Chapter 2 (18).
I Karinus. O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, permit me to speak of Thy wonders which Thou hast done in the lower world. When, therefore, we were kept in darkness and the shadow of death in the lower world, suddenly there shone upon us a great light, and Hades and the gates of death trembled. And then was heard the voice of the Son of the Father most high, as if the voice of a great thunder; and loudly proclaiming, He thus charged them: Lift up your gates, ye princes; lift up the everlasting gates; the King of glory, Christ the Lord, will come up to enter in.
Then Satan, the leader of death, came up, fleeing in terror, saying to his officers and the powers below: My officers, and all the powers below, run together, shut your gates, put up the iron bars, and fight bravely, and resist, lest they lay hold of us, and keep us captive in chains. Then all his impious officers were perplexed, and began to shut the gates of death with all diligence, and by little and little to fasten the locks and the iron bars, and to hold all their weapons [2006] grasped in their hands, and to utter howlings in a direful and most hideous voice.
[2006] Ornamenta; another ms. has armamenta.
Chapter 3 (19).
Then Satan said to Hades: Make thyself ready to receive him whom I shall bring down to thee. Thereupon Hades thus replied to Satan: That voice was from nothing else than the cry of the Son of the Father most high, because the earth and all the places of the world below so trembled under it: wherefore I think that myself and all my dungeons are now lying open. But I adjure thee, Satan, head of all evils, [2007] by thy power and my own, bring him not to me, lest, while we wish to take him, we be taken captive by him. For if, at his voice only, all my power has been thus destroyed, what do you think he will do when he shall come in person?
To him Satan, the leader of death, thus replied: What art thou crying out about? Do not be afraid, my old most wicked friend, because I have stirred up the people of the Jews against him; I have told them to strike him with blows on the face, and I have brought upon him betrayal by one of his disciples; and he is a man in great fear of death, because from fear he said, My soul is sorrowful, even unto death; and I have brought him to this, that he has just been lifted up and hanged on the cross.
Then Hades said to him: If he be the same who, by the mere word of his command, made Lazarus fly away like an eagle from my bosom, when he had already been dead four days, he is not a man in humanity, but God in majesty. I entreat thee not to bring him to me. And Satan says to him: Make thyself ready nevertheless; be not afraid; because he is already hanging on the cross, I can do nothing else. Then Hades thus replied to Satan: If, then, thou canst do nothing else, behold, thy destruction is at hand. I, in short, shall remain cast down and dishonoured; thou, however, wilt be tortured under my power.
[2007] Or, of all the wicked.
Chapter 4 (20).
And the saints of God heard the wrangling of Satan and Hades. They, however, though as yet not at all recognising each other, were, notwithstanding, in the possession of their faculties. But our holy father Adam thus replied to Satan at once: O captain of death, why dost thou fear and tremble? Behold, the Lord is coming, who will now destroy all thy inventions; and thou shalt be taken by Him, and bound throughout eternity.
Then all the saints, hearing the voice of our father Adam, how boldly he replied to Satan in all points, were strengthened in joy; and all running together to father Adam, were crowded in one place. Then our father Adam, gazing on all that multitude, wondered greatly whether all of them had been begotten from him into the world. And embracing those who were standing everywhere around him, and shedding most bitter tears, he addressed his son Seth, saying: Relate, my son Seth, to the holy patriarchs and prophets what the guardian of paradise said to thee, when I sent thee to bring to me of that oil of compassion, in order to anoint my body when I was ill.
Then he answered: I, when thou sentest me before the gates of paradise, prayed and entreated the Lord with tears, and called upon the guardian of paradise to give me of it therefrom. Then Michael the archangel came out, and said to me, Seth, why then dost thou weep? Know, being informed beforehand, that thy father Adam will not receive of this oil of compassion now, but after many generations of time. For the most beloved Son of God will come down from heaven into the world, and will be baptized by John in the river Jordan; and then shall thy father Adam receive of this oil [2008] of compassion, and all that believe in him. And of those who have believed in him, their kingdom will endure for ever.
[2008] The text has deo, God, obviously a misprint for oleo, oil.