Footnote

d Writing of this pollution of true doctrine and worship, J. L. von Mosheim says in his Ecclesiastical History: “As no one in those times objected to Christians retaining the opinions of their pagan ancestors respecting the soul, heroes, demons, temples, and the like and their transferring them into their devotions; and as no one proposed utterly to abolish the ancient pagan institutions but only to alter them somewhat and purify them, it was unavoidable that the religion and the worship of Christians should in this way become corrupted. This also I will add, that the doctrine of the purification of souls after death by means of some sort of fire, which afterwards became so great a source of wealth to the clergy, acquired in this age a fuller development and greater influence.”