Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/208

 HEATHEN

170

HEAVEN

the option of obtaining liberty if he would attend the new services. This he refused and continued in the Tower till 1571 except for two years, from September, 1563, to 1565, when he was transferred to the keeping of a Protestant dignitary, probably the Dean of West- minster, and occasional interi'als when he was allowed to live in the house of Lord Montague at Southwark. Burghley's misrepresentations to the effect that the archbishop after his deprivation was not imprisoned but lived in ease enjoying the queen's favour, though contradicted by his own letters to the Lieutenant of the Tower and the records of the Privy Council, have been repeated by all subsequent Anglican writers from Camden and Strype to the writer in the "Dic- tionary of National Biography". But all Catholic contemporary evidence shows the falsehood of this account. From 1571 he was indeed allowed to reside at his own estate of Chobham Park, in Surrey, though he is not mentioned as continuing there in any docu- ment later than 1574, and there is reason to believe that he was again committed to the Tower about that time. It is certain that by May, 157S, he was again in strict confinement, and a letter by Viscount Jlontague to Sir William More dated 12 December in the same year annoimced his death as having just occurred.

Phillips. The Extinction of the Ancient Hierarchy (London, 1905), indispensable as having corrected by recent research many misstatements in the traditional accounts: Dodd-Tier- NEY, Church History (London, 1S39-43); Bridoettand Knox, The True Story of the Catholic Hierarchy (London, 1S89) ; Perry in Diet. Nat, Biog., s. v.: Sanders, Report to Cardinal Moroni and Prison Lists in Catholic Record Society's Publications, Mis- cellanea, I (London, 190.5): BiRT, The Elizabethan Religious Settlement (Ix)ndon, 1907).

Edwin Burton. Heathen. See Pag.\nism.

Heaven.— This subject will be treated under seven headings: (I) Name .and Place of Heaven; (II) Exist- ence of Heaven; (III) Supernatural Character of Heaven and the Beatific Vision: (IV) Eternity of Heaven and Impeccability of the Blessed; (V) E.ssen- tial Beatitude; (VI) Accidental Beatitude; (VII) Attributes of Beatitude.

I. Name and Place op He.wen. — Heaven (.V. S. heofon, O. S. hevan and himil, originally himin) corresponds to the Gothic himin-s. Both heaven and himil are formed from himin by a reg\ilar change of consonants: heaven, by changing m before n into v; and himil, l)y changing n of the unaccented ending into 1. Some derive heaven from the root ]inm, "to cover" (cf. the Gothic Jiam-i'm and the German Ilrm-d). According to this derivation heaven would be conceived as the roof of the world. Others trace a connexion between himin (heaven) and home; accord- ing to this view, which seems to be the more probable, heaven would be the abode of the Godhead. The Latin ccelum. {koiXov, a vault) is derived liy many from the root of celare, " to cover, to conceal " (cielum, " ceil- ing", "roof of the world"). Others, however, think it is connected with the Germanic himin. The Greek oipavSi is derived, according to Pott, from the root var, which also connotes the idea of covering. The Hebrew D'OK' — a plural of extent— is derived by many from nDC "to be high"; accordingly, heaven would designate the upper region of the world (cf. Grimm, "Deutsches WiJrterbuch", .s. v. "Ilimmel "; Kluge, " Etymologisches Worterbuch der d. Sprache ").

In Holy Writ the term heaven denotes, in the first place, the blue firmament, or the region of the clouds that pass along the sky. Gen., i, 20, speaks of the birds "under the firmament of heaven". In other passages it denotes the region of the stars that shine in the sky. Furthermore lieaven is spoken of as the dwelling of God; for, although God is omnipresent, yet He manifests Himself in a special manner in the light and grandeur iif the firmament, lieaven also is the abode of the angels; for they are constantly with

God and see His face. With God in heaven are like- wise the souls of the just (II Cor., v, 1; Matt., v, 3, 12). In Eph., iv, S sq., we are told that Clirist con- ducted to heaven the patriarchs who had been in limbo (Kmbus patrnm). Thus the term heaven has come to designate both the happiness and the abode of the just in the next life. The present article treats of heaven in this sense only. In Holy Scripture it is called the kingdom of heaven (Matt., v, 3), the kingdom of God (Mark, ix, 46), the kingdom of the Father (Matt., xiii, 43), the kingdom of Christ (Luke, xxii, 30), the house of the Father (John, xiv, 2), the city of (!od, the heavenly .lerusalem (Hebr., xii, 22), the holy place (Hebr., ix, 12; D. V. holies), paradise (II Cor., xii, 4), life (Matt., vii, 14), life everlasting (Matt., xix, 16), the joy of the Lord (Matt., xxv, 21), crown of life (James, i, 12), crown of justice (II Tim., iv, 8), crown of glory (I Peter, v, 4), incorruptible crown (I Cor., ix, 25), great reward (Matt., v, 12), inheritance of Christ (Eph., i, IS), eternal inheritance (Hebr., ix, 15).

■Where is heaven, the dwelling of God and the blessed? >Some are of opinion that heaven is every- where, as God is e\'erywhore. According to this view the blessed can move about freely in every part of the universe, and still remain with Ciod and see Him everywhere. Everywhere, too, they remain with Christ (in His sacred Humanity) and with the saints and the angels. For, according to the advocates of this opinion, the spatial dist:inces of this world must no longer impede the mutual intercourse of the blessed. In general, however, theologians deem it more appropriate that there should be a special and glorious abode, in which the blessed ha\'e their pecu- liar home and where they visually abide, even though they be free to go about in this world. For the sur- roundings in the midst of which the blessed have their dwelling must be in accordance with their happy state; and the intern:il union of charity which joins them in affection must find its outward expression in community of habitation. At the end of the world, the earth together with the celestial bodies will be gloriously transformed into a part of the dwelling- place of the blessed (.-Vpoc, xxi). Hence there seems to be no sufficient reason for attributing a metaphori- cal sense to those numerous utterances of Holy Writ which suggest a definite dwelling-place of the lile.ssed. Theologians, therefore, generally hold that the heaven of the blessed is a special place with definite limits. Naturally, this place is held to exist, not within the earth, but, in accordance with the expressions of Scripture, without :ind beyond its limits. All further details regarding its localit.v are quite uncertain. The Church has decided nothing on this subject.

II. Existence of He.wen. — There is a heaven, i. e., God will bestow happiness and the richest gifts on all those who depart this life free from original sin and personal mortal sin, and who are, consequently, in the state of justice and friendship with (Jod. Concerning the purification of those just souls who depart in venial sin or who are still subject to temporal punish- ment for sin, see Purgatory. On the lot of those who die free from personal sin, but infected with origi- nal .sin, see Limbo {limbus parvvlorum). On the im- mediate beginning of eternal happiness after death, or eventually, after the passage through purgatory, see

JUDG.MENT, P.\RTICt:LAR.

The existence of heaven is, of cour.se, denied by atheists, materialists, and pantheists of all centuries, as well as by those rationalists who teach that the soul perishes with the Ixxly, in short, by all who deny the existence of (iod or the immortality of the .soul. But, for the rest, if we abstract from the specific quality and the supernatural character of heaven, the doctrine has never met with any opposition worthy of note. Even mere reason c:in prove the existence of heaven or of the happy state of the just in the next life. We