Dist. 20, Part 1, Art. 1, Q. 1
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/20/q/bon-sent-IV-d20-p1-a1-q1
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### Article Unique. *On the pain of purgatory in itself.*
### Question I. *Whether the pain of purgatory is to be posited.*

It is asked, therefore, first, whether a purgatorial pain is to be posited. And that it is, is shown thus:

1. *First*, by the authority of the Apostle, First [Letter] to the Corinthians, chapter three: *But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire*: therefore it seems that some pain is to be posited after this life, by which the elect are purged.

2. Likewise, Augustine says, and it is had in the [Master's] text: «*Either man punishes, or God punishes*»; but frequently some are converted at the end, who are not punished in the present [life]: therefore it is necessary that they be punished by God; but not by infernal or eternal fire: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, this same thing is seen by reason: because he who has sinned more gravely is to be punished more gravely, therefore he who has sinned longer is to be punished longer; but this one who has persevered in fault unto death has sinned more lastingly: therefore he ought to be punished more lastingly and more gravely; but not in this life: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, for a sin to be left unpunished is for the sin to remain disordered, and this is for the universe to be defiled; but it is impossible that the supreme Wisdom should permit the universe to be defiled: therefore it behooves that it be punished; but not in the present [life]: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, if there is no purgatorial pain, but the good fly off at once: therefore the universal Church errs, which makes suffrages for the faithful departed.

6. Likewise, if there is no pain after this life: therefore he who endures in fault unto death, since he has borne no penalty, reaps an advantage from his malice; both of which are a manifest falsehood.

**On the contrary:** 1. The Apocalypse, chapter fourteen: *Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord; from henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors*: therefore after this life no good [person] labors: therefore no one is afflicted: therefore no one is punished.

2. Likewise, God is most merciful; but «*to hope for half a pardon from one supremely merciful is impiety*»: therefore when he remits, he remits the whole. Therefore if anything is exacted from the sinner for a sin [already] remitted, this is according to the state of the present Church; but in death he departs from this state: therefore it seems that nothing further is exacted from him.

3. Likewise, in death one is absolved from every command, therefore also from the command of satisfaction and of confession and the like; but punishment for sins is satisfaction: therefore he is freed thenceforth from every debt of punishment: therefore, as it seems, he is no longer punished.

4. Likewise, God is more inclined to have mercy than to condemn; but he condemns at once one departing in mortal sin: therefore he glorifies at once one departing in charity.

5. Likewise, charity is more powerful for elevating than mortal fault is for depressing; but mortal fault

mortal at once plunges [one] into the abyss: therefore charity at once elevates [one] into heaven: therefore no punishment is to be posited after death.

6. Likewise, the state after death corresponds to the state which is in the way [of this life]; but in the way there is only a twofold state, namely of the good and of the wicked: therefore after death there is only a twofold [state]: therefore the soul of one departing is at once either in paradise with the good, or in hell with the wicked.

> **Conclusion.** A purgatorial pain after this life is, without doubt, to be posited.

**I respond:** It must be said that — as Scripture says, and the authorities of the Saints and many revelations and reasons agree, and the universal Church confirms, which prays for them [the departed] — without doubt after this life a purgatorial pain is to be posited.

But the reason for this is this. Because *all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth*; and so the Lord spares by mercy in such a way that no prejudice is done to truth or justice: therefore he remits the fault and the eternal penalty, yet so that he holds [the man] bound to a temporal penalty. But from this penalty he is not absolved in death: because the state after death is not repugnant to the punishment of the soul, although it is not appropriate to its merit — for souls are punished and rewarded — and therefore, since sins are not so remitted to anyone that he is not bound to some penalty, unless it be done through baptismal grace — and from that obligation he is not absolved — and a debtor of penalty cannot enter heaven with the debt: it is necessary that there be a purgatory.

1. To that, then, which is objected from the Apocalypse, that they rest from their labors; it must be said that there is a labor in *acting* and there is a labor in *suffering*; and that word is understood of the labor in *acting*, because now it is no longer the day in which they can work by meriting; but it is not understood of the labor in *suffering*. And this is clear from the very following text: *For their works follow them*.

2. To that which is objected, that he is most merciful; it must be said that it is true, but nevertheless he is just; therefore he grants the pardon which it befits just mercy to grant. For because he is just, it is not fitting for him to be reconciled to an unjust man while the injustice and offense remain; and therefore now it befits justice that, by remitting one mortal fault, he remit every other; not so concerning the penalty. For since mercy remits the penalty, and justice exacts it; therefore it behooves [them] to be halved in a certain way, so that the one not prejudice the other. And thus it is clear that the penalty too is exacted in the court of God.

3. To that which is objected, that he is absolved from every command; it must be said that it is true; but nevertheless he is not absolved from the debt, nay rather the soul draws the debt along with itself; and because the rewarder is just, he renders according as he finds [the soul] a debtor; and because she was a debtor of the penalty which she has not yet paid out, it is clear etc.

4. To that which is objected, that he at once condemns one departing in mortal [sin]: therefore etc.; it must be said that it is not similar: because this one who is in mortal [sin] has nothing in himself that is worthy of life, nay rather the whole is either dead or mortified; and therefore he is supremely disposed to eternal damnation, and on account of this he is at once condemned by a just retribution. But that one who is in charity, since charity stands together with venial fault and the liability of penalty, can have in himself something worthy of penalty; and because glory cannot stand together with penalty according to the common court: it is necessary that that debt be first paid off through purgatorial pain.

5. To that which is objected concerning weight, the response is already clear: because the weight of charity has in itself something retarding, such as some small fault or [some] liability; but the weight of sin has nothing elevating or retarding: therefore it is not similar concerning the ascent of charity and the descent of sin.

6. To that which is objected, that there is only a twofold state in this life: therefore etc.; it must be said that although the principal [state] is twofold, nevertheless each is subdivided. For he who has justice is in a twofold difference. For either he is in the state of the *perfect* with complete perfection; and such a one does not have *combustibles* nor any debts, and to him eternal life is due at once; such were the holy Martyrs, like Lawrence and Vincent, and the holy Confessors, like Benedict and Francis. Others are in the state of the *imperfect*; and these have *combustibles* for the most part, and also *debts*; and it behooves that first the *debts* be paid and the *combustibles* [burned away], before they are brought into the fatherland; and this is in the purgatorial pain. — Likewise those *lacking justice* are in a twofold difference: some in the state of *little ones*; and these lack original justice, and to them belongs the state in

*limbo* without sensible pain. Some are in the state of the *adult*, who lack personal or gratuitous justice through their own fault; and to such belongs the *infernal* state. And thus it is clear that that reason is not valid. — It could also be said that the purgatorial pain does not denote a *state*, but rather a *passage* from state to state.