to an attenuation of the traditional teaching on the part of Catholic theologians. This tendency is particularly noticeable in the writings of Suarez. Jansenism with its rigoristic notions and its exaggerated views of divine justice and vengeance, did not improve the situation. As the older view gradually fell into desuetude, theologians forgot that Extreme Unction remits temporal punishments and preserves the soul from purgatory, which, according to the ancient Fathers, really was its main object;