CHRIST'S DESCENT INTO HELL.
T"" Descent into Hell" is the second part of the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemns. This second part, which almost certainly had no original connexion with the first, has not the same evidential value, but is also early. Lipsius placed it in the first half of the third century. It is one proof of the prevalence in early times of the belief that Christ descended to the abode of departed spirits, which is stated most clearly in 1 Peter iii. 18 and iv. 6, but is alluded to elsewhere in the New Testament, and appears in the Apocryphal Gospel of St. Peter, a document probably of the second century. The doctrine does not find a place in the Apostles' Creed till 359. According to the Gospel of Nioodemus, not only did Christ; descend into hell, but He vanquished its Powers and rescued some of its prisoners. This is what in old English is known as the "Harrowing of Hell." The belief that God should appear in the lower world as conqueror is suggested by certain passages in the Old Testament, such as Hosea sill. 14. The wain interest of this second part, or "Descensas Christi ad Infer:eh" is its great poetic beauty, and the enormous influence which it had in the Middle Ages. In the following short
abstract of it some quotations are taken from the very remarkable Black Letter edition of 1511 by Wynkyn de Worde.
Joseph of Arimathea tells Anna.s and Caiaphas that the two sons of Simeon, Karinus and Leucius, have been raised from the dead. They write down what they have seen in Hades. As they were "in ye grete prevy depnesse of derkenes," a purple royal light shines upon them. And then come up their father Simeon, and John the Baptist, and Adam, and Seth. Seth tells how when he went to the gates of Paradise to implore oil from the tree of mercy for Adam, who was sick, Michael said that it should not be given him till five thousand five hundred years had been fulfilled, when the Son of God after His baptism should anoint all that believe on Him with the oil of His mercy, and should lead Adam into Paradise to the tree of mercy. Satan bids Hades the all-devouring and insatiable prepare to receive Jesus : "I have made the Jewes for to be agaynst hym and I have made redy the rodde that he shall be smyten with and I have made redy the tree that be shall be crucyfyed on and thre nayles for to fasten hym therto and I have made a drynke with azell and gall." Hades adjures Satan not to bring Jesus, for He has already stolen away many that were dead, "Boo that we ne myght kepe Lazarus, but he flowe fro us so swyfte as it had been an Egle." Suddenly a voice is heard saying : "Lift up your gates, ye princes, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates; and the King of Glory shall come in." Christ appears in the form of man and "enlumyned all the derkenesse of hell with the gloryous bryghtnesse of his gloryous face and all the gates and shettynges with yren barres and boltes all to braste in his holy comy-nge and all the fell fendes made hym space and waye." And Hades and Death cry out: "What arte thou that arte so grete and appared so lytell in erth? What arte thou that was so meke and lowly in erth and now arte thou a pryncely fyghter in fourme of man?" Christ delivers Satan to the power of Hades, who reviles Satan for having lost by the tree of the Cross all that he had gained by the tree of trans- gression. Adam beseeches Christ to set in Hades, as in earth, the sign of the victory of His Cross, and he and all the saints are led by Christ into Paradise. There they meet Enoch and Elijah and "a lowly man" (the penitent thief) carrying a cross, who tells how Christ has given him this sign and bidden him show it to the guardian angel of Paradise if the angel refuse to admit him. And hearing these words, the saints bless God for having brought them back "into the grace of paradise, and into Thy rich pastures, for this is spiritual life most sure." So Karinus and Leucius, after relating the story of their own resurrection, are seen no more.
Here in some copies the work ends, but in others there follows an epilogue. The Jews confess that all these things have been done by the Lord, and Joseph and Nicodemus make a report to Pilate, who writes down all that the Jews did and said concerning Jesus in the public records of his Praetorium. Pilate is informed by Annas and Caiaphas that five thousand five hundred years should pass before the coming of the Messiah, and that this period was fulfilled at the birth of Christ. Pilate writes to Claudius Caesar a short account of Christ's Life and Death and Resurrection, and shows how he was persuaded by the Jews to crucify Him.
The influence of the Gospel of Nicodemus, and especially of the "Descent into Hell," was very deep and wide from the twelfth to the eighteenth century in prose and verse and religious drama. From it even more perhaps than from the Canonical Gospels, because no objection was made to its translation, the lay folk learnt the history of our Lord's Passion and Resurrection, of His descent into hell and victory over Death and Satan. It exists in the vernaoular in German from the beginning of the thirteenth century, also in Welsh, Cornish, Dutch, and Danish. A prose version of the "Harrowing of Hell" is included in the enormously popular "Speculum Historiale " of Vincent de Beauvais in the middle of the thirteenth century and in the "Golden Legend" of Jacobus a Voragine in the latter half of the same century. In French Gregory of Tours in the sixth century quotes the "Acta Pilati," but the Gospel does not seem to have become well known among the people till the thirteenth century, at the very beginning of which (before the publica- tion of the "Speculum ") appeared a poem by Maitre Andre de Coutances, who belonged to a family of high repute both
in Normandy and England, containing a version of the whole story. He introduces himself to us with a charming sim- plicity as one who "loved dearly the song and the dance" before he turned to more serious things :— " Seig,nors, mestre Andre do Coutances Qu' a moat ame sonez et dances."
The poem has, like the song in Twelfth Night, the tender charm of the "old age." On the appearance of the "purple royal light" Hades reviles Satan. "Whence," he asks, "can this light have shone below, unless Jesus have brought it hither ? " Ha,' dial Enfer, 'Satan mauves, Ennemi de joie et de pes, Horriblete, honte et puor, Dont vient ceienz ceste luor Se cist Jhesus ne i aporto ?'" In Italy the story appears in the "Golden Legend," as afore- said. It is also several times referred to in Dante's Inferno, especially in the fourth canto where Virgil speaks of " Mighty one, crowned with a sign of victory," who came to hell and "drew from us the shade of the first parent."
But it is in England that the Gospel was earliest known and most popular. It remained a favourite book of the people for a thousand years. Knowledge of it is shown in Cynewulf's " Christ " in the eighth century. There is an old English prose version of the eleventh century. At the end of the thirteenth century appeared Th4 Harrowing of Hell, the most ancient Christian religious drama known. It has little formal merit, but possesses, like the old French, the beauty of simplicity and devotion. The saints whom Christ has brought to Paradise give their thanks :— "Thou that has broght us all fro pain in light to lend, Love the ley we sail ever withouten end."
The Eighteenth Passus of Piers Plowman contains a very full account of the Descent : Satan, Christ tells him, shall drink that which he has brewed, and " fendes and fendekynes " shall be at Christ's bidding. On the discovery of printing the Gospel of Nicodemus was repeatedly issued from the press.
The most important of these Black Letter editions is that of Wynkyn de Worde, first printed in 1509, and four times reissued. An edition modernised from his was made by John Cousturier and printed at Rouen in the seventeenth century. This was used as a chapbook, and another popular edition also based on the same text was issued in 1767, so that for two and a half centuries Wynkyn de Worde's remained the standard text. It is not only a very fine translation, but contains several peculiar features. There is a curious introduction, where it is said that " bysshop Turpyn dyde it translate out of Latin into Frensshe," though there is no record of Charlemagne's supposed chronicler having done anything of the kind. A most remarkable feature of this edition is the story of Syndonia, which appears here for the first Eine. Syndonia is the maid who sells in the market a cloth that "fell soo gracyously to werke that it is more curyous than I can skyll of." Joseph of Arimathes, buys it for thirty bezants to bury Jesus therein. Her mother is made whole of the sickness in which she lay, and weds a worthy Duke, and Syndonia becomes Empress of Rome. There is a detailed and very touching account of the scourging of Christ which exists in no other copy; and a characteristically romantic touch when He is led to the Cross. "I comaunde," says Pilate, "that no man laye handes on hym but yf he be a knyght or elles of gentyle blode, for it is not fyttinge that a kynge should be slayne of vylaynes." So in Piers Plowman it is said that no man brake the legs of Jesus, "for he was knyghte and kynge,s sone." Therefore a blind knight, Longeus, "jousts with Jesus," pierces His side, and as he wipes his eyes with his blood-stained hand is healed of his blindness. The "Descent into Hell" has not the importance and value of the "Acts of Pilate," but it has many points of interest. Even the meagre extracts we have given will show the wonder- ful majesty of its conception of Christ in the plenitude of His victory, and its splendid poetic power. The scene impressed itself on painters as well as poets. "There is no branch of mediaeval or renaissance art," says Mr. W. H. Hulme in his edition of the mediaeval English "Harrowing of Hell," "which does not give evidence of the strong hold the story had acquired on the minds and hearts of men throughout Christendom." Direr represents it more than once : in one etching Christ beneath an arch reaches forth His hand to a prisoner, the "purple royal light" behind Him ; a hideous monster grips the arch above and aims a blow at Adam with a horrible forked spear. And even the more trivial legends which gather round the main theme reveal one remarkable characteristic of the beliefs of the people both in the third century and in the Middle Ages. Christ is very near to these simple folk. Their worship of Him is singularly intimate and loving. The dish from which He ate, the spear that pierced His side, the napkin with which He wiped His face, the cloth which wrapped His body, the chance drops that fell from His side, have a mysterious power. Nothing that has had to do with Him can remain common; it is transfigured. And Christ is not only the God whom they worship ; their stories are woven about Him ; He is their hero, their knight. Their simplicity is the simplicity of the child ; we elders smile at it, but with a certain uneasiness and awe :— "Oh, love of those first Christian days !
I see the error; but above
The scope of error, see the love."
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