human beings dying without actual sin, but with their original sin unwashed away by baptism, were held to be consigned; the category included, not unbaptized infants merely, but also idiots, cretins and the like. The word “limbus,” in the theological application, occurs first in the Summa of Thomas Aquinas; for its extensive currency it is perhaps most indebted to the Commedia of Dante (Inf. c. 4). The question as to the destiny of infants dying unbaptized presented itself to theologians at a comparatively early period. Generally speaking it may be said that the Greek fathers inclined to a cheerful and the Latin fathers to a gloomy view. Thus Gregory of Nazianzus (Orat. 40) says “that such children as die unbaptized without their own fault shall neither be glorified nor punished by the righteous Judge, as having done no wickedness, though they die unbaptized, and as rather suffering loss than being the authors of it.” Similar opinions were expressed by Gregory of Nyssa, Severus of Antioch and others—opinions which it is almost impossible to distinguish from the Pelagian view that children dying unbaptized might be admitted to eternal life, though not to the kingdom of God. In his recoil from Pelagian heresy, Augustine was compelled to sharpen the antithesis between the state of the saved and that of the lost, and taught that there are only two alternatives—to be with Christ or with the devil, to be with Him or against Him. Following up, as he thought, his master’s teaching, Fulgentius declared that it is to be believed as an indubitable truth that, “not only men who have come to the use of reason, but infants dying, whether in their mother’s womb or after birth, without baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, are punished with everlasting punishment in eternal fire.” Later theologians and schoolmen followed Augustine in rejecting the notion of any final position intermediate between heaven and hell, but otherwise inclined to take the mildest possible view of the destiny of the irresponsible and unbaptized. Thus the proposition of Innocent III. that “the punishment of original sin is deprivation of the vision of God” is practically repeated by Aquinas, Scotus, and all the other great theologians of the scholastic period, the only outstanding exception being that of Gregory of Rimini, who on this account was afterwards called “tortor infantum.” The first authoritative declaration of the Latin Church upon this subject was that made by the second council of Lyons (1274), and confirmed by the council of Florence (1439), with the concurrence of the representatives of the Greek Church, to the effect that “the souls of those who die in mortal sin or in original sin only forthwith descend into hell, but to be punished with unequal punishments.” Perrone remarks (Prael. Theol. pt. iii. chap. 6, art. 4) that the damnation of infants and also the comparative lightness of the punishment involved in this are thus de fide; but nothing is determined as to the place which they occupy in hell, as to what constitutes the disparity of their punishment, or as to their condition after the day of judgment. In the council of Trent there was considerable difference of opinion as to what was implied in deprivation of the vision of God, and no definition was attempted, the Dominicans maintaining the severer view that the “limbus infantum” was a dark subterranean fireless chamber, while the Franciscans placed it in a region of light above the earth. Some theologians continue to maintain with Bellarmine that the infants “in limbo” are affected with some degree of sadness on account of a felt privation; others, following the Nodus praedestinationis of Celestine Sfrondati (1649–1696), hold that they enjoy every kind of natural felicity, as regards their souls now, and as regards their bodies after the resurrection, just as if Adam had not sinned. In the condemnation (1794) of the synod of Pistoia (1786), the twenty-sixth article declares it to be false, rash and injurious to treat as Pelagian the doctrine that those dying in original sin are not punished with fire, as if that meant that there is an intermediate place, free from fault and punishment, between the kingdom of God and everlasting damnation.
2. The Limbus Patrum, Limbus Inferni or Sinus Abrahae (“Abraham’s Bosom”), is defined in Roman Catholic theology as the place in the underworld where the saints of the Old Testament were confined until liberated by Christ on his “descent into hell.” Regarding the locality and its pleasantness or painfulness nothing has been taught as de fide. It is sometimes regarded as having been closed and empty since Christ’s descent, but other authors do not think of it as separate in place from the limbus infantum. The whole idea, in the Latin Church, has been justly described as the mere caput mortuum of the old catholic doctrine of Hades, which was gradually superseded in the West by that of purgatory.
LIME (O. Eng. lim, Lat. limus, mud, from linere, to smear), the
name given to a viscous exudation of the holly-tree, used for
snaring birds and known as “bird-lime.” In chemistry, it is
the popular name of calcium oxide, CaO, a substance employed
in very early times as a component of mortars and cementing
materials. It is prepared by the burning of limestone (a process
described by Dioscorides and Pliny) in kilns similar to those
described under Cement. The value and subsequent treatment
of the product depend on the purity of the limestone; a pure
stone yields a “fat” lime which readily slakes; an impure stone,
especially if magnesia be present, yields an almost unslakable
“poor” lime. See Cement, Concrete and Mortar, for details.
Pure calcium oxide “quick-lime,” obtained by heating the pure carbonate, is a white amorphous substance, which can be readily melted and boiled in the electric furnace, cubic and acicular crystals being deposited on cooling the vapour. It combines with water, evolving much heat and crumbling to pieces; this operation is termed “slaking” and the resulting product “slaked lime”; it is chemically equivalent to the conversion of the oxide into hydrate. A solution of the hydrate in water, known as lime-water, has a weakly alkaline reaction; it is employed in the detection of carbonic acid. “Milk of lime” consists of a cream of the hydrate and water. Dry lime has no action upon chlorine, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide, although in the presence of water combination ensues.
In medicine lime-water, applied externally, is an astringent and desiccative, and it enters into the preparation of linamentum calcis and carron oil which are employed to heal burns, eczema, &c. Applied internally, lime-water is an antacid; it prevents the curdling of milk in large lumps (hence its prescription for infants); it also acts as a gastric sedative. Calcium phosphate is much employed in treating rickets, and calcium chloride in haemoptysis and haemophylia. It is an antidote for mineral and oxalic acid poisoning.
LIME,[1] or Linden. The lime trees, species of Tilia, are familiar timber trees with sweet-scented, honeyed flowers, which are borne on a common peduncle proceeding from the middle of a long bract. The genus, which gives the name to the natural order Tiliaceae, contains about ten species of trees, natives of the north temperate zone. The general name Tilia europaea, the name given by Linnaeus to the European lime, includes several well-marked sub-species, often regarded as distinct species. These are: (1) the small-leaved lime, T. parvifolia (or T. cordata), probably wild in woods in England and also wild throughout Europe, except in the extreme south-east, and Russian Asia. (2) T. intermedia, the common lime, which is widely planted in Britain but not wild there, has a less northerly distribution than T. cordata, from which it differs in its somewhat larger leaves and downy fruit. (3) The large-leaved lime, T. platyphyllos (or T. grandifolia), occurs only as an introduction in Britain, and is wild in Europe south of Denmark. It differs from the other two limes in its larger leaves, often 4 in. across, which are downy beneath, its downy twigs and its prominently ribbed fruit. The lime sometimes acquires a great size; one is recorded in Norfolk as being 16 yds. in circumference, and Ray mentions one of the same girth. The famous linden tree which gave the town of Neuenstadt in Württemberg the name of “Neuenstadt an der grossen Linden” was 9 ft. in diameter.
The lime is a very favourite tree. It is an object of beauty in
- ↑ This is an altered form of O. Eng. and M. Eng. lind; cf. Ger. Linde, cognate with Gr. ἐλάτη, the silver fir. “Linden” in English means properly “made of lime—or lind—wood,” and the transference to the tree is due to the Ger. Lindenbaum.
