Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/111

Rh conversion, and of his death by beheading. The writer adds that Procla, Pilate's wife, died of very joy at the time of her husband's death, and that she was buried along with him. The glorification of Pilate was never carried further than here, where a voice from heaven tells him, "All generations and families of nations shall call thee blessed, etc."

This treats of the coming of Volusian and Veronica to Rome, and of Tiberius's recovery from disease by means of an image of Christ — the well-known Veronica. Pilate is brought to Rome, where he is perfectly safe for a time, because he has on him the seamless coat of Jesus! After he lays aside this coat he is condemned to death, but kills himself with his own dagger. The body is thrown into the Tiber, but the devils raise such a commotion about it that it is taken up and cast into the Rhone, where similar results follow. Thence it was removed to Losania, (i.e. Lucerne) and finally to a pit among the mountains, where it remained, but did not rest at peace.

The bitter animosity to Pilate here exhibited suggests a late date for the composition. I suppose it