Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 122

GREGORY: If the incorporeal spirit of a living man is held within the body, why should it not, after death—since the spirit is incorporeal—also be held by corporeal fire? PETER: In any living being the incorporeal spirit is held within the body for this reason, that it gives life to the body. GREGORY: If, Peter, an incorporeal spirit can be held in that which it vivifies, why should it not also be held as a punishment there where it is put to death? Now we say that the spirit is held by the fire, so that it may be in the torment of the fire by seeing and by feeling it. For it suffers the fire by the very fact that it sees it; and because it beholds itself being burned, it is burned.

And thus it comes about that a corporeal thing burns an incorporeal one, when from the visible fire an invisible burning and pain is drawn, so that through the corporeal fire the incorporeal mind is tortured even by an incorporeal flame. And yet we can gather from the words of the Gospel that the soul suffers the burning not only by seeing it, but also by experiencing it. For by the voice of Truth the rich man, having died, is said to be buried in hell. That his soul is held in fire is intimated by the voice of that same rich man who beseeches Abraham, saying: 'Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame' (Luke 16:24).

Since therefore Truth declares that the damned sinful rich man is in the fire, what wise man would deny that the souls of the reprobate are held by fire? PETER: Behold, by reason and by testimony the mind is bent toward belief; but once let go, it returns again to its rigidity. For how an incorporeal thing can be held and afflicted by a corporeal thing, I do not know. GREGORY: Tell me, I pray you, do you suppose the apostate spirits cast down from heavenly glory to be corporeal, or incorporeal? PETER: What sane and wise person would say that spirits are corporeal? GREGORY: Do you admit the fire of Gehenna to be incorporeal, or corporeal? PETER: I do not doubt that the fire of Gehenna is corporeal, in which it is certain that bodies are tormented. GREGORY: Why then will Truth say to the reprobate at the end:

'Go into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matthew 25:41)? If therefore the devil and his angels, though they are incorporeal, are to be tormented by corporeal fire, what wonder is it if souls, even before they receive their bodies, are able to feel corporeal torments? PETER: The reason is plain, and the mind ought no longer to doubt concerning this question.