890 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
following pages I venture to contribute to this phase of the 
subject certain new texts, with certain observations as to their 
significance. 
Without attempting a review of the diffusion of the Harrow¬ 
ing of Hell story in dramatic literature, one may say that for 
the mediaeval drama of Western Europe the source of this 
story is the Evangelium Nicodemi. In its complete form this 
monument is composed of two parts, the Acta Pilati and the 
Descensus Christi ad Inferos, which were probably written at 
different times, and in entire independence of each other. The 
older of these two parts, the Descensus, assigned to the second 
or third century, is the particular document with which we are 
immediately concerned. * 1 
The Descensus contains a lively and dramatic account of 
Christ’s descent into Hades in the interval between the Cruci¬ 
fixion and the Resurrection, of his breaking down the gates of 
hell, of his binding Satan, and of his releasing the souls of 
the patriarchs from their long imprisonment. The most dra¬ 
matic part of the Descensus, and the part that shows its effect 
most directly upon drama, is found in the following passage 
from the Latin version: 2 
Et cum haec ad invicem loquerentur Satan princeps et inferus, 
subito facta est vox ut tonitruum et spiritualis clamor: Tollite portas 
schrift fur deutsches Alterthum, xxix, 247-250; (4) Sacerdotale Ro¬ 
mance Ecclesiae, 1560, printed in Zeit. f. d. Alterthum, xxix, 253-255. 
To these may be added the Elevatio Crucis from Breviarium secundum 
usum Hereford, Rouen, 1505, reprinted by W. H. Frere and L. E. G. 
Brown, The Hereford Breviary (Henry Bradshaw Society), Vol. I, 
London, 1904, pp. 324-325. This ceremony seems not to be found in 
the earlier service books of Hereford. See id., p. ix. 
1 For evidence on these matters connected with the Evangelium 
Nicodemi see the article by Von Dobschiitz, Gospel of Nicodemus, in 
Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. Ill, pp. 544-547; A. Harnack, 
Geschichte der altohristlichen Littercutur, Leipzig, 1893, Vol. I, pp. 21- 
24; Rand, loc. cit., p. 262; Hulme, pp. lx ff. 
2 Evangelium Nicodemi, Pars II, Cap. v-vi, C. Tischendorf, Evangelic 
Apocrypha, Leipzig, 1876, pp. 397-400. Although Greek versions of 
the Evangelium Nicodemi undoubtedly preceded the Latin versions, 
the extant Latin MSS. are older and more authoritative than the ex¬ 
tant Greek MSS. See Von Dobschiitz, loc. cit., p. 545. 
