Question Four
Whether the punishment of Purgatory exceeds every temporal punishment of this life
It is asked whether the punishment of Purgatory exceeds every temporal punishment of this life, and what and how many those punishments are.
To this it first appears that a negative answer should be given.
The first argument is as follows. The more passive something is, the more it is afflicted if it possesses a perception of injury. But the body is more passive than the separated soul, both because it possesses a contrariety toward the fire acting upon it and because it possesses matter receptive of the acting thing’s quality, which cannot be said of the soul. Therefore the punishment which the body suffers in this world is greater than the punishment by which the soul is purged after this life.
Likewise, the punishment of Purgatory is directly ordained against venial sins. But the lightest punishment is owed to venial sins, since they are the lightest sins, if the measure of the blows is to accord with the measure of the offense. Therefore the punishment of Purgatory is the lightest punishment.
Third, a suffering in which the agent transforms and casts away from substance is greater than one in which it transforms but does not cast away. But the suffering of this life transforms and casts away, while the suffering of the other life transforms and does not cast away. Therefore the former punishment is greater than the latter.
To the contrary stands the text of On Penance, distinction 7, chapter Hic ignis purgatorius: “Although this purgatorial fire is not eternal, nevertheless it is grievous in a marvelous manner. It exceeds every punishment which anyone has ever experienced in this life.”
And Augustine says in a certain sermon: “One who has deferred the fruit of conversion into the other age will first be purged by the fire of purgation, which, although it is not eternal, nevertheless torments in a marvelous manner.”
I answer that it must be said that the punishment of Purgatory exceeds the greatest punishments of this life.
Thomas proves this conclusion with respect to both punishments in Purgatory. Here it must be known that in Purgatory there is a twofold punishment: namely, the punishment of loss, insofar as souls are delayed from the divine vision; and the punishment of sense, according to which they are punished by corporeal fire.
That the conclusion is true of the first punishment is argued as follows. The more something is desired, the more distressing is its absence. After this life the affection by which the highest good is desired is most intense in holy souls, both because the affection is not retarded by the bulk of the body and because the time for enjoying the highest good would now have arrived if something did not impede it. Therefore they grieve most greatly over the delay.
And, as Albert the Great adds, health and the delight of sense in this life possess no comparison with the highest good which makes the blessed happy. Therefore the removal of delightful things in this life will possess no comparison with the removal or deferral of delightful things in the other life. Thus the sadness of the other life is incomparably greater than any sadness in the present life.
For this reason Chrysostom said in a certain sermon: “Let us set before the eyes of the mind how great a grief it is to be excluded and cast out from the kingdom of God, because this itself appears more grievous than Gehenna.”
And Augustine says in a certain sermon: “To be alienated from the kingdom of God and to lack the multitude of its sweetness is so great a punishment that no torments which we know can be compared with it.”
With respect to the punishment of sense, however, the conclusion is proved as follows by Thomas’s reasoning in the place cited above. Since pain is not injury but the perception of injury, as is said in Book II On the Soul, the more sensitive something is, the more it suffers. An example is found in parts rich in nerves, such as the fingers, legs, and so forth.
For the nerves are the instruments of the sense of touch, as is said in Book II On the Soul. But the soul is supremely sensitive, since it is the cause of every sensation. Therefore, when some injurious agent acts upon it, it injures the soul most greatly, and the more so, the more active the injurious thing is.
Among all the elements fire is the most active. For it cannot be cooled or moistened in the way that water can be heated, as was said. Therefore it injures the soul most greatly—not naturally, because a body does not naturally act upon a spirit, nor does the less noble act upon the more noble, but as an instrument of divine justice. Divine justice grants to one uniform fire that in a marvelous manner it should torment the souls of the dead differently according to the diversity of their sins.
First, it does so to purge certain light faults of venial sins which were not remitted in the present life.
Second, to discharge obligations to punishments for mortal or venial sins forgiven here as to fault, for which sufficient penance was not performed in this life.
Third, to purge souls from every quality of imperfection; from improper concepts and species of things; likewise from habits of vice and impressions of false opinions; from the tinder of sin; and from other indispositions and deformities which souls separated from their bodies carry with them to the fire of Purgatory. Purged there by fire from all these things as from certain stains contracted here, the souls depart like gold gleaming from a furnace of fire, to be conducted to the heavenly kingdom.
The arguments must now be answered.
To the first, it must be said that a punishment is not judged greater or lesser according to the injury or suffering, but according to the perception of the suffering. Therefore, although the soul is less passive than the body, nevertheless, because it is more cognizant and sensitive to suffering, its pain is greater even if its suffering is less.
To the second, it must be said that the consequence is denied. The reason is that the bitterness of that punishment arises not only from the magnitude of the sin but also from the disposition of the person punished, because the same sin is punished more grievously there than here on account of the difference of forum. Thus a person of a better bodily constitution is punished more by the same blows than another, and nevertheless a judge who inflicts the same blows upon both acts justly.
To the third, the premise is denied. For, as Lord Bonaventure answers, the fire of hell, which burns and does not consume, punishes more grievously than another fire which does both.
These things are from Lord John of Torquemada upon the said distinction 7 of On Penance, chapter Hic ignis.
Addition
It must be conceded altogether—as the Master of the Sentences, Saint Bonaventure in Book IV, distinction 20, article 1, question 2, John Gerson in part III, treatise 3 On Canticles, and many other holy persons say—that the punishment of Purgatory is more grievous than every temporal punishment which the soul now sustains while joined to the flesh. For in a matter of this kind one must adhere to authority more than to reason, since this lies above nature and reason.
Nevertheless, together with their affliction the souls detained there possess consolation, as Gerson holds in the place cited: from the certain hope of beatitude, from the assistance of the universal Church, and from the pious suffrages of friends. Charity in them also rejoices in the truth of their correction. The same is found in Richard, Book IV, distinction 20, article 2, question 1.