On the other hand I Peter 3:18 ff. was seldom used in the Patristic writings as evidence of the descent into Hades,^[1] and the idea of Christ ‘preaching’ to the dead does not appear to have been taught in the Church before A.D. 150.^[2]  There are weighty reasons for believing that ‘the spirits in prison’ in I Peter 3:19 refers not to the dead, but to archetypal spirits of evil.^[3]   The present Article does not commit us to any particular interpretation of that passage.