Dist. 45, Art. 1, Q. 2
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/45/q/bon-sent-IV-d45-a1-q2
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### Article I. *On the abodes of souls stripped of the body.*
### Question II. *Whether after the coming of Christ souls have determinate abodes or places.*

Concerning the abodes of souls after the coming of Christ, it is asked whether they have abodes or determinate places. And that they do not, seems [to hold] of the *good*.

1. The Gloss on that text: *Yet a little while, and he shall not be* etc.: « *Yet a little while* is until the end of each one's life, when the Saints are set free. After this life, however, it will not be so, where the Saints will be, to whom it will be said: *Come, ye blessed* ».

2. Likewise, that the *wicked* do not have abodes, seems [to hold]. Augustine, *On the Spirit and the Soul*: « Certain

souls are punished in the place where they offended, certain ones in hidden abodes ».

3. Likewise, that neither [group has them], seems [to hold]. Augustine in the *Enchiridion*: « The time which is interposed between a man's death and the last resurrection holds souls in hidden abodes, according as each is worthy of rest or of hardship ».

4. Likewise, it seems [so] by reason: because souls stripped of their bodies are spiritual and in no way depend upon the body: therefore their place and their reward is universal.

**On the contrary:**

1. That the *wicked* have [them], seems [to hold]: because in Luke the sixteenth the Lord said: *The rich man died and was buried in hell*; and afterwards it is added: *Lest they come into this place of torments*: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, that the *good* [have them], seems [to hold]. Second to the Corinthians, the fifth: *If our earthly habitation be dissolved, we have a house in the heavens*; and Gregory: « He who does not doubt that Christ is in heaven in the body, does not deny that Paul's soul is there either ».

3. Likewise, it seems [so] by reason: because the fittingness of place contributes to operation: therefore since the blessed souls are of the most excellent power in contemplating God and are wholly unchangeable, therefore the highest place is due to them: therefore, from the opposites, the lowest to the damned.

4. Likewise, the excellence of the reward consists in mutual fellowship, because « the possession of nothing is pleasant without a companion »: therefore souls after this life are together.

### Conclusion

> *The abodes of souls after the coming of Christ are paradise, hell, limbo, and purgatory.*

**I respond:** It must be said that it is possible to understand a threefold state, namely of quiet reward, of expectation, and of purgation. — And the ground of this is that a soul stripped [of the body] can be hindered from the blessed reward by a twofold cause: either because the gate is closed, or because it is not itself fully purged. To the state of retribution there corresponds a proper place and an abode determinate both in itself and in relation to us, namely the empyrean heaven as regards the good, and as regards the wicked the lowest place. — To the state of rest and expectation there corresponds a place determinate in itself, but not in relation to us, because it is not known through the Scriptures where limbo is. — But to the state of purgation there corresponds a place indeterminate both in relation to us and in itself, because not all are purged in the same place, although perhaps many are in some one place. And it is with respect to this place that Augustine speaks. — But as to what is objected from the Gloss, it does not speak of place, but of state as regards the second robe.

It can nevertheless be said otherwise, and better, that the abodes of souls either are according to good merits, and thus there is paradise and the heavenly place; or are on account of sins, and thus a threefold place is distinguished according to the threefold kind of sin, namely purgatory, and this is due to venial [sin]; limbo, and this to original [sin]; and hell, and this to mortal [sin]. — And it may well be, and is sufficiently probable, that these three places stand in a graded order, yet are about the same region, as can be gathered from the sayings of the Saints and from those things which have been said in the foregoing. — Hence the places of souls can be distinguished in such a way that they are reduced to a twofold division: the place of retribution is either of *glory* or of *punishment*. If of glory, thus heaven; if of punishment, thus hell. Glory is not distinguished, because charity, which is of one species, merits glory; but the penal place is twofold: either according to the punishment of loss, and thus limbo; or according to the punishment of sense, and thus hell. And each member is divided: because those who are punished with the punishment of loss are so either simply and eternally, and these are in the lower part of that part which is called limbo; or for a time, and these are in the upper [part], which is called Abraham's bosom. — Likewise those who are punished with the punishment of sense, either simply, and thus [it is] hell properly so called; or for a time, and thus [it is] the place of purgatory. — And thus it is clear that souls have abodes, and which ones.

**To the arguments:** And if any authorities seem con-

trary, they are to be understood either as regards the *state*, or as regards *certain souls* which are purged, of which it was said above that souls are purged by dispensation in diverse places, although according to the common law there is some common place.

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