§ 83 THE FESTIVALS OF MARY. 4:^'{
were inferring from Luke ii. 35, that she had suffered martyr dom. Epiphanins will not decide whether she died and was buried, or not. Two apocryphal Greek writings de ti'ansiii^ Jfariw, of the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth cen tury, and afterward pseudo-Dionysius the Areupagite and Gregory of Tours (f 595), for the first time contain the legend that the soul of the mother of God was transported to the heavenly paradise by Christ and His angels in presence of all the apostles, and on the following morning' her body also was translated thither on a cloud and there united with the soul Subsequently the legend was still further embellished, and, besides the apostles, the angels and patriarchs also, even Adam and Eve, were made witnesses of the wonderful spectacle.
Still the resurrection and ascension of Mary are in the Roman church only a matter of " devout and probable opinion," not an article of faith ; ^ and a distinction is made between the ascensio of Christ (by virtue of His divine nature) and the dssumptio of Mary (by the power of grace and merit).
But since Mary, according to the most recent Roman dogma, was free even from original sin, and since death is a consequence of sin, it should strictly follow that she did not die at all, and rise again, but, like Enoch and Elijah, was carvied alive to heaven.
In the Middle Age — to anticipate briefly — yet other festivals of Mary arose: the NATivrrv of Mary,' after a. d. 650; the Presentation of Maky,* after the ninth century, founded on the apocryphal tradition of the eleven years' ascetic discipline of Mary in the temple at Jerusalem ; the Yisitation of Maey,* in memory of her visit to Elizabeth ; a festival first mentioned in France in 1247, and limited to the western
' According to later representations, as in the three discourses of John Damasc© nus on this subject, her body i jsted, like the body of the Lord, tliree days uncorrupted in the grave.
"' The Greek council of Jerusalem in 1672, which was summoned against the CJalvinists, officially proclaimed it, and thus almost raised it to the authority of t logma.
' Nativitas, natalis B. M. V. ; yfye^Xiou, &c.
* Festum presentationis.
* Festum visitaiionia.
428 THIKD PEEIOD. A.D. 311-590.
church; and the festival of the Ij^oiaculate CcNCKP'noN, whichi arose with the doctrine of the sinless conception of Mary, and is interwoven with the history of that dogma dowu to its official and final promulgation by Pope Pius IX. in 1854.
§ 84. The Worship of Martyrs mid Saints.
I. SotJEOEfa. The Memorial Discourses of Basil the Great on the martyr Mnmas (a sliepherd in Cappadocia, t about 275), and on the forty martyrs (soldiers, who are said to have suftered in Armenia under Licinius in 320) ; of Geegoby Naz. on Cyprian (t 248), on Athanasius (t 372j, and on Basil (t 379) ; of Gregoey of Nvssa on Ephraim Syrus (t 378), and on the megalomartyr Theodorus ; of Cheysostom on Bernice and Prosdoce, on the Holy Martyrs, on the Egyptian Martyrs, on Meletius of Antioch ; several homilies of Ambrose, Augustine, Leo the Great, Petee Cheysologus, C^saeius, &c. ; Jeeome against Vigilantius. — The most important passages of the fathers on the veneration of saints are conveniently collected in: '"The Faith of Catholics on certain points of controversy, confirmed by Scripture and attested by the Fathers. By Berington and Kirk, revised by Water worth." 3d e<l. 1846, vol. iii. pp. 322-416.
n. The later Literatuee: (1) On the Eoman Catholic side: The Acta Sanotoeum of the Bollandists, thus far 68 vols. fol. (1613-1858, coming down to the 22d of October). Theod. Kuinaet: Acta primorum martyrum sincera et selecta. Par. 1689 (confined to the first four centuries). Laderchio: R. patriarch arum et prophetarum, confessoruin, cultus perpetuus, etc. Rom. 1730. (2) On the Protestant side: J. Dall^us : Adversus Latinorum de cultus religiosi objecto traditionem. Genev. 1664. Isaac Tayi.ok: Ancient Christianity. 4th ed. Lend. 1844, vol. ii. p. 173 ff. (''Christianized demonolatry in the fuurth century.")
Tlie system of saint-worship, including both Hagiology and Hagiolatry, developed itself at the same time with the worship of Mary ; for tlie latter is only the culmination of the former.
The New Testament is equally ignorant of both. The expression aytoi, sa7icti, saints, is used by the apostles not of a particular class, a spiritual aristocracy of the chun^h, but of all baptized and converted Christians without distinction ; because they are separated from the world, consecrated to the sei-vjc*
' Fettum immaculatce concej)iio7iis B. M. V.