ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The Catholic Church holds that “all who die in God’s grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified” undergo a process of purification, which the Church calls purgatory, “so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven".

Detailed explanation-2: -plural purgatories. Synonyms of purgatory. : an intermediate state after death for expiatory purification. specifically : a place or state of punishment wherein according to Roman Catholic doctrine the souls of those who die in God’s grace may make satisfaction for past sins and so become fit for heaven.

Detailed explanation-3: -The most prominent modern historian of the idea of Purgatory, Jacques Le Goff, dates the term purgatorium to around 1170; and in 1215 the Church began to set out the actual length of time in Purgatory required of souls. It is easy to see how this might have been a useful development for the Church.

Detailed explanation-4: -The idea of purgatory has roots that date back into antiquity. A sort of proto-purgatory called the “celestial Hades” appears in the writings of Plato and Heraclides Ponticus and in many other pagan writers. This concept is distinguished from the Hades of the underworld described in the works of Homer and Hesiod.