Divine Judgment

DIVINE JUDGMENT. - It is the otherworldly manifestation of divine justice, whereby the rendering of account of each man's life will be answered by the infallibly exact assignment of reward and punishment.

This manifestation is twofold: one at the end of each individual's life (particular judgment), the other, at the end of time, for humanity as a whole (universal judgment).

I. PARTICULAR DIVINE JUDGMENT

The doctrine defined by the Church indissolubly joins the particular divine judgment, which follows the death of each person, with the immediate retribution of souls.

1. Errors

According to the ancient Jewish conception, all the dead, Jews and pagans, good and wicked, descend into Sheol and there lead a halved, "shadowy" life, immersed in silence, darkness, complete inaction, almost seized by a deep slumber (cf. Job 10:20-22; Eccles. 9:10). This conception strongly influenced certain Christian writers from the very beginning. According to St. Justin (Dial. cum Tryph., 5: PG 6, 487) souls will be guarded in a different place, according to their respective merits, iudicii tempus expectantes. St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haer., 5, 31: PG 7, 1208) held that they abibunt in invisibile locum to await the resurrection of bodies. Tertullian (De anima, 55 and 58: PL 2, 742, 750) was convinced that all souls remained penes inferos until the universal judgment, but the damned would experience supplicia in advance, the saved refrigeria; to the martyrs, however, he held that the vision of God was granted immediately as a privilege (De resurr. carnis, 43: ibid., 856). According to Lactantius (Institutiones, 7, 21: ibid., 6, 800) all souls will be gathered into a communis custodia awaiting the final judgment. Vigilantius, strongly opposed by St. Jerome (Contra Vigil., 6 and 17: PL 43, 344, 352) held that they would remain drowsing (πεννογία: semi-waking) or asleep (δηνος: sleep) until the second coming of Jesus

Christ. In substance these writers admitted the postponement of the particular divine judgment until the end of the world.

This error reappeared in the East with Phazius and through Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, John Zonaras, Joseph Bryennios and Symeon of Thessalonica was transmitted to those Greek theologians who, led by Mark Eugenicus, opposed the definition of the Council of Florence. From that time, as a reaction against the Latin Church, it became almost general among the Greek dissidents and slowly penetrated among the Russians as well.

In the West there was an ephemeral and partial revival of this archaic theory in the controversy De visione beatifica that agitated between Franciscans and Dominicans under the pontificate of John XXII (d. 1334). It seems that the Pontiff himself, as a private doctor, for some time embraced the opinion of those Minorite theologians who, while granting to fully purified souls entry into Paradise and the vision of Christ's humanity, held that the intuitive vision of the Divinity would be granted to them only after the resurrection of the flesh.

In the 16th century the Protestants revived the old error: Luther affirmed omnes dormire insensibiles, exceptis paucis, usque ad diem iudicii (Ep. ad Amsdorf, 13 Jan. 1522, E. L. Enders, III, Erlangen 1925, pp. 269-70); Calvin, on the other hand, after combating the theory, dear to the Anabaptists, of the sleep of souls (De psychopannychia, Strasbourg 1542) maintained omnia teneri suspensa donec Christus appareat Redemptor (Institutio relig. Christ., III, 25). In the 18th century the Anglican Thomas Burnet gave a scientific form to the doctrine of the intermediate state of souls, awaiting the final judgment, but he was effectively opposed by Muratori (De paradiso regnique caelestis gloria, Verona 1738). Today hostility against the particular divine judgment is very widespread among liberal Protestants. Also opposed to the particular divine judgment are the thnetopsychites, who like Tatian (Adv. Graecos, 13: PG 6, 833) and certain Arabs (cf. Eusebius, Hist. eccl., 6, 37: PG 20, 598). Priestley (d. 1804) and the Adventists teach that the soul, at the moment of death, is annihilated, to rise again later, together with the body, before the universal judgment. The Gnostics, the Manichaeans and the theosophists, admitting metempsychosis (v.), necessarily reject the particular divine judgment.

2. Catholic doctrine

From the 13th century, because of the many contacts they had with the East, the popes were led to clarify this point and repeatedly reaffirmed the same doctrine, that just and fully purified souls are immediately (mox) received into heaven, that those stained by mortal sin are immediately (mox) cast into hell: thus the Council of Lyon (1274) in the profession of faith of Michael Palaiologos (Denz-U, 464), Benedict XII in the dogmatic constitution Benedictus Deus (1336) with which he cut short the controversy that had arisen under John XXII (ibid., 530-31), the Council of Florence (1439) in the decree of union with the Greeks (ibid., 693), Gregory XIII and Benedict XIV in the professions of faith prescribed for the dissidents who were returning to the unity of the Church (ibid., 1084, 1468). In this doctrine it is implicitly affirmed that all souls, immediately after death, undergo the particular divine judgment, by which their reward or punishment is assigned to them.

In the same manner in Sacred Scripture, while it speaks directly of the immediate retribution of the good and the wicked, it indirectly affirms the particular divine judgment. Immediate recompense is clearly indicated by Jesus both when he states that at the moment of death Lazarus is carried into the bosom of Abraham and that the rich man is buried in hell (Lk. 16:22), and when he answers the good thief: "Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso" (ibid. 23:43). St. Paul teaches the same thing when he expresses the desire to die (peregrinari a corpore) in order to dwell together with the Lord (praesentes esse ad Dominum: ἐνδημῶς πρὸς τὸν Κύριον [II Cor. 5:8]), as when he affirms that Christ died for us, so that whether in life or in death simul cum illo vivamus (I Thess. 5:9-10). The same idea underlies other texts: Mt. 26:24, II Cor. 5:10, Philip. 1:23, Hebr. 9:27, Apoc. 14:13.

The New Testament doctrine is reflected in the thought of the Apostolic Fathers: Ignatius (Rom. 4 and 7; Trall. 13), Clement of Rome (I Cor. 5:4; 5:7), Polycarp (Phil. 9), and receives a particular clarification in St. Cyprian: "Let us accept death, which assigns to each his dwelling and, snatching us from the snares of the world, restores us to Paradise and the Kingdom... There our loved ones await us and a numerous host desires us, now secure of its own lot, but still anxious for our salvation (iam de sua incolumitate secura et adhuc de nostra salute sollicita)" (De mortalitate 26: PL. 4, 601). Origen himself, when he reproduces the traditional thought, asserts that the soul at the moment of death (cum ex hoc mundo discesserit) will be treated according to its merits, reaching the joys of heaven or the eternal pains of fire (De principiis, 1, praef. 5: PG 11, 118).

In the 4th-5th centuries the idea of judgment and retribution at the moment of death is widely attested by the great Doctors: St. Gregory of Nazianzus (Oratio in laudem Gorgoniae 23: PG 35, 815), St. Gregory of Nyssa (In funere s. Pulcheriae: ibid. 46, 870: tibi oculum clausit, sed lumini aeterno aperuit... de regno ad regnum traducta est), St. John Chrysostom (In Mt. hom. 14, 4: ibid. 57, 222: cum hinc obierint; De beato Philogonio: ibid. 48, 749: hodie beatus ille ad tranquillam vitam translatus est... ad beatam sortem hodie transiit), St. Jerome (In Joel, 2: PL 25, 965: quod in die iudicii futurum est omnibus, hoc in singulis die mortis impletur). There is no lack of certain uncertainties in St. Hilary of Poitiers and in St. Ambrose, but they are due to the influence of Jewish and Origenist eschatology. St. Augustine, who at times wavered, in the De anima et eius origine (2, 4, 8: ibid. 44, 499) wrote recitissime et valde salubriter credi iudicari animas, cum de corporibus exierint. Finally the concise and clear formula of St. Gregory the Great (Dial. 4, 28: ibid. 77, 365) die exitus sui indicates the path that will be followed by all Scholasticism.

St. Thomas illustrates the fittingness of the particular divine judgment: the attainment of the ultimate end of every being cannot be deferred (C. Gent. 4, 91); man must be judged as an individual (particular divine judgment) and as a member of human society (universal divine judgment), cf. Sum. Theol. 3, q. 59, a. 4, ad 1; Suppl. q. 69, a. 2; q. 88, a. 1, ad 1.

3. Nature of the particular divine judgment

The judge is Jesus Christ, not only as God, but also as man (cf. Mt. 28:18; Io. 5:22; Act. 10:42). The soul, at the instant of judgment, does not see the Divinity intuitively, otherwise it would already be blessed, nor does it see the humanity of the Redeemer, but, through an infused light, it learns that the God-Man is the supreme judge of the living and the dead.

God knows the soul by an immediate intuition, and the soul, under the irradiation of the divine light, has an adequate cognition of itself, embracing all its activity down to the smallest details and evaluating it without possibility of error. This interior reckoning, in the light of eternity, constitutes the sentence.

In the rapid illumination of its whole being and its activity, the soul, in spontaneously formulating an infallible judgment upon itself, experiences and learns that it is being judged by God. This happens in the same place and moment in which it ceases to inform the body. In the same instant the judgment obtains its execution from divine omnipotence, which the interior inclination of the judged soul spontaneously seconds, since as heavy bodies descend and light ones rise, so pondere suo the wicked will fall into torments, the good will fly toward the place of enjoyments (cf. Sum. Theol., suppl. q. 69, a. 2).

II. UNIVERSAL DIVINE JUDGMENT

1. The truth of the universal divine judgment is formally contained in Sacred Scripture. In the Old Testament, after the first hints in Ps. 97 (8-9) and Eccles. (12, 4), the announcement of the universal judgment becomes increasingly precise in the vivid descriptions of the prophets (Is. 13, 9; 66, 15; Joel 2, 1; Zeph. 1, 2; Dan. 7, 8) and of Wis. (5, 1-13). The whole New Testament is dominated by this great prospect. Jesus often spoke of it in his preaching (Mt. 11, 22-23; 12, 41; 16, 27; 26, 64; Lk. 10, 12-14; 11, 31-32; Jn. 5, 29; 12, 48) and described its particulars with magnificence in the eschatological discourse: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on the throne of his majesty; and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and he will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand: come, you blessed of my Father, take possession of the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world... Then he will say also to those at his left: depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels..." (Mt. 25, 31-46; cf. Mk. 13, 26-27; Lk. 21, 27). The Apostles echoed the Master's teaching (Acts 10, 42; 17, 31; 24, 25; Rom. 2, 16; 14, 10; I Cor. 3, 4; 4, 5; II Cor. 5, 10; II Tim. 4, 15; II Thess. 2, 5; II Pt. 2, 9; Jude 15; Rev. 20, 12).

The whole Christian tradition lived under the strong impression of this announcement and willingly described its particulars for parenetic purposes (cf. M. J. Rouet de Journel, Enchiridion Patristicum, 11th ed., Freiburg im Br. 1937, nos. 74, 364, 396, 579, 694, 724, 964, 1172, 1456, 1768, 1880, 2140). St. Augustine summarized the constant teaching of the Fathers in the well-known phrase: "No one doubts or denies that Jesus Christ, as Sacred Scripture announces, will pronounce the last judgment" (De Civitate Dei, 20, 30; PL 41, 708). The Church has several times defined this truth in the Apostles', the Nicene-Constantinopolitan, and the Athanasian creeds, in the Councils of the Lateran of 649 (Denz-U, 225) and of 1251 (ibid., 429), of Florence (ibid., 693), and in the profession of faith issued after the Council of Trent (ibid., 994).

2. Circumstances of the universal divine judgment

The judge will be the God-Man (Jn. 5, 22; Acts 10, 42; Rom. 14, 10; II Cor. 5, 10), who will appear from the heights of heaven, preceded by the Cross (Mt. 24, 30), surrounded by hosts of angels and saints (Mt. 24, 31; Mk. 8, 38; Lk. 9, 26; I Thess. 3, 13; II Thess. 1, 7), in a luminous halo of clouds and fire (Mt. 25, 30; 26, 64; Mk. 13, 26; 14, 62; Lk. 21, 27; Acts 7, 30; I Thess. 4, 17; II Thess. 1, 8), seated on a throne of majesty (Mt. 19, 27; 25, 31; Rev. 20, 11-12), assisted in the act of judging by the Apostles (Lk. 22, 2), by the martyrs and by those who observed the evangelical counsels (Mt. 19, 27-28).

All the angels will be judged (I Cor. 6, 3; II Pt. 2, 4; Jude 6) and all men (Mt. 25, 32; Rom. 14, 10; II Cor. 5, 10; Rev. 1, 7) concerning their thoughts (I Cor. 4, 5), their words (Mt. 12, 36), their deeds (Rom. 2, 6) and their omissions (Jas. 4, 17; Eccles. 12, 14).

The sentence will be given through a collective internal illumination, by which all intelligent beings will know their own and others' actions in their individual value and above all in their social repercussions, in relation to the history of the world and the economy of the whole (cf. Sum. Theol., suppl. q. 88, a. 2).

The time of the universal divine judgment is known only to God (Mt. 24, 36; Mt. 13, 32; Acts 1. 7), although Scripture indicates certain foreboding signs: the preaching and acceptance of the Gospel throughout the whole world (Mt. 24, 3 and 14; Mk. 16, 15-16; Lk. 21, 24; Rom. 9, 25), the appearance of the Antichrist (v.), the conversion of Israel (Hos. 3, 4-5; Rom. 11, 25-27; II Cor. 3, 14-17), the great apostasy (II Thess. 2, 3; Mt. 24, 11-12; Lk. 17, 26-30; 18, 8; I Tim. 4, 1; II Tim. 3, 1), cosmic disturbances (in the sky: Joel 2, 30; Mt. 24, 29, 30; Lk. 21, 25-26, and on the earth: Mt. 24, 7-8; Lk. 21, 25-26).

The place will be chosen by God. The popular valley of Jehoshaphat is based on an illegitimate transposition of a symbolic name (Iosaphat: Deus iudicabit), to which Joel alludes (3, 2).

3. Reasons for the universal divine judgment

Good and evil have social repercussions and prolongations in time and space, whose ultimate effects can be evaluated only when the course of time has been halted (cf. Sum. Theol., 3ᵃ, q. 59, a. 5). The clamorous condemnation of sin in all its consequences will restore the extrinsic glory taken from God, while the triumph of Jesus Christ and of all the members of his Mystical Body will be the adequate reward for those who did good and fought evil in a world bristling with contradictions and prodigal toward them of mockery and martyrdoms. Then all the consequences of good and evil acts will be placed in their true light.

The moral order lies in the secrecy of hearts; external facts are but its testimony. In order that this order may one day shine forth in all its beauty, the prophecy of Jesus must be fulfilled: "Nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nothing secret that will not be made known" (Lk. 12, 2). Reasons of wisdom keep secrets in the course of the ages, but time, at the end, will have to pour out its treasure before the eyes of the universal assembly. All masks will fall and the prosperous Pharisaisms will bear the mark of an indelible infamy.

Schiller affirmed that the last judgment consists in universal history. The experience of the centuries has answered that the judgment of history, written by men, is neither clear nor equitable. The judgment of the Son of Man will not only be just, but will appear in its connection with all previous judgments, as the supreme act that seals the whole work of God from beginning to end. That judgment will not consider events only along the horizontal line of time, which flows between today and tomorrow, but along the vertical line, which connects them to the single instant of eternity. God will be justified in his every act and the ways he has followed in guiding individuals and peoples will appear blameless. They will shine forth as the ways of wisdom and love, once the mysteries and enigmas of the world have been unraveled. If history could in a certain sense be defined as the judgment of the world, in a truer sense the universal divine judgment will be history unveiled and made manifest. In the dazzling light that will strike the gaze of all those gathered by the sound of the angelic trumpet, each one will see that the destinies of human history are bound to the person of the God-Man, who is the intimate reason and the supreme crowning of the endless human vicissitudes.

BIBLI: I. Rivière, Jugement, in DThC, VII, coll. 1721-1828 (illustra con solida erudizione il progresso della Rivelazione e del dogma; scelta bibliografia); I. Katschhaler, Eschatologia, Ratisbona 1888, pp. 39-61, 524-63; I. Niederhuber, Die Eschatologie des heiligen Ambrosius, Paderborn 1907, pp. 115-120; D. Palmieri, De novissimis, Prato 1908, pp. 35-51, 88-141; A. Rademacher, Der Weltuntergang, Monaco 1909; M. Jugie, La doctrine des fins dernières dans l'Eglise gréco-russe, in Echos d'Orient, 17 (1914), pp. 5-22, 209-28, 402-21; S. Scaglia, I novissimi nei monumenti primitivi della Chiesa, Roma 1923, pp. 83-99; I. Rivière, Rôle du démon au jugement particulier chez les Pères, in Revue de sciences religieuses, 4 (1924), pp. 43-64; G. Ricciotti, S. Efrem Siro, Torino 1925, pp. 176-89; A. Vonier, Death and Judgement, Buckfast 1930; I. Tixeront, Histoire des dogmes, II, 9ᵃ ed., Parigi 1931, pp. 343-50, 429-35; M. Jugie, Theologia dogmatica christianorum orientalium, IV, ivi 1931, pp. 36-178; A. Janssens, La signification sotériologique de la parousie et du jugement dernier, in Divus Thomas Plac., 3 (1933), pp. 25-38; L. Labauche, Leçons de théologie dogmatique, II, 17ᵉ ed., Parigi 1934, pp. 349-434 (felice sintesi storica); G. Perrella, La dottrina dell'oltretomba nel Vecchio Testamento, in Divus Thomas Plac., 38 (1935), pp. 196-204; id., La valle di Giosafat e il giudizio universale, ibid., 40 (1937), pp. 45-50; M. Gordillo, Compendium theologiae orientalis, Roma 1937, pp. 188-95; B. Lavaud, Le jugement dernier, in La vie spirituelle, 57 (1938), pp. 113-39; L. Billot, De novissimis, 7ᵉ ed., Roma 1938, pp. 40-47, 170-76; H. Rondet, Le problème de la vie future, in Problèmes pour la réflexion chrétienne, Parigi 1945, pp. 65-98; I. Rivière, Rôle du démon au jugement particulier, in Bulletin de la littérature ecclésiastique, 48 (1947), pp. 98-126; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, L'altra vita e le profondità dell'anima, Brescia 1947, pp. 58-67; L. Lercher-F. Dander, Institutiones theologiae dogmaticae, IV, II, 3ᵃ ed., Innsbruck 1949, pp. 428-30, 529-33;

Rôle du démon au jugement particulier chez les Pères, in Revue de sciences religieuses, 4 (1924), pp. 43-64; G. Ricciotti, S. Efrem Siro, Turin 1925, pp. 176-89; A. Vonier, Death and Judgement, Buckfast 1930; I. Tixeront, Histoire des dogmes, II, 9th ed., Paris 1931, pp. 343-50, 429-35; M. Jugie, Theologia dogmatica christianorum orientalium, IV, ibid. 1931, pp. 36-178; A. Janssens, La signification sotériologique de la parousie et du jugement dernier, in Divus Thomas Plac., 3 (1933), pp. 25-38; L. Labauche, Leçons de théologie dogmatique, II, 17th ed., Paris 1934, pp. 349-434 (a successful historical synthesis); G. Perrella, La dottrina dell'oltretomba nel Vecchio Testamento, in Divus Thomas Plac., 38 (1935), pp. 196-204; id., La valle di Giosafat e il giudizio universale, ibid., 40 (1937), pp. 45-50; M. Gordillo, Compendium theologiae orientalis, Rome 1937, pp. 188-95; B. Lavaud, Le jugement dernier, in La vie spirituelle, 57 (1938), pp. 113-39; L. Billot, De novissimis, 7th ed., Rome 1938, pp. 40-47, 170-76; H. Rondet, Le problème de la vie future, in Problèmes pour la réflexion chrétienne, Paris 1945, pp. 65-98; I. Rivière, Rôle du démon au jugement particulier, in Bulletin de la littérature ecclésiastique, 48 (1947), pp. 98-126; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, L'altra vita e le profondità dell'anima, Brescia 1947, pp. 58-67; L. Lercher-F. Dander, Institutiones theologiae dogmaticae, IV, II, 3rd ed., Innsbruck 1949, pp. 428-30, 529-33;

A. Feuillet, Le triomphe eschatologique de Jésus d'après quelques textes isolés des Evangiles, in Nouvelle revue théologique, 81 (1949), pp. 701-22; P. Heinisch, Teologia del Vecchio Testamento, Italian trans. by D. Pintonello, Rome 1950, pp. 329-44; A. Piolanti, De novissimis, 3rd ed., Rome 1950, pp. 18-33; 149-69.

Antonio Piolanti

ICONOGRAPHY

1. Archaeology

Christ is the judge of the dead, as the apostle Peter declares in his teaching to the centurion Cornelius before baptizing him (Acts 10:25 ff.).

An inscription from 4th-century Gaul states expressly: "Here rests in peace Dalmata, redeemed by the death of Christ, and while the saints intercede for him, he awaits joyful the day of the future judgment" (CIL, 12, 1694). Paulinus of Nola composed the epitaph for the boy Ciengio, also expressing the same concept (ibid., 10, 1370). At Vercelli, in the inscription of the priest Sarmata, it is said that he will be presented to Christ by the martyrs Nazarius and Victor (ibid., 5, 6739). In later inscriptions one finds the deprecatory formula "per tremendum diem iudicii" against violators of tombs.

On the vault of a cubiculum in the cemetery of Domitilla the Lord is seated on a chair, making the gesture of speaking with his right hand, while he clasps the scroll with his left. At his feet two young men are prostrate in a suppliant gesture, assisted by two standing saints (A. Bosio, Roma sotterranea, Rome 1632, p. 231). On the ceiling of a cubiculum of the hypogeum known as the Nunziatella, there is also the scene of the Lord on a chair: around him stand four praying deceased, each between two sheep, alternating with four saints, who clasp the scroll of the law. Also on the vault of a cubiculum in the Cimitero maggiore on the Via Nomentana, Christ the judge is represented on a chair between two chests with scrolls of the law and four praying deceased, two male and two female. In the cemetery of the Vigna Cassia in Syracuse, a fresco, now lost, represented the Lord with a nimbus and the monogram g, who with his right hand invites the deceased Marcia, prostrate in supplication on the left, who died at 25 years, 7 months and 25 days, as was indicated by the epitaph in Greek; at the sides of Christ were the apostles Peter on one side and Paul on the other, each with the scroll of the law. On the arch was the inscription, also in Greek: "Remember your servant Marcia" (G. B. De Rossi, Arcosolio dipinto di singolare importanza, in Bull. arch. crist., 3rd series, 2 [1877], pp. 149-159 and pl. 11). In the cemetery of Bassilla, the Lord with a nimbus is seated on a chair on the tribunal; in his left hand he clasps the scroll, with his right he touches the head of a standing praying figure before the tribunal, assisted by two saints as advocati. On the right side of a relief in the cemetery known as that of Sts. Mark and Marcellinus, on a chair above a high tribunal is seated the Lord, distinguished by the monogram g inscribed on his head and by the words ΔΕΣΠΟΤΗΣ ΗΜΩΝ "our Lord." He places his right hand on the head of the deceased ΘΕΟΔΟΤΛΟΣ, depicted humbly lower down, between two sheep that symbolize the flock of the elect. Beside it is the Greek inscription of Aurelius Theodulus and Cecilia Maria; on the left side was represented Moses with the volume of the law, as is learned from the words ΜΟΤΗΣΗΣ ΠΡΟΦΗΤΗΣ (Wilpert, Pitture, pp. 382, 434, fig. 41; id., Sarcofagi, pl. 205, 2). To the deceased Aurelius Theodulus is expressed the wish ΕΙΣ ΑΓΑΠΗΝ, that he may be received into the heavenly banquet, according to the Lord's promise to the Apostles (Lk. 22:28 ff.). Other Christian inscriptions also end with the same wish: "Iuste nomen tuum in Agape, Licinius Iustinae coniugi merenti in Ag(e)p(e)" (G. B. De Rossi, in Bull. arch. crist., 4th series, 1 [1882], p. 113). Also in the syncretistic hypogeum on the Via Appia, the deceased Vibia, after her judgment, is led (inductio Vibiae) by the angelus bonus into the heavenly garden to join in the banquet with the other bonorum iudicio iudicati (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 132, 1).

The beardless Christ in tunic and pallium performs the separation of the sheep (the elect) from the goats (the guilty), according to Mt. 25:33 ff., on a sarcophagus lid published by Wilpert (Sarcofagi, pl. 83, 1). This subject is repeated in the mosaics of S. Martino in caelo aureo (S. Apollinare Nuovo) in Ravenna (R. Garrucci, Storia dell'arte cristiana, IV, Prato 1880, pl. 248, 4) and St. Paulinus of Nola had it painted in the basilica of S. Felice (PL 61, 339).

Enrico Josi

2. Art

Later the theme is often taken up again in miniatures both Eastern and Western, especially in those to be assigned to Carolingian art, particularly to the school of Reichenau. Thus in the Psalter of Karlsruhe (CLXI), thus in the Evangelary of Munich (LVII) where the universal j. is depicted in two superimposed scenes, dedicated respectively to the universal j. and to the resurrection of the flesh. Beside Christ the judge on the throne are the angels and the Apostles. Below, besides the angels and groups of the elect and the damned, appears Satan accompanied by devils who chain the sinners. More complex is the Apocalypse of Bramberga (Cod. A. II, 42), also from around 1000, in which there is also a vivid description of the resurrection of the bodies.

Also the oldest fresco with the universal j., that of the apse of S. Giorgio at Oberzell, belongs to the school of Reichenau. Besides the elements that had appeared up to then, one sees there the interceding Madonna and those rising from the earth in the various moments of their rebirth. The universal j. of S. Angelo in Formis, near Capua, is iconographically linked to these Rhenish representations. The fresco, which extends over the counter-facade wall (c. 1075), is composed of five horizontal bands, dominated by a gigantic image of Christ.

In the 12th century the representations of the universal j. multiply, especially in the miniatures that illustrate the headpieces of the Officia defunctorum. In the miniature of the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg (v.) one finds the fiery stream that flows from the throne of the Majesty, the Prophets and the Patriarchs, Adam and Eve suppliant, two angels who roll up the sky and the stars like parchments.

The iconographic scheme thus constituted spreads with additions or simplifications in the sculptural decorations of Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, leaving, in France alone, between the 12th and 15th centuries, more than 40 monumental complexes. In the oldest representations that take place on the lateral portals of the facade or of the naves, at Moissac, Arles, Beaulieu, Conques, etc., the central part of the lunette is occupied by the immense figure of Christ. But at Autun, toward the middle of the 12th century, Gilebertus, reducing it, can describe, besides the majesty and the j., the resurrection and the weighing of the souls, characterizing almost individually the damned (the miser, the lustful, etc.). With the advent of the Gothic (Laon, Chartres, in 1212-20) the narrative also engages the archivolts, while the Apostles, accompanied by the wise and foolish virgins and by the sibyls, arrange themselves vertically along the architectural moldings. And finally, at Notre-Dame of Paris, in the first quarter of the 13th century, the representation of the universal j. occupies the place of honor of the whole decoration of the building, imposing itself in the great facade portal.

Also the lunette of the baptistery of Parma, dated 1196 and the work of Antelami, is close to French sculpture. In the archivolt the Apostles are lined up; in the architrave find place the elect and the reprobate still rising. In the central semicircle is Christ with his arms raised.

Italy still possesses a very important pictorial series of universal j. that goes from the 13th to the 15th century. The famous mosaic of Torcello, despite the evident Byzantine influences, is to be considered a Western work and exercised a strong influence on analogous representations in Greece and in the East. The scene, divided into six horizontal zones, can be considered the most vast composition of the theme. Almost similar is the universal j. of the baptistery of Florence, which occupies a quarter of the vault.

In Rome, between 1293 and 1295, Cavallini (v.) frescoed on the counter-façade wall of the basilica of St. Cecilia a large universal Last Judgment, which has come down to us with lacunae, at whose center is Christ, between two rows of Apostles solemnly arranged on thrones. The blessed are divided into three ranks, and the damned are hurled into hell. The depiction of the individual punishments of hell occupies a large part of Giotto's fresco in Padua (1303-1305), whereas already in the reliefs of the pulpits of Giovanni and Nicola Pisano, and then in the frescoes of the Strozzi chapel at S. Maria Novella in Florence (the work of Nardo di Cione, second half of the fourteenth century), the separations between saints, Apostles and angels are not equally rigid, and the universal Last Judgment begins to be accompanied by depictions of hell and paradise, under the influence of Dante's cosmography.

The last developments in the iconography of the universal Last Judgment are due to Signorelli, in the cathedral of Orvieto, integrated with the representations of the Antichrist, the rain of fire and the end of the world, attaining extreme dramatic intensity, and to Michelangelo who in the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512) animates the ancient arrangement with a new overwhelming rhythm, culminating in the vision of Christ who appears in a supreme gesture of dominion that is also one of blessing. - See plates

LII-LIII.

Eugenio Battisti