Harrowing of Hell
Harrowing of Hell
An Old English and Middle English term for the triumphant descent of Christ into hell between the time of His Crucifixion and Resurrection. The word first occurs in AElfric’s homilies (1000), and is used by the Old English poets, Caedmon and Cynewulf, also in the Old English homilies and lives of the saints. It is the subject of the earliest extant specimen of English religious drama and is given a separate scene in the four cycles of the English mystery plays. It is also found in ancient Cornish plays. Its origin is traced to the well-known apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus (Latin) of the 2nd or 3rd century, which was familiar to English writers, e.g., Bede, and translated into English in the Middle Ages.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Harrowing of Hell
This is the Old English and Middle English term for the triumphant descent of Christ into hell (or Hades) between the time of His Crucifixion and His Resurrection, when, according to Christian belief, He brought salvation to the souls held captive there since the beginning of the world. According to the “New English Dictionary” the word Harrowing in the above connection first occurs in Aelfric’s homilies, about A.D. 1000; but, long before this, the descent into hell had been related in the Old English poems connected with the name of Caedmon and Cynewulf. Writers of Old English prose homilies and lives of saints continually employ the subject, but it is in medieval English literature that it is most fully found, both in prose and verse, and particularly in the drama. Art and literature all through Europe had from early times embodied in many forms the Descent into Hell, and specimens plays upon this theme in various European literatures still exist, but it is in Middle English dramatic literature that we find the fullest and most dramatic development of the subject. The earliest specimen extant of the English religious drama is upon the Harrowing of Hell, and the four great cycles of English mystery plays each devote to it a separate scene. It is found also in the ancient Cornish plays. These medieval versions of the story, while ultimately based upon the New Testament and the Fathers, have yet, in their details, been found to proceed from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, the literary form of a part of which is said to date back to the second of third century. In its Latin form this “gospel” was known in England from a very early time; Bede and other Old English writers are said to show intimate acquaintance with it. English translations were made of it in the Middle Ages, and in the long Middle English poem known as “Cursor Mundi” a paraphrase of it is found.
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EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY, The Middle English Harrowing of Hell and Gospel of Nicodemus, ed. HULME (London, 1908), in which will be found a full bibliography of the whole subject.
K.M. WARREN
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York