Question 97 — The Punishment of the Damned

In due sequence we must consider those things that concern the damned after the judgment: (1) The punishment of the damned, and the fire by which their bodies will be tormented; (2) Matters relating to their will and intellect; (3) God’s justice and mercy in regard to the damned.

Under the first head there are seven points of inquiry:

(1) Whether in hell the damned are tormented with the sole punishment of fire?

• (2) Whether the worm by which they are tormented is corporeal?
• (3) Whether their weeping is corporeal?
• (4) Whether their darkness is material?
• (5) Whether the fire whereby they are tormented is corporeal?
• (6) Whether it is of the same species as our fire?
• (7) Whether this fire is beneath the earth?