So Catholicism with their Purgatory is similar to Hindu and Reincarnation where they accumulate more good karma than bad until they can eventually earn a person a higher place in the caste system in a future life, the ultimate goal of any Hindu adherent is moksha, or salvation from samsara. Moksha is the final of four primary Hindu goals.
As I learned it ...
The early church princes worried about dying unbaptized thus going to hell, so they opted for infant baptism.
This was fine until someone decided that sins in a state of grace, ie, post-baptism, were more serious than the same sins committed by the unbaptized.
So it was back to adult baptism, until someone pointed out that a prince could fall off his horse, hit his head on a rock, and die before he could get baptized.
There had to be a solution. So they did what they always do, they conjured one. Be baptized as an infant to escape hell and work off the industrial state-of-grace sins before entering heaven. And that’s purgatory.
Done, done, and here’s your T-shirt. It’s been a long time since I read that, so there may be some mistakes.
No