catacombs See also:bear similar See also:witness to the practice, by the occurrence of such phrases as " Mayst See also:thou live among the See also:saints " (3rd century); " May See also:God refresh the soul of . . . "; " See also:Peace be with them." Among See also:Church writers See also:Tertullian is the first to mention prayers for the dead, and that not as a concession to natural sentiment, but as a See also:duty: " The widow who does not pray for her dead See also:husband has as See also:good as divorced him." This passage occurs in one of his later Montanistic writings, dating from the beginning of the 3rd century. Subsequent writers similarly make incidental mention of the practice as prevalent, but not as unlawful or even disputed (until Aerius challenged it towards the end of the 4th century). The most famous instance is St See also:Augustine's See also:prayer for his See also:mother, Monica, at the end of the 9th See also:book of his Confessions. An important See also:element in the liturgies of the various Churches consisted of the diptychs or lists of names of living and dead who were to be commemorated at the See also:Eucharist. To be inserted in these lists was an See also:honour, and out of the practice See also:grew the See also:canonization of saints; on the other See also:hand, to be excluded was a condemnation. In the See also:middle of the 3rd century we find See also:Cyprian enjoining that there should be no See also:oblation or public prayer made for a deceased layman who had broken a Church See also:rule by appointing a cleric trustee under his will: " He ought not to be named in the priests' prayer who has done his best to detain the See also:clergy from the See also:altar." Although it is not possible, as a rule, to name See also:dates for the exact words used in the See also:ancient liturgies, yet the universal occurrence of these diptychs and of definite prayers for the dead in all parts of the Church in the 4th and 5th centuries tends to show how See also:primitive such prayers were. The See also:language used in the prayers for the departed is very reserved,and contains no See also:suggestion of a See also:place or See also:state of See also:pain.

We may cite the following from the so-called See also:

liturgy of St See also:James: " Remember, 0 See also:Lord, the God of See also:Spirits and of all Flesh, those whom we have remembered and those whom we have not remembered, men of the true faith, from righteous See also:Abel unto to-See also:day; do thou thyself give them See also:rest there in the See also:land of the living, in thy See also:kingdom, in the delight of See also:Paradise, in the bosom of See also:Abraham, See also:Isaac and See also:Jacob, our See also:holy fathers, from whence pain and sorrow and sighing have fled away, where the See also:light of thy countenance visiteth them and always shineth upon them." Public prayers were only offered for those who were believed to have died as faithful members of See also:Christ. But Perpetua, who was martyred in 202, believed herself to have been encouraged by a See also:vision to pray for her See also:brother, who had died in his eighth See also:year, almost certainly unbaptized; and a later vision assured her that her prayer had been answered and he translated from See also:punishment. St Augustine thought it needful to point out that the narrative was not canonical Scripture, and contended that the See also:child had perhaps been baptized. Similarly, a See also:medieval See also:legend relates that See also:Gregory the Great was so struck with the See also:justice of the See also:emperor See also:Trajan, that he prayed for him, and in consequence he was admitted to Paradise (cf. See also:Dante, Purg. x., Parad. xx.). As See also:time went on, further developments took place. Petitions to God that he would hear the intercessions of the departed became See also:direct See also:requests to them to pray (Ora See also:pro nobis) ; and, finally, the saints were asked themselves to See also:grant See also:grace and help. Again, men See also:felt difficulty in supposing that one who repented at the See also:close of a wicked life could at once enjoy the fellowship of the saints in Paradise (St See also:Luke See also:xxiii. 43), and it seemed unfair that they should be made equal with those who had See also:borne the See also:burden and See also:heat of the day (St Matt. xx. 12). And so the See also:simple severance between good and See also:bad indicated in St Luke vi. 26, became the threefold See also:division made See also:familiar by Dante.

These speculations were further fixed by the growth of the theory of See also:

satisfaction and of Indulgences: each forgiven soul was supposed to have to endure an amount of suffering in proportion to the See also:guilt of its sins, and the prayers and pious acts of the living availed to shorten this See also:penance time in See also:Purgatory (see INDULGENCES). It thus came about that prayers for the dead were regarded only as aiming at the deliverance of souls from purgatorial fires; and that application of the Eucharist seems to have overshadowed all others. The See also:Council of See also:Trent attempted certain reforms in the See also:matter, with more or less success; but, broadly speaking, the See also:system still remains in the Roman See also:Catholic Church, and masses for the dead are a very important part of its acts of See also:worship. The See also:Reformation took its rise in a righteous protest against the See also:sale of Indulgences; and by a natural reaction the Protestants, in rejecting the Roman See also:doctrine of Purgatory, were inclined to disuse all prayers for the dead. Important changes have been made, in the successive revisions of the Prayer Book, in the commemorations of the dead at the Eucharist and in the See also:Burial Service. In the Communion Service of 1549, after praise and thanks were offered for all the saints, chiefly the Blessed Virgin, came the following: " We commend into thy mercy all other thy servants, which are departed hence from us with the sign of faith and now do rest in the See also:sleep of peace: grant unto them, we beseech thee, thy mercy and See also:everlasting peace." The Burial Service of the same date contained explicit prayers for the deceased, and introit, collect, See also:epistle and See also:gospel were provided for " the Celebration of the Holy Communion when there is a Burial of the Dead." In 1552, under the See also:influence of See also:Bucer, all mention of the dead, whether commemorative or intercessory, was cut out of the Eucharist; the prayers in the Burial Service were brought into their See also:present form; and the See also:provision for Holy Communion at a Burial was omitted. The thankful See also:commemoration of the dead in the Eucharist was restored in 1661, but prayers for them remained, if they remained at all, veiled in ambiguous phrases. The Church of England has never forbidden prayers for the dead, however little she has used them in her public services. It was proposed in 1552 to condemn the scholastic doctrine De precatione pro defunctis in what is now the 22nd of the See also:Thirty Nine Articles, but the proposal was rejected. And these inter-cessions have been used in private by a See also:long See also:list of See also:English divines, among whom See also:Andrewes, See also:Cosin, See also:Ken, See also:Wesley and See also:Keble form an almost See also:complete See also:chain down to the present day. On the tomb of See also:Bishop See also:Barrow (1680) stands a See also:request to passers-by to pray for their See also:fellow-servant. And in a suit (1838) as to the lawfulness of an inscription, " Pray for the soul of .

. .," the See also:

Court decided that " no authority or See also:canon has been pointed out by which the practice of praying for the dead has been expressly prohibited." As See also:Jeremy See also:Taylor put it (Dissuasive from Popery, I. x. iv.), " See also:General prayers for the dead the Church of England never did condemn by any See also:express articles, but See also:left it in the middle." H. M. Luckock, After Death (1st ed., See also:London, 1879) ; E.H.See also:Plumptre, The Spirits in See also:Prison (London, 1884). (W. O.

End of Article: PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD

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