Descendit Ad Inferos

Descendit Ad Inferos: Medieval Views on Christ's Descent into Hell and the Salvation of the
Ancient Just
Author(s): Ralph V. Turner
Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1966), pp. 173-194
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
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DESCENDIT AD INFEROS: MEDIEVAL VIEWS ON CHRIST'S
DESCENT INTO HELL AND THE SALVATION OF
THE ANCIENT JUST
BY RALPH V. TURNER
Medieval scholars did not think of themselves as
medieval; they
viewed their
investigations
as
simply continuing
the work of the Greek
and Roman
philosophers
and the Jewish
prophets. They recognized
their debt to the
ancients,
even
though they
were confident that in
at least one
way
their
knowledge surpassed
that of their
predecessors:
they
knew
Christ,
who held the
key
to salvation. But how could the
ancients,
who had no
opportunity
to learn of
Christ, gain
salvation?
Orthodox Christian doctrine held that no one could be saved without
faith in Jesus
Christ, yet surely
not all who had lived before the
Incarnation deserved eternal
punishment.
It seemed
unjust,
even
cruel,
of God to condemn men
simply
for the fault of
having
been
born before His son's sacrifice. Educated men in the Middle
Ages
knew
that
many
of the
pagans
had adhered to a
high
moral
code,
and that
some of them had beliefs
closely approaching
Christ's
teachings.
Were
the ancient
just among
the damned or the saved?
The
question
of the salvation of the ancient
just
is
closely
con-
nected with the tradition of Christ's
"harrowing
of hell"
during
the
time that his
body lay
in the tomb. Christ's descent into hell was
described in the
apocryphal gospel
of
Nicodemus,
written in the IIIrd
century.' Later,
the statement descendit ad
inferos
was included in
the
Apostles'
Creed. This article in the Creed raised the
question
of
what reason
Christ,
who was without
sin,
had for
going
down to the
dwelling place
of the damned. Did he descend in order to bind Satan
and release all the souls
imprisoned there,
to
preach
the
gospel
to
those who had died before the
Incarnation,
or to lead the Old Testa-
ment Fathers
triumphantly
into heaven? This
subject
lent itself well
to
drama,
and
many
of the
mystery plays
included
"harrowing
of hell"
scenes.2 It also lent itself to
speculation by theologians. They
could
expand
on the rather
cryptic
statement in the Creed and the scattered
references in the
Bible,3
using
all the resources at their
disposal:
citation of
authorities, allegorical interpretations,
and
logic.
One of the earliest centers of Christian
theology developed
in
Alexandria in the IIIrd
century.
Members of the Alexandrian school
1J.
Monnier,
La Descente aux
Enfers,
Etude de
pensee religieuse,
d'art et de
litterature
(Paris, 1905),
ch.
4,
91-107.
2Monnier,
ch.
11, 211-245;
William
Henry Hulme, ed.,
The Middle
English
Harrowing of
Hell and
Gospel of
Nicodemus.
Early English
Text
Society,
extra
series C
(London, 1907),
introduction.
3E.g.
Psalm 23: 7-9
(Vulgate);
Hosea 13:
14;
Matthew 27:
52-53;
Romans
10:
7; Ephesians
4:
9;
I Peter 3: 18-20 and 4: 6.
173
174 RALPH V. TURNER
had been educated in the classical
tradition,
and
they recognized
sim-
ilarities between the
pagan philosophies
and Christian
beliefs.Among
them,
Clement of Alexandria had such
respect
for the Greek
philoso-
phers
that he
accepted
the
legend
that
they
had
gained
their wisdom
from the Jewish
prophets.4
It is not
surprising
that Clement reflected
on the salvation of these
pagans
whose
teachings
so
closely approached
those of Christ. In his
Stromata,
he affirmed that the
gospel
was
preached
to the Jews and the
gentiles
in hell.5 It seemed to Clement
that a
just
God should offer salvation to all
men,
whether
they
lived
before or after the
Incarnation;
he
asked, "If, then,
he
[Christ]
preached
the
gospel
to those in the flesh in order that
they might
not
be condemned
unjustly,
how is it conceivable that he did not for the
same reason
preach
the
gospel
to those who had
departed
this life
before his
coming?"
6
Clement
proposed
that Christ had
preached
the
gospel
to the souls in
hell, offering
salvation to those who believed in
him;
but he was not certain whether Christ had
preached
to all the
souls confined there or to the Jews alone. He felt confident that if
Christ did not
preach
to the
pagans,
then the
apostles
would
preach
to them at the time of their
coming
to hell.
Clement's
pupil, Origen,
followed him in this doctrine of Christ's
preaching
in hell.
Origen
was
perhaps
the most learned of all the
early
Greek
theologians, surpassing
his master in
understanding
of
pagan philosophy.
Both Clement and
Origen
held to the
Neoplatonic
doctrine of the eventual restoration of all souls to God after
experi-
encing
a
purifying process,
a view that conflicted with the orthodox
teaching concerning
hell.7
Origen's teaching
on this
problem
is found
in his
apologetic
work Contra
Celsum,
a
point by point
answer to the
pagan
Celsus' criticisms of
Christianity.
Celsus had written of
Christ,
"You
[Christians]
will not
say
of
him,
I
presume,
that
having
failed
to convince men on earth he traveled to Hades to convince them
there."
Origen replied
to Celsus:
Even if he dislikes
it,
we maintain
this,
that when he
[Christ]
was in the
body
he convinced not
merely
a
few,
but so
many
that the multitude of
those
persuaded by
him led to the
conspiracy against him;
and that when
he became a soul unclothed
by
a
body
he conversed with souls unclothed
by bodies,
also
converting
those of them who were
willing
to
accept him,
or those
who,
for reasons which he himself
knew,
he saw to be
ready
to do so.8
4
John Edwin
Sandys,
A
History of
Classical
Scholarship I,
3rd edition
(Cam-
bridge, 1921),
331-32.
5
Jacques
Paul
Migne, Patrologia
Graeca
(hereafter
referred to as
P.G.),
vol.
9,
Stromata,
lib.
VI, cap. vi, Evangelium
ethnicis in
inferno positis
non minus
quas
Judaeis et ethnicis viventibus
fuisse annuntiatum,
col.265-276.
6
P.G.9,
col.274C.
7
Monnier,
82-88.
8P.G.11,
Contra
Celsum, lib.II, cap.xliii,
col.863-866. The translation is from
the edition of
Henry
Chadwick
(Cambridge, 1953),
99-100.
DESCENDIT AD INFEROS 175
From these
IIIrd-century
Greek
Fathers,
it is
necessary
to turn to
the
IVth-century
Latin
Father,
St.
Augustine.
He too
speculated
on
Christ's descent into hell and the salvation of the ancient
just.
His
views on doctrinal
questions
were more
widely
known to medieval
thinkers; indeed, they
were
usually accepted
as the authoritative
statement. He did
speculate
on Christ's descent into hell and on the
salvation of the ancient
just;
the
question
arose in his sermons on
the Creed.9 He said that Christ descended into hell to free our
"ancestor
Adam,
and the
Patriarchs,
and the
Prophets,
and all the
just,
who were held in that
place
for
original
sin."
10
He added that all
who were
guilty
of crimes in addition to the sin of Adam that
corrupts
all men were left to the tortures of the lower region.
As
authority
Augustine quoted
the
prophet Hosea,
who had
prophesied
of
Christ,
De manu mortis liberabo
eos,
de morte redimam eos. Ero mors tua,
o
mors! morsus tuus
ero, inferne! (Hosea 13:14).
He
interpreted
the
term morsus
(bite)
as a reference to Christ's liberation of
part
of those
confined in hell and
rejection
of the rest.
St.
Augustine's
statement that Christ freed from hell all the
just
who had suffered death before his
coming
raises the
possibility
that
men could
gain
eternal
happiness
without belief in
Christ,
that
they
could win salvation after
death,
as Clement and
Origen
had
taught.
Augustine
denied such a
possibility, stating
the orthodox Christian
teaching.
He set forth the
opinion
in his De Civitate Dei that no one
is saved
except through
faith in
Christ,
the one Mediator between God
and man.1l
This does not mean that there was no salvation between Adam's
fall and Christ's
coming,
for
Augustine explained
that men before the
time of the Incarnation could have the same faith as those who follow
it. Just as men of the New Testament believe that Christ came in the
flesh and died for their
sins,
so those of the Old Testament believed
that a Savior would come at some future time for the salvation of
mankind. The
good bishop
of
Hippo
wrote to
Bishop Optatus:
Consequently
since all the
just,
that
is,
true
worshippers
of
God,
whether
before the Incarnation or after the Incarnation of
Christ,
neither have lived
nor do live
except by
faith in the Incarnation of
Christ,
in whom is the
fullness of
grace; certainly
the words which are written that there is no
other name under heaven
whereby
we must be saved
(Acts 4:12),
were
effective for
saving
the human race from the time when the human race was
tainted in Adam. For
just
as in Adam all
died,
so in Christ all will live.2
9
Jacques
Paul
Migne, Patrologia
Latina
(hereafter
referred to as
P.L.), vol.39,
St.
Augustine,
Sermo
CCXLIV,
De
Symboli fide
et bonis
moribus, col.2195; vol.40,
Sermo de
Symbolo,
col.1189-1202.
10
P.L40,
Sermo de
Symbolo, cap.vii,
Quid egit
in
inferno,
col.1194.
P.L.41,
De Civitate
Dei, lib.VII, capxxxii,
col.221; lib.X, cap.xxv,
col.302-
303; cap.xxxii,
col.313-315.
12
P.L.33, Epistola CXC,
col.859.
176 RALPH V. TURNER
In another
letter, Augustine
made a distinction between the faith
before and after the Incarnation.13 He defined the faith of the Old
Testament as a hidden
mystery (sacramentum),
while the faith of
Christians is an evident
mystery.
But he warned
against valuing
the
Christian faith more
highly
than the faith of the
ancients,
for
they
were such friends of God that He allowed Himself to be identified as
the God of
Abraham,
of
Isaac,
and of Jacob. St.
Augustine
was un-
clear about which men
living
before the Incarnation could have this
faith. He wrote in the De Civitate Dei that it was revealed
by
the
angels
and
prophets
"to the few
who, by
the
grace
of
God,
could
understand." He was certain that of those few a
large
number were
found
among
the
Jews,
"whose commonwealth was
consecrated,
as it
were,
into a
prophecy
and
prediction
of the
City
of God which is to be
gathered
from all nations." 14
Augustine
did not mean to
imply
that these Old Testament
Fathers were admitted into heaven
immediately following
their
deaths;
their souls had to await Christ's
coming
to earth. Two names
were
given
to their
place
of
waiting: paradise,
from Jesus' words to
the thief on the cross
(Luke 23:43),
and the bosom of
Abraham,
from
his
story
of the
beggar
Lazarus and the rich man
(Luke 16:19-31).
St.
Augustine
did not
interpret
the statement to the thief as a refer-
ence to
heaven,
for
apostolic teaching
reveals that Christ's soul de-
scended into
hell,
while his
body lay
in the
tomb.16 Instead,
he con-
cluded that there must be two
regions
in
hell,
one where the damned
were tortured and another where the souls of the
just
were at
rest;
and
Christ's words
concerning paradise signified
that second
region.
Elsewhere
Augustine rejected
this view that the bosom of Abraham
is a zone of hell.16 He wrote to
Bishop
Evodius
concerning
the
meaning
of a
passage
in First Peter
(3:18-21),
which mentioned Christ's
preaching
"to the
spirits
in
prison,
who
formerly
did not
obey."
This
passage
had been
interpreted
as an indication that Christ descended
into
hell,
and
Augustine accepted
this. But he could not conceive of
the bosom of Abraham as
being
in
hell,
for the souls of the Fathers
in that blessed abode would never have been
deprived
of the Savior's
sanctifying presence.
If the saints of the Old
Dispensation
were not
meant
by
the
phrase "spirits
in
prison,"
to whom did it
apply?
To the
righteous pagans?
This was a troublesome
question
for
Augustine,
and
one to which he
pleaded
his
inability
to answer.7 He admitted that
many
of the ancient
philosophers, poets,
and orators
inspired
such
admiration
by
their wisdom and virtue that even he
might
wish them
13P.L.33,
De
praesentia
Dei
Liber,
seu
Epistola CLXXXVII, cap.xi,
col.845.
14
P.L.41,
De Civitate
Dei, lib.X, cap.xxxii,
col.314.15
P.L.33, cap.ii,
col.833-34.
16
P.L.33, Epistola CLXIV, Augustinus Evodio, respondens
ad duas
questiones,
quarum
altera est de loco obscuro
primae
Petri..
., cap.iii,
col.711-712.
17
P.L.33, cap.ii,
col.710.
freed from eternal
sorrow,
but he knew that their
good
deeds were as
nothing,
unless directed toward the one true God.
Augustine
could not
accept
the notion of Clement and
Origen
that men who had not
acknowledged
Christ in life could believe in him in hell and
gain
salvation. This would lead to the absurd conclusion that the
Gospel
ought
not be
preached,
so that men could then have the
opportunity
of
obtaining
salvation in the afterlife without the risk of
rejecting
Christ in this
earthly
life.18 He wrote in the De Civitate Dei that no
man should ask of God
why
He sent a savior so soon or so late. Men
should
simply appreciate
the
way
to salvation as a
gift given by
God's
mercy,
and
they
should admit that His
justice
is
incomprehensible
to
them.l9
But the
Bishop
of
Hippo
wrote Evodius that he should believe
that Christ delivered
Adam,
the first
man,
from
hell,
for this had been
a tradition of the Church for so
long
that there must be
grounds
for
its
acceptance
even
though
it has no definite
Scriptural authority.20
He observed that some authorities would list with the name of Adam
the names of the other Old Testament
patriarchs
and
prophets;
however,
in this instance he maintained that
they
were never in hell.
Yet it has been seen that on other occasions he too included them
among
those liberated from hell
by
Christ.21
In
spite
of this ambivalence in his view of the situation of the
souls of the ancient
Fathers,
St.
Augustine
made certain to his corre-
spondent
the main
points
of the faith
concerning
the descensus ad
inferos.
Christ had descended into hell and loosed the sorrows that
were
incapable
of
binding him,
and he released the souls of those
whom he chose.22 Christ had not
preached
to all the
spirits there;
indeed this was
unnecessary,
because
Augustine
had maintained else-
where that salvation was
possible
before the Incarnation
by
hidden
revelation. Salvation of the Old Testament Fathers was made
possible
by
means of this hidden
revelation;
but the
question
of the salvation
of the other ancient
just
is
beyond
the realm of human
understanding.
These basic beliefs about that article of the Creed would stand firm
throughout
the Middle
Ages, although they
would be
expanded
in
some
ways.
St.
Gregory
the
Great,
a
representative
of the transition in the
VIth
century
from the Patristic
Age
to the Middle
Ages,
is another
author whose
opinions
were
respected by
medieval thinkers. His
Homiliarum in Ezechielem
Prophetam is an
example
of the
Scriptural
commentaries written
during
that
period:
it served as a
starting point
for mental
digressions
that led him far
beyond
the literal
meaning
of the text in a search for hidden
meanings.
This is illustrated in
18
P.L.33, cap.iv,
col.714.
19
P.L.41,
De Civitate
Dei, lib.X, cap.xxxii,
col.313.
20
P.L.33, cap.iii,
col.711.
21
E.g.,
Sermones
CCXLIV,
De
Symbolo,
and
Epistola CLXXXVII.
22
P.L.33, cap.v,
col.715.
178 RALPH V. TURNER
Homilia
V,
where he turned from Ezekiel to the
Gospel
of Mark and
its account of Christ's
triumphal entry
into Jerusalem.23 The
passage,
"And those who went before and those who followed shouted
saying:
Hosanna,
blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord," (11:7-9),
was not in the mind of
Gregory simply
a literal
description
of the wel-
come that Jesus had received. He found a
deeper symbolic meaning
there. "Those who went before"
symbolized
the elect of the Old
Testament;
"those who followed" were the Christian
people;
their
common
cry
of "Hosanna" showed that both
groups acknowledged
Christ as their Savior.
Gregory,
like St.
Augustine, explained
that
just
as Christians are saved
by
the Lord's
passion
and resurrection that
had
already
taken
place,
so the Hebrew Fathers were saved
by
their
expectation
of his
passion
and resurrection.24
Pope Gregory
wrote scores of letters that circulated
widely
throughout Christendom,
and there is one
among
them in which he
discussed Christ's descent into hell.25 He wrote to two officers of the
church at
Constantinople regarding
their
preaching
that Jesus had
released from
punishment
all those in hell who
acknowledged
him as
God.26
Gregory
wrote that he wanted them to believe far
differently,
for the truth was that Christ delivered
only
those who had believed
that he would come and had observed his commandments. He advised
them, "Only
hold the true faith
taught by
the Catholic Church: that
the Lord on his descent into hell
only
released from its confines those
who in their
fleshly
existence had been
guarded by
his
grace
in faith
and in
good
works." This
emphasis upon good
works had been
lacking
in
Augustine's exposition
on the salvation of the
ancients;
but absent
from
Gregory's
work was
Augustine's
doubt over the location of the
ancient
elect,
for he was confident that
they
waited in hell for Christ's
coming. However,
the
Pope
shared with St.
Augustine
the belief that
if Christ had
preached
to all the souls in
hell,
it would have
given
sinners an
unjust advantage
over the faithful.
Gregory
buttressed his
teaching
with the
authority
of
Philastrius,
a
IVth-century bishop
who had
compiled
a
catalogue
of
heresies,
Diver-
sarum Hereseon Liber.?7 He had labelled as heretics
those,
such as
Clement and
Origen,
who
say
that Christ revealed himself to all the
souls in hell and
granted
salvation to those who
acknowledged
him
there. St.
Gregory
noted that St.
Augustine
had concurred in this
condemnation. In
sum, Gregory's
view was that Christ descended into
hell to free those ancients who had believed that he would come and
had
spent
their lives in faith and
good
works. Whether he felt that
23P.L.76,
Homiliarum...,
lib.II,
col.985B-986A.
24P.L.76,
col.986A.
25P.L.77, Epistola XV,
Ad
Georgium Presbyterum,
col.869B-870C.
26P.L.77,
col. 869B.
27Corpus Scriptorum
Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum . . .
(Vienna, 1866-), vol.38,
cap.cxxv, p.90; quoted by Gregory
in
P.L.77,
col.870B.
this limited salvation to the Jews or included
pagans
as well is left
uncertain in his
writings.
In the schools of the XIIth
century
there was a revival of interest
in the ancient Greeks and
Romans,
in their literature and in their
philosophy.
This
atmosphere
of
sympathy
for the
pagans might
be
expected
to arouse an interest in the
question
of their
salvation, just
as it had
among
the Alexandrians. One of the most famous teachers at
this time was that contentious scholar Peter Abelard. It is not aston-
ishing
that he confronted the
question
of Christ's descent into hell
and the salvation of the ancients in his
works,
nor is it
surprising
that
he answered the
question
in a manner that caused criticism.
The earliest of Abelard's works
treating
the descensus ad
inferos
is his Sic et
Non,
a collection of
contradictory
statements on doctrinal
questions gathered
from the Church Fathers. One
chapter
of this work
gathers opinions
on the
question
of Adam's
salvation,
a
subject
related
to Christ's
going
down into hell.28 St.
Augustine's
declaration on the
subject
in his
epistle
to Evodius was noted
by Abelard,
as were
additional statements of
Augustine.
Other authorities cited include
the Book of
Wisdom,
St.
Hilary,
and St.
Gregory
the Great. The
passages quoted
are brief and
merely
affirm that Adam was
saved,
with no indication of the manner of his
salvation, though
it has been
shown that St.
Augustine
treated the
subject
in connection with
Christ's descent into hell. While Abelard entitled the
chapter
Quod
Adam salvatus
sit,
et
contra,
there is no
contra;
all the authorities
whose
opinions
were
sought agreed
that
Adam,
the first
man,
was
saved.
In another
chapter
of the Sic et Non Abelard collected various
viewpoints
on whether or not Christ on his descent into hell liberated
all the souls found there.29 He first
quoted
a work of
Origen's,
not his
Contra Celsum but his Homilia ultima
super Genesim,
for confir-
mation of the view that Christ had freed all. Additional
support
came
from a statement in the
commentary
on the
Epistle
to Romans attri-
buted to St. Ambrose: "Indeed men
sinned,
Jews as much as
Greeks,
for which reason the death of Christ was an
advantage
for
all;
and at
this
time,
this must be believed and
observed,
that he
taught
and
freed all from hell."
30
Other selections from Ambrose's
commentary
on Romans and from his
commentary
on Colossians lend
support
to
this view.
But Abelard found that the authorities
opposed
to the belief that
Christ freed all from hell
greatly
outnumbered the two who favored
28
P.L.178, caplviii,
Quod Christus descendens ad
inferos
omnes liberavit
inde,
et
contra,
col.l427C-1428A.
29
P.L.178, caplxxxiv,
Quod Christus descendens ad
inferos
omnes liberavit
inde,
et
contra,
col. 1468D-1471D.
3
P.L.178,
col.1468D-1469A.
Actually
this
commentary
was not the work of
Ambrose;
its author is
usually
called
today
Ambrosiaster
(Monnier, 130-31).
180 RALPH V. TURNER
it.31 It has
already
been seen that St.
Augustine
had much to
say
on
the
subject,
and Abelard was well aware of this. He
quoted
the
epistle
to
Optatus
in which
Augustine
wrote that
only
those ancients who
believed in the
coming
of a Mediator between God and man obtained
salvation. In another letter of
Augustine,
in his De
nuptia
et con-
cupiscentia,
and in his De
correptione
et
gratia,
Abelard found
proof
that this revelation came to the Old Testament elect in a veiled form.
The
compiler
of
opinions
also
presented
the
thoughts
of St.
Gregory
on the
subject.
He cited the
Pope's interpretation
of the
passage
in
Hosea,
"I shall be
your bite,
o
hell,"
as evidence that
only part
of
those confined in hell were liberated.32 He
repeated Gregory's warning
that Philastrius listed
among
the heretics those who teach that Christ
announced himself to all the souls in hell. He also recalled that
Gregory
had
interpreted
Christ's Palm
Sunday
entrance into Jeru-
salem as
symbolizing
the
justification by
faith of the Old Testament
Fathers. Further
proof
that the
patriarchs
were
among
the elect was
offered
by
St. Jerome and
by
Bede. Abelard
again quoted
the com-
mentary
on St. Paul's
Epistle
to the
Colossians,
which he believed to
be the work of St.
Ambrose,
this time
among
the
opponents
of the
doctrine that Christ freed all the souls in hell. The writers cited
by
Abelard would indicate that the mass of
authority
was on the side
of the view that Christ liberated from
imprisonment
in hell
only
those who had believed that he would come as Savior of mankind.
Those who
taught
that Christ offered salvation to all the souls in hell
were in a small
minority.
The enumeration of
opinions
on Christ's descent into hell in the
Sic et Non shows that Abelard was aware of the
question
of the salva-
tion of those who had died before the Incarnation. Most of his
authorities
taught
that
only
those who had
hoped
for the
coming
of
Christ were saved. This doctrine
easily explained
the salvation of the
Old Testament
prophets,
but what of the
pagan philosophers?
Augustine
had
briefly speculated
on their
fate,
but he
quickly
con-
cluded that such a
question
is
beyond
the reach of man's under-
standing
and lies in the realm of divine wisdom.33 Yet the audacious
Abelard was not so conscious of the limitations of human
reason,
and
he
plunged
into the
controversy
in his
Theologia
Christiana and in
his
Epitome Theologiae
Christianae.4 It is in these works that he
gives
his own views.
Master Peter wished to show that faith in the
Trinity
was revealed
81
P.L.178,
col.1469C-1471D.
82
This has been seen used as an
argument by Augustine
in one of his sermons.
83
P.L.33, Epistola CLXIV, cap.ii.
84
"The
Epitome
... is
probably
not the work of
Abailard,
but is most
likely
the lecture notes of a
pupil; therefore,
it can be used with relative confidence."
Reginald
L.
Poole,
Illustrations
of
the
History of
Medieval
Thought (Oxford, 1884),
147,
note 12. See
also,
J. G.
Sikes,
Peter Abailard
(Cambridge. 1932),
268-69.
before Christ's
coming
both to the
prophets
of the Jews and to the
gentile philosophers.
He wrote that it was
proper
for God to fore-
shadow Himself with the
gift
of His
grace
to the
pagan philosophers,
for even the Fathers of the Church
agreed
that
they
led lives of
abstinence and sober
contemplation.35
Abelard stated that his reason
for this demonstration of the ancients' faith was his conviction that
his
contemporaries might
believe in the
Trinity
more
easily
if
they
saw it handed down from those learned men of old.36 He wished to
show that man's
reason,
rightly used,
could
point
to a belief in the
Trinity.37
He cited
passages
from the
writings
of
Cicero, Mercury,
Plato, Macrobius,
and the
Sibylline
Oracle to demonstrate their
knowledge
of the
Trinity.38
Then Abelard
sought
to demonstrate their
faith, writing:
In this manner
indeed,
we
consigned
all those to
infidelity
and
damnation,
to
whom, by
the
testimony
of the
Apostle,
the hidden and
deep mystery
of
the
Trinity
was revealed
by
their
faith;
and its works were
wondrously
preached by
their own virtue and
by
the
holy doctors, although
the
Apostle
asserted that some of them were blinded
by pride
and fell into
idolatry
and shameful
life, just
as it affected
many
of the faithful and as we read
of Solomon. Who then would assert that faith in the Incarnation was not
revealed to
any
of
them,
not even to the
Sibyl,
even if it is not
expressly
in their
writings?
this which was not
preached openly by
Job or
any
of the
prophets..
..39
Abelard
continued, explaining
that
although
the ancient
philoso-
phers
had neither the written law of Israel nor the Christian
gospel,
they
attained the same truth
by
natural reason.40 He added that
just
as Christians
might
call themselves
philosophers
because
they possess
true wisdom of
God,
so the
philosophers
deserved their name for
possessing
that same wisdom.41 He concluded with a review of the
virtuous deeds of the
pagan philosophers.42
Abelard did not consider
the mechanics of their salvation. He nowhere said that Christ led them
from hell into heaven
along
with the Old Testament
Fathers,
but he
left no doubt that
they
were saved.
Elsewhere,
Peter Abelard treated the
question
of the state of the
souls of the blessed who were confined in hell before their liberation
35
P.L.178, Epitome, cap.xi,
Probat
philosophos
nec
salute,
nec
cognitione
Trini-
tatis
caruisse,
col.1712B.
86
P.L.178, Theologia Christiana, lib.I, cap.ii,
col.1126C.
37
Sikes,
Peter
Abailard,
60-75.
38
P.L.178,
Theologia
Christiana, lib.I, cap.v,
col.1140-1166.
By
his reference to
"Mercury"
he
actually
meant Hermes
Trismegistus,
a
legendary Egyptian writer,
whose works were known to the Alexandrian Greeks. The works have also
appeared
in modern editions
by
W. Scott and
by
A. D. Nock.
9
P.L.178, lib.II, col.1172A-B;
a similar view is
expressed
in
Epitome,
col.
1714B-C. 40
P.L.178, lib.II,
col.1173A-D.
41P.L.178,
col.1179B-D.
42P.L.178,
col.1180-1201.
182 RALPH V. TURNER
by Christ,
but he
gave
no indication whether he believed the
pagan
philosophers
to be
among
them.
According
to the
Gospel
of Luke
(16:25)
the
just
were comforted in hell in the bosom of Abraham.
Abelard seized
upon
this statement in his
commentary
on the
Epistle
to
the Romans for
support
of his
rejection
of the
interpretation
of Christ's
passion
as a ransom for mankind's sins. This doctrine had
originated
with St. Paul's
interpretation
of Christ's
suffering
on the cross as an
offering
to God for mankind's sins.
Later,
this
developed
into the
"ransom
theory"
that the devil had
power
over all men because of
original sin,
but that Christ's sacrifice was a ransom
paid
to him to
redeem the human race.43 Abelard
argued
that since some souls were
beyond
the devil's
power
in the bosom of
Abraham,
he
clearly
did not
have
power
over all
men; therefore,
he was
merely
God's
jailer
governing
those souls
assigned
to him for
imprisonment
or torture.
The crucifixion was
necessary,
not to
purchase
men's souls from Satan
with Jesus'
blood,
but to set an
example
of
perfect love,
for "Greater
love hath no man than
this,
that a man
lay
down his life for his
friend"
(John 15:13).44
In the
writings
of this scholar are found a mixture of
orthodoxy
and new controversial doctrines. Abelard stated in his Sic et Non the
view of the authorities that Christ descended into hell to free those
who had
expected
his
coming, including
Adam. But in the
Theologia
Christiana he advanced the doctrine that the
pagan philosophers
had
knowledge
of the
Trinity,
which
they
reached
by
natural reason. This
seemed
startling
and new in the XIIth
century, although
some of the
apologists,
like St.
Justin,
had
argued
that there were
pagan
and
Jewish "Christians" before Christ. In his
commentary
on Romans
Abelard
rejected
the traditional ransom doctrine.
Abelard's
greatest adversary
was St. Bernard of
Clairvaux,
who
feared the
growing
reliance on reason that Abelard
represented.
He
was a
powerful figure,
a skilful controversialist with
many
influential
friends,
and he used all his resources
against
the new
teachings.
The
struggle
was between two sincere Christians who
approached
the
faith in different
ways-Abelard,
a
scholastic, emphasizing
under-
standing,
and
Bernard,
a
mystic, relying upon
direct
experience.
The
Saint of Clairvaux wrote scores of letters
warning against
what he
considered the
dangerous teachings
of Abelard. One of these lists
errors contained in Abelard's Sententiae and Scito te
ipsum,
and
among
the errors is the doctrine de descensu Christi ad
inferos.4
48P.L.178,
Commentariorum
super
Pauli
Epistolam
ad
Romanos, lib.IV,
col.
833D-834A. For a
summary
of the doctrine of the atonement and for Abelard's
views,
see
Sikes,
Peter
Abailard,
204-213. 44
P.L.178,
col.836A-C.
45P.L.182, Epistola CLXXXVIII,
ad
episcopos
et cardinales curiae. . .
,
col.
353C. It is not certain to what work Bernard referred
by
the title Sententiae. He
may
have intended either the
Epitome
or the Sic et
Non,
both of which were some-
times
given
that title.
P.L.182, col.353,
note
495,
and
Poole, 147,
note 12.
Bernard also wrote two
longer
tracts
exposing
and
refuting
the
teachings
of the Parisian master.
The first of these
pamphlets
is a collection of
quotations
from
Abelard's
Theologia
Christiana and
commentary
on Romans that
illustrates
chiefly
his false
teachings
about the nature of the
Trinity.46
St. Bernard's second
tract,
addressed to
Pope
Innocent
II,
refutes
those doctrines which he found untrue.47
Again, questions concerning
the character of the
Trinity
receive the main
emphasis,
and Bernard
disclaimed
any
notion that man can come to faith in the
Trinity by
natural reason alone.48 He also
rejected
Abelard's
exemplarist theory
of Christ's sacrifice and defended the traditional ransom view.49 He
answered Abelard's
question
whether the devil had tormented Lazarus
and the elect in the bosom of Abraham as he had the rich man in hell
with the
following
statement:
No,
but he would have if
they
had not been set free
by
faith that he
[Christ]
would
come,
as
concerning
Abraham it is written: Abraham be-
lieved
God,
and it was counted unto him
for righteousness (Gen.
15:
6).
Again:
Abraham
rejoiced
to see
my day;
he saw it and was
glad (John
8:
56).
Therefore even then the blood of Christ was
bedewing
Lazarus in
order that he should not feel the
flames;
because he had believed on him
who would suffer. So are we to think of all the saints of that
time,
that
they
were
born, just
as we
are,
under the
power
of darkness because of
original
sin,
but
they
were rescued before
they
died and
by nothing
else but the
blood of Christ.50
In this
positive language,
St. Bernard stated his belief that those
ancients who believed that Christ would come were saved
by
the
same faith that Christians hold. This faith was not
gained through
reason but
through
revelation.
There was no
question
for Bernard as there had been for
Augustine
and Abelard
concerning
the state of the
pre-Christian
saints
awaiting
their Savior's
coming.
Of
course, they
were
deprived
of the
heavenly
vision of
God,
but
they
were made comfortable in the bosom of
Abraham. The abbot of Clairvaux in his fourth sermon for the Feast
of All Saints
pictured
this
waiting place
in such
simple
terms that
even the most humble could see it.51 He described the bosom of
Abraham as a
refuge
of
tranquillity
and refreshment for the souls of
the blessed in
hell, separated
from the souls of the damned
by
"a
great
46P.L.182, Capitula
Haeresum Petri
Abaelardi,
col.1049-1054.
47
P.L.182,
Contra Quaedam
Capitula
Errorum
Abaelardi,
col.1053-1072.
48P.L.182,
Contra. .
.,
cap.i, Impia
Abaelardi de Sancta Trinitate
dogmata
rescenset,
et
explodit,
col.1055-1057.
49
P.L.182, cap.v, col.1062-1065; cap.vii-ix,
col.1067-1072.
50
P.L.182, cap.vii,
col.1068A-B.
51P.L.183,
Sermo
IV,
De sinu
Abrahae,
et altari sub
quo
sanctorum animas
beatus Joannes audivit. .
.,
col.471C-472C.
184 RALPH V. TURNER
chasm"
(Luke 16:26).
It was
dark,
for Job had said that he was
going
"to the land of
gloom
and
deep
darkness"
(Job 10:21).
But Christ
descended into that
place,
and he "shatters the doors of bronze and
cuts in two the bars of iron"
(Ps. 106:16;
Is.
45:2),
"to
bring
out the
prisoners
from the
dungeon" (Is.
42:
7).
He
brought
them with him
to the throne of
heaven,
where "He will hide me in his shelter in the
day
of
trouble,
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent"
(Ps.
26:5).
This
sermon,
a
string
of scattered
Scriptural
references tied
together by
their
allegorical interpretation,
illustrates the childlike
faith of St.
Bernard,
which was satisfied with the words of the Bible
and felt no need for the
arguments
of reason.
The
allegorical
method of St. Bernard and the dialectical method
of Peter Abelard were united in the treatises of Peter Lombard. This
student of Abelard
sought
the reconciliation of
conflicting
authorities
that had been
anticipated by
the Sic et
Non, yet
he
carefully
remained
within the confines of
orthodoxy.
He discussed the doctrine of the
descent into hell in his commentaries on certain verses in the
epistles
to the
Ephesians
and the
Romans;
he wrote that Christ went down
to the lower
region
and led the souls of the ancient
just
from there
into heaven.52 In his Quatuor
Libri
Sententiarum,
a work that became
the standard textbook for medieval students of
theology,
Peter Lom-
bard discussed the faith of the
righteous
men of the
pre-Christian
era.
He
sought
in his third book of Sentences to discover what was an
adequate
faith for the salvation of the ancients.83 He wrote that there
is a measure of faith without which there can be no
salvation;
"For
whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and
that He rewards those who seek Him"
(Hebrews 11:6).
He wrote that
those who believed this before the
giving
of the Law and before the
Incarnation
may
have been
delivered,
but that this is no
longer
sufficient in the
age
of
grace,
when faith in the Creed is essential. In
fact,
such a
simple
faith does not
appear
to have sufficed either before
the Law or before the advent of
Christ,
for the authorities St.
Augustine
and
Gregory
the Great confirm that no man was saved
without faith in the one Mediator.54
The Master of Sentences then
speculated
whether the faith of
the ancients was revealed
openly
or veiled in
mystery.
He held that
the faith was revealed
clearly
to the
great patriarchs
and
prophets
but
obscurely
to the masses who followed
them, just
as in the church
many
believe the articles of the Creed without
understanding
them.55
This contrasted both with
Augustine's
view that all revelation
prior
to the Incarnation was
veiled,
and Abelard's idea that
understanding
is
necessary
for
genuine
faith.
52
P.L.191,
Collectanea in omnes d. Pauli
Apostoli Epistolas, col.1474C; P.L.192,
Collectanea in
Epistolam
d. Pauli in
Epistolam
ad
Ephes.,
col.199D.
53P.L.192,
Sententiarum,
lib.III,
Distinctio
xxv,
De
fide antiquorum,
col.809-
810. 54
P.L.192,
col.809. 55
P.L.192,
col.810.
Now that the Lombard had established the
necessity
for faith in
a
Redeemer,
he
pondered
the
question
whether
any
further belief
was
necessary.56
He wrote that some
gathered
from the
writings
of
Augustine that the ancients were
obliged
to believe in the four basic
features of Christ's
ministry:
his
birth, death, resurrection,
and
coming
to
judge.
He noted that others
taught
that belief in the
Trinity
was
sufficient,
and that as
proof they
offered John the
Baptist,
who at one time doubted that Christ was the Messiah
(Matt. 11:3),
yet
who
undoubtedly
was saved. Peter Lombard could have had in
mind no other than
Abelard,
who had
expressed just
such a view in
his
Theologia
Christiana. The Master of Sentences did not
flatly deny
the
validity
of either
opinion; however,
he illustrated his own view
with a discussion of the faith of Cornelius the Centurion
(Acts
10).67
God was
pleased
with Cornelius' faith that a Savior would
come,
although
he did not know whether this had come to
pass
or would
come in the
future;
and St. Peter was sent to instruct him in the
details of the faith.
Clearly,
Peter Lombard
placed
himself with
Augustine
in
recognizing
faith in the Incarnation as the
prerequisite
for salvation
among
the
ancients; however,
he did
distinguish
between
the
depth
of
understanding
of this
required
of the learned and that
required
of the masses.
Peter Lombard's
presentation
of the tenets of the Christian faith
in
orderly
fashion was continued
by
Alain of Lille. He wrote not for
the instruction of
theological
students but for the conversion of here-
tics, Jews,
and
Moslems;
for his De Fide Catholica contra Haereticos
in four books came at a time in the XIIth
century
when
Christianity
was on the defensive. Alain's first book is directed
against
the
Albigensian
heretics of southern France. He wrote that
they
denied
that Christ had descended into hell or that the souls of the saints
imprisoned
there had ascended into heaven with
him,
for
they
believed
that the souls of all who had died before the Incarnation were
eternally
damned.58
They
even included John the
Baptist among
the
damned,
for had he not doubted Christ and sent two of his
disciples
to
inquire
if Jesus were the true Messiah?
(Luke 7:20).
Alain of Lille embarked
upon
a refutation of their error in
denying
that Christ went down into the lower world.59 He chose his evidence
in
support
of the orthodox
position
from the New
Testament,
the
only
authority
the
Albigensians
would
recognize; only
once did he
appeal
to another
authority,
the article of the
Apostles'
Creed-descendit ad
16
P.L.192,
Quae ante adventum Christi de Mediatore credere
sufficiebat,
col.810.
7
P.L.192, De
fide Cornelii,
col.810.
58
P.L.210,
De Fide Catholica. .
., lib.I, Opinio haereticorum, qui
dicunt
quod
animae
sanctorum,
cum Christi non ascenderunt in
coelum,
et
quod
Christus non
descendit ad
infernum,
cap.xv,
col.319C.
59P.L.210, cap.xvi,
Quibus auctoribus et rationibus
probatur, quod
Christus
descendit ad
inferos
et
quod
animas sanctorum ab
inferis liberavit,
col.319C-320C.
186 RALPH V. TURNER
inferos.
Alain demonstrated that John the
Baptist
was not condemned
by quoting
selections from the
Gospel
where he had
acknowledged
Christ as Savior
(John 1:29-30)
and where Christ had
proclaimed
his
greatness (Luke 7:24-28).60
Then Alain
quoted
more
passages
of
Scripture
to
prove
that Christ had descended into hell
(Luke
11:21-
22; Eph.
4:
8-9),
and he maintained that Christ had no reason to
go
down into that infernal
region except
to free his own whom the devil
held
captive
there.6
It was not
enough
for the Doctor universalis to
prove
that Christ
descended into
hell;
he had to
prove
that those confined there were
worthy
of
redemption.
The
Albigensians maintained, according
to
Alain,
that the
patriarchs
and
prophets
of the Old Testament were
evil and were
deserving
of eternal
punishment
because of their
enormous sins.62
They
were
dualists, recognizing
two
supreme deities,
the
good
God of the New Testament and the Jehovah of the Old
Testament,
whom
they
identified with the devil. Alain confuted their
argument by demonstrating
that the law of Moses was
good
because
it was
given by
God. He
presented
verses of
Scripture illustrating
the
goodness
and faith of
Abraham, Moses, Aaron,
and other Hebrew
Fathers,
and
manifesting
their faith in the
coming
of a Redeemer.63
He
explained
that these Old Testament
figures
had not descended into
hell because
they
deserved eternal damnation but
simply
because
they
shared with all men the
guilt
of Adam's sin. Alain further
explained
that Christ died in order to free them from the shadows to which
they
were bound
by original
sin
just
as he died to liberate the
living
from
the threat of those
shadows,
and he descended into hell to
complete
their liberation. Alain's
conception
of the condition of the Fathers
who awaited Christ in hell was similar to St. Bernard's:
they
were
not in the
deepest part
of
hell; they
were not
punished materially;
but
they
were cut off from the vision of God.
The third book of the Contra Haereticos of Alain of Lille was
aimed at the Jews in the
hope
that
they might
be converted to Christi-
anity.64
Since he was
writing
for this
audience,
he had to
prove
what
both the
Albigensians
and orthodox Christians
affirmed,
that all who
had
perished
before Christ's
coming
descended into
hell, including
the
Jewish
patriarchs
and
prophets.
He turned to the Old Testament for
evidence, quoting
such statements of the Israelite Fathers as Jacob's
60
P.L.210,
col.319C-D.
61
P.L.210,
col.320A-C.
62P.L.210, cap.xxxvii,
Quibus
auctoritatibus et rationibus
probant
haeretici
Patres Veteris Testamenti malos
fuisse,
et esse
damnatos,
col.341B-342B.
a8
P.L.210,
col.242C-243D.
64
P.L.210, lib.III, cap.xix, Quibus
auctoritatibus
probatur quod
omnes ante
Christi adventum ad
inferos descendebant,
et
quod
necessarium
fuit
ad reducendum
genus
humanum, ut Deus hominem assumeret, et sibi mortem
subjiceret,
col.418A-
419D.
"I shall descend to hell
mourning my
son"
(Gen. 37:33),
and Job's
"Hell is
my home,
and I have
spread my
couch in darkness"
(Job
17:
13). However,
Alain was careful to assert to his Jewish readers that
this was a
penalty
for
original
sin
only.
After he
proved
that even the
just
descended into
hell,
he
sought
to demonstrate that Christ went
down to them to reunite them with the Father in heaven.65 He
appealed
to the Biblical
passages
that were
traditionally interpreted
as
referring
to the descensus ad
inferos.
Alain's intention was to
assure the Jews whom he
sought
to convert that salvation was avail-
able to their
patriarchs
and
prophets through
Jesus Christ.
Although
Alain of Lille and Peter Lombard wrote for different
audiences, they
both treated the doctrine of Christ's descent into hell
in the orthodox manner. Alain was one of the few
theologians
who
found it
necessary
to defend this doctrine which formed an article of
the
Creed,
but he was faced with the
Albigensians. Elsewhere, writing
for the
Jews,
he was forced to
justify
the confinement of the Hebrew
Fathers in hell
by appealing
to the doctrine of
original
sin. Both
writers adhered to the traditional
teaching
that the ancient
just
were
saved
by
faith in one Mediator between God and Man. Noticeable
by
its absence from the
writings
of Peter and Alain is
any
consideration
of the salvation of
any
ancients outside the Old
Testament, except
for
Lombard's discussion of Cornelius the
Centurion;
in
general,
these
two writers seem to have used the terms "ancient
just"
and "Old
Testament Fathers"
interchangeably.
The
organization
of the tenets of the Christian faith
attempted by
these two writers reached its culmination in the Summa
Theologica
of St. Thomas
Aquinas
in the XIIIth
century.
Since his massive
collection treats
every aspect
of Christian
doctrine,
it is
hardly
sur-
prising
to find a
chapter dealing
with Christ's descent into hell.66 In-
deed,
his treatment is the most exhaustive of all the medieval writers'.
The first
question
about Christ's descent into hell that is raised in
the Summa
Theologica
concerns its
propriety,
and St. Thomas an-
swers that it was
proper
in order that Christ
might
save mankind from
imprisonment there, just
as it was
proper
for him to suffer death in
order to free
living
men from that burden.67 Thomas found
support
for this in the
Scriptures
and their
glosses, among
them the familiar
interpretation
of the
passage
in Hosea.
St. Thomas also treated Christ's descent into hell in one of his
series of
Quaestiones
Disputatae,
the De Veritate. There he treated
the
question
whether for salvation it is
necessary
to believe
explicitly.
65
P.L.210,
col.418D-419D.
66Summa
Theologica diligenter
emendata de
Rubeis,
Billuart et
aliorum,
9th
edition
(Turin, 1901),
(hereafter referred to as
S.T.),
vol.
IV, pars III, quaestio liii,
De descensus Christi ad
inferos
in octo articulos
divisa, pp.
732-41.
67
S. T.
pars III, quaestio lii,
art.
1, pp.
732-33.
188 RALPH V. TURNER
One of the
objections
he listed was the
argument
that John the
Baptist,
who
surely
was
saved,
had doubted Christ's descent into
hell.68 If John the
Baptist
doubted
this,
one of the articles of the
Creed,
then
surely explicit
faith was not demanded of those who lived
before the Incarnation. St. Thomas
replied concerning
John's doubt:
". . . it was not
necessary
for him to believe
explicitly
all the matters
of revelation which are believed after Christ's
passion
and resurrection
in the
age
of
grace. For,
in his
time,
the
knowledge
of the truth had
not reached the fullness which it received
especially
with the
coming
of the
Holy Spirit."
Thomas had no doubt
concerning
John's admis-
sion to
paradise,
even
though
he died before Christ's sacrifice.
In his Summa this Doctor of the Church discussed Christ's
liberation of the Old Testament Fathers from hell in the orthodox
manner.69 He wrote that Christ's
passion
freed man both from the
debt owed
by
all mankind for
original
sin and from the individual's
debt for
personal
sin. Now the saints in
hell,
such as John the
Baptist,
were
imprisoned
there
only
because of the stain of
original
sin which
prevented
their
attaining
the vision of
God,
but this stain was washed
away by
the
power
of Christ's
passion. Following
his death
upon
the
cross,
he led the saints out of the darkness into the
light
of the
heavenly kingdom. Among
the
objections
to this
opinion
St. Thomas
listed one based on St.
Augustine's epistle
to
Evodius,
the source of
several
arguments opposed
to his conclusions.70 The
Bishop
of
Hippo
had written that he found no basis for
believing
that the
just
in the
bosom of Abraham were
deprived
of the
happiness
that is the vision
of God.
Aquinas
reconciled this view with his own
by interpreting
Augustine
as
meaning
that the ancient
just
were
happy
in
expectation
of that vision but not
yet happy
in actual fact. Christ's liberation of
the saints from hell raised the
question
of his rescue of the
damned,
for some
early
Fathers such as Clement and
Origen taught
that he
freed all the souls held
captive by
the devil. Thomas denied that the
damned were
delivered,
since
they
had neither the faith in Christ nor
the love in
conformity
with his
suffering
which were
necessary
for
salvation.71 This
concept
of love
(caritas)
in addition to faith as
prerequisite
for deliverance had not been
emphasized by
the earlier
writers.
St. Thomas's discussion of the descensus ad
inferos
indicates that
the ancient
just
were saved
by
love and faith in Christ. But how
could man who had suffered death after the fall of Adam and before
68
Based on Matt. 11:
3,
"Art thou he that art to come?"
Quaestiones
Dispu-
tatae,
De
Veritate,
Quaestio
XIV,
De
Fide, art, 11,
Utrum necessarium
aliquid
ex-
plicite credere, objection 6; Opera
Omnia secundum
impressionem
Petri Fiaccadori
(Parma, 1852-1873), IX,
246. 69 S.
T., art.5, pp.736-38.
70 I.e.
art.l, obj.l; art.2, obj.4; art.5, obj.l, referring
to
above;
and
art.8, obj.l.
71
S.
T., art.6, pp.738-39.
the
coming
of Christ achieve that faith? His answer was that even
before the Incarnation men were instructed
by
means of sacraments
in the faith that Christ would come. He
expounded
this doctrine more
fully:
I answer that it must be said that sacraments are
necessary
for human
salvation,
inasmuch as
they
are sensible
signs
of invisible
things by
which
man is sanctified.
However, nothing
can be sanctified after
sin, except
through Christ,
whom God
put forward
as an
expiation by
His
blood,
to
show His
justice.
.
.,
that He
may
be
just
and
justifying
him who has
faith
in Jesus Christ
(Rom.
3:
25-26).
Indeed before Christ's
coming
there was
need for certain visible
signs, by
which man
might
declare his faith in the
future
coming
of a Savior. And these
signs
are called sacraments. And thus
it is clear that before Christ's
coming
it was
necessary
that certain sacra-
ments be instituted.72
Aquinas
made clear in his
replies
to various
objections
that the sacra-
ments that foreshadowed Christ's
coming
were contained in the
Mosaic Law. As an
example
he
pointed
to the
similarity
between the
Jewish feast of the Paschal Lamb and the
passion
of Jesus Christ.73
This doctrine that the Jews
living
under the Old Law could learn of
a Redeemer and manifest faith in a Christ to come
through
their
sacraments
easily explains
Jews,
but it seems to
bar the
pagan philosophers
from
hope
of salvation.
But St. Thomas's more detailed treatment of this
question
in the
treatise De Veritate makes clear his view that
righteous pagans
could
gain salvation,
too.74 In his
exposition
he
closely
followed Peter Lom-
bard, setting
forth those articles of the Christian faith that are vital
for man's
salvation,
whether in the
age
before the Incarnation or in
the
following,
whether in a Christian
kingdom
or
among
the heathen.
St. Thomas stated that all
men,
in whatever
age they live,
must
explicitly
believe two
things: first,
that God
exists,
and
second,
that
He exercises
providence
over human affairs. Then he made several
distinctions
concerning implicit
beliefs and
explicit
beliefs. He
distinguished
between what the leaders and the common
people
must
believe and between what is
necessary
for belief in different
ages-
before the
Fall,
after the
Fall,
and after the Incarnation. He stated
that both before and after the
Fall, explicit
faith in the
Trinity
was
necessary
for the
great men;
and after the
Fall, explicit
faith in the
coming
of a Redeemer became
necessary
in addition. For the common
people, only
an
implicit
faith in the
Trinity
and in a Redeemer was
demanded.
However,
in the
present age
of
grace following
the Incar-
72
S.
T.,
pars III, quaestio lxi,
De necessitate sacramentum in
quartos
articulos
divisa, art.3, p.795.
73
S.
T., art.3, obj.2
and
3, pp.795-96.
74
Quaestiones
Disputatae,
De
Veritate,
Quaestio
XIV,
De
Fide, Opera Omnia,
IX,
244-46.
190 RALPH V. TURNER
nation,
explicit
faith in the
Trinity
and in a Redeemer is
required
not
only
of the leaders but of all men. St. Thomas's addition of belief in
the
Trinity
as a
requirement
for salvation marks a break with Peter
Lombard;
it
may
be due to Peter Abelard's
influence,
for he was con-
vinced that the ancient
philosophers
had known of the
Trinity,
at
least
implicitly.
St. Thomas's
precise
definition and careful
drawing
of distinctions
did not
stop
with this treatment of the
problem.
He went on to answer
several
objections
to his solution. One
objection
raises
directly
the
question
of the salvation of the ancient
just;
it states that
many
gentiles
were saved before the
Incarnation, though they
could not
have had an
explicit
faith in Christ's
coming.75
St. Thomas in his
reply
held to his view that the leaders must believe
explicitly
in the
coming
of a
Redeemer,
but he
placed
all
gentiles
in the
category
of
ordinary
people,
for whom
implicit
belief is
enough.
He stated that
they
should
not be
expected
to be "teachers of divine
truth,"
and he added:
Therefore,
it was
enough
for them to have
implicit
faith in the
Redeemer,
either as a
part
of their belief in the faith of the law and the
prophets,
or
as
part
of their belief in divine
providence
itself.
Nevertheless,
it is
likely
that the
mystery
of our
redemption
was revealed to
many
Gentiles before
Christ's
coming,
as is clear from the
Sibylline prophecies.76
Aquinas
here
opened
wide the
gates
of
salvation,
for admirers of the
learned Greeks and virtuous Romans could
easily
be convinced that
their heroes had believed
implicitly
in a Redeemer.
Furthermore,
St.
Thomas himself
expressed
the view that
many
of them were saved.
Apparently
he would class as
leaders,
for whom
explicit
faith was
necessary, only
the
patriarchs
and
prophets
of the Jews.
But what of the fate of those
righteous
ancients who died before
Christ's
coming? Following
their
deaths,
were
they
welcomed into
heaven at once? St. Thomas had shown in his discussion of the descent
into hell that those ancients who were saved had to remain in hell
until Christ's
coming.
In one section of his Summa
Theologica
he
treated their
dwelling place
there.7
First, Aquinas
discussed the
question
whether the limbo of hell
(limbus
inferni)
and the bosom of
Abraham are the
same,
and he concluded that
they are, using argu-
ments similar to those that Alain of Lille
employed
in
proving
that
the Hebrew Fathers had
gone
down to hell. The two terms
apply
to
the same
place,
but "Limbo of hell"
suggests
the
incomplete
rest of
the saints
awaiting
the vision of
God,
while "bosom of Abraham" im-
plies
comfort and
exemption
from
punishment.78
He described the
75
Obj.5, p.245. 76Reply
to
obj.5, p.246.
77
S.
T.,
vol.
V, pars III, Supplementum, quaestio lxix,
De his
quae spectant
ad
resurrectionem,
et
primo
de loco animarum
post
mortem in
septem
articulos
divisa,
art.
4-6, pp.578-81.
78
S.
T., pars III, Supplementum, art.4, pp.578-79.
bosom of Abraham in the traditional manner as a
region higher
and
less
gloomy
than the section reserved to the damned.79
Indeed,
in all
his remarks on the descensus ad
inferos
St. Thomas
Aquinas
followed
the
traditional,
orthodox
doctrines;
his chief contribution
lay
in
organizing
them into a
logical
whole.
Usually
ranked
alongside
St. Thomas
Aquinas'
Summa
Theologica
as one of the
great
summaries of Scholastic
theology
is Dante's Divine
Comedy.
In his fictional
journey through hell, purgatory,
and heaven
the
poet
encountered
many figures
who had lived before Christ's
coming.
What was his
opinion concerning
their salvation? One
might
expect
a
person
such as
Dante, sympathetic
toward classical literature
and ancient
philosophy,
to find
justification
for the salvation of all
the
righteous pagans;
but this is not the case at all. The view that he
expresses concerning
their fate is
completely orthodox,
but it is less
generous
than St. Thomas's view.
Dante's
map
of hell locates
limbo,
the abode of the
unbaptized
and
the virtuous
pagans,
in the first circle on the outer
edge
of the
pit.
Here
they
were in a state of
calm, suffering
no
physical
torment but
enduring
one
great grief, "That,
without
hope,
we ever
live,
and
long."
80
They
did not scream or
cry
out in
physical pain,
but
only
sighed
at their
separation
from God.
Vergil,
Dante's
guide through
hell and
purgatory,
made clear the reason for the confinement of the
ancient
just
in limbo: it was their lack of faith.81 Dante named
many
of the Greeks and Romans he encountered in limbo. It is no
surprise
to find the
philosophers Socrates, Plato,
and
Aristotle,
but it is sur-
prising
to find
many
of the classical
poets, including Ovid, along
with
characters from
pagan legend,
such as Hector and Aeneas.82 Dante
found none of the Old Testament
patriarchs
in
limbo,
for he
accepted
the traditional
interpretation
of the descensus ad
inferos
that Christ
had come down and delivered them.
Vergil
described for him Christ's
"harrowing
of hell":
When I was
newly
in this state ..
I saw One come in
majesty
and
awe,
And on His head were crowns of
victory.
Our first
great
father's
spirit [Adam]
He did
withdraw,
And
righteous Abel,
Noah who built the
ark,
Moses who
gave
and who
obeyed
the
Law,
King David,
Abraham the
Patriarch,
Israel with his father and
generation,
Rachel,
for whom he did such deeds of
work,
79
S.
T., art.5, pp.579-80.
80
Dante,
The Divine
Comedy,
Hell, canto
IV,
line 42. The translation is
Dorothy
L.
Sayers', Penguin
Classics edition
(Harmondsworth, 1949),
92.
81
Hell,
canto
IV,
lines
34-39, p.92; Purgatory (Harmondsworth, 1955),
canto
VII,
lines
7-8, p.118.
82
Hell, canto
IV,
lines
88-144, pp.93-95; Purgatory,
canto
XXII,
lines
97-114,
p.243.
192 RALPH V. TURNER
With
many
another of His chosen
nation;
These did He
bless;
and
know,
that ere that
day
No human soul had ever seen salvation.83
Finally,
in the
Paradise,
Dante faced
directly
the
question
of the
salvation of the ancient
just.
He
pondered
the fate of those
righteous
persons
who died without
knowing
Christ.
Through
no fault of their
own, they
had the misfortune to live in a time or
place
where knowl-
edge
of Christ was forbidden them. In
heaven,
the
just
rulers who
compose
the
starry eagle collectively
voice this
problem
which
per-
plexed
Dante:
... Here's a man ... born of some breed
On Indus'
bank,
where there is none to tell
Of
Christ,
and none to
write,
and none to
read;
He
lives,
so far as we can
see, quite well,
Rightly disposed,
in conduct not
amiss,
Blameless in word and
deed;
yet
infidel
And
unbaptized
he
dies; come,
tell me this:
Where is the
justice
that condemns the man
For unbelief? What fault is it of his? 84
The
eagle gives
an
Augustinian
answer that human
beings
cannot
question
the
justice
of such a man's
damnation,
for
they
cannot
expect
to understand God's
justice;
but it
goes
on to declare faith in Christ
as the
way
to salvation:
. .. None ever soared
To this
high
realm
[Paradise]
that had not faith in
Christ,
Ere He was nailed on
tree,
or afterward.8
This statement
expressed
the traditional view that one who died
before the Incarnation could win
entry
to heaven
by
faith in a Savior
to come. Dante was made
fully
aware of this when he observed
closely
the five stars which form the curve above the
eagle's eye,
for he found
the fifth one to be
Rhipeus,
a
Trojan hero,
killed in the fall of
Troy
long
before Christ's
coming.86
Dante's amazement at
finding Rhipeus
in
paradise prompted
the chorus of
just
rulers to
explain
that on
account of his
righteousness
God revealed to him "the
redemption
yet
to
come,"
so that he was
"complete
in Christian faith" before the
Incarnation.7
Yet Dante was
extremely
cautious in his
application
of this doc-
88
Hell,
canto
IV,
lines
52-63, pp.92-93.
84
Paradise
(Harmondsworth, 1962),
canto
XIX,
lines
70-78, p.226.
85
Paradise,
canto
XIX,
lines
103-105, p.227.
86
Paradise,
canto
XX,
line
68, p.234.
The Roman
emperor
Trajan
was another
of the five
stars,
but of course he lived after the Incarnation.
87Paradise,
canto
XX,
lines
100-129, p.235.
trine of
"baptism by
desire." He
might
have been
expected
to use
this to
gain
admittance into heaven for
any
number of virtuous
pagans,
at least for
Vergil,
his
image
for human wisdom.
Vergil's
fourth
Eclogue, interpreted
in the Middle
Ages
as a
prophecy
of
Christ, surely qualified
him as one who had an
implicit
faith in the
coming
of a Redeemer. But
Vergil
remained in
limbo, along
with
Cicero, Seneca,
and others whom Dante
might
have
thought deserving
of salvation. Dante was
hardly
unrestrained in his admiration for the
wisdom of the ancients. It seems that both Peter Abelard and St.
Thomas
Aquinas
were more
optimistic concerning
the
possibilities
for salvation of the ancient
just.
In this
survey
of medieval views on the salvation of the ancient
just,
the
writings
of ten thinkers have been examined: Clement of
Alexandria and
Origen, IIIrd-century
Greek Christian
writers;
St.
Augustine
and
Pope
Gregory I,
Latin Fathers of the
Church;
Peter
Abelard,
St. Bernard of
Clairvaux,
Peter
Lombard,
and Alain of
Lille,
XIIth-century
teachers and
preachers;
St. Thomas
Aquinas
and
Dante, XIIIth-century
summarizers of Christian
teaching.
As
Christians,
all these men
accepted
as an article of faith the statement
of the Creed: Descendit ad
inferos. Only
Alain of
Lille, writing
in an
attempt
to convert heretics who denied that
teaching,
felt
compelled
to defend it.
Most of these writers
recognized
some connection between Christ's
descent into hell and the salvation of men who died before his
coming.
All the writers affirmed that Christ's
purpose
in
going
down into hell
was to free the souls of the
just
men who deserved salvation.
They
believed that these men were confined in a
region
of hell known
variously
as
paradise,
the bosom of
Abraham,
or
limbo,
a
place
of
physical
comfort but
obstructing
the full vision of God. The two
Greek Fathers went further and maintained that Christ had
preached
to the souls in
hell, offering
salvation to all confined in its
depths.
But St.
Augustine
and St.
Gregory
the Great
rejected
this
opinion
as
heretical.
The
question
of
defining
the ancient
just proved
to be difficult and
caused some
divergence
of
opinion.
St.
Augustine taught
that of those
men
living
between Adam's fall and the Incarnation
only
those who
had believed in the future
coming
of a Mediator between God and
man were delivered from hell
by
Christ. These souls were
obliged
to
remain in hell until Christ's
coming
because
they,
like all
men,
were
tainted with
original
sin.
Augustine's teaching
became the orthodox
view,
reaffirmed
by
St. Thomas
Aquinas
and Dante.
The
problem lay
in
determining
what men
among
the ancients did
believe in a future Redeemer.
Clearly,
the
prophets
and
patriarchs
of
the Old Testament who had foretold Christ's
coming
fall were within
194 RALPH V. TURNER
the class of those who believed. But what of others who lived before
the
Incarnation,
such as the
pagan philosophers
of Greece and Rome?
Origen
and Clement of Alexandria
recognized
the
righteousness
of
many
of these
men,
and
they
were
unwilling
to
accept
their damnation
as
just. They supposed
that Christ had
preached
to them in hell. St.
Augustine, pondering
the same
question,
came to a different answer-
or rather to no answer at all. He
simply
concluded that man is in-
capable
of
comprehending
God's
justice,
a conclusion
repeated by
Dante in his Divine
Comedy.
Peter Abelard was not so cautious about
man's abilities. He formulated the
revolutionary
doctrine that the
pagan philosophers
arrived at
knowledge
of the
Trinity by
natural
reason and
consequently gained
an awareness of
Christ,
which made
them
worthy
of salvation. Of
course,
Abelard's view was attacked
by
St.
Bernard,
who was a conservative hostile to this new
emphasis
on
man's reason.
Peter Lombard in his Sentences
spelled
out
precisely
the rules
governing
ancients,
and St. Thomas
largely
followed the Lombard's solution of the
problem. They
both
taught
that all men-for salvation-must
acknowledge
that God exists and
rules over the
world,
and
they
both
taught
that all men
living
before
Christ must have had faith in the
coming
of a Redeemer. This faith
must be clear to the
leaders,
but
may
be veiled to the masses. St.
Thomas added to this faith in a Redeemer a faith in the
Trinity.
He
was
quite generous
in
extending
salvation to the
pagan just,
for he
classed all
pagans
as
among
the common
people
for whom a veiled
faith sufficed.
Apparently, only
the Jewish
patriarchs
and
prophets
needed to believe
explicitly.
St. Thomas even made the statement
that
many
of the
"gentiles"
had been saved.
Surprisingly, Dante,
who
had
great
admiration for the
pagan poets
and
philosophers,
and who
closely
followed St. Thomas's
theology,
was not
nearly
so
optimistic
about the ancients' salvation. He
placed only
a
tiny
number in
para-
dise, leaving
the vast
majority
of the ancients
languishing
in limbo.
In
spite
of Dante's
caution,
medieval Christians who admired
classical
thought
and letters could
hope
to meet their favorite authors
in
paradise
and still remain orthodox.
However,
the
question
of the
fate of the
pagans
is not
likely
to have worried
many
medieval Chris-
tians.
They
saw the
mystery plays
which
pictured
Christ
freeing
the
Old Testament Fathers from hell and
leading
them in
glory
into the
kingdom
of
heaven,
and
they
were satisfied with God's
justice.
Florida State
University

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Descendit Ad Inferos: Medieval Views on Christ's Descent into Hell and the Salvation of the

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