Summa summae S. Thomae sive compendium theologiae

Concerning the question proposed there have been two errors. The first was that of the Millenarians, who, from chapter XX of Apocal. badly understood, taught that Christ, after the universal resurrection of the flesh, would reign with the just for a thousand years before the universal judgment, and before these just would enjoy the vision of God in the heavens.

The authors of this error were Cerinthus the heresiarch and St. Papias the martyr, though in a different sense. Cerinthus, lying that revelations had been made to him by an angel, invented this millenarian kingdom as one to be spent in immoderate and obscene pleasures of the belly and the flesh; that the seat of this kingdom would be the city of Jerusalem, to be built anew, likewise the temple to be restored, the precepts and sacrifices of the Mosaic Law to be renewed, and men to be circumcised in the Jewish manner. Whence his followers were called in Greek Chiliastae, in Latin Millenarii. Papias, however, said that these thousand years were to be spent in the earthly Jerusalem in bodily pleasures indeed, but moderate and licit ones; nor does he make any mention either of the temple, or of the law, or of circumcision, or of sacrifices to be restored.

The other error is attributed to John XXII, Supreme Pontiff, who is said to have held and taught that the purged souls of the saints would not see God face to face, or, as he himself used to say, « facially, » before the general judgment.

I say 1°: The millenarian reign of Christ on earth with the saints is fictitious.

Proof 1° from Scripture. 1° In Matth., XXII, 30, it is said: In the resurrection they shall neither marry, nor be married, but shall be as the angels of God. Therefore the reign of Christ with the saints will not be in carnal pleasures, even moderate ones. 2° The angel foretells that the future reign of Christ will be eternal, Luc., I, 32 and 33: He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

Proof 2° from the Fathers who attacked this error. Caius, a very ancient writer, in Eusebius, book III, ch. 22; Dionysius of Alexandria, in the book de Promiss.; Eusebius, the book III above cited, ch. 33; Jerome, in the Praefat. to book XVIII in Isaiam, and Augustine, book XX de Civit., ch. 7.

Proof 3° by reason. The millenarian reign of Christ on earth with the saints after the general judgment is fictitious, if the saints, immediately after death, once they are fully purged, obtain in heaven the clear vision of God, and in it the highest, unlosable, and eternal beatitude. But such is the case, as will be proved in the following conclusion. Therefore.

You will object 1° the celebrated and obscure passage of the Apocalypsis, where it is read that the just will reign with Christ a thousand years¹. Therefore.

I answer: I deny the consequence, because no mention is made there either of the law, or of circumcision being revived, or of the temple of Jerusalem being restored, as Cerinthus invented; nor of bodily pleasures, even moderate ones, as Papias fabled. And so that passage of the Apocalypsis is understood of the spiritual kingdom which the just carry on and will carry on with Christ throughout that whole interval which intervenes from the death of Christ up to the coming of Antichrist: so that « a thousand years, says Augustine, book XX de Civit., ch. 7, n. 2, he set down for all the years of this age, that by the perfect number the very fullness of time might be signified, » according to the solemn phrase of Scripture which often designates the greatest and indefinite multitude by the number a thousand, as that in Psal. CIV, 8: He hath remembered his covenant for ever: the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, that is, to many generations. Likewise Psal. LXXXIX, 4 and Iob, IX, 3. Augustine, loc. cit., and the most illustrious Bossuet, in Exposit. Apocal., ch. 20, interpret this whole passage in the sense given. See there.

You will object 2° and you will urge the authorities of many Fathers of the first three centuries, Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Lactantius, Severus Sulpitius, and others who defended the millenarian reign of Christ. Therefore.

I answer that the aforesaid Fathers were deceived by apocryphal Sermons of the Lord, which Papias had written down from certain badly understood oral traditions of the Apostles. But when it became known that these sermons were spurious, all the Fathers immediately attacked this opinion about the millenarian reign of Christ.

I say 2°: The souls of the just, released from their bodies and fully purged, immediately obtain their beatitude, namely the clear and facial vision of God.

This is now decided as a matter of faith in the Council of Florence, last session, where it is said, « that souls stripped of their bodies and purged are received into heaven at once, and behold clearly the one and triune God as he is. » The same had been defined earlier by Benedict XII, the successor of John XXII, who had also declared the contrary to be heretical, in the decretal Benedictus Deus.

The Apostle plainly indicates this truth, ad Philip., I, 23, when he says: Having a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. For this desire of the Apostle would have been useless, had he not hoped that he would see God immediately after death.

The Holy Fathers teach the same, Fulgentius, serm. de S. Stephano; Cyprian, in the booklet ad Fortunat., ch. 12; Gregory, Sup. Psal. IV poenit.; Chrysostom, hom. X in II ad Cor.; Ambrose, book X in Luc.; Augustine, in Psal. CXIX, and others.

You will object: John XXII defined the contrary to our conclusion. Therefore,

I answer: I deny the antecedent. For although John XXII inclined very strongly to the contrary opinion, and perhaps held and taught it as a private doctor, yet he never defined it as a dogma of faith. This is clear from Benedict XII, his successor, in the Bull Benedictus Deus, in which the Most Holy Pontiff speaks thus: « And when that same predecessor of ours, to whom the determination of the aforesaid matters pertained, was preparing himself for the decision of controversies of this kind, strictly enjoining and commanding, in his public Consistory, both his brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, of whose number we then were, and the Prelates and Masters in Theology, many of whom were present, that concerning the aforesaid matter of the vision, when they should be required by him, each one should deliberately say what he thought; yet, overtaken by death, as it pleased the Lord, he was not able to complete it. »

Add that John XXII himself, in the document of the Canonization of St. Thomas Aquinas, says « that he has been received into the fatherland for perpetual eternities, that his soul possesses heaven, and, placed among the heavenly hosts, glorifies God². » </content>