First Decade, Chapter Four
Containing Four Questions
Question One
Whether the dead can appear to the living
It is asked whether the souls of the deceased can leave their receptacles and appear to the living.
To this it seems at first that a negative answer must be given. For Job 7 says: “He who descends into hell shall not ascend.” And the Psalm calls the soul “a spirit going and not returning.” Likewise the Psalm says: “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” And Augustine says in the book On the Care to Be Taken for the Dead: “If the souls of the dead took part in the affairs of the living, my pious mother would never desert me for a single night, she who followed me over land and sea in order to live with me.”
I answer that it must be said that the souls’ departure from Paradise, hell, and so forth, and their leaving their receptacles, can be understood in two ways.
In one way, simply and perpetually, so that Paradise or hell is no longer their place and they do not return to it. Understood thus, let the first conclusion be that no one assigned there by an absolute definitive sentence will depart from there, because the reward and punishment of separated souls will never be ended, as is expressly gathered from Book IV of the Sentences, distinction 46. This is also argued in cause 12, question 2, chapter Tempus. Trajan is not an argument to the contrary, because he was not condemned by a final sentence—if, nevertheless, that history is true.
In another way it can be understood that they depart for a time; and then we speak either according to the order of nature or according to the order of divine providence.
If we speak in the first way, let the second conclusion be that, according to the natural course, separated souls assigned to their own receptacle do not depart from it in order to appear to the living. This is evident both on the part of the souls, which are assigned to the fellowship of separated substances and not to the fellowship of human beings—hence the Philosopher also says in Book I of the Ethics that there can be no communication of civil works between the living and the dead—and on the part of the human beings to whom they appear, whose cognition occurs through sense and sensible things. For this reason the appearance of a separated soul to human beings is marvelous; indeed, it is to be numbered among divine miracles, as Blessed Thomas says in Part I, question 89, article 8, in the reply to the second argument.
But if we speak according to divine dispensation, let the third conclusion be that separated souls sometimes go forth from their receptacles and represent themselves to the sight of human beings.
Sometimes the souls of the saints go forth from heaven to aid those under siege, as is evident concerning Blessed Felix the Martyr, who appeared visibly to the citizens of Nola when they were being attacked by barbarians, as Augustine says in the book On the Care to Be Taken for the Dead.
Before the judgment, the damned also are sometimes permitted by divine permission to leave the receptacle of hell for a time and appear to the living, for the instruction, fear, and terror of the living. Thus Gregory gives the example in Book IV of the Dialogues concerning Pope Benedict and concerning the filthy shadow of the robber in the Life of Blessed Martin.
Yet this is the difference between the blessed and the damned, as Thomas says in Book IV: the blessed can appear when they will, by the power of glory and the gift of grace gratuitously given. The damned, however, cannot appear always or without divine permission and providence.
The reason is that, just as the saints while living in the flesh performed certain signs by the grace of God given to them which others lacking that grace could not perform, so some power is conferred by God upon the souls of the saints through the power of glory, by which they can appear miraculously to the living when they will.
Both the blessed and the damned can also appear in assumed bodies, in the habit which they formerly wore. Thus Blessed Augustine appeared to Brother Albert in pontifical habit, saying: “Thomas is equal to me in glory, excelling in virginal purity.” And Bernard says concerning a certain cleric that he appeared to Henry, Bishop of Orléans, clothed in a leaden cope heavier than the tower of Pigmane. This is also evident concerning Darsus, to whom Pope Benedict the Younger appeared in the form of a monstrous animal, in Book IV of the Dialogues.
The fourth conclusion: those who are in Purgatory are permitted to leave their receptacles and come to the living before their penance is completed, so that they may ask for suffrages. This is evident in Book IV of the Dialogues, where it is said concerning the soul of Paschasius, who appeared to Blessed Germanus in the baths.
The fifth conclusion: in the limbo of the saints, souls could by dispensation leave their receptacles in this manner, as is evident concerning Moses and Elijah in Matthew 17.
The sixth conclusion: children in limbo never go forth from there, both because they are at their terminus and because their departure would accomplish nothing.
The seventh conclusion: good angels frequently appear to us in the persons of souls, having assumed bodies suitable to them, just as a good angel appeared to Moses in the person of God; and the same is evident in many other apparitions.
The eighth conclusion: evil angels, for the purpose of the deceptions of enchanters, also leave their receptacles in assumed bodies and appear to the living. Thus, when Saul asked the pythoness to divine and to raise Samuel, it was not Samuel who appeared, because he was not roused from his rest, but some phantom and imaginary illusion produced by the machinations of the devil, which Scripture called Samuel, just as images are sometimes called by the names of the things they represent, 1 Kings 28.
These things are from Lord John of Torquemada, Cardinal, upon cause 13, question 2, chapter Tempus.
For greater evidence concerning the things said above, note here one thing: although the souls of the saints or of the damned are sometimes present in person where they appear, nevertheless it must not be believed that this always occurs. For sometimes apparitions of this kind, either during sleep or while awake, are made by the operation of good or evil spirits, either for the instruction or the deception of the living. In the same way, living human beings also sometimes appear to others and say many things to them in dreams, although it is certain that they are not present. These things are from Thomas in Book IV of the Sentences, distinction 45, article 1, question 3, in the body of the question and in the replies to the arguments.
Blessed Antony shows how it can be known whether a spirit appearing is good or evil, speaking thus:
The discernment of good and evil spirits is not difficult. For if joy follows after fear, let us know that aid has come from the Lord, because the soul’s security is the judgment of the majesty present. But if the fear that has been struck in remains, it is the enemy who is seen.
Thomas, Part III of the Summa, question 30, article 3, in the reply to the third argument.
To the arguments to the contrary, it is said that they are understood according to the first conclusion, and that Augustine speaks according to the common course of nature.