9. Page 107. Does not this account of the punishment of priests seem a little one-sided? The dignity of the priesthood clearly enhances the guilt of sins that might seem more venial in a layman. And there are special duties and responsibilities attached to the pastoral office. But are there no special graces vouchsafed to the ministers of the altar?
10. Page 110. Durandus can hardly have shed lustre on the Order of St. Dominic in the eleventh century; when St. Dominic was not yet born. The Dominican Order was founded in the thirteenth century.
11. Page 145. Can it be said that a nun who "had too great affection for her family" would be condemned to a long term of Purgatory? There certainly seems to be need of some explanation or qualification here.
12. Page 176. The vision here recorded does not seem to give any warrant for this violation of the Rubrics. And taking the story as it stands, there is nothing to show that the deliverance of the soul from Purgatory was due to the use of the forbidden black vestments.
13. Page 238. There can be no doubt as to the duty of paying these debts and legacies. But it can hardly be said that the amount of a man's punishment in Purgatory is increased by the guilty acts or omissions of others. His punishment might be greater if he had foreseen the neglect of his heirs and had not taken means to make sure that justice was done. But it does not seem to be sound theology to suppose that the actual payment of a debt on earth is necessary for the release of a soul from Purgatory. The same may be said of the story told elsewhere in the volume about an artist who was detained in Purgatory till an immoral painting was destroyed. This savours more of popular ghost-stories than of serious theology.
14. Page 289. St. Simon Stock lived to a great age, but the author has given him a good many extra years, for he says the saint was born in 1 100 — which would make him 151 at the time of the apparition. The date given by some authorities is 1 185, not 1100.
15. Page 293. The author's statement about Benedict XIV. and the Sabbatine Bull is, to say the least, somewhat misleading. In the first place no reference is given; and the unwary reader might suppose it was a case of some Papal pronouncement, and not a treatise in which the illustrious Lambertini is speaking as a private author. And what is more, the student who takes the trouble to turn to the Pope's work on the Feasts of our Lord and of the Blessed Virgin will see that he does not by any means give a decided verdict in favour of the Bull. On the contrary, he touches lightly on the objections brought against its authenticity and speaks of some of them with disparagement, and contents himself by citing with approval the wise and guarded decision of a later Pontiff. The matter is summed up in the following marginal rubric in the works of Pope Benedict: Bulla Joannis non probatur genuina. Prudens Pauli V. Decretum.
