PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10122, 19 October 1910, Page 7

PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD.

"A HOLY AND WHOLESOME THOUGHT." The position of the Church of England inregard to prayers for the dead was briefly referred to by Mr Justice Cooper in a judgment affirming the legality of a bequest to provide for masses for the dead in a Koman latholic Church. "It is interesting to notice," said ti.e learned judge, "that, although the doctrine of purgatory was declared by a statute of Edward VI. to be 'vain and superstitious,' and is denounced in Article 22 of the Articles of the Church of England as unwarranted by and contrary to the Word of God, prayers for the dead were held in Breeks v. Woolifrey, not to be prohibited by the Church of England. In that case, decided in li-33, the Dean of Arches, after a comprehensive examination of judicial and ecclesiastical authority, stated that there was no authority or canon by which the practice of pray- i ing for the dead was prohibited, and ] that prayers foj the dead, although j discourage 3 by many divines of the. j Church, had never been treated as forbidden. They were discouraged because they are inconsistent with the Statute of Edward and with the article concerning purgatory, and hecau-e they form no part of the recognised service of the Church. 'I he Dean of Arches, therefore, sustained the legality of an inscription upon a tombstone erected in the parish churchyard of Carisbrook, Isle of Wight, which inscription was in the following terms:—Tray for the soul of J, Woolfrey. It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray'for the dead."