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“In matters concerning Purgatory that have not been determined by the Church, we ought to adhere to those opinions which are most in conformity with the sayings and revelations of the saints.” (St. Robert Bellarmine, De purgatorio II.VII)
A Place Between Purgatory and Heaven
St. Bede, in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, tells the story of Drycthelm, a man who died and was taken to see the various places that men go after death. The first place was described as follows: “One side was exceedingly terrible with raging flames; the other was no less unbearable with fierce hail and freezing snow blowing and sweeping through everything.” In this place, the souls were tormented by the alternation of cold and heat so that they jumped from one side to another, fleeing the burning heat into the bitter cold and then fleeing the bitter cold back into the burning heat without rest. The man, upon seeing these unbearable torments, was convinced that he was seeing hell. Yet, his guide told him that “this is not the hell you imagine.”
He then went on to the next place, a place of darkness where he heard maniacal laughter and screams of terror. In this place, the flames themselves were dark. The laughter was from demons, while the screams of terror came from the souls that were kept here for eternity. He saw demons dragging souls down into the abyss and, as he stood terrified, the demons threatened to seize him with fiery tongs, but they did not dare touch him, and they fled when his guide returned.
Then, he went to a third place. This third place is described as follows:
There was an exceedingly broad and delightful field, filled with such fragrance of flowering blossoms that the wonderful sweetness of its scent immediately drove away all the stench of the dark furnace which had penetrated me. Such light filled the whole place that it seemed brighter than all the splendor of day or the rays of the midday sun. In this field were innumerable gatherings of people clothed in white, and many seats occupied by rejoicing companies.
The obvious assumption that was made by the man was that he was seeing heaven due to the delight that was before him. Yet, as with the first place, he was mistaken, for his guide told him that “this is not the kingdom of heaven which you suppose.” Beyond the meadow, he also approached a far brighter and sweeter place, which the guide later identified with the neighborhood of the heavenly kingdom.
What does he mean by this? It seems that the first place is purgatory and the second place is hell. What would the third place be besides heaven? If it is not heaven, then what is it? Some may assume that this place is limbo, yet this is not the explanation that is given by the guide. Here are the descriptions given of the three places:
That valley which you saw, dreadful with raging flames and rigid cold, is the place where the souls of those who postpone confessing and amending the sins they have committed, and finally take refuge in repentance at the very moment of death, and thus leave the body, must be tested and chastised. Yet because they had confession and repentance even at death, they will all reach the kingdom of heaven on the day of judgment. The prayers of the living, alms, fasts, and especially the celebration of Masses help many of them to be delivered even before the day of judgment.
The foul, fire-spewing pit which you saw is the very mouth of Gehenna. Whoever has once fallen into it will never be delivered from it for eternity.
But this flowery place, in which you see this most beautiful company of young people rejoicing and shining, is the place where the souls of those who leave the body in good works are received, yet who are not of such perfection as to deserve to be introduced immediately into the kingdom of heaven. All of them, however, will enter the vision of Christ and the joys of the heavenly kingdom on the day of judgment. For whoever is perfect in every word, deed, and thought reaches the heavenly kingdom immediately after leaving the body. To its neighborhood belongs that place where you heard the sound of sweet singing, with the fragrance of sweetness and splendor of light.
This division of the afterlife is confusing to those with knowledge of traditional Catholic eschatology. In the familiar account, there is hell (which has the punishment of sense and the punishment of loss), the limbo of children (which has the punishment of loss and no punishment of sense, or at least a very light punishment of sense), purgatory (which has both punishments, but in a provisional way), and heaven (which has beatitude). There seems to be no place in this accounting for those souls who both lack the punishment of sense and will eventually enter heaven (since the souls in the limbo of children do not enter heaven).
While this may seem like a “one-off” description from a single author, this is not the case. The mid-twelfth-century Visio Tnugdali has a similar case with a division between two provisional places, the first for those who are “not very evil” and the second for those who are “not very good.” The first place is described as follows: “Below the wall... was a great multitude of men and women enduring rain and wind. They were very sad, suffering hunger and thirst; yet they had light and did not perceive a stench.” The second place is described as follows:
Going a little farther, they came to a gate which opened to them of itself. When they had entered it, they saw a beautiful, fragrant field, planted with flowers, bright and very pleasant, in which was a multitude of souls that no one could count. There was a multitude of exultant men and women; there was no night there, nor did the sun set there, and there is a fountain of living water there. After the great and terrible bitterness it had suffered before, the soul was exceedingly delighted by the sweetness of the beautiful field... [The man asked:] “Whose souls, I ask, have this rest, and what is this fountain’s name?” The angel answered: “Here dwell those who are good, but not very good, who, having been rescued from the torments of the lower world, do not yet deserve to be joined to the company of the saints. This fountain which you see is called living: if anyone tastes this water, he will live forever and thirst no more.”
Another popular description is found in the so-called “St. Patrick’s Purgatory,” the Tractatus de purgatorio sancti Patricii Hibernorum apostoli written by Henry of Saltrey in the late twelfth century. While the details of purgatory in this text are not always unobjectionable (e.g., in the account of the torture by demons in purgatory, commonly rejected by theologians), the same tradition is present. In this text, this place is identified with the earthly paradise of our first parents and said to be “peaceful, placid, and pleasing.” Yet, it is clearly distinguished from beatitude, which these souls long to enter into.
The strange part of this text comes from its explanation of the reason why such souls are kept there. The author seems to distinguish this place from purgatory insofar as purgatory is the place of penal afflictions, while this place is for souls who have paid their entire debt but did not merit a speedy entry into heaven in their life:
Receiving faith in him, and freed through baptism both from actual sins and from original sin, we deserved to return to this country. Yet because we stained the robe received at baptism when through the flesh’s frailty we sinned, it was necessary for us to obtain forgiveness of actual sins through penance. The penance which we undertook before death, or when near our end, but did not complete in life, we have paid after separation from the flesh in the penal places which you saw, suffering torments for a longer or shorter time according to the measure and quantity of our faults.
For all of us who are here have passed through those places into this rest. And all those you saw in the various penal places, except those held below the mouth of the infernal pit, will be saved when they have been purified and come into this rest. Every day some who have been purified also arrive; we receive them as we received you and joyfully bring them in here. None of those who are in punishments knows how long he will be tormented there. But through Masses, psalms, prayers, and alms, whenever these are performed for them, their torments are either mitigated, or they are transferred to lesser and more bearable ones, until at length through such benefits they are entirely set free.
And when they have come to this place of rest, they are completely ignorant how long they will remain here; none of us can know this about himself. For just as in the penal places they are detained according to the quantity of their faults, so we who are here will remain in this rest for a longer or shorter time according to our good merits. See, as you observe, we are free from punishments and enjoy great rest; nevertheless, we are not yet worthy to ascend to the heavenly joy of the saints. None of us knows the day and term of our promotion to a better state; but after the term fixed for each we shall pass into greater rest. Every day our society in a certain way increases and decreases, since each day some ascend to us from punishments, and some from us into the heavenly paradise.
Similar accounts are recorded in a number of different places: the late-twelfth-century vision of the monk of Eynsham (Visio monachi de Eynsham, cap. XLIXf), the late-thirteenth-century vision of St. Mechthild of Hackeborn (Liber specialis gratiae, pt. V), the vision of St. Gertrude the Great from the same era (Legatus divinae pietatis, IV.27, V.5), the fourteenth-century visions of St. Bridget of Sweden (Revelationes, IV.7, 127), the collection of Ven. Louis de Blois (Monile spirituale, cap. XIII), and others collected by Bautz (St. Frances of Rome, St. Maria Crescentia, Ven. Frances of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Catherine of Genoa, etc.).
The Theological Affirmation
A difficulty immediately arises. It is a dogma of the faith that the soul whose entire obligation of temporal punishment has been remitted in purgatory immediately enters into beatitude, as taught by Florence’s Laetentur caeli and Benedict XII’s Benedictus Deus. At first glance, it seems that some of these accounts hold that there is a twofold process. First, there is a punishment that remits the obligation to temporal punishment in purgatory. Second, there is a waiting period after punishment has been paid before entrance into heaven. This crude form must obviously be rejected. But is this the only form? Is there any way that this can be salvaged?
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