THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
nated at first from the Eastern but soon also from the Western monasteries, true biographies of the saints became much more numerous. The biographies contained in the Historia monachorum of Rufinus, the Historia Lausiaca of Palladius, the Historia religiosa of Theodoret, as well as in other works like the Prat um spirituale of Johannes Moschus, and the Vitce pat rum and Libri miraculorum of Gregory of Tours, furnish much more devotional matter than the histories of martyrs of former centuries. This hagiological literature, of monastic origin, had the advantage that it was not so much exposed to suspicion of falsification by heretics or the incompetent (idiota) as were productions of the older passion literature (the reading of which in divine service in the Roman Church was forbidden by edict of Gelasius I. in 494). Under the influence of the new kind of biographies of monks and hermits a general hagiological element entered also to an ever-increasing degree into the martyrological collections of the older type, and thus brought about their constant expansion.
In the Churches of the East, the older calendary
statistical form of the compilations, confining
itself to martyrological material proper
i. In the and serving only liturgical purposes,
Churches was still cultivated, especially in the of the so-called menologia, or monthly regis- East. ters, as well as in the liturgical anthologia (" collections "). But besides these arose hagiological collections of considerable copiousness: the menaa arranged in a calendary form and divided according to months; and shorter, condensed synaxaria (from synaxis, " religious gathering ") or extracts. In the Byzantine Church the large collection of legends by Simeon Metaphrastes (10th cent.), which is preserved in a greatly revised and corrupt form, exercised much influence (see Simeon Metaphrastes). Of the editors of the martyrologies and mencea literature of the Syriac Church in the earlier time, Stephan Evodius Assemani (q.v.) deserves mention, more recently Paul Bedjan (Acta martyrum et sanctorum Syriace, 7 vols., Paris, 1890-97); of those of the Russian Orthodox Church, Joseph Simonius Assemani (q.v.), and in recent times J. E. Martinov (Annus ecclesiasticus Grceco-Slavicus, Brussels, 1863, — ASB, Oct., xi. 1-385) and V Jagic (" The Mensea of the Russian Church from Manuscripts of 1095- 97," St. Petersburg, 1886, Russian); of those of the Armenian Church, the Mekhitarists (q.v.), who published a martyrologium in two volumes at Venice in 1874; and of those of the Coptic Church, H. Hyvernat (Les Actes des martyrs de VEgypte, Paris, 1886 sqq.).
In the Western Church, during the Middle Ages the hagiological literature, critically considered, deteriorated. Ado of Vienne and Usuardus (both c. 870); the author of the Martyrologium Sangalense (c. 900); Wolfard of Herrieden (c. 910); later, especially Jacobus de Voragine (d. 1298), author of the so-called " Golden Legend," and Petrus de Natalibus (d. 1382), author of a Catalogus sanctorum (often reprinted since 1493), are the main representatives of the writers of this legendary literature, of whose eccentricities and extravagan-
cies humanists and reformers often, complain.
Since the end of the fifteenth century efforts
have been made to publish critically
2. In the genuine and older texts. Early at- Western tempts were: the Sanctuarium of Church. Boninus Mombritius (Venice, 1474; Rome, 1497); the first (and only) volume of the Martyrum agones of Jacobus Faber Stapulensis (1525); and the De probatis sanctorum historiis of the Carthusian Laurentius Surius (d. 1578arranged according to the calendar; 6 vols, folio, Cologne, 1570 sqq.; 2d ed., 7 vols., 1581 sqq.). As concerns the abundance of matter and critical treatment of the documents, these first labors of modern times are far surpassed by the gigantic hagiological work the Acta Sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur, the publication of which began at Antwerp in 1643. It was conceived by the Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde (q.v.); and after his death (1629) was undertaken by Jan Bolland and others. From the name of the first actual editor it is generally known as the Acta Sanctorum Bollandi or Bollandistarum (cited in this encyclopedia as ASB). With the exception of a period somewhat less than fifty years, consequent upon the disturbances of the French Revolution, the labor of preparation and publication has proceeded continuously to the present time, when the editors (following the calendary arrangement) are engaged upon the month of November (see Bolland, Jan, Bollandists). More or less valuable are the extracts from the Bollandist main work in collections like that of Alban Butler (The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, 4 vols., London, 1756-59; see Butler, Alban), his French imitator, the Abb6 J. F. Godescard (Vies des Peres, des martyrs et autres principaux saints, traduit librement de I'anglais d' Alban Butler, 12 vols., Paris, 1763 sqq.), and A. Rass and N. Weiss, the German successors of both Butler and Godescard (Leben der Heiligen, 23 vols., Mainz, 1823 sqq.); mention may also be made of a later French work by Paul Guerin, Les Petits Bollandistes (7th ed., 18 vols., Paris, 1876). In lexical form the lives of the saints are treated by the Abb6 Petin (Dictionnaire hagiographk/ue, 2 vols., Paris, 1850) and J. E. Stadler and F J. Heim (Vollstdndiges Heiligen lexikon, 5 vols., Augsburg, 1858 sqq.). There are also hagiological collections devoted to the members of particular orders, of which the Acta Sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti of J. Mabillon and others (9 vols., Paris, 1668- 1701) is the most important. O. ZocKLERt.
The best-known work in English is that of Alban Butler, already mentioned. It is written in a heavy eighteenth century style. Much pleasantcr reading is the work of Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints (15 vols., London, 1872-77; new illustrated ed., revised and enlarged, 16 vols., 1897-98). The author is a High-church Anglican, not untouched by the modern critical spirit. He states in his introduction that his work is not intended to supplant Butler, being prepared on somewhat different lines. Butler " confined his attention to the historical outlines of the saintly lives, and he rarely filled them in with anecdote. Yet it is the little details of a man's life that give