Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/60

xxxiv upon, they were the most partial to oriental conceptions. The fables which they thus constructed were laid by, fairly transcribed, and beautifully illuminated; until, in due time, the monastery coffers were ransacked, and the gross and acknowledged inventions of earlier ascetics were imposed upon their latter brethren, as the undoubted and veritable history of real fathers and real saints.

It is well known that in the earlier ages of Christianity forged gospels were put forth in imitation of the true: while the tenets of the Persian magi were united with the doctrines of the Son of God. If this prove nothing further, it proves the facility with which oriental dogmas were interwoven with those of the west. At a more advanced period, other legends written in Latin, and professing to be narratives of what actually occurred, were again transcribed, with manifold