The last conclusions; sin and punishment in purgatory; merit after death; the end of the treatise

I say seventh that the prelatesprelatus: prelate of the churchecclesia: church ought to instruct their subjects in this catholic truth, lest the laity, faithlessly busied about less useful things, attend upon the pride and avarice of priests.¹ This is clear by a like case from the law about questors, for whom it is assignedlimitare; limites: to assign (an office); limits that they say nothing to the people except what has been assigned to them in the bishops’ letters, as is clear in the seventh book, Of Penances and Remissions, chapter Abusionibus. Much more, therefore, ought the vicars of Christvicarius Christi: vicar of Christ to teach the people according to the limitslimitare; limites: to assign (an office); limits of the letters of the Holy Spirit, which he has delivered to them to teach.² 585I say eighth that the priestssacerdos / presbiter: priest / presbyter of Christ, although they have power to absolve their subjects from punishment and guilt, yet ought not to absolve under this form, nor ought the subjects to seek it, unless this has been specially revealed to them. The first part is clear from this: that a priest can sacramentally show the one who confesses to him to be so absolved, being contrite to such a degree that, dying at once, he would fly off without the punishment of purgatory; and this is for the priest to absolve. Nor is the power of any priest, in a case of last necessity, so bound that he cannot absolve, as far as God, revealing it, permits; but it would be excessive presumption for any vicar of Christ to put forward such an absolution unless God had revealed to him that it was to be done, lest perhaps he fall into a blasphemous lie.³ What does it avail, then, for subjects to seek such an absolution unseasonably, since they surely ought to believe that they will be assessedtaxare: assess correspondingly to their merits or demerits? And although contrition suffices with Christ, who is everywhere present, yet the sacrament of penance is very necessary, though it will not profit without that [contrition].⁴ So it would be folly for a priest to whom no revelation is made for this to define that penance, or any other sacrament, will profit its receiver to salvation. For so he would forbid that the suffragesuffragia: suffrages of the church be made for the one he has absolved from punishment and guilt at the point of death, as we do not make it for any dead man whom we know to be already blessed.⁵ This teachingsentencia: CONTEXTUAL: teaching / sentence on suffrages and indulgences I would have spoken for the instruction of the lower [members] of the church; and the exposition [I submit] to the correction, supplementing and approval of my superiors according to the rules of the scriptures; and human laws and the decrees of the powerful I value precisely so far [as they agree with these].⁶ But as to the matter of the purging of sin, which I touched on in the last argument, it seems probable to me that anyone who is to be purged has sin 586in purgatory for as long as he undergoes punishment there.⁷ For it followssequitur: it follows: this is the punishment of sin, therefore it is something of sin; since every punishment is a just thing through which sin is made good, and consequently that sin exists.⁸ Likewise, if anyone in purgatory, being purged, is wholly without sin, then he is as clean as one blessed in heaven, since sin alone causes such uncleanness; and consequently he would be as lovable to the church triumphant, while in purgatory, as the blessed one himself, since he is as beautiful.⁹ Likewise, anyone who is in purgatory falls short, on account of his past sin, of the full love of God and of the church, indeed of the full profit to himself and to others that he ought then to have. That defect, then, which is to be purged, is sin; so it seems that punishment purges that defect and makes satisfactionsatisfaccio; satisfacere: satisfaction; to make satisfaction for the past defect; and when the light of love is first brought in, then first is the darkness of sin brought out.¹⁰

It seems, further, that for every sin in which a predestinatepredestinatus, -i: the predestinate (sg. "a predestinate [person]") [person] dies God has established a certain punishment, with which, that sin being supposed, he will not be able to dispense. For by the same token he could dispense with any sin in purgatory or in hell, and remit sin to a man without his having willed to be converted to the Lord, making him blessed without love; since no punishment would follow sin essentially, but it would be only by accident, arbitrary as regards God.¹¹ As, therefore, essential punishment is just of itself, so there is as much justice in accidental punishment; but the merit of the church makes the total sin in purgatory other than it would be were that merit set aside.¹²

It seems, thirdly, that as the blessed in heaven merit for themselves continually, until the day of judgement, accidental rewardpremium accidentale: accidental reward, but both [rewards] for others, but those who are in 587purgatory merit both rewards for themselves continually, so the damned continually demerit until the end.¹³ The first part is evident thus: because the blessed, as they continually merit for others on the wayvia / patria: the way / the homeland, so they merit that afterwards they may have their fellowship in the homelandvia / patria: the way / the homeland; and those being purged merit for themselves not only remission of sins but future blessedness, both essential and accidentalbeatitudo essencialis / accidentalis: essential / accidental blessedness, suffering willingly for its sake out of God’s grace; and although they sin continually, since they are then in grace without mortal [sin], I do not see how they properly demerit, as neither do they then merit with the freedom of contradiction.¹⁴ But the damned, since in mortal sin they are continually made worse in their malevolence, continually demerit, although they profit [others] by accident. Of this elsewhere. Here ends the treatise on holy mother church.¹⁵