nd three nights will not stand.
It remains then to find the solution in the customary usage of speech
of the Scriptures, whereby the whole is understood from the part": so
that we are able to take a day and a night as one natural day. And so
the first day is computed from its ending, during which Christ died
and was buried on the Friday; while the second day is an entire day
with twenty-four hours of night and day; while the night following
belongs to the third day. "For as the primitive days were computed
from light to night on account of man's future fall, so these days
are computed from the darkness to the daylight on account of man's
restoration" (De Trin. iv).

Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says (De Trin. iv; cf. De Consens. Evang.
iii), Christ rose with the dawn, when light appears in part, and
still some part of the darkness of the night remains. Hence it is
said of the women that "when it was yet dark" they came "to the
sepulchre" (John 20:1). Therefore, in consequence of this darkness,
Gregory says (Hom. xxi) that Christ rose in the middle of the night,
not that night is divided into two equal parts, but during the night
itself: for the expression "early" can be taken as partly night and
partly day, from its fittingness with both.

Reply Obj. 3: The light prevailed so far in Christ's death (which is
denoted by the one day) that it dispelled the darkness of the two
nights, that is, of our twofold death, as stated above.
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QUESTION 52

OF CHRIST'S DESCENT INTO HELL
(In Eight Articles)

We have now to consider Christ's descent into hell; concerning which
there are eight points of inquiry:

(1) Whether it was fitting for Christ to descend into hell?

(2) Into which hell did He descend?

(3) Whether He was entirely in hell?

(4) Whether He made any stay there?

(5) Whether He delivered the Holy Fathers from hell?

(6) Whether He delivered the lost from hell?

(7) Whether He delivered the children who died in original sin?

(8) Whether He delivered men from Purgatory?
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FIRST ARTICLE [III, Q. 52, Art. 1]

Whether It Was Fitting for Christ to Descend into Hell?

Objection 1: It would seem that it was not fitting for Christ to
descend into hell, because Augustine says (Ep. ad Evod. cliv.): "Nor
could I find anywhere in the Scriptures hell mentioned as something
good." But Christ's soul did not descend into any evil place, for
neither do the souls of the