HELIOPOLIS
207
HELL
religious confusion and disintegration among the
pagans in the city, the Christians affording a marked
contrast in the manner in which they maintained the
integrity of their faith. Influenced by his grand-
mother, the emperor adopted his so far uncorruptetl
twelve-year-old cousin Aurelius Alexander, and as-
signed him the title of Csesar. The repeated attempts
of Heliogabalus to encompass his cousin's death were
always frustrated by the soldiers. In a mutiny in
favour of Alexander (11 March, 222) Heliogabalus
was murdered, together with his mother.
Schiller. Rnmische Kaiserzeit (Berlin. 1SS3); Allard, Hist, des persecutions ele VEglise (Paris. 1875—): Reville, La reli- gion h Rome sous les Sevh-e (Paris, 1886): Duchesne, Hist, an- cienne de VEtilise, I (2nd ed., Paris, 1906) : Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Biog., s. V.
Kabl Hoeber. Heliopolls. See Baalbek.
Helkesaites. See Elcesaites.
Hell. — This subject is treated under eight head- ings: (I) Name and Place of Hell; (II) Existence of Hell; (III) Eternity of Hell: (IV) Impenitence of the Damned; (V) Poena Damni; (VI) Pcena Sensus; (VII) Accidental Pains of the Damned; (VIII) Char- acteristics of the Pains of Hell.
I. Name and Place of Hell. — The term hell is cognate to "hole" (cavern) and "hollow". It is a substantive formed from the A. S. helatj or behelian, "to hide". This verb has the same primitive as the Latin occulere and celare and the Greek KaXi/irretj/. Thus by derivation hell denotes a dark and hidden place. In ancient Norse mythology Ilel is the ill- favoured goddess of the underworld. Only those who fall in battle can enter Valhalla; the rest go down to Hel in the underworld, not all, however, to the place of punishment of criminals.
Hell {infernus) in theological usage is a place of punishment after death. Theologians distinguish four meanings of the term hell: (1) hell in the strict sense of the term, or the place of punishment for the damned, be they demons or men; (2) the limbo of infants (limbu.s parvulorum), where those who die in original sin alone, and without personal mortal sin, are confined and undergo some kind of punishment; (3) the limbo of the Fathers (liinbus patrum), in which the souls of the just who died before Christ awaited their admission to heaven; for in the meantime heaven was closed against them in punishment for the sin of Adam; (-1) purgatory, where the just, who die in venial sin or who still owe a debt of temporal punish- ment for sin, are cleansed by suffering before their admission to heaven. The present article treats only of hell in the strict sense of the term.
The Latin infernus (inferum, inferi), the Greek Hades (?5?js), and the Hebrew sheol {^tiii') correspond to the word hell. Infernus is derived from the root in; hence it designates liell as a place within and be- low the earth. AiStji, formed from the root fi5, to see, and a privative, denotes an invisible, hidden, and dark place; thus it is similar to the term hell. The derivation of sheol is doubtful. It is generally sup- posed to come from the root 7iif;i>=hw, "to be sunk in, to be hollow " ; accordingly it denotes a cave or a islace under tlie earth. In the Old Testament (Sept. 95t;s; Vulg. in/emus) sheol is used quite in general to designate the kingdom of the dead, of the good (Gen., xxxvii, .3.5) as well as of the bad (Num., xvi, .30); it means hell in the strict sense of the term, as well as the limbo of the Fathers. But, as the limbo of the Fathers ended at the time of Christ's Ascension, ?5j)s (Vulg. infernus) in the New Testament always desig- nates the hell of the damned. Since Christ's Ascen- sion the just no longer go down to the lower world, but they dwell in heaven (II Cor., v, 1). However, in the New Testament the term (Gehenna (y^tva) is used more frequently in preference to ?5i)!, as a name for the place of punishment of the damned. Gehenna is
the Hebrew gc-kinnom (Neh., xi, 30), or the longer
form ge-ben-hinnom (Jos., xv, 8), and gC-bene-hinrwm
(pjrTJTJ, IV Kings, xxiii, 10), "valley of the sons of
Hinnom " Hinnom seems to be the name of a person
not otherwise known. The Valley of Hinnom is south
of Jerusalem and is now called Wadi er-rababi. It
was notorious as the scene, in earlier days, of the hor-
rible worship of Moloch. For this reason it was
defiled by Josias (IV Kings, xxiii, 10), cursed by
Jeremias (Jer., vii, 31-33), and held in abomination by
the Jews, who, accordingly, used the name of this
valley to designate the abode of the damned (Targ.
Jon., Gen., iii, 24; Henoch, c. xxvi). And Christ
adopted this usage of the term. Besides Hades and
Gehenna, we find in the New Testament many other
names for the abode of the damned. It is called
"lower hell" (Vulg. tartarus) (II Peter, ii, 4), "abyss"
(Luke, viii, 31, and elsewhere), "place of torments"
(Luke, xvi, 28), "pool of fire" (Apoc, xix, 20, and
elsewhere), " furnace of fire " (Matt., xiii, 42, 50), "un-
quenchable fire " (Matt., iii, 12, and elsewhere), "ever-
lasting fire" (Matt., xviii, 8; xxv, 41; Jude, 7),
"exterior darkness" (Matt., viii, 12; xxii, 13; xxv,
30), "mist" or "storm of darkness" (II Peter, ii, 17;
Jude, 13). The state of the damned is called "de-
struction" (dTTiiXtia, Phil., iii, 19, and elsewhere),
"perdition" (SXeSpos, I Tim., vi, 9), "eternal destruc-
tion" (6\e6pos a/wwos, II Thess., i, 9), "corruption"
(06iop<£, Gal., vi, 8), "death" (Rom., vi, 21), "second
death" (Apoc, ii, 11, and elsewhere).
Where is hell? Some were of opinion that hell is e\erywhere, that the damned are at liberty to roam aliout in the entire universe, but that they carry their punishment with them. The adherents of this doc- trine were called Ubiquists, or LHiiquitarians; among them were, e. g., Johann Brenz, a Swabian, a Protestant theologian of the sLxteenth century. However, that opinion is universally and deservedly rejected; for it is more in keeping nnth their state of punishment that the damned be limited in their movements and confined to a definite place. Moreover, if liell is a real fire, it can- not be everywhere, especially after the consummation of the world, when heaven and earth shall have been made anew. As to its locality all kinds of conjectures have been made; it has been suggested that hell is situated on some far island of the sea, or at the two poles of the earth; Swinden, an Englishman of the eighteenth century, fancied it was in the sun; some assigned it to the moon, others to Mars; others placed it bevond the confines of the universe [Wiest, " Instit. theol.", VI (17S9), 869]. Holy Writ seems to indicate that hell is within the earth, for it descriljes hell as an abyss to which the wicked descend. We even read of the earth opening and of the wicked sinking down into hell (Num., xvi, 31 sqq.; Ps., liv, 16; Is., v, 14; Ez., xxvi, 20; Phil., ii, 10, etc.). Is this merely a meta- phor to illustrate the state of separation from God? Although God is omnipresent. He is said to dwell in heaven, because the light and grandeur of the stars and the firmament are the brightest manifestations of His infinite splendour. But the damned are utterly estranged from God ; hence their abode is said to be as remote as possible from His dwelling, far from heaven above and its light, and consequently hidden away in the dark abysses of the earth. However, no cogent reason has been advanced for accepting a metaphorical uiterpretation in preference to the most natural mean- ing of the words of Scripture. Hence theologians generally accept the opinion that hell is really within the earth. The Church has decided nothing on this subject; hence we may say hell is a definite place; but where it is, we do not know. St. Chrysostom reminds us: " We must not ask where hell is, but how we are to escape it" (In Rom., hom. xxxi, n. 5, in P. G., LX, 674). St. Augustine says: " It is my opinion that the nature of hell-fire and the location of hell are known to no man unless the Holv Ghost made it known to him
