eferences of St. Paul in favour of such teaching. Not at all.
It was the belief of the whole Church. St. Peter and St. Paul were
only two in a crowd of teachers of early days who proclaimed
triumphantly the visit of the Lord into the world of the dead. St.
Peter seems to be thinking of it in his first sermon when he quotes:
"His soul was not left in Hades" (Acts ii. 31). Therefore St. Peter
knew that it was into that intermediate life--not into that final
Heaven--that our Lord went at death. This statement by itself would
not prove much, but when I find the same St. Peter long afterwards
telling so circumstantially in his first epistle (iii. 18) that when
his Master was put to death in the flesh He was made more alive in the
spirit, in which spirit He went and preached to the spirits in prison
who had been disobedient at the flood. "For which cause (chap. iv. 6)
was the gospel--the glad news--preached to them that are dead," I think
it is a fair inference that St. Peter had some definite information.
And then I find St. Paul, in Eph. iv. 9, when he is writing of the
gifts bestowed on the Church by her ascended Lord. The word "ascended"
causes him to pause abruptly. Men must not think that His work in the
unseen was limited to that work for us in Heaven after His ascension.
"Now that He ascended, what is it but that He descended first into the
lower parts of the earth (_i. e._, the world of the departed) that He
might fill all things." Hades and Heaven had alike felt the glory of
His presence.

And then immediately after the Apostles' days I find the knowledge
wide-spread in the Church. I read the writings of the ancient bishops
and teachers of the Church, beginning at the death of St. John, the
very men to whom we refer for information as to the Baptism and Holy
Communion and the authenticity of the four Gospels, and there I find
prominently in their preaching the gospel of our Lord's visit to the
world of the departed.

Section 2

The earliest is known as Justin Martyr. He was born about the time of
St. John's death, and he feels so strongly about the Descent into Hades
that he actually charges the Jews with mutilating a prophecy of
Jeremiah foretelling it.

Irenaeus, the great Bishop of Lyons in France, a little while later
tells how the Lord descended {59} into the world of the dead, preaching
to the departed, and all who had hopes in Him, and submitted to His
dispensations, received remission of si