The two outstanding features of Luther's sermon are that Christ
descended into hell body and soul, and that He descended as a triumphant
Victor, and not in order to complete His suffering and the work of
atonement. The denial of these two points, in particular, caused a new
controversy, which however, was of brief duration only, and practically
confined to the city of Hamburg, hence also called the Hamburg Church
Controversy, _der Hamburger Kirchenstreit_. Its author was John Aepinus
[Huck or Hoeck; born 1499; studied under Luther; persecuted in
Brandenburg and banished; rector in Stralsund; 1532 pastor and later
superintendent in Hamburg; wrote 1547 against the Interim; sided with
Flacius against the Philippists; published books in Latin and Low
German; dealt with Christ's descent to hell especially in his
_Commentary on Psalm 16_, of 1544, and in his _Explanation of Psalm 68_,
of 1553; died May 13, 1553].
Aepinus taught that Christ's descent is a part of His suffering and
atonement. While the body was lying in the grave, His soul descended
into hell in order to suffer the qualms and pangs required to satisfy
the wrath of God, complete the work of redemption, and render a plenary
satisfaction, _satisfactio plenaria_. The descent is the last stage of
Christ's humiliation and suffering, His triumph first beginning with the
resurrection. Though we know His sufferings in hell to have been most
sad and bitter, yet we are unable to say and define what they were in
particular, or to describe them concretely, because Scripture is silent
on this question.
But while Aepinus originally held that the soul of Christ suffered in
hell the punishment of eternal death, he later on distinguished between
the first and the second death (eternal damnation) asserting the
suffering Christ endured in hell to have been a part of the punishment
of the first death, and that He did not suffer the _cruciatus AETERNI
tartarei ignis_.--Such were the views advocated, developed, and
variously modified by Aepinus in his theological lectures and
publications. From the Latin "_Consummatum est_, It is finished," the
teaching that Christ finished His suffering and the work of atonement by
His death on the cross was stigmatized by Aepinus as "_error
consummaticus_," and its advocates as "Consummatists," while these, in
turn, dubbed Aepinus and his adherents "Infernalists." (Frank 3,440.)
Among the statements of Aepinus are the following: "I believe that hell
is a place prepared by divine justice to punish the devils and wicked
men according to the quality of their sins." (437.) "On account of our
redemption Christ descended to hell, just as He suffered and died for
us." (437.) "Theologians who either deny that the soul of Christ
descended into hell, or say that Christ was present in hell only in
effect and power, and not by His presence, deprive the Church of faith
in the sufficient, complete, and perfect satisfaction and redemption of
Christ and leave to Satan the right over pious souls after their
separation from the body. For by denying that Christ sustained and bore
those punishments of death and hell which the souls were obliged to bear
after their separation from the body, they assert that complete
satisfaction has not been made for them." (439.) "I believe that the
descent of the soul of Christ to hell is a part of the Passion of
Christ, _i.e._, of the struggles, dangers, anguish, pains, and
punishments which He took upon Himself and bore in our behalf; for, in
the Scriptures, to descend to hell signifies to be involved in the
highest struggles, pain, and distress. I believe that the descent of
Christ to hell is a part of His obedience foretold by the prophets and
imposed on Him because of our sins." (440.) "I believe that the descent
of Christ pertains to His humiliation, not to His glorification and
triumph." (441.) "The descent to hell was by God's judgment laid upon
Christ as the last degree of His humiliation and exinanition and as the
extreme part of His obedience and satisfaction." (441.) "Peter clearly
teaches, Acts 2, that the soul of Christ felt the pangs of hell and
death while His body was resting in the sepulcher." (441.) "What Christ
experienced when He descended into hell is known to Himself, not to us;
may we acknowledge and accept with grateful minds that He descended
into hell for us. But let us not inquire what it was that He experienced
for us in His descent, for we may piously remain ignorant of matters
which God did not reveal to His Church, and which He does not demand
that she know." (444.)