The Descension into Hell (to Deliver the Fathers) 20
c. 18). "Growing up in age and wisdom," says Bruno Herbipolensis (in Symb. Apost.), "after His holy nativity, He came to the age of thirty years."
6. That which the fathers do attribute unto the name of Jesus, or of Christ, is not properly ascribed to the bare name, but as it is invoked by men or to the invocation of the name. "Often times I have scarce pronounced that name," says Nazianzene (ad Nemesium), "when the devil presently hasted away." "The devils gave place," says Origen
(contra Cels., lib. 1), "at the very calling upon the name of Jesus."
And lib. 3: "The sick were cured by calling upon the Almighty God, and the name of Jesus over them." "Hilarion," says Jerome (in vita
Hilari.), "cast out devils by invoking the name of Jesus."
The Descension into Hell (to Deliver the Fathers) 1. The fathers do sometimes defend a virtual descension of Christ into hell and a virtual deliverance from hell, that is, by the merit and virtue of His passion and death, not a local. This Augustine (in Psalm
85) acknowledges. And Durandus (l. 3, Sent. dist. 22, quest. 3) denies any other descension of Christ into the place of the damned, than one virtual, or in the effect. Thomas also (par. 3, quest. 52, artit.
2) denies that Christ was really in any other place save limbo, but in the place of the damned only virtually, or in effect. In this sense many testimonies of the fathers must be taken figuratively. In like manner they say that Adam and others were in hell, not locally, but according to their desert, yea, and that before they died.
2. Those of the fathers that defend a local descension and deliverance do not defend it as an article of the creed, but as a probable opinion.
This may be proved because they seldom or never put this article into their creeds and confessions of the faith. "You must know," says
Ruffinus (in exposit. Symbol.), "that in the Church of Rome, this article, 'He descended into hell,' is not put in the creed, nor in the creed of the eastern church, though it seems to be included in these words, 'dead and buried.'" Nay, this article is not in any creed or confession almost of all the fathers. It is not in Marcellus's confession in Epiphanius; not in Ignatius's confession (in ep. ad
Magnetianos, vel ad Ephesios); not in that of Polycarp (Epist. ad Philippenses); not in Justin's (in Apolog. 2); not in Irenaeus's (lib. 1, cap. 2); not in Tertullian's (lib. de Praescript. vel contra Praxeam), though he explains the Apostles' Creed; not in Origen's (in Proemio perί arkόn), where he entreats of faith; not in Gregory's of Neocaesaria; not in the Councils of Nicaea (Socrat., lib. 1, cap. 5); not in Eusebius's creed of Caesaria (Theodoret, lib. 1, cap. 12); not in the third creed rehearsed in the Nicene Council (Socrat., lib. 1, cap. 5); not in Athanasius's creed (Epist. ad Epictetum); not in that creed which is in Athanasius's epistle touching the Councils of Arimin and Seleucia; not in the Synod of Syrmia's creed (Socrat., lib. 2, cap. 25;
Hilar., lib. de Synod. contr. Arian); not in the Council of Sardica's creed (Theodoret, lib. 2, cap. 8); not in Hilary's exposition thereof; not in the creed of the Synod of Antioch, set down by Hilary, lib. de
Synod, contra Arian; not in the creed of Seleucia, a city of Isauria, in Socrates, lib. 2, cap. 32; Epiph., haeres. 73; not in the Synod of Illyria
(Theodoret, lib. 4, cap. 8); not in Damasus's creed, set down by Jerome, Tom. 2, operum. Theodoret, lib. 5, cap. 10; not in Eusebius
Pamphilus's creed (Socrat., lib. 1, cap. 5); not in Hilary's de Synodis cont. Arianos; not in Basil's creed, in his Ascetica; not in Nazianzene's; not in that of Victorine, lib. 1, contr. Arian; not in Epiphanius's Aneoratum, where the catholic faith is rehearsed; not in Theodoret, in Dialog. Impatibilis, where the Nicene creed is expounded; not in Maximus Taurinensis, where he expounds the
creed; not in that which Chrysologus repeats four times (Homil. 56, 57, 58); not in that of the first Council of Toledo; not in the Ephesine creed (anno 435); not in that of the first Council of Constant.; not in that of the Sixth Council of Constant., Act. 10; not in that of the Synod of Chalcedon, in Zonaras; not in the creed of the fathers in Cyril, ad Reginus, lib. 1; not in that of the third Council of Toledo; not in that of Gregory I; not in Spiridion's (Niceph., lib. 8, cap. 15); not in that which the bishops of the east offered Constans (Niceph., lib. 9, cap. 11); not in that which the legates of the west offered the same emperor (Niceph., lib. 9, cap. 10); not in the book of faith upon Petrus Diaconus; not in Augustine, wheresoever he expounds the creed; although in his works, lib. de fide & Symb., In libris 4, de fid. ad Catechumenos, Serm. de tempore 123, 125, he explains it five several times; nor in the first exposition of the creed in Chrysostom's
5th tome.
3. The fathers, by Christ's descension into hell, do sometimes understand His descending into these lower parts of the world.
"Christ, not only in His death, but also in His birth," says Bede, Psalm 85, "did descend into hell." And in the 6th general Council,
Act 10, "He descended into hell," is left out and there is put in, "He descended out of heaven." And so it is also in the Nicene Council, ibid., Act 17. And in the Ephesine Creed, "He descended from the heavens." In the 6th and 11th of Toledo, it is, "Being sent from His
Father He came into the world."
4. The descension into hell sometimes is put for burial, as in Athanasius's creed, and the latter exposition of the creed in Chrysostom. And in the creed of Toledo 4, there are these words, "He descended into hell to free the saints there captive, and having overcome the dominion of death, He rose again." And in Jerome, in Praem. comment. in Isay, "Being buried, and rising again, He is
preached." "He descended not only into hell," says Radulphus Ardens, in vigil. ascen., Homily 2, "but also into the lower parts of the earth, that is, into the place of torment, breaking it up and leading away captivity captive."
5. The fathers either knew not at all, or (if they knew) yet speak doubtfully of the several places of hell, and therefore sometimes oppugn Limbus Patrum, which is called a part of hell, and sometimes
(but uncertainly), Make for it. "Abraham's bosom," says Augustine (epist. 99), "that is, the habitation of secret rest, is not to be held any part of hell." And De remiss. peccat., lib. 1, cap. 28: "There is no middle place for any man to be," says he, "but with the devil, that is, not with Christ."
"Although," says he, De Genes. ad liter., lib. 12, ca. 33, "I confess I have not yet found that the place where the righteous rested (as Abraham and Lazarus) is called hell, neither where they are said to be in hell have I yet found, but I still do seek and know not. Nor do I find in all the Scriptures (which are canonical) that hell is taken in good part or sense; and, therefore, I cannot see how Abraham can be said or believed to be in hell." Again, "Perhaps," says he, in Psalm 85,
"there is a lower part of hell where the sinners are shut, which were very wicked, for whether Abraham were in any of these places, we cannot certainly determine." And again, "Perhaps between those two hells, etc."
Tertullian will have Abraham's bosom (wherein he thinks the just souls are kept until the last judgment) distinct from hell. "Hell is one place, as I think," says he, Contra Marcion, lib. 4, cap. 51, "and Abraham's bosom another. And I call that region Abraham's bosom which, if it be not heavenly, yet is higher than hell, giving rest unto the souls of the righteous until the consummation of all things
terminates their resurrection, with fullness of reward." Here also he ascribes this opinion of limbus unto Marcion: "Marcion," says he,
"thinks otherwise, namely, he determines both the rewards of the Creator, whether it be of torment or rest, in hell, unto those that keep or break the law and the prophets, but he ascribes heaven unto
Christ, and to His God." And in lib. De anima, cap. 7: "What is that which is transported unto hell after the separation from the body, and unto what did Christ descend in His death? I think unto the souls of the patriarchs."
"Concerning the first man," says Augustine (epist. 99), "and our first parent, the whole church almost agrees in this, that Christ freed him from thence, which we must think was not believed upon no ground, whencesoever it first came up, although we have no authority of canonical Scripture to authorize it at all." "These perhaps," says
Julian to Toledo, Prognost., lib. 2, cap. 4, "were the two hells, in one whereof the souls of the just were at rest, and in the other the wicked punished." Bede, in Psalm 85, says that the earth is the upper hell and that the place of punishment after this life is the lower hell.
6. Of the intent of Christ in His descension the fathers speak variably. Most hold that He went to free the souls of the saints out of the bonds and captivity of death. "I think it no absurdity," says
Augustine (De Civit. Dei, lib. 20, cap. 15), "to believe that the saints of old that expected Christ in faith were in habitacles far distant from the torments of the wicked, but yet that they were in hell until that Christ's blood and descending thither set them free." But in epist. 99, more plainly, "I do not find," says he, "what good Christ did unto those just ones that were in Abraham's bosom by His descending into hell, from whom according to the blessed presence of His divinity, He was never absent."
"Christ descended into hell," says Clement Alexandrinus most plainly (Stromat. 6), "for no other cause but to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, that they might learn the true faith and be saved, or justly be condemned for ever." And thus also Damascene (in Oratione de fidelibus defunctis) holds. But this opinion is condemned by Philaster (cap. 74. "There are heretics," quotes he, "that say that Christ descended into hell, and therefore after His death told them all that whoso there confessed Him should be saved." Look at Augustine, De haeres., cap. 79, concerning this, and Gregory, lib. 6, indict. 15, epist. 15. "Christ descended into hell for us sinners," says
Fulgentius ad Thrasimund, lib. 3, cap. 31. "Christ descended," says Epiph., Haeres. 46, contra Tasianos, "to give pardon unto those that erred, not from acknowledging His deity, but were kept in hell for other errors." Yea, Bellarmine himself, De anima Christi, lib. 4, cap.
15, confesses that this in the belief of Christ's descension is not of necessity, but of decency or conformity. "Although," quotes he, "it be not necessary that Christ's soul should be present in the illumination of the fathers with divine vision, yet it seems fit that it should be present while that was doing." But the articles of our faith (good M.
Bellarmine) be founded upon somewhat besides congruity; they stand upon necessity.
7. Those that will have the fathers in hell until Christ's ascension do contradict themselves or one another. 1. Some, as Ruffinus for one, will have them in pains. "The King," says he in expos. Symbol., "was said to be in prison also, but not as the rest were. They were there to suffer pains, but He to release them." Athanasius, De salutar. Christ. advent., says, "Adam's soul and the rest that served God in the law of nature were in sorrow and cried out." "By Christ," says Anastasius
Sinaites, in Hexamer., "was Adam freed from his sorrows." And De recta fidei dogmat., lib. 5: "The souls were freed out of the cloisters of hell where they were held in most miserable tyranny. Perhaps not