Question Four
What relation Purgatory, Limbo, and Abraham’s bosom, or the bosom of the holy fathers, have beneath the earth to hell
It is asked what order and what relation beneath the earth the three penal places, namely Purgatory, Limbo, and Abraham’s bosom, or the bosom of the holy fathers, have to hell.
To this it is answered that there is a twofold opinion concerning the relation and order of the three penal places to hell.
The first is probable, namely that hell is the central region of the earth, and that every other region of the lower world surrounds it spherically, with respect to below and above, proportionally according to the differences of the inhabitants in unworthiness or dignity.
Thus, since according to the common opinion of the doctors there are four regions of the whole lower world - namely lower hell, the Limbo of children, Purgatory, and Abraham’s bosom or the Limbo of the fathers - hell is the lowest central region. Immediately after it is the region of the children who died in original sin alone. Above this is the region for the purgation of souls, which is surrounded by the region called Abraham’s bosom or the Limbo of the fathers.
The first two regions belong to the damned, but they differ with respect to punishment of sense and punishment of loss alone. The other two do not belong to the damned, but belong or belonged to those who are to be saved.
The other opinion concerning the order of the penal places in relation to hell is that these four regions do not surround one another spherically. This can occur in three ways.
In the first way, let us imagine a certain great pyramid of earth whose apex is the center of the world and whose base is the whole dry surface of the earth. Let us imagine that pyramid divided by transverse lines or surfaces into four regions separated from one another below and above, of which the lowest is hell and the others stand above it in the aforesaid order.
In the second way, these four regions can be related to one another after the manner of four spheres placed one above another, immediately or mediately, so that one is situated at the center of the world and the other three directly above it along one direction of celestial position.
In the third way, it can be that the three noncentral regions adjoin the central region at diverse differences of position - for example, one from the east, another from the west, and the third from the south, or conversely. Thus there are four conceptions concerning the configuration of the regions of the lower world. But the first is more probable and more consonant with the sayings of the saints.
Nevertheless, whatever may be the constitution of the said regions, it seems that it should probably be posited that between Abraham’s bosom and lower hell there is a certain intervening distance, as though impassable from every direction and obstructed by winding passages.
For it is said in Luke 16 that the rich banqueter, lifting up his eyes, saw Abraham from afar and Lazarus in his bosom, where a local distance seems to be denoted.
This is again evident from what is there read as spoken to Abraham: “And in all these things, between us and you, a great chasm has been established, so that those who wish to cross from here to you cannot, nor can they pass from there to here.”
Taken literally, this seems to denote the interposition of an untraversable path, although the doctors expound it mystically.
That which is said in the person of uncreated Wisdom in Ecclesiasticus 24 also supports this opinion: “I will penetrate all the lower parts of the earth, and I will behold all who sleep, and I will enlighten all who hope in the Lord.”
From all these things it follows that when the souls of the damned are led to hell at the center of the earth, to Lucifer abiding and bound there, they have to traverse all those subterranean regions. The souls that descend to the Limbo of children cross two, and those that go to Purgatory cross one; while crossing they see one another, speak to one another, and so forth.
And similarly, when souls are led from Purgatory into glory, freed from faults and punishments, perhaps for the confusion and increase of the punishments of the damned and of the demons, who hate the ascent of human beings into heaven, with God permitting they pass through the center of the world to their mansions in heaven.
These things are from Henry of Hesse on Genesis.