Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/334

218 by this letter at the time to which it refers. Yet the name is common in the consular lists of the ages preceding and following the birth of Christ, and probably this is the reason of its adoption by the writer, who composed it in Latin.

3. The Prayer of Jesus, the Son of Mary. — Selden first published this in Arabic and Latin; and it was reprinted with an English version by Jeremiah Jones. It is a purely Mohammedan fiction, and but for its brevity I would scarcely have admitted it.

4. The Story of Veronica. — Under this head I give an extract from the chronicle of John Malela, who wrote about 600 The passage is chiefly remarkable for a pretended petition addressed to Herod by Veronica. The monument which she is said to have erected is described by Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. 7, 18). Its later history is narrated by Sozomen (Hist. Eccles. 5, 20). Upon the character of the story told by Malela, no observation is required, as it is so palpably apocryphal. I may add that while Eusebius describes the monument as consisting of two figures, said to represent Christ and the woman, he regards it as a heathenish affair, and is careful not to identify such things with Christianity.