CONTENTS Introduction vii CHAPTER I. Preliminary Definitions. Hagiographic documents — Imaginative tales. Artificial compositions — Romances — Popular inventions — Myths — Tales — — Legends — The hagiographic legend: its two principal factors 1 CHAPTER II. The Development of the Legend. I. Unconscious distortion of truth by the individual — By the people — Level of popular intelligence — Tendency to simplification — Ignorance — Substitution of the abstract form for the individual type — Poverty of invention — The borrowing and transmission of legendary themes — Examples — The antiquity of certain themes — Artificial grouping of incidents and persons — Cycles 12 II. Predominance of sense impressions over the intelligence - Localisations and loot-prints — Literary origin of certain of these — Iconographic legends — Popular etymology — Miracles — The soul of the people — Energy of expression — Exaggerated feeling — Ambitions of individual churches — Morality of the mob — Local claims 40 CHAPTER III. The Work of the Hagiographer. I. The meaning of the term "hagiographer" — Literary methods — Moralities — Ancient ideas concerning history — Special views of mediaeval hagiographers 60 II. Sources — False attributions — Written tradition — Oral tradition — Pictorial tradition — Relics of the past — Choice of sources — Interpretation of sources — Inscriptions — Use of the various categories of documents 70 III. Dearth of material and methods of supplementing it — Amplification by means of stock incidents — Acts of St Clement of Ancyra — Compilation and adaptation — Life of St Vincent Madelgarus — Antiquity of the process — Forgeries 91 CHAPTER IV. The Classification of Haoiooraphic Texts. Defective system — Classification according to subjects — According to categories of saints — System adopted. Historical point of view — Division into six classes — Application of system to Ruinart's Acta Sincera — The "Supplements" of Le Blant 107 CHAPTER V. The "Dossier" of a Saint. Documents concerning St Procopius of Caesarea — Account given by Eusebius — Monuments testifying to the cultus — The three legends of St Procopius — Analysis of the three legends — The synaxaries — Latin acts of St. Procopius — Adaptations to St. Ephysius and to St. John of Alexandria - Conclusions 125 CHAPTER VI. Pagan Survivals and Reminiscences. I. Rites and symbols common to Christianity and to ancient religions — Suspicious practices — Incubation — Collections of miracles — Literary borrowings from pagan sources — Unavoidable analogies — Superstitions 148 II. Saint-worship and hero-worship — The centre of hero-worship — Solemn translations — Relics — Fortuitous coincidences 160 III. Pagan survivals in worship — Holy places — Christian transformations — Adaptation of names — A method for ascertaining primitive titles — Sacred sources 168 IV. Dates of festivals — Alteration of object — Difficulty of proving coincidences — A method for ascertaining dates of pagan festivals — Examples 178 V. Pagan legends — Christian adaptations — Three cases to be considered — Examples : Legend of St. Lucian of Antioch — Legend of St. Pelagia and allied legends — St. Livrada 186 VI. Mythological names — Other suspicious names — Iconographic parallels — The Blessed Virgin — "Saints on horseback" 207 CHAPTER VII. Concerning Certain Hagiographic Heresies. Direct relation established between the history of a saint and his legend — Exaggerated confidence in hagiographers — Ill-considered appeals to local tradition — Confusion between a probable and a truthful narrative — Excessive importance attributed to the topographical element — Legend held in utter contempt 214 Index 233 Digitized by Google.

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