Question Four
Principal Question Four of Chapter Three: Concerning Purgatory, under which fifteen questions are resolved
Question One
Whether Purgatory is truly and really found in the center of the earth
It is asked whether the place of Purgatory is truly found in the center of the earth.
To this it first appears to certain persons that a negative answer should be given: namely, that it is not found.
The first argument is as follows. God, who is supremely merciful, is more disposed to reward good things than to punish evil things. But just as those who are in the state of charity do certain evil things which are not worthy of eternal punishment, so those who are in mortal sin sometimes do certain things good in kind which are not worthy of eternal reward. Therefore, since those good things are not rewarded in the damned after this life, neither should those evil things be punished after this life.
Second, the argument is as follows. As charity stands in relation to eternal reward, so mortal sin stands in relation to eternal punishment. But those departing in mortal sin are immediately carried to eternal punishment. Therefore those departing in charity go immediately to reward, and thus no Purgatory remains for them after this life.
Likewise, if Purgatory were to be posited after this life, it would especially be posited by reason of the expiation and purgation of sins: namely, of fault or of liability to punishment. But this cannot be, as is proved because Gregory says - and it is placed in distinction 25, chapter Qualis - “As anyone departs from here, so he is presented in judgment, because where the tree falls, there it will be,” Ecclesiastes 11. Therefore, if anyone departs from this life with venial or mortal fault, he will possess such fault at the judgment and consequently will not be purged in Purgatory, because at the judgment Purgatory will no longer exist but will be closed. Therefore it would exist in vain.
Likewise, the gloss upon the words of 1 John 5, “There is a sin unto death,” says that one who is not corrected in this life awaits pardon after death in vain, for no fault is purged after death.
Fifth, it is argued from the authority of Revelation 14, where it is said: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, says the Spirit, let them rest from their labors.” Therefore no purgatorial labor remains after this life for those who die in the Lord, nor for those who do not die in the Lord, because they cannot be purged. Therefore there is no Purgatory after this life.
But to the contrary is the text of Augustine in On Penance, distinction 7, chapter Hic autem ignis.
I answer that, concerning the truth and existence of Purgatory in the center of the earth after this life, there are, and have been, two profane and sacrilegious manners of speaking. A third, however, is established in the way of truth.
The first is that of the Hebrews, the Greeks, certain heretics called the Poor of Lyons in France, and also certain Waldensian peoples dwelling around the Rhine in Upper Germany. All these commonly hold that after this life no purgatorial place is found in the center of the earth, but they say that every dying person’s soul is immediately carried and snatched either to the punishments of hell or to the glory of Paradise. In defense and support of their position they possess the arguments and the authority from Revelation advanced above at the beginning of the question.
But against the Jews is the text of 2 Maccabees 12, saying: “It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” But prayer is not to be made for the dead who are in Paradise, as Thomas says in Book IV, because they lack nothing; nor, again, for those who are in hell, because they cannot be loosed from sins. Therefore after this life there are some not yet absolved from sins who are capable of being absolved.
Such persons possess charity, without which there is no remission of sins, because “charity covers all offenses,” Proverbs 10. Hence they do not come to eternal death, because “he who lives and believes in Christ will not die eternally,” John 11. Nor will they be brought into glory unless purified, because nothing unclean will come to it, Revelation, final chapter. Therefore after this life some place of purgation remains for persons of this kind who are contrite but not yet fully purified.
Likewise, against the Greeks is the Greek Gregory of Nyssa, who says thus concerning the truth of Purgatory: “If anyone who is Christ’s friend, consenting to purify sins in this life, was less able to do so, after his passage from here he will be freed through the conflagration of purgatorial fire. We preach this, we preserve this doctrine of truth, and thus we believe.”
But against the Poor of Lyons and the Waldensian peoples is the authority of the universal Church, which prays for the dead that they may be loosed from sins. This cannot be understood except of those who are in Purgatory. Moreover, whoever resists the authority of the Church incurs heresy, as is noted in cause 7, question 1, chapter Denique, and in the Extra, On Heretics, chapter Firmissime.
There is and has been a second profane manner of speaking concerning the existence of Purgatory in the center of the earth: that of the Indians, whom many who are Christians in name alone now follow. Unable to understand, and unwilling to believe, that pure spirits and separated souls are tormented by corporeal fire, they said, and say - as Thomas adduces on John, chapter 14, and in Book IV Against the Gentiles - that faithful persons who died in grace but were not fully purged do not descend into Purgatory but are detained until the judgment in some place under the punishment of loss alone: perhaps in the terrestrial Paradise; or at the furthest boundaries of sea or dry land; or in the void above the circumference of the empyrean heaven; or beneath the convexity of the earth and the concavity of the empyrean heaven. Some say - although apocryphally, indeed erroneously - that all those liberated by Christ from the lower regions remained there until the day of the Lord’s Ascension.
But when hell was treated above, it was very fully proved and shown that spiritual souls, both separated and in the body, and demons can, and in fact really do, suffer and are tormented by corporeal fire. Therefore, after these persons and the entire crowd of bad Christians have been rejected, spurned, and held in contempt, let us approach the third conclusion concerning Purgatory: the catholic, orthodox, and true conclusion.
It is this: a place of Purgatory is truly and really found in the center of the earth.
This conclusion will be proved by reasons, by authorities, by the authority of the Church militant, and by legal and civil propriety.
First, by reasons, as follows.
Let two just persons be taken. One of them has never sinned mortally, but only venially; the other has offended the Lord with many mortal sins. Let both die at the same time and contrite. It is then asked whether both ascend into heaven equally and at the same time, or not.
If it is said that they do, it follows that faith alone with contrition avails as much as faith with virtuous works. This would be contrary to the reason of divine distributive justice, by which to each person will be rendered according to his merits, and contrary to the distinction of degrees of beatitude.
But if it is conceded that they enter eternal life unequally - that is, one before the other - it is asked whether the one who enters Paradise second first descends to hell. If he does, then what Christ said in John 5 is false: “Amen, amen, I say to you, that he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but passes from death to life.”
If it is said that he does not descend to hell, then, since he cannot ascend into Paradise because he is still impure, either he will never be changed from the impure state in which he is, or he will be purged for eternal life. Not the first; therefore the second. But he cannot be purged by his own works of satisfaction. Therefore he will be purged by punishments in Purgatory.
Second, if every sin is punished either by God or by a human being - because no evil is unpunished and no good is unrewarded, On Penance, distinction 7, final chapter - and persons are frequently converted at the end who were not punished for their evils in the present life, they must therefore be punished by God. They are not punished in the fire of hell, since they died in charity; therefore they are punished in the fire of Purgatory.
Third, if there were no punishment of Purgatory after this life, one who persists in wickedness until death would be as well off as one who never sinned. Therefore, from the example of such a person, no one would do penance in this life, but all would confess at the end alone when contrite. This would be erroneous, for “no one is endowed with virtue while rejoicing over iniquity,” On Penance, distinction 7, chapter Nullus. Therefore it is necessary to confess that Purgatory exists.
Fourth, let Sortes, existing in charity, still have - for example - seven years of punishments imposed upon him by the just judgment of the Church to discharge. Then let it be supposed, as is possible, that after two years have elapsed he is suddenly and accidentally killed through no fault of his own. Since the soul was principally the cause of the sin for which Sortes was bound to make satisfaction, it would be contrary to reason for it not to suffer punishment after death for the remaining five years of penance. Nor can any reasonable cause be assigned why it should not suffer. Therefore a place must be posited where the soul of Sortes will be purged for those five years: not in Paradise, because that place is not a place of purgation; not in hell, because there the soul is not purged but damned; therefore in Purgatory.
Likewise it is argued thus. If, for example, Sortes and Plato commit one sin in which Sortes is first and principally culpable, and a penance is imposed upon them which they ought to perform together just as they sinned together, then, if Plato dies before the completion of the penance, according to the judgment of reason Sortes would still possess punishment.
It is thus in the matter proposed concerning the punishment of sins committed by the soul and body, that is, by the whole human being, because sins are to be punished rationally. Although the body is now dead, the soul still exists: not in hell or in Paradise, as has been said; therefore in Purgatory.
Likewise, from that error it follows that every sin is mortal. For if no sin in which a person dies is remitted after death, and the soul is not purged from any sin through punishments after death, it follows that every fault - whether great or small - in which a person dies will endure perpetually.
Likewise, from that error it follows that it is possible for someone who will not rise before the judgment to die in charity with a light fault and not be saved. But this appears to be exceedingly repugnant to apostolic and catholic teaching and to divine goodness. Therefore the position is false.
Likewise it is argued thus. Unless there were belief in Purgatory, in which human souls could after death make satisfaction for sins committed here, an occasion of despair would be given to those who were in sins throughout their whole life and finally obtain remission through some contrition which nevertheless does not suffice for plenary absolution from punishment and fault and from a part of the punishments.
Likewise, if there were no belief in the existence of Purgatory, in which sins are punished more gravely than in the tribunal of the present life, all that terror would be removed from all the faithful which causes those who have sinned more willingly to undertake present punishments and labors of satisfaction than to endure incomparably more grievous punishments in the future.
For belief in punishments to be most grievously inflicted in the future age for sins committed here is one of the greatest things which are accustomed to withdraw the good from evils and to move those who have sinned to do penance and make satisfaction in the present life.
Therefore let us believe firmly that, just as divine justice established from the beginning a place of infernal punishments in which the souls of the damned would be punished perpetually, so divine goodness established a place of punishments in which the souls of certain persons who are to be saved might after death discharge the temporal punishments neglected here.
Now the authorities must be set down.
The first is 2 Maccabees 12, which is verified in the faith of the faithful of the Old Testament. For it is said there that if the souls of those who had died with piety and charity in wars for the people of God, or otherwise in charity, were overtaken by death while in certain sins or before they had discharged here the punishments for remitted sins, they then fall into punishments in which, while detained, they can be helped, alleviated, and liberated by the sacrifices and prayers of the living.
From this authority it follows that before the Passion of Christ the souls of all who died did not go to the punishments of damnation, nor did all go to the place of celestial beatitude. Rather, there was a certain middle place: not of light but of darkness, not of joy but of sorrow, in which souls were detained by reason of the punishment of loss or the punishment of sense until they paid, or payment was worthily made for them.
Concerning this place Job 10 said: “Dismiss me, therefore, that I may lament,” and so forth. There, therefore, the ancients were detained in the punishment of loss which they incurred from original sin contracted in this life.
Therefore, if the Lord God, from the abundance of his goodness before the Passion of his Son Christ, did not cast into damnation the souls of the dead who were obligated to punishments, but mercifully detained in punishments those whose mortal sin had been remitted here with respect to fault until satisfaction was made, why should it not be believed that after the Passion of his Son - at the time when he opened the bosom of his mercy completely to Christians - he should both then and now defer certain temporal punishments of sense until after death, at least for venial sins, until they are expiated through punishments or relaxed through the merits of the living?
If this is so concerning venial sins to which temporal punishments are owed, why does divine goodness not defer certain temporal punishments of mortal sins remitted here, so that after death the punishments which were not discharged here may be discharged? No reason is apparent why divine mercy in the time of full compassion ought to have been shortened and restricted beyond what it had done before the Passion, and so forth.
And thus the first authority is evident.
The second authority is from the words of Christ in Matthew 12, which Gregory adduces for this purpose in Book IV of the Dialogues, chapter 34: “If anyone speaks blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, it will be forgiven him neither in this age nor in the future.”
In this sentence, Gregory says, it is given to be understood that certain faults can be relaxed in this age and certain others in the future. For that manner of speaking indicates that in each - that is, here and in the future - sins are customarily remitted, as appears in this similar statement.
For when we say, “This sin cannot be remitted here, nor at Rome, nor by a parish priest, nor by a bishop,” we suppose that remission of sins is customarily made in both places or by both persons. For if it were not so, the manner of speaking would be exceedingly inept, as if it were said, “Such a sin will be remitted neither by a horse nor by an ass,” or “neither in hell nor in the void outside heaven.”
Therefore, since Christ was supremely wise and all his words possessed mysteries, it is not to be believed that he used a discourse of such ineptitude when he said concerning the sin against the Holy Spirit that it would be remitted neither in this age nor in the future.
Hence Bernard says in Sermon 66: “Let those who do not believe that purgatorial fire remains after death, but that the soul, as soon as it is loosed from the body, passes either to rest or to death, ask him who said that a certain sin is forgiven neither in this age nor in the future why he said this, if no future remission of sins remains.” Thus he.
The third authority is Origen, speaking concerning the Egyptians submerged in the Red Sea. For, expounding upon Exodus the words “They sank like lead in the mighty waters,” he says: “They were wholly leaden and possessed nothing of gold; therefore they were not to be purged through fire, but to be sunk into the deep.” Thus he.
There he makes a difference between those who possess, together with lead, something of gold admixed in a greater or lesser degree, and those who possess nothing of gold but are wholly leaden. Those who possess gold admixed with lead are purged, so that the lead may thus be taken away and the gold may remain, as in Purgatory. Those, however, who are wholly lead are not purged, because no gold would be found in them, but are sunk into the deep.
The fourth authority is Paul, saying in 1 Corinthians: “No one can lay another foundation besides that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. But if anyone builds upon this foundation, which is Christ or faith, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, the work of each will be manifest. For the day of the Lord will declare it, because it will be revealed in fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.” Thus he.
In the Scriptures “the day of the Lord” is more commonly taken for the day of final or particular judgment. Therefore the Apostle speaks concerning the affliction or purgation of the souls who have built upon the foundation, and so forth, and says that the day of the Lord will declare it.
This day, however, cannot be understood of punishment after the final judgment.
First, because no one who is punished after that judgment will be saved through fire, but will burn eternally in fire.
Second, because the souls of many who then die in venial sins or under obligation to certain punishments will be blessed long before the day of final judgment. At that judgment, after reassuming their bodies, they will not return again to punishments, as though the whole human being were then to suffer the fire of purgation which the soul alone suffered before. For if this occurred, the soul would cease to be blessed, or would at least become less blessed than it was before, since it would again be punished in the body for sins for which the soul by itself had been punished long before.
It remains, therefore, that the Apostle speaks concerning purgatorial punishments which begin after death, from the particular judgment, in the souls of those departing either with venial faults or with obligations to mortal punishments by reason of mortal sins remitted here as regards fault but not sufficiently punished in this age.
And that this is the Apostle’s intention he himself again indicates through what he says: “He whose work built upon the foundation remains will receive a reward.” In the Scriptures, the reward for good works done here is commonly understood to be that which is given to the separated soul after death and which is given to the whole human being after the final judgment.
Purgatory is also proved by the authorities of the philosophers and pagan poets.
First, Socrates is introduced in Plato’s Phaedo as speaking thus: “When the dead have arrived at that place to which each person’s daemon conducts him, first those who lived justly and piously, and those who lived otherwise, are judged there. If, therefore, each is found to have maintained the middle course in his life, mounting vehicles they arrive at the Acherusian marsh, and dwelling there they pay the punishments for their injuries. When they have been purified, they are absolved and receive the rewards worthy of the things rightly done.” Thus he.
And Avicenna says in Book IX of the Metaphysics, chapter 7: “When the soul of an unwise person is separated from the body, it experiences great contrariety, not from an inseparable accident but from an extrinsic accident. An extrinsic accident, however, does not endure or remain. From this it follows that the punishment is not everlasting, but is removed little by little until the purified soul arrives at the felicity proper to it.” Thus he.
And Virgil in Book VI: “Therefore they are exercised with punishments,” and so forth. You have this above in the little question concerning the immortality of souls.
Dante also speaks concerning Purgatory at the beginning of the second Comedy, and Francis Petrarch in the last book of the sixth Triumph.
Third, the truth of Purgatory is proved by the authority of the universal Church of the faithful, which continually prays and offers sacrifices for the liberation of souls. Since the universal Church has possessed so many excellent and most learned men who died in this faith and shone with miracles in testimony of their holiness, its authority is greater and moves one more fully to belief than Sacred Scripture.
Thus Augustine says in the book Against the Epistle of Fortunatus: “I would not believe the Gospel unless the authority of the Catholic Church moved me.”
And he proves what he says from this: that the Church herself believed the Gospel on account of those preaching the Gospel to her according to the form handed down to them by Christ, Mark, chapter 1.
It is as if he argued thus: that on account of which each thing is such is itself more so. But the Gospel is believed on account of the Church. Therefore the Church is to be believed more than the Gospel.
From this it appears that the Church’s authority for belief is greater than the authority of Divine Scripture, since among the Scriptures the Gospel is the most excellent. This is true absolutely, Henry says, when the Church is taken together with her head, Christ, who commanded belief in the Gospel.
If the Church is also taken as she now exists militant on earth, it is again true, at least with respect to us, because we are moved more to believe those things which an entire community of rational and upright human beings believes than we would be moved by the bare reading of Scriptures narrating that the same things are to be believed.
But nevertheless observe that the infallibility of the Church depends both upon the Gospel and, indeed, upon the Holy Spirit: upon the Gospel with respect to knowledge, and upon the Holy Spirit with respect to assistance. The infallibility of the Gospel, however, is not from the Church but from the Holy Spirit, unless we wish to say that the truth of the Gospels - that is, the fact that these are the true Gospels - depends upon the Church; and this is most true.
Fourth, the truth of belief in Purgatory is proved from reasonable and salutary propriety. For if belief in Purgatory itself ceased, the memory of our departed parents, friends, and benefactors would cease; yet the frequent and continual remembrance of them is exceedingly salutary for wayfarers.
Likewise, if belief in Purgatory ceased, sacrifice for the dead, every prayer, every suffrage, and every alms for the souls of the dead would cease, although divine clemency has ordained that their souls can be helped from the goods which they left here.
Likewise, if belief in it ceased, all works of piety toward the poor for the souls of the dead would cease. This is not expedient for the faithful who are wayfarers, whom the mouth of the Savior exhorts to works of piety and mercy under the promise of a heavenly reward, as is evident in Matthew 25.
Now the arguments advanced at the beginning of the little question must be answered by which the Greeks, Jews, and the others named above defend themselves.
To the first, Thomas answers in Book IV, saying that because God is merciful, he therefore has mercy upon those deserving mercy. But one who falls into mortal sin is constituted and immediately made an enemy of God, and therefore merits the loss of all the goods which he possessed from God. Hence he kills the good things previously done, and the things which he does in mortal sin he slays. For one departing in mortal sin, therefore, no reward remains after this life.
For one, however, who departs in charity, some punishment can remain after this life. For charity does not always destroy every evil which it finds, but only that which is contrary to it. Therefore the cases are not similar.
Lord Bonaventure, however, answers this in Book IV, distinction 20, as follows. Immediately to glorify one departing in charity is not similar to condemning one departing in mortal sin, because one who is in mortal sin has nothing which is worthy of life and is therefore supremely disposed toward eternal damnation; and on this account he is immediately damned according to retribution.
But one who is in charity can, since charity stands together with venial fault and liability to punishment, possess something worthy of punishment. And because according to the common tribunal glory cannot stand together with punishment, that debt must first be discharged through purgatorial punishment.
To the second, Bonaventure answers that the weight of charity possesses in itself something retarding it, for example some small fault or liability. But the weight of mortal sin possesses nothing elevating or retarding it. Therefore the cases are not similar.
To the third, it is answered that Gregory’s saying must be understood concerning the quality in which one’s state consists and which is not changed unless the state is changed. Grace or mortal fault is such a quality. For according to these qualities, as a person departs from the body, so he will appear in judgment.
It must not, however, be understood concerning that which does not change one’s state, such as venial fault. For venial sins do not change a person’s state, because they neither take away nor diminish charity, according to which the quantity of the gravity of the soul’s goodness is measured. And therefore, whether venial sins are remitted or committed, the soul remains such as it was before. These things are from Thomas, Bonaventure, Durandus, and the Archdeacon in his exposition of the text.
To the fourth, it is answered that the gloss speaks concerning mortal sin. Or it must be said that, although the fault is not corrected in itself in this life, it is nevertheless corrected in merit, because here the human being merited that there that punishment should be meritorious for him and toward obtaining pardon.
To the authority from Revelation, however, it is said that that authority speaks concerning the labor of operation for meriting, and not concerning the labor of suffering for purgation, as Thomas says in the place cited above.
And in conclusion, it is said to the Jews, Greeks, Poor of Lyons, and Waldensians that, since their sect and opinion possess no probability from the canonical Scriptures, from reasons, from authentic histories, from holy persons, from miracles, or from revelations, but only from the authority of present and past human beings of their sect - peasants, laypersons, the unlearned, and idiots - whereas our faith possesses such supports, they are therefore to be held in contempt and spurned as persons bewitched by the devil and blinded by their own presumption and pride.
To that position of the Jews and of John XXII it is also said that, since it maintains those things against the catholic faith without foundation or reason, at the devil’s suggestion, it is deservedly rejected by the catholic doctors. They hold without doubt that the faithful who depart in grace without having been fully purified are carried by the angels into Purgatory to be cleansed.
These things are from Henry of Hesse on Genesis and Lord John of Torquemada on distinction 25 in the Decretum, in the place cited above.
Addition
Although that most learned man treated this difficulty abundantly - namely, that after this life there is a place where souls are purged - against the errors of the ancients, it nevertheless seemed good to me to add to this question that modern heretics after Luther have erred from the womb concerning this and have spoken falsehoods.
And although Luther confesses in various places that he knows with certainty that Purgatory exists, and that it is lawful for someone to pray for the dead once, or at most twice, nevertheless all Lutherans as one deny it: Melanchthon, Calvin, and the Zwinglians, departing in this matter, as in many others, from the faith.
Against them all stand Chrysostom, Homily 69 to the people of Antioch; Augustine, Sermon 32 On the Words of the Apostle; Gregory of Nyssa; Athanasius; Damascene, On Those Who Have Fallen Asleep in the Faith; Origen, Homily 25 on Numbers; and Alcuin, Book III On the Trinity, to Charlemagne. They teach the truth of Purgatory and that the Apostles also taught that prayer and sacrifice are to be made for the dead.
The African Synod supports this, as found in Cyprian, Book I, Letter 9; Tertullian, On the Exhortation to Chastity; the Council of Florence; and the Council of Trent, session 6, chapter 3, and session 25, chapter 3.