Three spots lay claim to be the scene of the Amnmci- ation. Two of these are, as was to be expected, in Naz- areth, and one, as every one knows, is in Italy. The Greeks and Latins each claim to be the guardians of the true spot in Palestine ; the third claimant is the holy house of Loretto. The Greeks point out the spring of water mentioned in the Protevangelion as confirmatory of their claim. The Latins have engraved on a marble slab in the grotto of their convent in Nazareth the words Verhum hie caro factum est, and point out the pillar which marks the spot where the angel stood ; while the head of their Church is irretrievably committed to the wild legend of Loretto. See Stanley, S. and P. ch. xiv.
In the Gospel of the Infancy, which seems to date from the 2d century, innumerable miracles are made to attend on Jlary and her Son during their sojoinn in Egypt, e. g. Mary looked with pity on a woman who was possessed, and immediately Satan came out of her
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in the form of a young man, saying, "Woe is me because of thee, Mary, and thy Son !" On another occasion they fell in with two thieves, named Titus and Dumachus; and Titus was gentle and Dumachus was harsh : the Lady Jlary therefore promised Titus tliat God should receive him on his right hand. Accordingly, thirty- three years afterwards, Titus was the penitent thief who was crucitied on the right hand, and Dumachus was cru- cified on the left. These are sufficient as samijles. Throughout the book Ave tind Marj' associated with her Son, in the strange freaks of power attributed to them, in a way which shows us whence the cultus of Mary took its origin. See Jones, On the New Test, vol. ii (Oxf. 1827) ; Giles, Codex A230crj/phus ; Thilo, Codex Apoc7~yphus.
2. Mary's later Life. — The foregoing legends of Ma- ry's childhood may be traced back as far as the third or even the second century. Those of her death are prob- ably of a later date. The chief legend was for a length of time considered to be a v^eritable history, ivritten by Melito, bishop of Sardis, in the 2d century. It is to be found in the Bihliotheca Maxima (torn, ii, pt. ii, p. 212), entitled Sancti Melitonis Episcopi Sardensis de Transitu Virc/inis Marice Liber; and there certainly existed a book with this title at the end of the 5th. century, Avhich was condemned by Pope Gelasius as apocryphal {()p. Gelas. apud Migne, lix, 152). Another form of the same legend has been pubhshed at Elberfeld, in 1854, by Maxi- milian Enger in Arabic. He supposes that it is an Ara- bic translation from a S3'riac original. It was found in the library at Bonn, and is entitled Joannis ApostoU de Transitu, Beatce Marice Virfjinis LAber. It is perhaps the same as that referred to in Assemani (^Biblioth. Orient. [Rome, 1725], iii, 287), under the name oi Ilistoria Dor- mitionis et A ssumptionis B. Marim Virginis Joanni Evan- fjelistw /also iiiscripta. We give the substance of the legend with its main variations.
When the apostles separated in order to evangelize the world, Mary continued to live with John's parents in their house near the Mount of Olives, and everv day she went out to pray at the tomb of Christ, and at Gol- gotha. But the Jews had placed a watch to prevent prayers being offered at these spots, and the watch went into the city and told the chief priests thai Mary came daily to pray. Then the priests commanded the watch to stone her. At this time, however, king Abgarus wrote to Tiberius to desire him to take vengeance on the Jews for slaying Christ. They feared, therefore, to add to his wrath by slaying IMary also, and yet they could not al- low her to continue her prayers at Golgotha, because an excitement and tumult was thereby made. According- ly, they went and spoke softly to her, and slie consented to go and dwell in Bethlehem ; and thither she took with her three holy virgins who should attend upon her. In the twenty-second year after the ascension of the Lord, Mary felt her heart burn with an inexpressible longing to be with her Son ; and behold an angel ap- peared to her, and announced to her that her soul should be taken up from her body on the third day, and he placed a pahn-braneh from paradise in her hands, and desired that it should be carried before her bier. IVIary besought that the apostles might be gathered round her before she died, and the angel rephed that they should come. Then the Holy Sjiirit caught up John as he was preaching at Ephesus, and Peter as he was offering sac- rifice at Home, and Paul as he was disputing with the Jews near Rome, and Thomas in the extremity of Intiia, and Matfliew and James: these were all of tlie apostles who were still living; tlien the Holy Spirit awakened the dead, Philip and Andrew, and Luke and Simon, and Mark and Bartholomew; and all of them were snatched away in a bright cloud and found themselves at Bethle- hem. Angels and powers ^vithout number descended from heaven and stood round about the house ; Gabriel stood at blessed IMary's head, and Micliael at her feet, and they fanned her wiiii their wings; and Peter and John wiped away her tears; and there was a great cry,