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THE TRAGEDY OF THE INVENTION OF "PURGATORY!"
The following article has been published on "Il Progresso" (an Italian daily newspaper printed in NJ, U.S.A.), on Sunday the 28th of February, 1982. Yet, as far as we know, nobody ever said anything or got scandalized, nor have we heard the "Church" (Roman Catholic that is) ever deny the accusation and the "crime" (according to the Italian Laws), of the "Abuse of the Popular Credence!"
THE CHURCH INVENTED THE ADDITIONAL TIMES!
Jacques Le Goff, a very famous French Medieval historian has just published (1982) in France (by Gallimard) a book entitled: "La Naissance Du Purgatoire" (The Birth of Purgatory) destined to make a lot of noise, and to cause discussions even among those whom habitually don't treat History.
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At the dawn of the XIII century, the Church made the most important conquest (others call it discovery, others invention), that ever came up since many, many centuries. We are talking about the appropriation of an immense, tremendous, all-special kingdom, a "place" which appeared to be beyond the influence of every human structure, of a "space" which was thought not belonging to the human essence: the Divinity, the Fate, the Death. The "Church" decisively appropriated herself of "The Beyond". A conquest of such importance was made possible thanks to an "invention" (invent also means, to find), and a discovery, that of Purgatory. That is, of a "third place" (according to the expression of Martin Luther), where we "repair", a place where "hope" can still live among the suffering.
Being taught, and accustomed (we all, the Roman Catholic christians) to consider Purgatory like a "place" beyond the Times, to the level of Paradise and Hell ("innanzi a me non fur cose create") (nothing was created before me), we are surprised in front of this theory. Yet, to sustain it, is not just anyone, but nonetheless of the famous Jacques Le Goff, the great French Medieval historian, "heir" of Marc Bloch, "lord" of the Nouvelle Histoire, "co-director" of those Annuals which revolutionized the way of making the historical researchs.
The theory of Le Goff (but it is more than a theory) is simple: before the XIII century, neither the word Purgatory, nor it's representation ever existed. Until then there were only vague beliefs. As Le Goff himself declared to the Paris weekly magazine, "L'Express", starting from this discovery "because" the Beyond will always recall the way which one lived the Present life, I sought to comprehend the basis of this invention in the light of the great Western changes of the XII-XIII century. Because, to arrive at the "discovery" (or invention) of the Purgatory, it required time: the Bible never said a word about it (as the Protestants will confirm in the times of Reformation) so, it's concept took place very slowly.
The concept of a third place interposed between Hell and Paradise, where there was neither salvation nor damnation, was a terrible idea, foreign to the Medieval man, used to, like an old Manichean or a Catharist, to think on a dual system: God and the Devil, Good and Evil, Nobles and Plebes, Clerics and Laics, Rich and Poor. To invent the Purgatory, sustains Le Goff, was no more no less to break the world's and the society's dualistic conception. In fact we add, it's not by chance that contenporary to the Purgatory, "theological third place", a "social third place" was born, that of the "merchants", seed of the Middle Class. The merchant is often rich, but not noble, works but is not a plebe, is educated but is not cleric, he is in fact, a germ of social confusion (renovation), with it's roots slowly cracking the pre-existent structure, and make it crumble as in effect the merchant's Middle Class has done.
With Purgatory, powerful imagination which enjoied an ecceptional publicitarian like Dante Alighieri, the "Church" we say, conquered "the Beyond", and through it, the Present Lives as well. "Death", says Le Goff, no longer becomes the crucial moment in which everything is betted, the "frontier" moment between death and eternity. "We are talking - he affirms, of a true and real expansion (dilatation) of the saving occasions".
Since then, between the living and the dead has began an active solidarity, an "exchange". On this side, the Masses, offered to help the soul get out of Purgatory as soon as possible, on the other side, the individual relationship with the Beyond. In this position says Le Goff, is the "Church" which administer the "policy" of Purgatory, which conquer the Death's territory. This way, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction extends itself in the Beyond which belonged to God. The crowd of souls waiting for the Purgatory finds itself tied to the world of the livings. And the followers get gradually used to (bonded to, or enslaved) of a new repertory of gestures, prayers, and alms.
"The indulgences - says Le Goff, these keys of Paradise, are it's highly remunerative and famous example". The Church which conquers the Beyond, estabilishes a spiritual, but also a vast economical power as well. This operation sustain the book is theological, but the theological operation does nothing else but sanction an idea which was already deeply rooted in the collective subconscious, in the popular immagination. In an era like the Medieval, in which the spirits traveled in "strange universes" and came back to preoccupy the livings, the Church was able to make a "good face to a bad game": appropriating herself of Purgatory she knew how to channel an offensive which could not contain. If we would - says the historian - it's the great confinement of the dead. In order to do this, to bring immagination and power to coincide, the Church had to make Purgatory "visible", to describe it, to give it a real image. And the visual triumph of Purgatory, came, thanks to a masterpiece work of the great publisher, Dante Alighieri, and his Second Cantica. After all, before Le Goff who brings demonstration and evidences, two poets perceived the genial dantesc effort: Chateaubriand ("Le Purgatoire Surpasse En Poesie Le Ciel Et L'Enfer") and Ezra Pound. They had an absolute predilection for Purgatory.
With all this (perhaps even for this character, mysterious, dreamy and new), the idea of Purgatory was not easily affirmed. The contemporary people and it's mental custom, smashed against the new idea. The teology itself was, even if not happily, very cautious: The Purgatory became a "dogma" only in the XVI century.
Marco Guidi
English translation by Evangelist: Abel Aureli
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