of young companions pure as herself. She is the favor- ite of the priests, who watch over her education till the day of her marriage. In order to ascertain to whom she is to be intrusted, the high priest assembles a number of pious Israelites. A white dove springs from the rod of the old carpenter Joseph, who is marked out by this miraculous sign as the chaste guardian of the young virgin (ibid. c. 9). The annunciation takes place as in the Gospel. The circumstances of the birth of Christ are borrowed from St, Luke, with this difference, that Mary brings forth the divine child in a cavern and not in a stable. The sole design of the narrative is to give emphasis to the dignity and virginitj' of Mary. We have in it the first attempt to draw her out of the wise obscurity in which she is enveloped in the canonical Gospels, an attempt characterized by the asceticism which pervades all the sacred legends. The apocryphal gospels of the following age, such as the " Pseudo-Mat- thew ;" the " Coptic Gospel of the carpenter Joseph ;" the "Arabic Gospel of the Childhood of Mary," and, lastly, that of the Nativity, enlarge upon those of the earlier period, and exalt more and more the part as- signed to the mother of Jesus. We mention them only to show in what direction the Christian legend was tending from its very first essay in the "Protevangel of James."
The "Acts of Pilate" do not bear the stamp of any particular school. The anonymous writers endeavor to make the Jews, Christ'g contemporaries, also his apolo- gists. His trial before the Koman proconsul is expanded by the addition of a multitude of details. The sick whom he has healed appear at the bar of the tribunal, and one after another make their depositions in his favor, relating what he has done for them. His resur- rection is afterwards established by the testimony of the soldiers placed as a guard around the sepulchre, and fur- ther by the evidence of Joseph of Arimathaja, to whom Christ appeared in the prison into which the Jews had thrown him, and from which he was delivered by mir- acle. This outline is filled up in a very ingenious man- ner. It is just possible that some true incidents of the trial of Jesus may have been preserved by tradition, but it is impossible to distinguish with any certainty the true from the false. Nicodemus plays in all these scenes the part of the impartial judge — the character assigned to him in the fourth Gospel. The second part of this curious writing is occupied with the events that took place in the abode of the dead, during Christ's descent into it. This narrative is ascribed to the two sons of the aged Simeon, who came out of their tombs in the train of the risen Redeemer. While hell and its king are confounded and crushed beneath the foot of the Re- deemer, the saints of the old covenant hail him with rapture ; each one of them, from Adam to John the Bap- tist, recognising him as the long-expected object of their hope. The great prophets repeat in his presence their most sublime oracles, in order to show how in him all are fulfilled. All the scenes of the invisible world are described in strains of glowing grandeur, almost Dan- tesque. The writing closes with a juridical comparison made by Pilate between the sacred writings of the Old Testament and the events which have just taken place at Jerusalem. This is the legal apology ; the question of Christianity is debated after the fashion of an ordi- nary law case. We subjoin a specimen, describing the entrance of the converted thief into Hades :
'•5. And while the holy Enoch and Elias were relating this, behold there came another man hi a miserable fig- ure, carrying the sign of the cross upon his shoulder. 6. And when all the saints saw liini, they said to him, Who art thou? for thy countenance is like a thief's; and w;hy dost thou carry a cross upon thy shoulders? 7. To which he, answering, said, Ye say right, for I was a thief, who committed all sorts of wickedness upon earth. 8. And the Jews cnicified me with Jesus ; and I observed the surprising things which happened in the creation at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. 9. And I believed him to be the Creator of all things, and the Almighty Kintr; and I prayed to him, sayins;, Lord, romeniber me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 10. He presently regarded my
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supplication, and said to me, Verily, I say iiuto thee, tliis day ihou shalt he with nic in paradise. 11. And he gave me this si^ni of the cross, sayiujj;. Carry this, and go to paradise; and if the angel who is the guard of paradise will not admit thee, show him the sign of the cross, and say unto him, Jesus Christ, who is now crucified, hath sent me hither to thee. 12. When I did this, and told the angel who is the guard of paradise all these things, and he heard them, he presently opened the gates, introduced me, and placed me ou the right hand in paradise, 13, say- ing, Stay here a little time, till Adam, the father of all mankind, shall enter iu with all his sons, who are the holy .ind righteous servants of Jesus Christ, who was cru- citied. \\. When they heard all this account from the thief, .til the patriarchs said with one voice, Blessed be thou, O Almighty God, the Father of everlasting good- ness, and the^Father of mercies, who hast shown such favor to those who were sinners against thee, and hast brought them to the mercy of paradise, and hast placed them amid thy large and spiritual provisions, iu a spir- itual and holy life. Amen."