Quote from Letter 7,15 to George, priest, and Theodore, deacon of the church of Constantinople. March 597
(For) indeed, when He [our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ] descended into Hell, he freed through his grace only those who believed that he would come and also followed his precepts in their way of life. For it is certain that, since the Lord's incarnation, nobody can be saved who professes the faith but does not lead a life of faith, as it has been written: 'They claim to know God, but by their deeds they deny him' (Ti 1:16). (...) If the faithful, therefore, are not saved now if they lack good works, while those liars without faith or good actions, were saved when our Lord descended to Hell, that the fate of those who did not see the incarnation of the Lord, is better than these who where born after the mystery of his incarnation.
And our Lord himself bears witness to the foolishness of saying or thinking this, as he says to his disciples, 'Many king and prophets longed to see what you see and did not see it.' But so as not to detain your beloved selves with my argument, hear what Philaster worte about this heresy, in his book on heresies: 'There are heretics who say that the Lord descendend into hell and after his death, announced to all already there that, by confessing there, they would be saved, since this is contrary to what the prophet David says: "For who among the dead will remember you?" and the apostle: "All who have sinned outside the law will also perish outside the law".' And Saint Augustine also agrees with those words in his book about heresies.
(For) indeed, when He [our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ] descended into Hell, he freed through his grace only those who believed that he would come and also followed his precepts in their way of life. For it is certain that, since the Lord's incarnation, nobody can be saved who professes the faith but does not lead a life of faith, as it has been written: 'They claim to know God, but by their deeds they deny him' (Ti 1:16). (...) If the faithful, therefore, are not saved now if they lack good works, while those liars without faith or good actions, were saved when our Lord descended to Hell, that the fate of those who did not see the incarnation of the Lord, is better than these who where born after the mystery of his incarnation.
And our Lord himself bears witness to the foolishness of saying or thinking this, as he says to his disciples, 'Many king and prophets longed to see what you see and did not see it.' But so as not to detain your beloved selves with my argument, hear what Philaster worte about this heresy, in his book on heresies: 'There are heretics who say that the Lord descendend into hell and after his death, announced to all already there that, by confessing there, they would be saved, since this is contrary to what the prophet David says: "For who among the dead will remember you?" and the apostle: "All who have sinned outside the law will also perish outside the law".' And Saint Augustine also agrees with those words in his book about heresies.
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), II, 467
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