destination; see De Civ. Dei xx. 1: Quod ergo in confessione tenet omnis ecclesia Dei veri, Christum de cœlo esse venturum ad vivos ac mortuos judicandos, hunc divini judicii ultimum diem dicimus, i. e. novissimum tempus. Nam per quot dies hoc judicium tendatur, incertum est: sed scripturarum more sanctarum diem poni solere pro tempore, nemo qui illas litteras quamlibet negligenter legerit, nescit. Ideo autem cum diem judicii dicimus, addimus ultimum vel novissimum, quia et nunc judicat et ab humani gereris initio judicavit, dimittens de paradiso, et a ligno vitæ separans primos homines peccati magni perpetratores; imo etiam quando angelis peccantibus non pepercit, quorum princeps homines a se ipso subversus invidendo subvertit, procul dubio judicavit. Nec sine illius alto justoque judicio et in hoc aërio cœlo et in terris, et dæmonum et hominum miserrima vita est erroribus ærumnisque plenissima. Verum etsi nemo peccasset, non sine bono rectoque judicio universam rationalem creaturam perseverantissime sibi Domino suo hærentem in æterna beatitudine retineret. Judicat etiam non solum universaliter de genere dæmonum atque hominum, ut miseri sint propter primorum meritum peccatorum; sed etiam de singulorum operibus propriis, quæ gerunt arbitrio voluntatis, etc.-As to the transactions of the general judgment itself, see ibid. c. 14.

2

Comp. § 77, note 6. This idea of a purifying fire is very distinctly set forth by Gregory of Nazianzum, in Orat. xxxix. 19, p. 690. (Ullmann, p. 504). Less definitely in Orat. xl. 36, p. 730. (Ullmann, p. 505).—Roman Catholic commentators have inferred too much in support of their theory from the general expression Tupì кa0αιрoμévη, which Gregory of Nyssa makes use of De iis qui præmature abripiuntur (Opp. iii. p. 312); see Schröckh, Kirchengeschichte xiv. p. 135. Basil the Great supposes (Hom. 3. in Hexaëmeron, p. 27) that the fire which is to destroy the world has existed from the beginning of creation, but that its effects are neutralized by a sufficient quantity of water, until the consumption of the latter; see Klose, p. 73.

Augustine agrees with other theologians in his general views concerning the conflagration of the world, De Civ. Dei xx. 18; in the same place he endeavors to give a satisfactory reply to the question, where the righteous will be during the general conflagration? Possumus respondere, futuros eos esse in superioribus partibus, quo ita non adscendet flamma illius incendii, quemadmodum nec unda diluvii. Talia quippe illis inerunt corpora, ut illic sint, ubi esse voluerint. Sed nec ignem conflagrationis illius pertimescent immortales atque incorruptibiles facti: sicut virorum trium corruptibilia corpora atque mortalia in camino ardenti vivere illæsa potuerunt. Like the earlier theologians Augustine brings the idea of a purification wrought by the fire into connection with 1 Cor. iii. 11-15; see Enchirid. ad Laur. § 68. In the next section he continues as follows (in reference to the disposition to cling too much to earthly goods): Tale aliquid etiam post hanc vitam fieri incredibile non est, et utrum ita sit, quæri potest. Et aut inveniri aut latere nonnullos fideles per ignem purgatorium, quanto magis minusve bona pereuntia dilexerunt, tanto tardius citiusve salvari: non tamen tales, de quibus dictum est, quod regnum Dei non possidebunt, nisi convenienter

pœnitentibus eadem crimina remittantur. Comp. De Civ. Dei l. i. c. 24, 26; Quæst. ad Dulc. § 13. At the synod of Diospolis it was objected to Pelagius, that he taught that at the last judgment the godless and sinners would not be spared, but burn in everlasting fire-to which he replied, that this was according to the gospel, and that whoever taught otherwise was an Origenist. But Augustine conjectures, that Pelagius thereby meant to deny the purifying fire; comp. Wiggers, i. 195: Neander, Church History (Torrey), ii. 584, Note 675. [As quoted by Neander, the objection reads: "In die judicii iniquis et peccatoribus non esse parcendum, sed æternis eos ignibus esse exurendos ;" and Neander adds, that it is probable that Pelagius was combating those who held out the promise of final salvation to a dead churchfaith, not connected with a change of heart," etc.—and that this interpretation "is confirmed by Augustine's remark on this passage in his De Gestis Pelagii."] Whether Prudentius taught it? see Schröckh, Kirchengesch. vii. p. 126.

Sermo viii. 4. in August. Opp. T. v. Append.; the passage is quoted by Münscher ed. by von Cölln, i. p. 62. He makes a distinction between capitalia crimina and minuta peccata. None but the latter can be expiated either in this life by painful sufferings, alms, or placability manifested towards enemies, or in the life to come by the purifying fire (longo tempore cruciandi).

Gregory the Great may rightly be called with Schröckh, the "inventor of the doctrine of purgatory," if on such a subject we may speak of invention. On the one hand, he lays down (Dial. iv. 39) the doctrine of purgatory, which in Augustine still has the character of a private opinion, as an article of faith, saying: De quibusdam levibus culpis esse ante judicium purgatorius ignis credendus est and rests his opinion on Matth. xii. 31. (He thinks that some sins are not pardoned till after death, but to that class belong only what are called minor sins, such as talkativeness, levity, and dissipated life).* On the other hand, he was the first writer who clearly propounded the idea of a deliverance from purgatory by intercessory prayer, by masses for the dead (sacra oblatio hostiæ salutaris) etc., and adduced instances in support of his view, to which he himself attached credit. Comp. Dial. iv. 25 and 57, Moral. ix. c. 34; Schröckh, Kirchengesch. xvii. p. 255, ss.; Neander, Church Hist. iii. p. 135, ss.; Lau, p. 485, 508, seq. If we compare Gregory's doctrine with the former (more idealistic) notions concerning the efficacy of the purifying fire, we may adopt the language of Schmidt (Kirchengesch. iii. p. 280); "The belief in a lasting desire after a higher degree of perfection, which death itself can not quench, DEGENERATED INTO A BELIEF IN PURGATORY."

• Abuses were already found as to prayers for the dead: and Aerius, presbyter at Sebaste (about A. D. 360) wished to have them abolished, but they still continued. At first they prayed for martyrs and saints (Epiphanius, 75, § 7).

* According to Gregory, the passage on which earlier teachers relied, 1 Cor. iii. 13, may be referred to tribulations in hac vita, but he himself prefers the usual interpreta tion, and understands by the wood, hay, and stubble, mentioned in iii. 12, unimportant and slight sins!

Augustine, on the other hand, thought; Injuria est pro martyre orare, cujus nos debemus orationibus commendari (Sermo xvii.). It became a more general ecclesiastical observance to introduce into the intercession of the saints a petition for the shortening of the pangs of purgatory.

§ 142.

THE STATE OF THE BLESSED AND THE DAMNED.

Gregory of Nazianzum, and some other theologians, supposed that the souls of the righteous prior to the resurrection of the body, are at once admitted into the presence of God (without respect to the doctrine about Hades); while the majority of the ecclesiastical writers of this period' believed that men do not receive their full reward till after the resurrection of the body' and the general judgment. According to Gregory of Nazianzum, Gregory of Nyssa, and other theologians who adopted the views of Origen, the blessedness of heaven consists in more fully developed knowledge, in intercourse with all the saints and righteous, and partly in the deliverance from the fetters of the body; Augustine added that the soul then obtained its true liberty. But all writers admitted the difficulty of forming just views on this subject. The sufferings of the damned were represented as the opposite of the pleasures of the blessed, and in the descriptions of the punishments of hell greater prominence was given to gross sensuous representations. Many were disposed to regard the fire in question as a material fire; though Lactantius depicted it in more refined images, while others painted it in terrible descriptions. There were still some theologians who favored the idea of degrees both of bliss and torture." Concerning the duration of the punishments of hell the opinion was more general, that they are eternal, but yet Arnobius maintained that they would at last cease, though with the annihilation of the individual'; and even the Origenistic humanity, in a few of its representatives, still dared to express a glimmer of hope in favor of the damned." Jerome at least admitted, that those among the damned who have been orthodox, enjoy a kind of privilege. And, lastly, it is a remarkable fact, which however admits of a satisfactory solution, that Augustine entertained milder views on this point than Pelagius," who, as well as the practical Chrysostom," maintained the eternal duration of the punishments of hell, in accordance with his strict doctrine of moral retribution. The doctrine of the restitution of all things shared the fate of Origenism," and made its appearance in after ages only in connection with other heretical notions, and especially with the otherwise anti-Origenistic Millennarianism.

Gre

Orat. x. p. 173, 174. Comp. Gennad. De Dogm. Eccles. c. 46. gory the Great, Moral. 1. iv. c. 37. Eusebius, too, relates (De Vita Constant. iii. 40), that Helena, the mother of the emperor, went immediately to God, and was transformed into an angelic substance (ανεστοιχειοῦτο.)

Thus Ambrose, De Bono Mortis c. 10; de Cain et Abel, 1. ii. c. 2: Solvitur corpore anima et post finem vitæ hujus, adhuc tamen futuri judicii ambiguo suspenditur. Ita finis nullus, ubi finis putatur. Hilary, Tract. in Ps. cxx. p. 383. Augustine, Enchirid. ad Laur. § 109: Tempus, quod inter bominis mortem et ultimam resurrectionem interpositum est, animas abditis receptaculis continet; sicut unaquæque digna est vel requie vel ærumna, pro eo, quod sortita est in carne cum viveret: comp. Sermo 48. Even some of the Greek theologians taught, that no man receives his full reward before the general judgment. Chrys. in Ep. ad Hebr. Hom. xxviii. (Opp. T. xii. p. 924) et in 1 Ep. ad Corinth. Hom. xxxix. (Opp. xi. p. 436). He there defends the belief in the Christian doctrine of the resurrection as distinct from a mere hope in the continued existence of the soul after death.

Contra Anthropom. c. 5. 7, ss.

3

Cyril of Alex. According to Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. Catech. c. 40, the blessedness of heaven cannot be described by words. Gregory of Nazianzum, Orat. xvi. 9, p. 306, supposes it to consist in the perfect knowledge of God, and especially of the Trinity (Oewpía тpiádoç)-in full accordance with the intellectual and contemplative tendency predominant in the eastern church at that time. Gregory, however, does not restrict the enjoyment of eternal happiness to the intuitive vision and knowledge of God; but, inasmuch as this knowledge itself is brought about by a closer union with God, the blessedness of the redeemed in heaven will also consist in this inward union with God, in the perfect peace both of the soul and of the heavenly habitations, in the intercourse with blessed spirits, and in the elevated knowledge of all that is good and beautiful; Orat. viii. 23, p. 232. Rhetorical descriptions are found in Orat. vii. 17, p. 209, vii. 21, p. 213. Ullmann, p. 502. Basil the Great depicts this blessedness for the most part in a negative way: Homil. in Ps. cxiv. p. 204, quoted by Klose, p. 76. Augustine also begins, De Civ. Dei xxii. 29, 30, with the confession: Et illa quidem actio, vel potius quies atque otium, quale futurum sit, si verum velim dicere, nescio; non enim hoc unquam per sensus corporis vidi. Si autem mente, i. e., intelligentia vidisse me dicam, quantum est aut quid est nostra intelligentia ad illam excellentiam ?-According to Augustine the happiness of the blessed consists in the enjoyment of heavenly peace which passes knowledge, and the vision of God, which cannot be compared with bodily vision. But while Gregory of Nazianzum assigned the first place to theological knowledge (insight into the Trinity), Augustine founded his theory of the blessed life upon anthropology. The blessed obtain true liberty, by which he understood that they can no longer sin nam primum liberum arbitrium, quod homini datum est, quando primum creatus est rectus, potuit non peccare, sed potuit et peccare; hoc autem novissimum eo potentius erit, quo peccare non poterit. Verum hoc quoque Dei munere, non suæ possibilitate naturæ. Aliud est enim, esse Deum, aliud participem Dei. Deus natura peccare non potest; particeps

vero Dei ab illo accipit, ut peccare non possit.... And as with freedom, so with immortality: Sicut enim prima immortalitas fuit, quam peccando Adam perdidit, posse non mori, novissima erit, non possi mori. Augustine, moreover, thought, that the blessed retain the full recollection of the past, even of the sufferings which befell them while on earth; but so that they do not feel what was painful in these. They also know the torments of the damned without being disturbed in their own happiness (similar views were expressed by Chrysostom, Hom. x. in 2 Ep. ad. Corinth. Opp. T. xi. p. 605). God is the end and object of all desire, and thus the essential substance of the blessedness: Ipse erit finis desideriorum nostrorum, qui sine fine videbitur, sine fastidio amabitur, sine fatigatione laudabitur.-Cassiodorus, De Anima c. 12 (Opp. T. ii. p. 604, 605), gives a summary of what earlier theologians had taught concerning the eternal happiness of the blessed.

• Lactantius vii. 21... ... Quia peccata in corporibus contraxerunt (damnati), rursus carne induentur, ut in corporibus piaculum solvant; et tamen non erit caro illa, quam Deus homini superjecerit, huic terrena similis, sed insolubilis ac permanens in æternum, ut sufficere possit cruciatibus et igni sempiterno, cujus natura diversa est ab hoc nostro, quo ad vitæ necessaria utimur, qui, nisi alicujus materiæ fomite alatur, extinguitur. At ille divinus per se ipsum semper vivit ac viget sine ullis alimentis, nec admixtum habet fumum, sed est purus ac liquidus et in aquæ modum fluidus. Non enim vi aliqua sursum versus urgetur, sicut noster, quem labes terreni corporis, quo tenetur, et fumus intermixtus exsilire cogit et ad cœlestem naturam cum trepidatione mobili subvolare. Idem igitur divinus ignis una eademque vi atque potentia et cremabit impios et recreabit, et quantum e corporibus absumet, tantum reponet, ac sibi ipse æternum pabulum subministrabit. Quod poëtæ in vulturem Tityi transtulerunt, ita sine ullo revirescentium corporum detrimento aduret tantum ac sensu doloris afficiet.-Gregory of Nazianzum supposed the punishment of the damned to consist essentially in their separation from God, and the consciousness of their own vileness (Orat. xvi. 9, p. 306): Τοῖς δὲ μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων βάσανος, μᾶλλον δὲ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων τὸ ἀπεῤῥίφθαι θεοῦ, καὶ ἡ ἐν τῷ συνειδότι αἰσχύνη πέρας οὐκ Exovoa. Basil the Great, on the contrary, gives a more vivid description of that punishment, Homil. in Ps. xxiii. (Opp. T. i. p. 151), and elsewhere. Comp. Klose, p. 75, 76. Münscher, Handbuch, iv. p. 458. Chrysostom exhausts his eloquence in depicting the torments of the damned in repulsive pictures; in Theod. Lapsum i. c. 6, (Opp. T. iv. p. 560, 561). Nevertheless in other places, e. g., in his Ep. ad Rom. Hom. xxxi. (Opp. x. p. 396), he justly observes, that it is of more importance to know how to escape hell, than to know where it is, and what is its nature. Gregory of Nyssa (Orat. Catech. 40) endeavours to turn the thoughts away from all that is sensuous (the fire of hell is not to be looked upon as a material fire, nor is the worm which never dies an Tíуetov Onpiov). Augustine too sees, that first of all separation from God is to be regarded as the death and punishment of the damned (De Morib. Eccles. Cath. c. 11); but he leaves it to his readers to choose between the more sensuous, or the more spiritual mode of inter