The fourth lie: Hostiensis on suffrages for the damned

The fourth lie is the fictionficcio: fiction of a testimony of Hostiensis in the Summa, on the suffragesuffragia: suffrages of prayer for the damned.¹ For he writes in book 5, On Penances and Remissions, 518in the chapter "To which of the dead the suffrages of the church profit", that they are helped especially by four benefits, namely by the celebrations of masses, by holy prayers, by the alms of friends and by the fasts of kinsfolk.² But as to which of the dead these suffrages profit, the schoolmen hold various opinionsopinio: opinion. For some say that the suffrages of the living profit none at all of those who are in hell, but only those who are in purgatory. Others say that they profit all the regenerate who, while they lived, merited that suffrages should profit them when dead; and because we are not able to discern who merited and who did not, who died in mortal sin and who did not, therefore we pray generally for all the regenerate. And it avails even for the damned in a certain way, since for the very good they are thanksgivings, for the moderately good and bad they are propitiations, for the very bad they profit so that their damnationdampnacio: damnation may be more tolerable.³ And the first is the opinion of the theologians, and the second that of the doctors of the canons; and though this is more pious, yet the first is more catholic. Yet Huguccio says that the opinion of the theologians is little distant from heresy, since of the four kinds of the dead it makes the same one at once and together good and bad.⁴ Therefore the decretists say that Augustine, in that fourfold division, understands by the excellently good those who are in heaven, by the moderately good those to be saved, waiting for a time in purgatory, by the moderately bad those lightly damned in hell, and by the excellently bad those more heavily damned. And to two 519kinds suffrages profit, to such a degree that Judas rested from punishment on the Lord’s day, though this is not very authenticautenticus / autenticacio: authentic / authentication.⁵ And so punishment is never remitted to the damned without qualificationsimpliciter / secundum quid: without qualification / in a certain respect, but proportionally, according to a proportional part, not a quantity; and so they gloss the sayings of the saints that suffrages do not profit the damned, namely the excellently bad.⁶ And afterwards follows the teachingsentencia: CONTEXTUAL: teaching / sentence of Hostiensis in these words: "I have not so great a store as to define these things, what ought to be held precisely." Nor did Innocent III, who was so great, wish to define it, but left it to disputation and discreet investigation (as is clear in On the Celebration of Mass, Cum Marthe). Yet the teaching of the theologians is more renowned, and seems truer.⁷

Turn over, then, and turn over again the teaching of this doctor, great in canon law, and see whether he is a fit witness to confirm that suffrages are to be made for those damned to perpetual punishment. Hence it seems to me that the whole human race ought with one accord to detest lies of this kind and to condemn this blasphemy, that it is lawful to lie. For since to lie is equally to sin (as the saints say), if it is lawful to lie, then it is lawful to sin; but to give that licence does not lie within the divine power.⁸ What blasphemer, then, would lift himself up above all that is called God, holding that he has a privilegeprivilegium / privilegiare / privilegiacio: privilege / to privilege / privileging or licence of lying? Hence the doctor with his men takes it hard that I mocked this teaching, saying that I did not know what praise so egregious a liar would carry off, unless perhaps that he should bear the whetstone before all others. For since God cannot, by himself or by another, make so solemn a lie, it seems that all disciples of truth ought to be whetted 520against them; and since he that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them all, his own ought, by mockery, reproach or reason, as God shall grant, to confound this school.⁹ For so it is read in 3 Kings 18 that the grey-haired Elijah mocked the four hundred priests of Baal who had seduced the people by their lies; for when they had covenanted, with the consent of the people, that that God should be believed who should make fire come down upon the bullock, to be burned by divine power, and when the prophets of Baal had called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, and there was no voice to answer them, after noon Elijah jested at them, saying: "Cry with a louder voice: for he is your god, and perhaps he is talking with another, or is in an inn, or on a journey; or perhaps he is asleep, and must be awaked."¹⁰