of romancing? R. Reitzenstein is not so tender of the honor of the saints as Delehaye, and has theories of his own to consider. The close agreement of the details of the story as Augustine tells it with Lucian's version, as well as the use which Augustine makes of it, "leave no doubt," he thinks,19 " that Augustine has simply transferred to his own time an early Christian miracle-tale, known to him in literary form, without taking offense at this ^vSo?, which obviously belongs to the style; that early Christian story having been on its part taken almost verbally from a heathen motive." Gregory is supposed to have derived indirectly from Augustine — which, we may say in passing, is impossible, since Gregory's story is much closer to Lu- cian's than Augustine's is. And we may say, also in pass- ing, that there is no proof of the circulation of the story in a written early Christian form, and no justification for rep- resenting Augustine as receiving it from any other source than that which he himself expressly indicates — namely the narrative of Curma. Augustine comes out of the affair with his feathers ruffled enough ; we need not gratuitously ruffle them more.
With Reitzenstein we pass over from the theologians to the philologists, and the philologists' interest in the matter is absorbed in the formal question of the origin and trans- mission of the story. It occurs not only in Lucian, but also, in a form less closely related to that in which Augus- tine and Gregory repeat it, in Plutarch. Like Augustine and Gregory, Plutarch relates it in all seriousness as having happened within his own knowledge to a friend of his own.20 Erwin Rohde21 thinks that Lucian is directly parodying Plutarch's anecdote; L. Radermacher22 pronounces this absurd; and Reitzenstein23 agrees with him in this. All three, on grounds which appear very insufficient, declare the story to have been in popular circulation before even Plutarch, and all would doubtless contend that the Chris- tians picked it up in the first instance from its oral circula-
82 COUNTERFEIT MIRACLES
tion rather than took it over directly from Lucian — which again does not seem clear.
With such matters we have now little concern. Our in- terest is fixed for the moment on ascertaining the amount of credit which is due to Augustine and Gregory when they tell us marvellous stories. The outstanding fact is that they stake their credit in this instance on a marvellous story which very certainly did not happen. It is not necessary to go the lengths of Reitzenstein and charge Augustine with copying the story out of a book, and at- tributing it to quite another source than that from which he really derived it, elaborately inventing sponsors for his new story. That is a thing which, we may be sure, could not happen with Augustine ; and the explanation of Rader- macher that it belongs to the accepted methods of utilizing such materials that the sponsors for the story should, on each new telling, be altered into personages known to the teller, does not remove the difficulty of supposing that this happened with an Augustine. But the trustworthiness of the saints as relaters of marvels is not saved by supposing they were deceived by their informants, even though we could imagine those informants, with Giinter, in some ab- surd fashion to have been self-deceived, and themselves honest in their narratives. Nothing can change the central fact that both Augustine and Gregory report as having happened within their own knowledge an absurd story which a Lucian had already made ridiculous for all the world some centuries before. Clearly their credit is broken, as witnesses of marvellous occurrences. The one fact which stands out in clear light, after all that can be said has been said, is that they were, in the matter of marvellous stories, in the slang phrase, "easy." 23a
One of the reasons why we have chosen this particular incident for discussion lies in the illustration which it sup- plies of the taking over into Christianity of a heathen legend bodily. In this case it is only a little isolated story
SPOILING THE EGYPTIANS 83