Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/136

 HAGGAI

106

HA6I0GRAPH7

and Engelbert II, and the feuds between the patrician party and the guilds in the years 1252-71. Its ar- rangement is simple, its style negligent, and its artistic merit slight, although it does not lack some lively descriptions. The importance of the chronicle lies in its contents. No other German city has records so complete and so full of life for this early period. For historical purposes, however, it should be used with great caution. It is true that the strictures formerly passed upon its relialiility have proved to be very exaggerated. In rehearsing facts the work is fairly accurate, but Hagen is a thorough partisan, and an enthusiastic patriot. He was an adherent of the group of patricians led by his relatives, the "Overstolzen ", and he opposed bitterly both the party of the "Wei- sen ", the despised guilds, and also the archbishops of Cologne, who, as lords of the city, were the natural enemies of the development of Cologne into a free imperial city. Nevertheless, the bishops and still more the Holy See are always treated with respect. It cannot be said that Hagen forged facts, but he mod- ified them, and his judgment is coloured to a high degree by party spirit. His curious book is not so much a chronicle as a pamphlet written for a purpose. It was highly esteemed in Cologne as a plea for muni- cipal liberty. Several medieval chroniclers have drawn largely upon its contents. For a critical edi- tion of the "Reimchronik", see Cardauns and Schroder in "Chroniken der niederrheinischen Stiidte: Koln ", I, 1-236, in "Clu'oniken der deutschen Stadte", XII (Leipzig, lS7o); cf. Ill, 963.

See Merlo in JahrbiJrher des Vereins von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande, LIX. 114, and especially Kelleter, G'o///ricd Hagen (Trier, 1894).

Hermann Cardauns. Haggai. See Aggeus.

Hagg^th. — This is the ordinary form of the name in the English Bible; it corresponds better to the He- brew Hdggith, " Festive ", than Aggith, as the name is spelled in I Par., iii, 2. Haggith was one of David's wives (II Ivings, iii, 4). Whose daughter she was, whence she came, and when David took her to wife, we are not told. The Bible records only that she bore to him Adonias, the fourth of his sons, in Hebron, be- fore he was king over all Israel. That she was an uncommonly remarkable woman, seems to be sug- gested from the custom of Bibhcal writers to speak usually of Adonias as "the son of Haggith". Al- though harem intrigues have ever played a great part in political events in the East, nothing indicates, how- ever, that Haggith had anything to do either with the attempt of her son to secure for himself the crown of Israel (III lungs, i, 5-53), or with his fatal request, likely also prompteti by political motives, to obtain his father's Sunamite concubine, ."iLbisag, from Solomon (III Kings, ii, 13-25). Charles L. Souvay.

Hagiography. — The name given to that branch of learning which has the saints and their worship for its object. Writings relating to the worship of the saints may be divided into two categories: (a) those which are the spontaneous product of circumstances or have been called into being by religious needs of one kind or another (and these belong to what may be called prac- tical hagiography) ; (b) writings devoted to the scien- tific study of the former category (and these constitute critical hagiography).

(a) The worship of the saints has everyn-here given rise, both in the East and in the West, to a verj' con- siderable number of documents, varying, in form and in tenor, with the object which the author in each case had in view. Such, in primitive times, are the lists of martyrs drawn up in particular Churches with a view to the celebration of anniversaries, which lists be- come the nucleus of the martyrologies. Documents of this kind merit a special study (see M artitiolog y) , and we need only mention them here in passing (see

" Analecta BoUandiana ", XXVI, pp. 78-99). Side by side with the martyrologies and calendars there are also the narratives of martyrdoms and the biographies written by contemporaries in memory of the heroea whom the Church celebrates. Such are the "Passion of the Scilitan Martyrs ", the " Life of St. Augustine ", by Possidius, and the "Life of St. Martin", by Sulpi- cius Severus. Sometimes, again, they are accounts composed by writers who lived at some distance of time from the events recorded, and whose object was to edify the faithful or satisfy a pious curiosity. These hagiographers write either in prose, like the author of the Acts of St. Cecilia, or in verse, like Prudentius and so many others. Then again there are texts composed or arranged, for liturgical use, from historical docu- ments or from artificial compositions. These various classes of hagiographic works — historical memoirs, literary compositions, liturgical texts — exi-sted at first as monographs; but soon the need was felt of gather- ing into a collection separate pieces of the same nature. The most ancient hagiographic collection of which mention is made is Eu.sebius's compilation tu» apxa-lt^" tiapTi'pluf (Tvva-yuy^, containing the Pa.ssions of martyrs previous to the persecution of Diocletian. Eusebius himself wrote, all in one piece, the book of the martyrs of Palestine of the last persecution, as Theodoret afterwards compiled his ^i\66eos 'Icrropla from a series of thirty biographies of which he himself was the author. Thus we have two tj'pes of collections to one or other of which we may attribute all those to be mentioned hereafter — the type which consists of a grouping of unlike pieces under one title and the tj^pe which is a series of narratives all from the same pen. Among the most famous collections of the Middle Ages we may cite those of Gregory of Tours, imder the titles "In Gloria Martyrum" (P. L., LXXI, 70.5-SO) and " In Gloria Confessorum " (loc. cit., 827-910), the dia- logues of St. Gregory the Great, " De Vita et Miraculis Patrum Italicorum" (P. L., LXXVII, 147-429), the three books of Eulogius of Toledo (d. 859) entitled "Memorialis Sanctorum" (P. L., CXV, 731-818).

In these collections the order is the historical order of the particular subjects — .-iaints' Lives or Passions — which they include; later on there appear collections of a more artificial character in which the Passions and the biographies of the saints follow each other accord- ing to the dates of the calendar. In the West these collections are known as "Passionaries" or "Legen- daries ". In course of time every region came to have its own; the Roman Legendary constitutes the com- mon foundation of all, and the special parts are deter- mined by the local cultiifi. The legendaries are usually made up of biographies and Passions of relatively great length. Beginning with the thirteenth century, collections of a more convenient size begin to appear, containing the matter of the legendaries in a con- den.sed form. Of these unquestionably the most fa- mous is the "Legenda Aurea " of the Dominican Jacobus de Voragine, manviscripts of which were plentifully distributed until the tune when copies be- gan to be multiplied by printing. This work, more- over, was translated during the Middle Ages into several modern languages, and indeed it is to be remarked that a large number of saints' lives and hagiographic collections in the vulgar tongues, which are now of interest chiefly to students of philology, may be traced to Latin originals. The importance of this body of hterature may be estimated by a perusal of. e. g., for French, ^i. Paul Meyer's memoirs, "Notice sur un legendier franeais clas.<> selon I'ordre de Tannic liturgiqiic" (Paris, 1898), " Notice sur trois l^gendiers franQais attribuos :\ .lean Belet" (Paris, 1889). and "Legendes hagiographiques en fran^ais" [in"Histoirelitterairedela France", XXXIII (1906), pp. 328-459]. For German we may mention F. Wil- nelm, "Deutsche Legenden und Legendare" (Leipzig. 1907).