Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Sacrament of the Eucharist · Book VI: On the Sacrifice of the Mass (Second)
Chapter 25: On the Truth of the Fifth Prayer of the Canon
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. IV, De Sacramento Eucharistiae, Book VI: On the Sacrifice of the Mass (Second Book). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
The fifth prayer is that: “Remember also, O Lord, etc.,” in which memory is made of the dead.
The first objection is of Luther, who affirms that this prayer fights with itself and destroys itself. For here we pray for those who sleep in the sleep of peace, and who rest in Christ: and yet we pray for them a place of refreshment, of light, and of peace. If they sleep and rest, why do we ask refreshment for them? if they have peace, why do we desire peace for them?
I answer: They have a certain peace and rest, because they are certain and secure of the reward of eternal happiness, and because they are free from the war of temptations and concupiscence, and from every evil work: but they have not yet peace and rest from torments, and from the desire of the divine vision. Nor could this prayer be more aptly composed, that it should befit those alone who are in purgatory. For those who are in hell have no peace and rest: those who are in the kingdom possess all peace and rest; they alone are those who are exercised in purgatory, who so rest in the sleep of peace that they still need refreshment and peace.
The second objection is of Kemnitz, the twelfth, who boldly affirms that of old only the memory of the dead was wont to be made, namely for imitation and in testimony that the dead live with God, on the testimony of Dionysius: that afterward to that memory were added also prayers for the dead: lastly that the sacrifice itself began to be offered for the dead; so, forsooth, the institutions of the ancients gradually degenerated into superstitions.
I answer: Many things about this matter we said above, chapter 7, where also from Tertullian, a most ancient author, we showed the usage of offering for the dead, so that it cannot but be a lie, what Kemnitz here writes, that the institutions of the ancients gradually degenerated into abuse. In this place I shall bring forward the testimony of Dionysius alone, that Kemnitz may blush, if he has a forehead. Dionysius, therefore, in his book on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, chapter 7, part 3: “The venerable Prelate,” he says, “approaching, performs a sacred prayer over the dead, after which prayer the Prelate himself salutes him, and then in their order all who stand by. That prayer beseeches the divine clemency to forgive all the sins committed by the dead through human infirmity, and to set him in the light and the region of the living, etc.”
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XXV. De veritate quintae orationis Canonis. Quinta oratio illa est : « Memento etiam Domine etc, » in qua fit memoria defuncto¬ rum. Prima objectio Lutheri est, qui hanc ora¬ tionem secum ipsam pugnare, seque ipsam destruere affirmat. Nam hic oramus pro iis, qui dormiunt in somno pacis, et qui in Christo requiescunt : et tamen eis precamur locum refrigerii, lucis, et pacis. Si dormiunt, ac re¬ quiescunt, quid illis refrigerium petimus ? si pacem habent, cur pacem illis optamus ? Respondeo : Pacem illi quamdam, et quie¬ tem habent, quia certi, ac securi sunt de pra?mio aeterna? felicitatis, et quia liberi sunt a bello tentationum, et concupiscentia?, et ab 430 LIBER VI. omni opere malo : sed nondum pacem, et quietem habent a tormentis, et a desiderio visionis divina}. Nec poterat aptius ha3C ora¬ tio componi, ut solis iis conveniret, qui in purgatorio degunt. Nam qui sunt in gehenna, ii nullam pacem, et quietem habent : qui sunt in regno, omnem pacem, et quietem possi dent; soli sunt ii, qui in purgatorio exercen¬ tur, qui ita in somno pacis requiescunt, ut adhuc refrigerio, et pace indigeant. Secunda objectio, estKemnitii duodecima, qui audacter affirmat, olim solam memoriam defunctorum fieri solitam,, ad imitationem scilicet, et in testimonium, quod mortui apud Deum vivant, teste Dionysio : postea ad illam memoriam accessisse etiam preces pro de¬ functis : postremo sacrificium ipsum pro de¬ functis offerri coeptum ; ita nimirum paula- tim veterum instituta in superstitiones dege¬ nerasse. Respondeo : Multa de hac re supra dixi¬ mus, cap. 7. ubi etiam ex Tertulliano antiquis¬ simo auctore ostendimus usum offerendi pro defunctis, ut non possit non esse mendacium, quod hic scribit Kemnitius, instituta vete¬ rum paulatim degenerasse in abusum. Hoc loco solius Dionysii testimonium proferam, ut Kemnitius erubescat, si frontem habet, Dionysius igitur lib. de Ecclesiast. hierar. cap. 7. par. 3. «Accedens », inquit, « vene¬ randus Antistes precem sacram super mor¬ tuum peragit, post quam precem, et ipse eum Pra}sul salutat, et suo deinceps ordine, qui adstant omnes. Precatur oratio illa divi¬ nam clementiam, ut cuncta dimittat per in¬ firmitatem humanam admissa peccata de¬ functo, eumque in luce statuat, et regione vivorum etc.