Within a century after the Decretum Gelasii, Gregory of Tours in his book de Gloria Martyrum (i. ch. 4) had no scruples in using the extravagant legends contained in tiie ' Transitus Marise ' ; indeed, so little store was apparently set by ecclesiastical condemnation, that about 435, thirty years after the decree of Innocent I., a mosaic of the Annunci- ation in S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, prepared under the direction of Sixtus III., embodied apocry- phal details. Apocryphal writings are used by pseudo-Chrysostom (c. 600) ; and in the epic poem of the nun Hroswitha (t 968), entitled Historia nativitatis laudabilisque conversationis intactm Dei genitricis, the material is in part dra'vvn from the later Gospels of the Childhood. From the 12th cent, onwards, the Apocryphal Gospels aftbrded an inexhaustible mine for poets and minstrels in Ger- many, France, and England ; and numerous miracle- plays represented incidents drawn from the same source. A jiowerful impulse was given to the spread of these legends by the Dominican Vincent de lieamais, who in his work entitled Speculum M.ijiis. iml.li.hed about the middle of the 13tli lint., aii.l ii.inslated in the following century into many laiiuu.iLjes, transcribed large portions of px.iiilii-Miittlirii- and the Gospel of Nicodemits, etc. The latter half of the 13th cent, also saw the appearance of a collection of legendary Lives of the Saints, the Speculum Sanctorum, better known as the Golden Legend, written by another member of the Dominican order, Jacobus de Voragine, Arch- bishop of Genoa. Tliis work, in which many of the apocryjdial legends find a place, had an immense influence, there beiiiL' manuscript translations ex- tant in English. ( nriii.m, Fieneh, Italian, and Spanish. With tin- iintntion ni the printing-press this influence was ln-cly i Mended, the Legenda Aurea and Vincent s .s/,..,,/„,„ lieing among the earliest books to l.e s.i ii|i in type. From that time onwards, the ^.tol ie~ .,t i he .Vpocryphal Gospels
have had an intlnenr i iicpular Christianity in
Catholic countries far exceeding that of the Biblical narrative.
Roman Catholic writers have denied their claim to be in any sense authoritative sources of Evangelic hist^ory, and have
judgment w:*- I'.-i--''! iipi'ii tln'iu h\ thr I'rtjvil Cnii'jrcLratinn of
•altli.'
the
ther
, thcs
I
stitious heliffs. Kven TapiH-hcni, a Roman Catliolic writer, who, in his scholarly tri;itiv.- OH T/.. A,,„rnij,/,al G,...,).?* .,f the Childhood, etc., speak-s with .1.. i' n -n t cif the tiiickm y to accept these writings a-< tru~t\\"rlh\- lii-tnrii-il Mmrri-;. .■aiiiiot resist the temptation to n tain ..^ n.urli i.t tli.-ir .■"iiti-nt-i as has been taken up into ei-'lesia^li.al tradition. He ai-cejits, for instance, as reliable, the names of .Marv's parents, the circum- stances relating to her birth, her dedication to the Temple
GOSPELS (APOCKYPHAL)
GOSPELS (APOCRYPHAL; G75
vice, the marvellous story of her death, resurrection, and ension, and declares that use of these apocryphal data may be made with an easy conscience for the purpose of religious edification (op. cit. 88).
The narratives of the Apocryiihal Gospels have had an extraordinary inllin'iicf on Christian art. Reference has already In. n hiaili; !■■ thu attraction which the legends had Inv |.(,i.(s liom the earliest times, and especially siiue the tlutu of the publica- tion of the Legcnda Aui-cu. (For details of the earlier poetry see von Lehner, Die Marienvcrchrung, 256 if.). Sculpture and painting also owed many of their subjects to apocryphal sources, or were influenced in their treatment by apocryphal details. The history of Mai-y's reputed parents, her service in the Temple, her betrothal to Joseph, the Annun- ciation, the Birth of Jesus in a cave, the Flight into Egypt, the Assumption of Mary — these and other incidents described in the Apocryphal Gospels were favourite themes of painters and sculptors, especially during the Renaissance.
A marble tablet of the 4th or 5th cent, in the crjpt of St. Maxiinin in Provence, represents Mary in the attitude of prayer, with the inscription in barbarous Latin, MAEIA VIRGO lilN- ESTEE DE TEMPUIO GEROSALE— 'The Virgin Mary, servant of the temple at Jerusalem' (von Lehner op c't 32") The events m the life of the \irt.m arranged m a series weie de picted b> different painters of the Renaibsance one of the best known scr V , tl it 1 Tilic f 11 i 11 B ron illi
!0f T 1
ilj ttoik (in 11 1. 1 ill ottca llUan) The Annunciation is a fa\ourite theme in Christian art m accordance with the narratne m the Ptottianjel um Marj is represented either at the w ell w ith a pitcher of w ater or spinning wool for the \ e I of the temple (as in the mosaic aire idy referred to in S Maria Ma„^ r in Rome) Pictures of the Natuitj betray the infi tn f tl c apocr\phaI stories the\ show the mother and hll and I stph in a ta\e where according to the Ptot t f I lp us was born a dazzling, h^ht radiates
from the face of the child ; an ox and an ass (farst mentioned m pseudo-Maltheui) bow in adoration before Him— a frequent re- presentation in early reliefs (von Lehner, op. cit. 314 ff.) — or in later pictures are introduced as mere picturesque details. An incident in the Flight to Egypt, the bending down of a palm- tree to yield its fruit to Slary, affords a subject for many beautiful_ works (e.g. by Pinturicchio, William Blake). The Assumption of Mary was frequently represented in paintings from the 10th cent, onward (c;/. Titian's in the Academy, Venice ; Botticelli's in the National Gallery), while the consummation of her life is depicted in her coronation as Queen of Heaven (among others by Raphael, Era Angelico, and Taddeo Gaddi). The second part of the Gospel of Nicodemus — The Descent into Hell