Dist. 44, Part 2, Art. 2, 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/44/q/bon-sent-IV-d44-p2-a2-q1
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### Article II. *On the quiddity of the infernal punishment.*

Next, as to the second article, inquiry is made concerning the quiddity of the infernal punishment. And concerning this, two things are asked. First it is asked whether that which afflicts in that punishment is a true fire. Second, whether it is fire alone.

### Question I. *Whether the fire of hell is a true fire.*

First it is asked whether it is a true fire, having the form and nature and species of fire. And that it is not, seems [to be the case].

1. Damascene, at the end of his book: «The devil and the impious shall be handed over into eternal fire, not material, such as is among us, but such as God knows»: therefore it seems that it does not have the nature of our fire.

2. Likewise, it seems [so] *by reason*: because the extinguishable and the inextinguishable differ as the corruptible and the incorruptible; but the corruptible and the incorruptible vary a thing in its essence, since they are in it naturally, not by grace: if therefore the infernal fire is inextinguishable, and the fire among us is extinguishable: therefore they are not of the same nature and species.

3. Likewise, light is not accidental to fire, nay it is of the substance of fire and follows fire in every matter in which the species of fire is preserved; but the infernal fire lacks light, according to what is said in Job the eighteenth: *Shall not the light of the wicked be extinguished?* and as will better appear below, when the impious are said to be cast *into the exterior darkness.*

4. Likewise, operation follows form and species: therefore things which have a diverse operation are diverse according to form; but this fire and the infernal one have a diverse operation, because this one consumes and by acting converts [things] into its own nature, but that one by no means [does so]: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, the spiritual and the corporeal differ not only according to species, but also according to genus; but this fire is corporeal, whereas the infernal fire is spiritual, as Augustine says in the twelfth [book] On Genesis to the Letter: «It is an altogether inferior substance, but I judge it to be spiritual, not corporeal»: therefore it seems that it differs from this fire not only in species, but also in genus.

**On the contrary:** 1. Gregory, in the fourth [book] of the Dialogues: «I do not doubt that the infernal fire is corporeal, since it is said: *Go, you cursed, into eternal fire*»; but «all material water is of the same species and nature as every corporeal water»: therefore every fire [is of the same species and nature] as every fire.

2. Likewise, similarly Basil says in the Hexaemeron, expounding that [text] of the Psalm: *The voice of the Lord dividing the flame of fire,* that «material fire shall pass over to the punishment of the damned, as regards what it has of burning». If therefore its species will not be changed, then this fire is fit for punishing the reprobate: therefore it seems that this one and that one are of the same nature and species.

3. Likewise, every body is either *mixed* or *simple*; but if the infernal fire is a *mixed* body, then it is not of such great heat, and thereby not of such great action. If *simple*; but every simple body is either one of the four elements or the fifth essence: therefore since that fire is not the fifth essence, since it is beneath the earth, and thus most repugnant to a good disposition: therefore it is one of the four elements. But it is not earth nor water nor air: therefore it is fire.

4. Likewise, this fire is the hottest body, as is said and is true: therefore since the infernal fire is hottest, and «what is said *by superabundance* belongs to one alone» in species, or in individual: therefore that fire is of the same species as this one.

5. Likewise, [in] Wisdom the eleventh: *By what things a person sins, by these also is he tormented:* if therefore we sin through the body and through those things which are of the composition of our body, then we ought to be punished through the same things in species and nature: therefore it seems that the fire which is of the composition of bodies and which is afflictive in hell is the same according to species.

### Conclusion.

> *The fire of hell is corporeal and perhaps of the same species as elemental fire, although it may have diverse properties, at least accidental ones.*

**I respond:** It must be said that although it may seem rash to respond to this question, since Scripture does not determine it, nor does the pre-eminent doctor Augustine explain it, but rather leaves it unresolved, saying that «to no one is it manifest of what sort that fire is, except to him to whom the divine Spirit has shown it»; and further he seems to be of the opinion that «that fire is *spiritual,* not *corporeal*»; nevertheless we can hold with sufficient certainty, through the later doctors, namely through blessed Gregory, to whom the divine Spirit revealed many things, that the infernal fire is corporeal.

But whether that fire is *elemental* or of the same species as the fire which is among us; this cannot so firmly be determined by anyone. Nevertheless, if anyone does not adduce stronger reasons than those which have been adduced, we are not compelled to posit that the infernal fire is of a *diverse nature* and *species* from the fire which is among us, if we wish properly to call "species" the substantial and specifying form, according to what is said, that «all water is the same in species as all water». — And with this opinion Augustine, in the twenty-first [book] On the City of God, seems sufficiently to agree, where he inquires how that fire truly has the nature of fire, and yet does not consume the bodies on which it acts, etc. — If however we speak of the *accidental* properties, which do not vary the species but the operation; that fire has diverse properties from this one. Nor is it a wonder, since this appears in other creatures, as Augustine and Isidore exemplify in the natures of springs and waters. For he says that among the Garamantes there is a spring, «in which lighted torches are extinguished, and extinguished ones are lit», just as also other springs of diverse properties, colors, and operations; yet in their specific nature they are assimilated to other waters: so also we can understand in the [matter] proposed.

1. To that which is objected concerning Damascene, it must be said that Damascene does not deny the likeness in specific form, but rather in the properties and operations that follow.

2. To that which is objected concerning the property of extinguishability, it can be answered in two ways: first, that just as the bodies of the damned are the same as ours according to species, and yet are immortal; so the fire tormenting those bodies is the same as our fire, although it does not fail, because it has this not through nature, but through a superadded power. — Otherwise it can be said that this does not vary the species: because through the operation of art it can come about that fire is not extinguished; as some say, who have experience, that if fire be enclosed with sulphur in a vessel, from which no evaporation can occur, it would last forever without the addition of nourishment, if the place should remain forever: but nothing prohibits [us from] understanding this in the case of the infernal fire, since it is agreed to be enclosed beneath the earth.

3. To that which is objected concerning luminosity, it must be said that there are three species of fire, namely *light, flame,* and *coal*, and these are material species; and although the nature of light is preserved in all of these, nevertheless it is least [preserved] in earthy matter, and *the most earthy* has little of light and is much resolvable into smokiness; and in such matter, such as in sulphur and pitch, fire is dark rather than luminous, because it impedes sight more than it aids it. And in this way we can imagine the fire

[to be] infernal, and be aided in this by the authority of Scripture. For it is said in the Apocalypse the fourteenth: *They shall be tormented with fire and sulphur;* likewise, [in] Isaiah the thirty-fourth: *The day of the vengeance of the Lord* etc.; and after: *Its torrents shall be turned into pitch, and its soil into sulphur.*

4. To that which is objected concerning operation, it must be said that it does not follow, because things the same according to species have diverse operations; nor does that statement hold truth, unless it be understood of an operation following upon the whole species.

5. To that which is objected concerning the words of Augustine, it must be said that it was retracted, just as also concerning the infernal place, where it is said that it is a spiritual place, not corporeal; so in the [matter] proposed it must be understood that the infernal fire is corporeal and is beneath the earth.