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 JUDGMENT

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JUDGMENT

their passage through the underworld (see Egypt). The Babylonians and the Assyrians make no distinc- tion between the good and the bad so far as the future habitation is concerned. In the Gilgames epic the hero is marked as judge of the dead, but whether his rule was the moral value of their actions is not clear. An unerring judgment and compensation in the future life was a cardinal point in the mythologies of the Per- sians, Greeks, and Romans. But, while these m3rtho- logical schemes were credited as strict verities by the ignorant body of the people, the learned saw in them only the allegorical presentation of truth. There were always some who denied the doctrine of a future life, and this unbelief went on increasing till, in the last days of the Republic, scepticism regarding immor- tahty prevailed among Greeks and Romans.

With the Jews, the judgment of the living was a far more prominent idea than the judgment of the dead. The Pentateuch contains no express mention of re- muneration in the future life, and it was only at a comparatively late period, under the influence of a fuller revelation, that the belief in resurrection and judgment began to play a capital part in the faith of Judaism (Vigouroux, "La Bible et les d^couvertes

existence of a discriminating retribution in the life to come. The Essenes believed in the pre-existence of souls, but taught that the after-existence was an un- changing state of bliss or woe according to the deeds done in the body. The eschatologieal tenets of the Samaritans were at first few and vague. Their doc- trine of the resurrection and of the day of vengeance and recompense was a theology patterned after the model of Judaism, and first formulated for the sect by its greatest theologian, Marka (.\. D. fourth century). III. P.AJiTicuLAR JuDG.MENT. — A. Dogma of Partic- ular Judgment. — The Catholic doctrine of the partic- ular judgment consists in this, that immediately after death the eternal destiny of each separated soul is decided by the just judgment of God. Although there has been no formal definition on this point, the dogina is clearly implied in the Union Decree of Eu- gene IV (1439), which declares that souls quitting their bodies in a state of grace, but in need of purification, are cleansed in Purgatory, whereas souls that are perfectly pure are at once admitted to the beatific vision of the Godhead (ipsum Deum unum et trinian), and those who depart in actual mortal sin, or merely with original sin, are at once consigned to eternal

' Judgment I the Roman Cemetery of St. Cyriaca

modernes", pt. V, II, c. vi). The traces of tliis theo- logical development are plainly visible in the Mach- abean era. Then arose the two great opposing par- ties, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, whose divergent interpretations of Scripture led to heated contro- versies, especially regarding the future hfe. The Sadducees denied all reward and penalty in the here- after, while their opponents encumbered the truth with ludicrous details. Thus some of the rabbis asserted that the trumpet which would summon the world to judgment would be one of the horns of the ram which Abraham offered up instead of his son Isaac. Again they said: "When God judges the Israelites, lie will stand, and make the judgment brief and mild; when lie judges the Gentiles, he will sit and make it long and severe." Apart from such rabbini- cal fables, the current belief reflected in the writings of the rabbis and the pseudographs at the beginning of the Christian Era was that of a preliminary judgment and of a final judgment to occur at the consimamation of the world, the former to be executed against the wicked by the personal prowess of the Messias and of the saints of Israel, the latter to be pronounced as an external sentence by God or the Mes.sias (cf. Tixeront, "Histoire des Dogmcs", I, 1, 43). The particular judgment of the individual person is lost sight (jf in the universal judgment by which the Messias will vindi- cate the wrongs endured by Israel (Tixeront, op. cit., 41). With .Mcxiuidrhui .ludMistn, on the contrary, with that at least of which I'hilo is the exponent, the doiniiiaiil idea was that of an immediate retribution att<r <iialh (Tixeront, op. cit., 51, 52). The two dis- senting sects of Israel, the Essenes and the Samaritans, were in agreement with the majority of Jews as to the

punishment, the quality of which corresponds to their sin (painis tamen disparibiis) (Denzinger, " Enchiri- dion", ed. 10, n. 693— old ed., n. 588). The doctrine is also in the profession of faith of Michael Palfeologus in 1274 (Denz., " Ench.", ed. 10, n. 464— old ed., n. 387), in the Bull "Benedictus Deus" of Benedict XII, in 1336 (Denz., " Ench.", ed. 10, n. 530— old ed., n. 456), in the profession of faith of Gregory XIII (Denz., "Ench.^', ed. 10, n. 1084— old ed., n. 870), and of Benedict XIV (ibid., n. 1468— old ed., n. 875).

B. Existence of Particular Judgment Proved from Scripture. — Eccles., xi, 9; xii, 1 sq.; and Heb., ix, 27, are sometimes quoted in proof of the particular judgment, but though these passages speak of a judg- ment after death, neither the context nor the force of the words proves that the sacred writer had in mind a judgment distinct from that at the end of the world. The Scriptural arguments in defence of the particular judgment must be indirect (cf . Billot, " Qua;stiones de Novissimis", II, p. 1). There is no text of which we can certainly say that it expressly affirms this dogma, but there are several which teach an immediate retri- bution after death and therebj' clearly imply a par- ticular judgment. Christ represents Lazarus and Dives as receiving their respective rewards immedi- ately after death. They have always been regarded as types of the just man and the sinner. To the penitent thief it was promised thatr his soul instantly on leaving the l)ody would lie in the .state of the bles.sed: "This day" thou shall be with me in Para- di.se" (Luke,xxiii,i3). St. Paul (II ('or.,v) longs to be ab.setit from the body that he may be present to the Lord, evidently understanding death to be the en- trance into bis reward (cf. Phil.,i, 21sq.). Ecclus.,