Epistles of Ignatius

And indeed, before the cross was set up, he (Satan) was eager for this to happen; and he worked towards this end in the children of disobedience. He worked in Judas, in the Pharisees, in the Sadducees, in the old, in the young, and in the priests.

But when it was about to be set up, he was troubled, and instilled regret in the traitor, directing him to a rope to hang himself, and taught him to die by strangulation.

He also terrified the foolish woman, disturbing her with dreams; and he, who had tried in every way to have the cross prepared, now tried to stop its erection; not because he felt repentance for his great crime (for then he would not be completely depraved), but because he saw his own destruction approaching. For the cross of Christ marked the beginning of his condemnation, the start of his demise, the onset of his destruction.

Therefore, he also works in some to make them deny the cross, be ashamed of the passion, call the death an illusion, distort and dismiss the birth from the Virgin, and slander the human nature itself as being detestable.

He fights with the Jews to deny the cross, and with the Gentiles to slander Mary, who are heretical in claiming that Christ had only a phantasmal body. For the leader of all wickedness takes on many forms, deceiver of humanity as he is, inconsistent, and even contradictory, proposing one path and then following another. He is wise in doing evil, but he is completely ignorant of what good might be.

Indeed, he is full of ignorance due to his voluntary lack of reason: for how can he be considered anything else when he does not recognize reason even when it is right before him?