608 pyx and pyxis
efforts among the living. Some of the FATHERS OF THE
CHURCHthought that between the particular judgment of
a soul at death and the LASTJUDGMENTthere could be
sinners who might still attain salvation through a purifi-
cation and could be helped by the prayers of the living.
Purgatory was a sort of midpoint for those who had
committed sins that did not condemn one to hell yet
barred one from PARADISEor HEAVEN. These were pardon-
able or venial, but not mortal sins. Purgatory was a place
of expiation or punishment carried out beyond the grave.
Punishment there was dual: the pain of postponement
from the BEATIFIC VISIONand the pain of cleansing fire.
The intensity and duration of the pain were to be propor-
tional to the fault and could be alleviated by the prayers
of the church in this world. This doctrine was defined in
the early 12th century and elaborated in the 13th century
by Scholastics such as Thomas AQUINAS. Papal and con-
ciliar approval followed in the 13th through 15th cen-
turies. It was a comforting thought to Christians that the
deceased, though not perfect in this world, might still
have a chance for salvation when assisted by the actions
of those still alive. An economy of salvation that quanti-
fied ways of assistance, such as paying for clerical prayers
and gaining or buying INDULGENCESfor the deceased,
developed. Such ideas did not exist in JUDAISMor ISLAM.
Their assumption was that only the mercy and JUSTICEof
GODwere involved in one’s fate after death.
See also ALIGHIERI, DANTE; HARROWING OF HELL;
INDULGENCES; LIMBO; REDEMPTION.
Further reading: Michael Haren and Yolande de
Pontfarcy, ed., The Medieval Pilgrimage to St. Patrick’s
Purgatory: Lough Derg and the European Tradition
(Enniskillen: Clogher Historical Society, 1988); Jacques
Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory,trans. Arthur Goldham-
mer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986);
Takami Matsuda, Death and Purgatory in Middle English
Didactic Poetry(Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer, 1997); Alison
Morgan, Dante and the Medieval Other World(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1990).pyx and pyxis (boxwood vessel) The pyx is a gener-
ally small object, usually a cylindrical box of IVORY, silver,
GOLD, or other metal. Such boxes or containers had been
used in antiquity to store jewels or incense. In the Middle
Ages there were two main uses for such boxes, as a reli-
quary or as a receptacle to store consecrated hosts from
one eucharistic to another eucharistic service. Such a reli-
quary was designed by the term capsaand contained the
consecrated host. It too was called pyxisor pyxand was
used for taking communion to the ill or dying.
See alsoMETALSMITHS AND METAL WORK, METALLURGY.
Further reading:“Pyx,” in The Oxford Dictionary of
the Christian Church,1353.