Dist. 20, Part 1, Art. 1, Q. 6
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-q6
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### Question VI. *Whether the place of purgatory is above, or below, or in the middle.*

Sixth and last, the question is asked about the place in which souls are punished with this penalty. And the question is whether that place is above, or below, or in the middle.

And that it is in a higher place seems to be the case thus.

1. Those just souls have been rescued *from the power of darkness*, since this is said of all just men, and is most true of those whom they cannot drag down to evil; but the devil himself is the prince of this air: therefore it seems that those souls are raised above this air: therefore it seems that the place of purgatory for souls is on high in the sphere of fire.

2. Likewise, in bodily things position follows weight, and when a thing has within itself diverse inclinations, it follows the nature of the predominant one: therefore by a similitude in spirits location follows the weight of spirits; but «for spirits weight is love»: therefore if in spirits chaste love predominates, which tends upward, it seems

that a spirit released from the body, if it have charity, although it have something combustible, ought to be on high.

3. Likewise, purgatory is the middle way of passing over from the state of the wayfarer into the state of the homeland; but the state of the wayfarer is around the earthly place, the state of the homeland is within the supercelestial place: therefore since the way is intermediate to the terminus, it seems that purgatory is in the middle between heaven and earth. But that middle is on high and most befitting the sphere of fire: therefore etc.

But that it is in a lower place, namely the infernal one, seems to be the case.

1. First, by the *authority* of Gregory in the Dialogue: «One and the same force, breaking in, proves, purges, and refines the good; but the wicked it condemns, lays waste, and exterminates»: therefore it seems that the same thing is what punishes, and likewise the same is the place both of those to be purged and of those to be damned.

2. Likewise, this seems to be the case by a similitude: because limbo was for the holy Fathers in place of purgatory; but it is agreed that limbo either was hell, or was next to hell; which is clear from the article of faith «He descended to hell»; it is also said that he despoiled the principalities and powers, to the Colossians, chapter two: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, it seems by reason: because the place of penalty is an ignoble place, just as the place of glory is noble; and again, to fault, insofar as it is such, a lower place is owed; but the place of purgatory is penal, and the place of purgatory is also owed by reason of fault: therefore it ought to be ignoble. But the higher a place, the nobler, and the lower, the less noble: therefore etc.

But that it is in the middle seems to be the case.

4. Hugh of Saint Victor: «It is probable that they are punished in those places in which they committed the fault»; but they committed the fault here in the middle: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, this very thing seems to be the case by example: in the fourth book of the Dialogues Gregory relates concerning Paschasius that Germanus the bishop, a holy man, found him in certain baths, to which the bishop himself had gone by the counsel of physicians; and Paschasius, who had died long before, was being punished there and was afterward freed by his aid, a sign having been given to that bishop if he should not be found there after the thirtieth day.

6. Likewise, this too seems to be the case by reason: since the purgatorial state is a middle state between the state of glory and the state of eternal damnation: therefore it ought to be in the middle between the two: therefore neither above nor below, but in the middle around us.

### Conclusion.

> The place of purgatory, probably according to the common law, is below; it is also in the middle according to divine dispensation.

**I respond:** It must be said that this has not been determined by the Saints, nor can reasons very effective on this matter easily be brought forward, for the reason that it is permitted here to hold various views; and according to the three parts of the proposed problem various men have been found to hold various things, relying on the reasons already touched upon. For some have said that the place is above, some that it is below under the earth, some that it is there where they sinned. — But if we should say that it is altogether above, reason and authority and revelation will be against it, since frequently more souls have been found suffering around us. If we should say that it is altogether below, the same inconvenience follows. If we should say that it is where they sinned, that seems altogether incredible, or improbable, that all the souls who sinned at Paris should be punished at Paris.

What then is to be said? It can rightly be said that the place of purgatory may be determined in two ways: either according to the common law, or according to divine dispensation. If according to the common law, then just as limbo is to be believed to have been below, not above, so the place of purgatory. And such a place befits the punishment, and such a place also befits the one making satisfaction or the one who is afflicted by the merited foulness of fault. But this place is believed by some to be a part of hell, on account of that saying of Gregory, that under the same fire the elect is purged and the damned is burned, in the fourth book of the Dialogues. — But if we speak according to the special dispensation, then to diverse souls diverse places have been granted, either for the sake of their swifter liberation, that they may reveal their need to others, as the example of Paschasius teaches; or for the sake of our instruction, that we may sometimes consider that a great penalty is inflicted on sinners after this life; or for the sake of some Saint's impetration, as one reads that Saint Patrick obtained for a certain man that he should be punished in a certain place on earth; from which it arose, by way of fable, that purgatory was there; and so there are diverse places.

It must therefore be granted that there will be a place of purgatory, such that souls are believed to undergo their penalty most of all in those places in which they committed the fault.

[It must therefore be granted that the place of purgatory] is below according to the common law; it is also in the middle according to dispensation; above, in the sphere of fire, it is in none of these ways, but whoever thinks of it as moving thither seems to follow a fantastic fiction.

1. To that, then, which is objected, that it is above, because we have been rescued from the power of darkness; it must be said that souls existing below can also be rescued, because Satan does not reign except over worldly things by association, not by local inhabitation.

2. To that which is objected, that the body follows the nature of the predominant; it must be said that the motion of the soul upward or downward is not according to its own desire, but according to the divine judgment, which is the supreme mover; and because that judgment decreed to afflict it for a time, and this befits the lower place, namely punishment and affliction: therefore that is clear, that it does not follow the nature of the predominant except according to the rule of the supreme mover.

3. To that which is objected, that it is a way; it must be said that it is a way that delays, and by the very fact that it delays, it in some manner makes oblique; and because it in some manner makes oblique, therefore it is not necessary that it be exactly in the middle; and then it would be a way straight and swift, whereas now it is slower. And so that is clear.

But the reasons for the other two members, although they are not very effective, nevertheless, because they conclude what is true, must be granted.

To that which is objected last, that it is a middle state, therefore it ought to be in the middle; it must be said that it savors more of the nature of one extreme, for the reason that one is punished there not for what one has of justice, but for what one has of fault. Hence, since there is only a twofold merit, namely good and evil, according to the common law there ought to be only a twofold place corresponding to the retribution of each: one noble, which is the highest, the other ignoble, which is the lowest; and on account of this, as Gregory says, it is called hell (*infernus*), as though "lower" (*inferius*), or beneath us or under us.