Thoughtful people have long disputed whether Purgatory - a place where a person’s soul is purified after death - actually exists. Far from viewing it as “a grand thing,” Protestant reformers, like Martin Luther, thought Purgatory - and the economy which supported it - was nothing more than a Church scheme to separate people from their money. The soul of a dead person, reformers declared, either went straight to heaven, or straight to hell. Souls didn’t make intermediate stops at a place called Purgatory.
Where did the idea of Purgatory originate? Does it have ancient roots? Modern acceptance? Do scholars believe Dante’s Divine Comedy - which devotes an entire section to Purgatory - is merely a lyrical poem, to be studied and enjoyed as great literature, or do they think it is a theological masterpiece, to be taken as absolute truth?