§ 121. THE FUTURE STATE. 759
dying in infancy without having been baptized. They are there for original sin which only baptism can wash away.1 According to Thomas Aquinas, this region is probably a lit tle lower than the limbus patrum. These children are free from pain, but are like the lost in being deprived of the vis ion of God and physical light. Theirs is the punishment of eternal death, — supplicium mortis ceternce, — but their damna tion is the lightest of all — omnium levissima. They have no hope of beatitude . God, in His j usti ce, provides that they never make any advance nor go back, that they neither have joy nor grief. They remain forever unchanged.2 Such is the hope less doom to which the great Dominican and the great Franciscan theologians of the Middle Ages consigned all children dying unbaptized. Strange that the Schoolmen, in the interest of a more merciful doctrine, did not use Christ's blessed words, " Suffer the little children to come unto me for of such is the kingdom of God." But they did not. The doctrine of original sin and the doctrine of the necessity of water baptism for salvation were carried to their extreme logical conclusions without regard for the superabounding grace of God. So also Augustine had taught and so most of the Reformers taught at a later time. Christ's descent into hades was carefully discussed by the Schoolmen. It occurred as soon as his soul was separated from the body at his death. He was in the infernal regions during the three days of his burial, but did not assume their pains. The reason for this visit was twofold, says Bonaventura, — to release the Old Testament saints and to confound the adversaries of the Gospel, the demons.3 Thomas Aquinas tried to show that, when Job said, 17 : 16,
1 Th. Aq., Summa, III. 09, G, onginali peccato debebatur pcena ceterna in limbo piierorum. Limbus means edge or border. Alb. Magnus also calls it limbus parvulorum, the region of the little ones. Borgnet's ed., XXVIII. 392.
2 Pueris non adest spes beatce vitce, etc. Th. Aq., Supplem., p. 1223. divince justitice cequitas perpetualiter eos consolidate ut nee proficiant, nee deficiant, nee Icetentur, nee triste-ntur j sed semper per sic uniformiter maneant, etc. Bonavent., In Sent., II. 33, 2, 3, Peltier's ed., III. 419.
8 In Sent., III. 22, I. 4 sqq., Peltier's ed., IV. 467.
760 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
" my hope shall go down to the bars of Sheol," or into the "deepest hell," as the Vulgate puts it, he meant that he went no farther than the limbus patrum and not to the abode of the lost.1 Christ descended into hades, according to Thomas,2 for a threefold purpose, to deliver us from the neces sity of going there ourselves ; to release the Hebrew saints by breaking the bars of hell — vectes inferni, — that is, by " spoiling principalities and powers," Col. 2 : 15 ; and third, to make show of his divinity-— manifestatio divinitatis — to the demons by preaching, 1 Pet. 3 : 19, and by enlightening those dark spaces with his presence, as it is said, Ps. 24 : 7, " Lift up your doors, O ye princes, and the king of glory shall come in." Here again the Vulgate is responsible for a mistake, the word "gates" being translated "princes."3 Christ's descent into hades did riot help the unbaptized chil dren. After this life it is too late to acquire grace.4
Purgatory is a sort of reformatory school for baptized Catholics who are not good enough at death to go directly to heaven. They are there in that intermediate region for actual transgressions,5 whose guilt the sacrament of penance and extreme unction had not fully removed. The existence of purgatory is based mainly upon 2 Mac. 12 : 40 and the universal teaching of the Church.6 Its inhabitants belong to the communion of saints and are within the reach of human intercession. Masses for the dead are instituted to meet their case. For infants in the limbus puerorum, such in tercessory works are of no avail. But one who has been baptized in infancy or manhood, no matter how flagitious or criminal his career may have been, for him there is hope, nay there is certainty, that in time he will pass out of purgatory into the company of the blessed.
1 Suppl., Migne, III. 1222. The deepest hell — profundissimus infernus — is the place of the lost. Bonavent., Brevil., VII. 6, Peltier's ed., VII. 339.
2 Summa, III. 52, 1, Migne, IV. 476. 3 Attolite portas, principes, vestras. 4 Post hancvitam non est tempus gratiam acquirendi. Th. Aq., Summa,
III. 52, 7 ; Suppl., Migne, IV. 1244.
6 Pcena purgatorii est in supplementum satisfactionis quce non fuerat plene in corpore consummata. Th. Aq., Suppl., 71,6, Migne, IV. 1242.
6Th. Aq., Migne, IV. 1239.