Hut Thomas was not present with the rest, for at the moment that he was summoned to come he was baptiz- ing I'olodius, who was tlie son of the sister of the king. And lie arrived just after all these things were accom- plished, and he demanded to see the sepulchre in which they had laid his Lady : " For ye know," said he, " that I am Thomas, and unless I see 1 will not believe." Then Peter arose in haste and wrath, and the other disciples with him, and they opened the sepulchre and Vi'ent in ; but they found nothing therein save that in which her body had been wrapped. Then Thomas confessed that he too, as he was borne in the cloud from India, had seen her holy body carried by the angels with great triumph into heaven; and tliat on his crying to her for lier blessing, she had bestowed upon him her pre- cious Girdle, which when the apostles saw they were glad. Then the apostles were carried back each to his own place. For the story of this Sacratigsimo Cintolo, still preserved at Prato, see IMrs. Jameson's Legends of the Madonna, p. 344 (Lond. 1852).
On this part of the legend, see generally Joannis Apos- toli de Transitu Beatce Marice Vifffinis Liber (Elberfel- die, 1854) ; Sf. Melitonis Episc. Sard, de Transitu V. M. Liber, apud Bibl. Max. Patr. torn, ii, pt.ii, p. 212 (Lugd. 1677) ; Jacobi a Voragine. Legenda A urea, ed. Graesse, ch. cxix, p. 504 (Dresd. 1840) ; John Damasc. Serm. de Dor- mit. Deiparm, in 0pp. ii, p. 857 sq. (Venice, 1743); An- drew of Crete, InDormit. Deiparce Serm. iii, p. 115 (Par. 1644) ; Mrs. Jameson, Legends of the Madonna (London, 1852) ; Butler, Lices of the Saints in A ug. 15 ; Dressel, Edita et inedita Ejjiphanii Monacki et Fresbgteri, p. 105 (Paris, 1843).
3. Fler A ssumption. — The above story gradually gained credit. At the end of the 5th century we find that there existed a book, De Transitu Virginis Maries, which was condemned by pope Gelasius as apocryphal. This book is without doubt the oldest form of tlie legend, of which the books ascribed to Melito and John are variations. Down to the end of the 5th century, then, the story of the Assumption was external to the Church, and dis- tinctly looked upon by the Church as belonging to the heretics and not to her. But then came the change of sentiment on this sulyect consequent on the Nesto- rian controversy. The desire to protest against the early fables ;vhich had been spread abroad by the here- tics had now passed away, and had been succeeded by the desire to magnify her who had brought forth him who was God. Accordingly a writer, whose date Ba- ronius fixes at about this time {Ann. Eccl. i, 347, Lucca, 1738), suggested the possibility of the Assumption, but declared his inabilitj^ to decide the question. The let- ter in which this possibility or probability is thrown out came to be attributed to Jerome, and may still be found among his works, entitled Ad L'aulam et Eustochiuni de Assuniptione B. Vh-ginis (v, 82, Paris, 1700). About the same time, probably, or rather later, an assertion (now recognised on all hands to be a forger}') was made in Eusebius's Chronicle, to the effect that " in the year A.D. 48 Mary the Virgin was taken up into heaven, as some wrote that they had had it revealed to them." Another tract ^vas written to prove that the Assumption was not a thing in itself luilikely ; and this came to be attributed to St. Augustine, and may be ftiund in the ajipendix to his works; and a sermon, with a similar purport, was ascribed to St. Athanasius. Thus the names of Euse-
bius, Jerome, Augustine, Athanasius, and others, came to be quoted as maintaining the truth of the Assumption, The first writers within the Church in whose extant writings we find the Assumption asserted, are Gregory of Tours m the 0th century, AVho has merely copied Meli- to's book, De Transitu (De Glor. Mart. lib. i, c. 4 ; Migne, 71, p. 708) ; Andrew of Crete, who probably lived in the 7th century ; and John of Damascus, who lived at the begimiing of the 8th century. The last of these authors refers to the Euthymiac history as stating that Marcian and Pulcheria, being in search of the body of Mary, sent to Juvenal of Jerusalem to inquire for it. Juvenal re- plied, "In the holy and divinely-inspired Scriptures, in- deed, nothing is recorded of the departure of the holj- IMary, Mother of God. But from an ancient and most true tradition we have received, that at the time of her glorious falling asleep all the holy apostles, who were going through the world for the salvation of the nations, borne aloft in a moment of time, came together to Jeru- salem ; and when they were near her they had a vision of angels, and divine melody was heard ; and then with divine and more than heavenly melody she delivered her holy soul into the hands of God in an unspeakable manner. But that which had borne God, being carried with angelic and apostolic psalmody, with funeral rites, was deposited in a coffin at Gethsemane. In this place the chorus and singing of the angels continued three whole days. But alter three days, on the angelic music ceasing, those of the apostles who were present opened the tomb, as one of them, Thomas, had been absent, and on his arrival wished to adore the body which had borne God. But her all-glorious body they could not find; but they found the linen clothes lying, and they were filled with an ineffable odor of sweetness which proceeded from them. Then they closed the coffin. And they were astonished at the mysterious wonder, and they came to no other conclusion than that he who had chosen to take flesh of the Virgin jMary, and to become a man, and to be bom of her — God the Word, the Lord ol Glory — and had preserved her virginity after birth, was also pleased, after her departure, to honor her immaculate and unpolluted body with incorruption, and to translate her before the common resurrection of all men" (St. Joan. Damas. Op. ii, 880, Venice, 1748). It is quite clear that this is the same legend as that which we have before given. Here, then, we see it brought over the borders and planted within the Church, if this " Euthymiac history" is to be accepted as veritable, by Juvenal of Jerusalem in the 5th century, or else by Gregory of Tours in the 0th century, or by Andrew of Crete in the 7th centurj', or, finally, by John of Damascus in the 8th centurj- (see his three Homilies on the Sleep of the Bless- ed Virgin Mary, in his 0pp. ii, 857-886). The same le- gend is given in a slightly different form as veritable historj' by Nicephorus Callistus in the 13th .century (Ni- ceph. i, 171, Paris, 1030) ; and the fact of the Assumption is stereotyped in the Breviarj- services for August 15 (Brev. Rom. Pars (est. p. 551, Milan, 1851). Here again, then, we see a legend originated by heretics, and re- maining external to the Church till the close of the 5th century, creeping into the Church during the 6th and 7th centuries, and finally ratified by the autliority both of Kome and Constantinople. See Baronius, >4 /»;. £'cc/. (i, 344, Lucca, 1738) and Martyr ologiuni (p. 314, Paris, 1607).