al Cajetan but he refused. Some people thought that Luther had a valid point, and those people were the ones who followed him. This is where we get the split of ideas and of the churches themselves. This split in the churches has a lot to do with the idea of purgatory and the selling of indulgences. Indulgences were sold to people to reduce their time in purgatory. These indulgences were sold at a very high price and most people either could not afford them or were forced to sell all they owned to purchase them. “A soul is released from purgatory and carried to heaven as soon as the money tinkles in the box.” (13 9 13) The existence of purgatory and indulgences were not what started the split it was the selling of the indulgences and the extremely high prices for them that caused the split in the church and in the belief of purgatory itself. The doctrine of purgatory is not very involved in the Catholic Church. There are only three paragraphs in the catechism. The basic understanding is that there is a third place after death where a person who has not sinned enough to go to hell but has not been perfect goes to be purified. Also, God helps the people in purgatory so they are not completely cut off from Him like in hell. The only other belief about purgatory is that the purification has to be painful.Even though the catechism only has about three paragraphs on purgatory, there have been other writings on the subject. The Council of Vatican II has its own beliefs on the subject. They stated:The doctrine of purgatory clearly demonstrates that even when the guilt of the sin has been taken away, punishment for it or the consequences of it may remain to be explained or cleansed. They often are. In fact in purgatory the souls of those who died in the charity of god and truly repentant, but who had not made satisfaction with adequate penance for there sins . . . are cleansed after death . . . . During t...
