Tractatus
by Anonymous
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/96/tractatus/
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## Treatise

[1379B]That drowsy old serpent, who long ago sharpened the tongues of heretics against the catholic faith, now also busies himself [1379C] with opening, after their unending silence, the lips of a certain *Arseniotes*, infected with the venom of his error, to blasphemies come back to life. For hissing through that same man he mutters — if indeed the matter stands as report has spread it about concerning him — that before the last day of examination no elect person enters the kingdoms of the heavens, and no reprobate the places of hell. And if this doctrine of a depraved heresy be accepted even for a moment, it is proved to bring great harm to the faithful: for it makes them both most sluggish in seeking the joys of life, and far too incautious in avoiding the punishments of Gehenna. Against him the encounter is certainly easy for me, since all who assert the right faith join with me in destroying his attempts; for none of the patriarchs agrees with him, none of the prophets, none of the apostles — [1379D] not Moses, not David, not Solomon, not the prophet Isaiah, nor any other prophet after Isaiah, not Peter the apostle, not Paul, not John, not Matthew, not Jude, not James, not Luke, not Mark. Nor indeed, after these, has any expounder at all of the catholic faith ever been found to have attempted this man's error. And to call to mind some outstanding men out of many: not Gregory Nazianzen, not John of Constantinople, not Hilary of Poitiers, not Ambrose of Milan, not Augustine of Hippo Regius, not Jerome of Bethlehem, [1380B] not Cyril of Alexandria, nor did Gregory, pope of Rome, teach so. Assuredly I have read many things of these men [1380C] in their holy treatises, but among them I have nowhere found anything like this. And who would not see how great a rashness it is, and how great a madness, that any one lying manikin should wish, without a witness, to contend against so many most truthful witnesses of remarkable virtue? But it is necessary that what we assert in bare words for the defense of the truth, we should track down more fully in clothed sentences.

Following, then, the writing of truth, let us show first, if it please you, that before the coming of the Mediator in the flesh all the reprobate and all the elect descended to hell — although between the latter and the former their differing merits established a great chasm; and next, that after that same most sacred death, both the elect came to the heavenly kingdoms and the reprobate to the places of punishment. For that [1380D] before the incarnation of God's wisdom sinners descended to the regions below, the Mosaic authority testifies, which says of Dathan and Abiram and their companions, the earth swallowing them, that they went down alive into hell. And these things indeed are said particularly of certain men; but generally of all a Davidic sentence is likewise brought forth, in which it is said: *They are laid in hell like sheep, and death shall feed upon them [n: (Psal. XLVIII, 15)]*. In the book also which is entitled the Wisdom of Solomon, when many miseries of the reprobate have been recounted, Wisdom herself concludes thus, saying: *Such things did they say in hell who have sinned [n: (Sap. V, 14)]*. [1381A] But that the elect too — even if perhaps not all of them — nevertheless approached certain places of the regions below, these same men bear witness concerning themselves. For the blessed patriarch Jacob, drawn together with grief at one son taken from him, and soothed by no consolation from the rest, says: *I will go down mourning to my son into hell [n: (Gen. XXXVII, 35)]*. Job also, praised by the Lord's own mouth above all the just of his times, speaks of himself, saying: *All that is mine shall go down into the deepest hell [n: (Job XVII, 16)]*. And again: *If I wait,* he says, *hell is my house [n: (Ibid., vers. 13)]*. And again, appealing to God, he says: *Who will grant me this, that thou protect me in hell, and hide me until thy wrath pass by? [n: (Job XIV, 13.)]* David also, according to the flesh the chosen father of Christ, asks concerning himself and concerning all the living, [1381B] knowing the answer, saying: *What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?* or who *shall deliver his soul from the hand of hell? [n: (Psal. LXXXVIII, 49.)]* As if he were plainly saying: as far as the present time is concerned, no one at all.

Christ, therefore, was to be awaited for the freeing of the souls of the elect from hell — Christ whom John the Baptist, set in prison, asked by sending his disciples, saying: *Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? [n: (Luc. VII, 19.)]* And in these words it is plainly to be noted that the spirit of prophetic vision, which had already taught that same John concerning the past, had not yet made him certain concerning the future; and therefore he whom he already knew for certain to have come, he still doubted was to come. For that the Redeemer of the world had come into the world by being born, [1381C] the blessed Baptist already knew clearly, according to that which he had cried out about him as his forerunner: *I saw, and bore witness, that this is the Son of God [n: (Joan. I, 34)]*. And to his disciples: *Behold,* he says, *the Lamb of God [n: (Ibid., vers. 36)]*. But whether by dying he was to come in his own person to the regions below, he had by no means yet learned; and thence comes that question set forth above, in which he inquired, *Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?* As if he were saying to him: to me, who am soon to go down to the prison-houses of your own, make it plainly known whom I am to announce as the liberator who will come to them — you, whom I have already announced to the world as having come, or another whom I have hitherto not known was to be sent in your place? Will you draw us out thence by the blood of your most sacred passion, or another by an embassy unknown to me? But that he did this not through any other but through himself, [1381D] he indicated to the aforesaid John indirectly. Yet Zechariah disclosed it more openly, who narrated as already done that which he foresaw would most certainly come to pass. For thus he speaks, as though in the present, to him who took hell captive: *Thou also, by the blood of thy testament, hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water [n: (Zach. IX, 11)]*. And who are these prisoners, unless, as Jerome teaches, the ancient just? And whence prisoners, unless from the guilt of the first transgression? And what is this pit in which they were held captive, unless the places of hell, where there is not, as is said, water — that is, any rest? Thence too is that saying, that the rich man, burning in that same place, seeks a drop of water for the cooling of his tongue, and does not find it. But if this is so, how is it that Abraham, separated from him, [1382A] is at rest with Lazarus, and that, lest they might cross over to one another, a great chasm was established between the elect and the reprobate?

Or perhaps the aforesaid chasm set between the good and the wicked divides not the intervals of places, but the merits of deeds? But it is a wonder, and a very great wonder, if you so hold. For Job also, whose like there was not upon earth, cried out that he was to go to the places of punishment, when he said: *I will bewail my sorrow before I go, and return not, to a land that is dark and covered with the mist of death, a land of misery and of darkness* [f: (Job, X, 20-22)]. But far be it that places should have separated there Abraham and Job, whom here faith and works had joined inseparably; and that of these the one should be assigned thither to rest, and the other to misery; and that of these the one should sit in light, and the other there [1382B] in the mist of death. Let us see, therefore, whether Job too, having been led, as was said, to the land dark and covered with the mist of death, and to the land of misery and darkness, was set in Abraham's rest. Indeed the same man, when he said more tearfully that which we brought forward above, *all that is mine shall go down into the deepest hell,* immediately added with presuming doubt, and said: *Dost thou think that at least there will be rest for me there? [n: (Job, XXVII, 16.)]* But we, in saying these things, in no way rashly affirm that among the regions below there were not places divided between the elect and the reprobate — although it could have come about that merits alone thus divided the latter from the former, just as justice alone distinguished between the ministers of the king of Babylon and the companions of Daniel; for one and the same flame of the furnace both consumed those and preserved these. So too [1382C] the water of the Red Sea both furnished the Israelites a road to the eating of manna, and supplied the Egyptians a pit for the punishment of death. And so we say with great authority that there were places of punishment which Christ, for the rescue of his own, judged were to be visited by himself, with Peter bearing witness, who says of him: *Whom God hath raised up* from the dead, *having loosed the sorrows of hell, according as it was impossible that he should be held by it [n: (Act. II, 24)]*. In which words it is assuredly to be noted with care that no one among the regions below was free from the bonds of sorrows, save him who alone truly said: *I am become as a man without help, free among the dead [n: (Psal. LXXXVII, 5)]*. And therefore he alone could not be held bound by the hand of hell, because he alone had no sin [1382D] that could be constrained by the fastenings of its sorrows. And thence he alone was able to free others from the sorrows of hell, in that he himself did not feel those same sorrows.

Now I know that a certain man among the great expounders understood these words in such a way that it was not in the patriarchs and prophets, but in others set far from their seats, that Christ loosed the aforesaid sorrows; and yet he did not dare to say that those whom he loosed from the same fastenings of sorrows were not among the elect — which, if he did say it, he would assuredly appear a liar. Let us grant, therefore, that they were not the patriarchs and prophets, but others, and yet elect, who, having less of perfect justice, had been bound by the sorrows of hell. But if the rest of the patriarchs and prophets there was full, and their consolation full, what need had they of awaiting Christ? [1383A] Or was not John a prophet, and more than a prophet, who, in his own person and in that of the other prophets, as we recalled above, sought the Redeemer of the world, saying: *Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? [n: (Luc. VII, 19)]* Assuredly those prisoners in the pit, where there is no water, were awaiting him; and it would be a wonder if they were bound by other bonds than those which Peter related were loosed by Christ. Again this question presses us close, that we should say: how was Lazarus there consoled in Abraham's bosom, if he was held bound by the fastenings of sorrows? But let us make a distinction between one sorrow and another, and thus, I think, we resolve this question more easily. And so among the regions below the wicked and the just alike were tormented, but not in equal manner these and those, since the former were tormented by the Gehenna of fire in every way, the latter by sadness of mind alone; the former because they burned outwardly, [1383B] the latter because they grieved inwardly; the former could not be consoled, since in their torments they had no cooling; the latter, although they were saddened because they were long exiled from the heavenly fatherland, were nevertheless consoled, since the outward scorching of the reprobate did not vex them.



## Treatise (cont.)

Therefore that which is said of the pit, that there is no water in it, pertains not to the sorrow of mind of the elect, but to the outward burning of the fire of the reprobate; in which, namely, since the flame is avenging, there is not even one drop of water at hand for cooling — which, unless he had known that it could be drawn from the streams of the elect, the rich man would by no means have said to Abraham: *Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame [n: (Luc. XVI, 24)]*. Thus we plainly say that it is not contrary that the ancient just were bound among the regions below by the fastenings of sorrows. [1383C] But what of it? Whether we have brought forward a certain or a doubtful opinion concerning hell in this respect, this nevertheless we say most truly: that the Son of God, paying for us the death he did not owe, in whatever manner and in whatever persons it was done, having loosed the sorrows of hell, brought back thence only his own; just as he himself long before foretold through Hosea: *O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite [n: (Ose., XIII, 14)]*. In which words it is assuredly to be weighed with care that our Redeemer did indeed utterly slay death, but only in the part which he himself swallowed down; whereas death, in the part that remained, remained. Let it be said, therefore, *O death, I will be thy death,* as though it were said: in the prey which I take, I utterly destroy thee. *O hell, I will be thy bite,* [1383D] that is, I do not swallow thee whole, but biting a part from thee I consume it. For he did not, as the catholic faith has laid down beforehand, bring back thence to the world above any others than his own, by the intervention of his most blessed passion.

But now the order set forth demands that, after the rescue of the ancient just from the regions below, we show whither at this present time the souls of the perfect are received. For the Master of the heavens, who never at any time [1384A] deceived anyone, established a sentence on this from which he said that, from the days of John the Baptist, *the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force [n: (Matth. XI, 12)]*. O you teacher of a new error, do the violent take the kingdom of heaven by force only on the day of judgment? — as the devil has framed it through your mouth — and not rather from the [sic: *dibus*] of John? . . . . . .

*Here one leaf is missing.* . . . if it please you, let these things out of many suffice; but if, on account of the person of my littleness, even these come into doubt, I judge it necessary to approve myself a true witness in these things I have said, by the general opinion of the catholics. For in the *Dogma of the Churchmen,* which is comprised in one volume by distinct sentences, and which is received throughout the whole world by all, defended by [1384B] all, and celebrated with the highest praise, it is thus written under the forty-fifth heading: « Before the passion of the Lord all the souls of the saints were held in hell under the debt of Adam's transgression, until by the authority of the Lord they were freed from their servile condition through his undeserved death. » In the following heading also, that is the forty-sixth, such an authority is contained, as to say: « After the ascension of the Lord to the heavens, all the souls of the saints are with Christ, and going forth from the body they go to Christ, awaiting the resurrection of their body, that they may be transformed to whole and perfect blessedness together with him. As also the souls of sinners, set in hell under fear, await the resurrection of their body, that they may be turned with it to eternal punishment. » [1384C] This is the opinion of the Fathers, both of all who went before and of all who followed after — one, and singular, and general — with which, rightly agreeing, blessed Gregory, pope of Rome, prelate of the apostolic see, the last indeed of the expounders but almost the most outstanding of all, answered thus in the fourth book of the *Dialogues* to the inquiry of his interlocutor, saying: « It is certain that the souls of the perfect just, as soon as they go out from the enclosure of this flesh, are received in the heavenly seats. Which Truth itself also attests by itself, saying: *Wheresoever the body shall be, thither shall the eagles also be gathered together [n: (Luc. XXVII, 37)]*; for where our Redeemer himself is in body, thither are gathered also the souls of the just. And Paul *desires to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.* He, therefore, who does not doubt that Christ is in [1384D] heaven, will not deny that Paul's soul too is in heaven; who also, concerning the dissolution of his body and the habitation of the heavenly fatherland, says: *We know that if our earthly house,* having no inhabitant, falls to ruin, *that we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens.* » [n: (II Cor. V, 1.)]

These things he said of the just and the perfect. But what of [1385A] the wicked? « Since, he says to his aforesaid interlocutor, you have believed, by the satisfaction of the sacred eloquence, that the souls of the saints are in heaven, it behooves that you believe in all respects that the souls of the wicked too are in hell; for by the recompense of the inward justice, from which the just are glorified, it is necessary in all respects that the unjust too be tormented. For as blessedness gladdens the elect, so it must be believed that from the day of their departure fire burns up the reprobate. » And all these things, of course, the same most truthful teacher showed not only by the sentences of words, but also by the examples of things. The same man, assuredly, narrated in the aforesaid book that the soul of Germanus the bishop was borne up into heaven by angels in a sphere of fire. The same, that the soul of blessed Benedict was led to the region above by a way strewn with palls. The same, that the soul of the paralytic little servant of the hospice [1385B] was taken up by the inward praises of the heavens, and carried above their loftiest hinges. The same, that the soul of the holy virgin Scholastica was led to the ethereal [1386A] bridal chamber in the likeness of a dove. The same, that the soul of the venerable Romula was taken up to everlasting life by heavenly obsequies. The same too he said, that the spirit of Gordiana his aunt was handed over to the fires of Gehenna. That the monk Hilliricianus, led down to the places of the regions below, saw the powerful and rich of this world hung in the midst of the flames. It is enough, it is sufficient. What one of the faithful can doubt any further about this matter? This witness too is very fit, against whose opinions to go is a sin. Wherefore I would have you warned, all of you whom that most unskilled man has attempted to lead astray from the heavenly wisdom by the windings of his lies, that, as you press toward the battle-line of faith, you be not turned aside from the journey you have begun by the shattered croaking of a little frog, but that you follow the most clearly resounding blare of the trumpet of the city above. [1386B] This is my prayer to God for you, this also my greeting to you. Amen.
