Heaven’s Purge: Purgatory in Late Antiquity

321 Pages·2010·1.17 MB·English

by  Isabel Moreira

Heaven’s Purge
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Heaven’s Purge
Purgatory in Late Antiquity

ISABEL MOREIRA

2010
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Moreira, Isabel.
Heaven’s purge : purgatory in late antiquity / Isabel Moreira.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-19-973604-1
1. Purgatory—History of doctrines—Early church, ca. 30–600. I. Title.
BT843.M67 2010
236 ′ .509015—dc22 2009046032
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Robert, Laura, and Julia
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Acknowledgments
It has been a daunting task to write this book at a time when
professional and personal obligations have been high. It is a pleasure,
therefore, to be able to thank those who have provided me with the
time and support I needed to complete this book. First, I thank the
University of Utah for supporting my research. A faculty fellowship
in fall 2008 and a sabbatical leave in spring 2009 allowed me to
complete this book to schedule. I am also enormously grateful to the
Tanner Center for the Humanities at the University of Utah for a
Virgil C. Aldrich Fellowship for a semester in which I hammered out
preliminary ideas and benefi ted from the thoughtful suggestions and
guidance of Vincent Cheng, its director, and the other fellows.
The interlibrary loan staff at the University of Utah’s Marriott
Library have been effi cient and helpful, and I have benefi ted for
many years from the expertise of Ceres Birkhead, an impressive
professional librarian. Additionally, I thank the library staff at the
Pontifi cal Institute for Mediaeval Studies in Toronto, who have
provided help and access to their enviable collection.
It has been greatly to the benefi t of this project that some
generous scholars and friends have read chapters and made
suggestions for improvement. Alan Bernstein, Bonnie Effros, Lisa Bitel,
Jill Harries, George H. Brown, and Eric Hinderaker read individual
chapters. Margaret Toscano, a dear friend and colleague, has listened
to my ideas for a number of years, and always helped when a Latin
query arose. To Alan Bernstein, with whom I have been involved
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
in deep debates about purgatory, I acknowledge a special debt of gratitude and
appreciation. Over the past few years we have discovered common interests
and occasional exhilarating disagreements. The book has benefi tted from his
sage commentary even while it is apparent that often I ultimately went my own
way. It has been a privilege to have benefi tted from his generous advice. All
errors are, of course, entirely my own. I would also like to thank the anony-
mous reviewers for Oxford University Press who offered specifi c suggestions at
an earlier stage in the project, and Cynthia Reed and the editorial staff of the
press for their interest in the book and friendly help.
Dear friends and family have lived with me through my obsession with
purgatory—no easy task. I thank Kay and Mike Ringwood, Rebecca Horn, Jim
Lehning, Megan Armstrong, Isabelle Cochelin, Emily Michelson, Marilyn
Davies, and Fiona Webster. They have had to hear more about purgatory than
they ever would have imagined. Last, but always foremost, I thank my closest
family. With deepest love I thank my father, my mother (always), and my sister.
My greatest debt, however, is to my husband, Robert Summerfi eld, who has
supported me through this entire process with love and humour. He read and
commented on the entire manuscript in multiple drafts, offered great sugges-
tions, and kept all our priorities in perspective. He is incomparable—the com-
panion of my heart. My daughters Laura and Julia were born during the time
this book was fi rst taking shape. Almost as soon as they could formulate such
thoughts, they asked questions about life and death that challenge the capacity
of any person to provide answers. From Laura, who is 7, who continues to
grapple seriously with questions of mortality, and Julia who is 4 and who has
just begun, I have found inspiration and resolve.
C ontents
Introduction: Purgatory in Late Antiquity , 3
1. Purgatory in Early Christian and Patristic Thought , 15
2. Of Sons and Slaves: Violence and Correction in the Afterlife , 39
3. O Purgatorium Caeleste !: Purging Body and Soul at St. Martin’s
Shrine , 63
4. Purgation in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries , 81
5. Purgatory, Penitentials, and the Irish Question , 113
6. Purgatory in Bede and Boniface , 147
7. Missionary Eschatology and the Politics of Certainty , 177
8. Barbarians, Law Codes, and Purgatory , 193
Conclusion , 207
Notes , 213
Abbreviations , 279
Bibliography , 281
Index , 305