Höllenfahrt Christi
The Harrowing of Hell was taught by theologians of the early church: St Melito of Sardis (died c. 180) in his "Homily on the Passover" and more explicitly in his "Homily for Holy Saturday," Tertullian ("A Treatise on the Soul", 55; though he himself disagrees with the idea), Hippolytus ("Treatise on Christ and Anti-Christ") Origen ("Against Celsus", 2:43), and, later, St Ambrose (died 397) all wrote of the Harrowing of Hell. The early heretic Marcion and his followers also discussed the Harrowing of Hell, as mentioned by Tertullian, Irenaeus, and Epiphanius. The 6th-century Christolytes, as recorded by John of Damascus, believed that Jesus left his soul and body in Hell, and only rose with his divinity to Heaven.