Purgatory

=====Fire=====
Fire has an important place in the popular image of purgatory and has been the object of speculation by theologians, speculation to which the article on purgatory in the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'' relates the warning by the Council of Trent against "difficult and subtle questions which tend not to edification."<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia on Purgatory">{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Purgatory|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2005-09-11|archive-date=2005-09-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050904040952/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Fire has never been included in the Catholic Church's defined doctrine on purgatory, but speculation about it is traditional. "The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM#$1BW |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1031 |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=2020-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301083621/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM#$1BW |url-status=live }}</ref> In this regard the ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' references in particular two New Testament passages: "If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire"<ref>{{Bibleverse|1|Corinthians|3:15|ESV}}</ref> and "so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ".<ref>{{Bibleverse|1|Peter|1:7|ESV}}</ref> Catholic theologians have also cited verses such as "I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God'",<ref>{{Bibleverse|Zechariah|13:9|ESV}}</ref> a verse that the Jewish [[House of Shammai|school of Shammai]] applied to God's judgment on those who are not completely just nor entirely evil.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PjHdj_3oYkQC&q=%22Zechariah+13%3A9%22+%22shammai%22&pg=PA149 |title=Daniel Sperber, ''Why Jews Do what They Do: The History of Jewish Customs Throughout the Cycle of the Jewish Year'' (KTAV 1999), p. 149 |isbn=9780881256048 |access-date=2019-01-02 |archive-date=2021-03-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312095635/https://books.google.com/books?id=PjHdj_3oYkQC&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=%22Zechariah+13%3A9%22+%22shammai%22&source=bl&ots=PWPceefoHN&sig=PyERoB-CSmPjcCDsMiCDxb9e3aE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjC4c6wgsrfAhVzTBUIHYuuCYcQ6AEwDHoECAMQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Zechariah%2013%3A9%22%20%22shammai%22&f=false |url-status=live |last1=Sperber |first1=Daniel |year=1999 |publisher=KTAV Publishing House }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://catholicstraightanswers.com/do-we-know-what-happens-in-purgatory-is-there-really-a-fire/ |title=Edward P. Saunders, "Do we know what happens in Purgatory? Is there really a fire?" |date=21 May 2013 |access-date=2019-01-02 |archive-date=2019-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190103110139/http://catholicstraightanswers.com/do-we-know-what-happens-in-purgatory-is-there-really-a-fire/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Use of the image of a purifying fire goes back as far as [[Origen]] who, with reference to {{bibleverse|1|Corinthians|3:10–15|ESV}}, seen as referring to a process by which the dross of lighter transgressions will be burnt away, and the soul, thus purified, will be saved,<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia on Purgatory"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Scott |author-link=Scott L. Smith, Jr. |title=Where is Purgatory in the Bible? |url=https://www.thescottsmithblog.com/2018/07/where-is-purgatory-in-bible-complete.html |website=All Roads Lead to Rome |access-date=6 January 2021 |archive-date=26 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126124352/https://www.thescottsmithblog.com/2018/07/where-is-purgatory-in-bible-complete.html |url-status=live }}</ref> wrote: 

{{quote|"Suppose you have built, after the ''foundation'' which Christ Jesus has taught, not only ''gold, silver, and precious stones'' − if indeed you possess gold and much silver or little − suppose you have ''silver, precious stones'', but I say not only these elements, but suppose that you have also ''wood and hay and stubble'', what does he wish you to become after your final departure? To enter afterwards then into the holy lands with your ''wood'' and with your ''hay'' and ''stubble'' so that you may defile the Kingdom of God? But again do you want to be left behind in the fire on account of the ''hay'', the ''wood'', the ''stubble'', and to receive nothing due you for the ''gold'' and the ''silver'' and ''precious stone''? That is not reasonable. What then? It follows that you receive the ''fire first'' due to the ''wood'', and the ''hay'' and the ''stubble''. For to those able to perceive, our God is said to be in reality ''a consuming fire''."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=I2g1z_oltV8C&q=wood+hay Origen, Homily 16, in ''Homilies on Jeremiah and 1 Kings 28'' (CUA Press 1998), pp. 173−174]; original text: [https://books.google.com/books?id=wnDYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA315 ''Patrologia graeca'', vol. 13, col. 415 C−D]</ref> }}
Origen also speaks of a refining fire melting away the lead of evil deeds, leaving behind only pure gold.<ref name=origen>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sLpDsFbzv2wC&pg=PA330|title=Homily VI on Exodus section 4 (''Patrologia graeca'', vol. 12, col. 334–335|year=1862|last1=Migne|first1=Jacques-Paul|access-date=2015-12-12|archive-date=2016-05-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503095139/https://books.google.com/books?id=sLpDsFbzv2wC&pg=PA330|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Saint Augustine|Augustine]] tentatively put forward the idea of a post-death purgatorial fire for some Christian believers: 

{{quote|"69. It is not incredible that something like this should occur after this life, whether or not it is a matter for fruitful inquiry. It may be discovered or remain hidden whether some of the faithful are sooner or later to be saved by a sort of purgatorial fire, in proportion as they have loved the goods that perish, and in proportion to their attachment to them."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/augustine_enchiridion_02_trans.htm#C18|title=St. Augustine, Enchiridion: On Faith, Hope, and Love (1955). English translation}}</ref>}}

[[Gregory the Great]] also argued for the existence, before Judgment, of a ''purgatorius ignis'' (a cleansing fire) to purge away minor faults (wood, hay, stubble) not mortal sins (iron, bronze, lead).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01p/0590-0604,_SS_Gregorius_I_Magnus,_Dialogorum_Libri_IV-De_Vita_et_Miraculis_...,_LT.pdf |title=Gregory the Great, ''Dialogues'', book IV, chapter 39 |access-date=2012-11-15 |archive-date=2013-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524145302/http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01p/0590-0604,_SS_Gregorius_I_Magnus,_Dialogorum_Libri_IV-De_Vita_et_Miraculis_...,_LT.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Pope Gregory, in the Dialogues, quotes Christ's words (in Mat 12:32) to establish purgatory: 

{{quote|"But yet we must believe that before the day of judgment there is a purgatory fire for certain small sins: because our Saviour saith, that he which speaketh blasphemy against the holy Ghost, that it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. (Mat 12:32) Out of which sentence we learn, that some sins are forgiven in this world, and some other may be pardoned in the next: for that which is denied concerning one sin, is consequently understood to be granted touching some other."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/gregory_04_dialogues_book4.htm#C39|title = Gregory the Great, Dialogues (1911) Book 4. Pp. 177-258.}}</ref>}}

[[Gregory of Nyssa]] several times spoke of purgation by fire after death,<ref>"When he has quitted his body and the difference between virtue and vice is known he cannot approach God till the ''purging fire'' shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested. That same fire in others will cancel the corruption of matter, and the propensity to evil" (Gregory of Nyssa, Sermon on the Dead, pp. 13:445, 448)</ref> but he generally has [[apocatastasis]] in mind.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YfGZAAAAQBAJ&q=Ramelli+Nyssa+%22throughout+his+production%22&pg=PA374 |title=Ilaria Ramelli, ''The Christian Doctrine of ''Apokatastasis'': A Critical Assessment from the New Testament to Eriugena'' (Brill 2013), p. 374 |isbn=9789004245709 |access-date=2019-01-02 |archive-date=2019-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190103010001/https://books.google.ie/books?id=YfGZAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA374&lpg=PA374&dq=Ramelli+Nyssa+%22throughout+his+production%22&source=bl&ots=9LDuWX_THF&sig=U8kGYdiMMoq5TNkJH5iR2NBZNUU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwifn5CU5M7fAhXzuXEKHS4ABO4Q6AEwAHoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q=Ramelli%20Nyssa%20%22throughout%20his%20production%22&f=false |url-status=live |last1=Ramelli |first1=Ilaria |date=9 August 2013 |publisher=BRILL }}</ref>

Medieval theologians accepted the association of purgatory with fire. Thus the ''[[Summa Theologica]]'' of [[Thomas Aquinas]] considered it probable that Purgatory was situated close to hell, so that the same fire that tormented the damned cleansed the just souls in Purgatory.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.AP2_Q1_A2.html |title=''Summa Theologica'', appendix 2, article 2: "Whether it is the same place where souls are cleansed, and the damned punished?" |access-date=2019-01-02 |archive-date=2019-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190103005107/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.AP2_Q1_A2.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ideas about the supposed fire of purgatory have changed with time: in the early 20th century the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' reported that, while in the past most theologians had held that the fire of purgatory was in some sense a material fire, though of a nature different from ordinary fire, the view of what then seemed to be the majority of theologians was that the term was to be understood metaphorically.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07207a.htm#VI|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Hell|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2007-12-20|archive-date=2018-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123082053/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07207a.htm#VI|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm#VI|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Purgatory|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2021-11-15|archive-date=2021-10-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026045432/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm#VI|url-status=live}}</ref>