Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

by Peter Watson

For example, he wanted to make the liturgy more accessible to the faithful and his genius was to involve music. Thus was born Gregorian chant. In the same spirit he invented the notion of purgatory. He was particularly concerned with what should happen when a sinner received absolution from a priest, and had been instructed in a programme of ‘satisfaction’, as it was called, but died before the programme could be completed. To Gregory, it would be grossly unfair to condemn such a person to hell, but at the same time he or she could not go to heaven, since it would be wrong to admit that person alongside those who had completed their programme. His solution was a new, albeit temporary destination–purgatory–where people could complete their satisfactions, endure their punishments, and then, all being well, move on–to heaven. His other ‘user friendly’ idea for the faithful was that of the seven deadly sins. Evil, for Gregory, would always be a mystery for man: God intended it as such, as a test of faith (as it had been for Job). But the seven deadly sins were intended by Gregory to be a guide for the faithful, so that they weren’t always ‘overwhelmed’ by a sense of sin.