INTERLUDE. 701 ; INTERMEDIATE STATE. and was, as it chuiii-eil, historically intermediate between tho.se and true comedy. It differed from tile former in that it.s dramdlis iicmumr consisted not of abstractions of mciriil ipialilies, but of real jK'rsons; it was shorter in dialoj^ie and ;)f a merrier an<l more farcical nature. The most noted author of such plays was John Hey- wood (q.v. ), who flourished at the time of the great controversy between the Roman Catholic Church and the Reformed Church in England. His Four l"s is an c.cellcnt specimen of thi.s pha.se of the drama. A Peddler, a Pardoner, a, Palmer, and a Poticarj', eaeli tries to tell the j^reate>t lie. At last the Palmer happens to say that he never sav,' a woman out of temper; wliercupon the others declare that his is the greatest lie that can be told, and ijains for him the victory. In music, an interlude is a short melodious phrase played by an organist (gener- ally extempore) l)etween the stanzas of a hymn: also, any short instrumental selection played between portions of the Church service. Consult: Ward, riifiliih Dramatic Litrrntiirr, vol. i. (Lon- don, 187:5) ; Collier. The Tlislun/ of Kntjlish Dramatic I'octri/, vol. ii. (ib., 1S.31); Synionds, Shabe^pcare's I'reilcceisors in llic Eni/lish Drama (ib., 1S84) : Dodsley. Collection of Old £fif//i.s/i I'lai/s. 4th cil.. vol. i." ( ib.. 1874). INTERMARRIAGE. The intennarria-re or intercourse of near relatives has been universally believed to entail degeneration upon the olT- spring, and the act has been condemned and |)ro- liibited. The physical deformity and mental de- basement of the Cagots of the Pyrenees, of the Marrons of .uvergne, of the Sarrasins of Dauphinc. of the Cretins of the Alps, and the gradual deterioration of the shive population of America, have been attributed to consanguineous alliances. More recently, the same opinion has been supported by the history of deaf-mutism and of idiocy. Of 2.'!:> deaf and dumb children whose parentage could be traced. 70. or nearly 30 per cent., wre the ofTspring of the intermarriage of blood-relations. But in opposition to, and ap- parently destructive of such an hypothesis, may be adduced the unimpaired condition and sym- metry of the .Tews, of the -small Mohammedan communities in India, of the isolated tribes in North .America, among whom the repented inter- marriage of near relatives is compul.sory. More- over, thi.s opinion does not hold in the analogous ca.ses among the inferior animals. (See Breeds AND Breeding.) Darwin states that the first and fundamental law of heredity is that every attribute of the parents tends to be inherited by the offspring. Opposing influences counteract the tendency. If two brothers inherit strongly the characters of one of their parents, and if each transmits these characters strongly to his children, the cousins thus produced will have not only a close relationship of blood, but a close similarity of physiological characters, and if they marry, their offspring will be likely to be imper- fect (Mereier). Insanity follows consanguineous marriages whcr" the contracting parties inherit the same tendencies of a neurotic nature. If one of two brothers shows a reversion to a maternal ancestor, and the other inherits the father's char- acter strongly, the first cousins springing from such brothers will have considerable physiological dissimilarity, and if these cousins marry their offspring are likely to l)e well developed. See CoNSAXOriXITY. INTERMEDIATE STATE. the condition of the disembodied s|)irit Irom the hour of death till the geiH'ral resurre<lion. Kefercnces to this condition in the Bible are few an<l vague, and in the ab.sence of delinite infi>rmation several theu- ries liave been elaborated. (I) Probably the most popular view is that the souls of the right- eous pass to heaven and those of the wickeil tu condemnati<m immediately upon death. Pas- sages like Luke x.iii. 43, xvi, 22-23, are held to favor this view, (2) A second theory is that the intermediate state is one of sh'cp or uncon- sciousness. This was taught as early as the mid- dle of the third century by cerl;iin .rabians called Thnetopsycliites, and coiiibiiticl by Origcii. It Wiis disapproved by the I'liivi^rsity ol I'aris in 1240, ami by Benedict XI 1. in 13(i(i. It was re- vived by certain Swiss .
- ibaplisls and opposed
by Calvin. It has been held by a few in later times, most notably by Archbishop Whately. (3) It is held that an intermediate i)lace is provided wlu'rein the souls of the dead exist until the day of resurrection. The most delinite furin of this view is the Roman Catholic iloctrine of jiurga- lory. The Church only l:iys ilowii us ilc fittc that there is a place of piirilication for ilcjiarted souls, and that the souls detaineil therein are aided by the prayers and masses offered by the faithful on earth (Council of Trent, sess. vi., xxii., xxv.). The doctrine of pnrilication after death for those wlio die in (Jod's favor but not yet sulliciciitly free from imperfections to enter His presence, is sup])ortcd by reference to such passages of the Xew Testament as Malt. xii. 32, I, Cor. iii. 11-1."), M;ift. v. 2'), as well as by a continuous tradition, of which Tertullian speaks at the end of the second century as already old, and of which the custom of praying for the dead, uni- versal in the early Church, is good evidence. The doctrine is also helil to satisfy the demands of conuiion reason, since it is dillicull to im:igini' jieople of ordinary mixed ehanicters, neither very goiKl nor very bad, passing immediately into a state of perfect beatitude or being condenmed to uneniling [)unishnient. As to whether purgatory is a definite' place, and as to the method of purl fication employed, nothing has been defined; it is clearly understood, however, that no matter what are the pains incident to the purifying process, the souls undergoing it do so willingly and gladly, since they know that each moment brings them nearer to the goal of their desire, union with Ood. Modern theology is deeply interested in the hist-ory of the doctrine of a purilicali(a) by fire. It is generally granted that its e:irliest a|>pe:ir- ance is in the P<'rsian idea of a jiurifying conflag- ration preceding the final victory of Ahura Maz- da, by which everything that is impure will l>i' consumed. There is evidence that this doctrine passed from the Persians to the .Tews and Chris tians. The Sihylline Oraclrs show how widely the conception of an ordeal by fire through which the good would pass unscathed was accepted in Christian as well as .Tewish circles in the second century a.d. This, however, is only one root of the doctrine of a purgatory. Another was the anxiety about those who hail died before the appearance of the Messiah and His kingdom. ■Tews pravcd for them: Christians were baptized for them" (T. Cor. xv. 20) : Christ Himself was supposed to have gone to Hades after His death to preach the gospel to some of them (I. Peter
