First Decade, Chapter Three
Five questions concerning the places and receptacles of souls separated from bodies
Question One
How many places there are for souls released from the body
The single question of this third chapter is namely this: how many receptacles and places are there for souls released from bodies?
To this it is answered that, according to the theologians, after the death of Christ - through whom Abraham’s bosom, that is, the limbo of the holy fathers, was despoiled and closed - the places in which souls separated from the body are received are four: namely, paradise, hell, purgatory, and limbo.
The reason for this fourfold number of places is that a soul departs from the body in four ways. First, a soul sometimes departs without any guilt, as is evident in the case of baptized children, martyrs, and perfect men who have built with gold, silver, and precious stones - that is, with love of God, love of Christ, and good operation. The place of such persons is paradise, in which the soul is made blessed, because there are the abundances of every good.
Second, a soul sometimes departs with actual and mortal guilt; and then its receptacle is hell, in which it is damned and in which there are the absence of grace, the punishment of loss, and the punishment of sense eternally.
Third, a soul departs with guilt and sufficient penitence; and then its receptacle is purgatory, in which it is purged. There is not the absence of grace there, as there is in hell, but there are the punishment of sense and the temporal punishment of loss.
Fourth, a soul sometimes departs with original sin; then its receptacle is limbo, in which there are the absence of grace and the eternal punishment of loss, but not the punishment of sense. These things are from Master Peter of Taranto and Thomas, Book IV, distinction 31.