55. He had descended into one of those sanctuaries,³⁵ inaccessible to the multitude, and feared by all (as would that he had feared the way leading unto hell before proceeding to such extremities), in company with the man that was as bad as many sanctuaries put together, the wise in such things, or sophist more rightly to be called; for this is a kind of divination amongst them to confer with darkness, as it were, and the subterranean demons concerning future events: whether that they delight more in darkness, because they are darkness, and makers of the darkness of wickedness, or that they shun the contact of pious persons above ground, because through such they lose their power. But when, as my fine fellow proceeded in the rites, the frightful things assailed him, unearthly noises, as they say, and unpleasant odours, and fiery apparitions, and other fables and nonsense of the sort, being terror-struck at the novelty (for he was yet a novice in these matters), he flies for help to the Cross, his old remedy, and makes the sign thereof against his terrors, and makes an ally of Him whom he persecuted. And what follows is yet more horrible.  

ΝΕʹ. Κατῄει μὲν εἴς τι τῶν ἀδύτων τῶν τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀβάτων καὶ φοβερῶν (ὡς ὤφελόν γε καὶ τὴν εἰς ᾅδου φέρουσαν, πρὶν εἰς τοιαῦτα κακὰ προελθεῖν), συμπαρόντος αὐτῷ καὶ τοῦ πολλῶν ἀδύτων ἀξίου, τοῦ σοφοῦ τὰ τοιαῦτα, εἴτουν σοφιστοῦ: ἔστι γὰρ δὴ καὶ τοῦτο εἶδος μαντείας αὐτοῖς, ζόφῳ τινὶ καὶ ὑποχθονίοις δαίμοσι περὶ τῶν μελλόντων συγγίνεσθαι: εἴτε ὡς σκότῳ χαίρουσι μᾶλλον, ἐπεὶ καὶ εἰσὶ σκότος, καὶ σκότους δημιουργοὶ τῆς κακίας: εἴτε ὡς φεύγουσι τὰς ἐπιμιξίας τῶν εὐσεβῶν ὑπὲρ γῆς, καὶ διὰ ταύτας ἀσθενεστέροις: ὡς δὲ προϊόντα τὸν γεννάδαν προσβάλλει τὰ δείματα, καὶ ἀεὶ πλείω καὶ φοβερώτερα, ἤχους τινάς φασιν ἀήθεις, καὶ ὀδμὰς τῶν ἀηδῶν, καὶ πυραυγῆ φάσματα, καὶ οὐκ οἶδ' οὕστινας ὕθλους καὶ λήρους, τῷ ἀδοκήτῳ πληγεὶς, καὶ γὰρ ἦν ὀψιμαθὴς τὰ τοιαῦτα, ἐπὶ τὸν σταυρὸν καταφεύγει, καὶ τὸ παλαιὸν φάρμακον, καὶ τούτῳ σημειοῦται κατὰ τῶν φόβων, καὶ βοηθὸν ποιεῖται τὸν διωκόμενον: καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς φρικωδέστερα.