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. Any day that you wish to discuss the matter with me,
come to my house and there we will consult the books and talk freely
and quietly.

"Now I must go. I don't understand why Christian piety permits robbery
on this night--and you, the authorities, allow it--and I fear for
my books. If they should steal them to read I wouldn't object, but
I know that there are many who wish to burn them in order to do for
me an act of charity, and such charity, worthy of the Caliph Omar,
is to be dreaded. Some believe that on account of those books I am
already damned--"

"But I suppose that you do believe in damnation?" asked Doray with
a smile, as she appeared carrying in a brazier the dry palm leaves,
which gave off a peculiar smoke and an agreeable odor.

"I don't know, madam, what God will do with me," replied the old man
thoughtfully. "When I die I will commit myself to Him without fear
and He may do with me what He wishes. But a thought strikes me!"

"What thought is that?"

"If the only ones who can be saved are the Catholics, and of them
only five per cent--as many curates say--and as the Catholics form
only a tw