Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/66

lxii recourse was had to one of the most common of "pious" frauds, and it was fathered upon Jerome. The letters, mentioned as heading the Pseudo-Matthew, were also emblazoned at the head of this. Its association with the name of Jerome, and its comparatively modest style secured it popularity and authority, and during the Middle Ages it was accepted by the multitudes as so much Gospel. Copies of it were multiplied everywhere in Europe, and the incidents of it were reproduced in every possible form. The greater part of it was quietly slipped into the 'Legenda Aurea,' and its statements were in some cases declared infallible truth, to be denied only on pain of heresy here, and perdition hereafter.

The compiler may have wished to exhibit the current biography of Mary in the most modest form. His work is based on older apocrypha, but it sometimes differs in important details. For example, Issachar and not Reuben, is here the high-priest who rebuked Joachim. It summarises and paraphrases other narratives, and says as much at the end of chap. ix. No sign of originality appears in it, and it was probably drawn up by a Latin writer late in the fifth century, or within a hundred years after. We should observe that the compiler says Jesus was born