Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/297

 the tombs close to the highway, where they sat with a large supply of grave-stones constantly on hand, for no earthly purpose but to pelt decent people as they went by, and doing it with such a vengeance that they had killed several outright,—besides broken bones not counted. Andrew, after exacting from the inhabitants a promise to become Christians if he cleared out this nuisance, brought out the seven devils, in spite of themselves, in the shape of dogs, before all the city; and after he had made them a speech, (given in very bad Latin, in the story, as it stands,) the whole seven gave a general yelp and ran off in the wilderness according to Andrew's direction. The inhabitants of course, were all baptized; and Callistus was left bishop over them. Going on from Nicaea, Andrew came next to Nicomedia, the capital, where he met a funeral procession coming out of the city. Andrew immediately raised the dead person,—the scene being evidently copied from that of the widow's son raised at Nain, considerably enlarged with new particulars. Going out from Nicomedia, the apostle embarked on the Black sea, sailing to Byzantium. On the passage there was occasion for a new miracle,—a great storm arising, which was immediately stilled by the apostle. Going on from Byzantium through Thrace, he came among a horde of savages, who made a rush at him, with drawn swords. But Andrew ''making the sign of the cross'' at them, they all dropped their swords and fell flat. He then passed over them, and went on through Thrace into Macedonia.

This story is literally translated from one of the "apostolical stories" of a monk of the middle ages, who passed them off as true histories, written by Abdias, said to have been one of the seventy disciples sent out by Jesus, (Luke x. 1,) and to have been afterwards ordained bishop of Babylon, (by Simon Zelotes and Jude.) It is an imposition so palpable however, in its absurdities, that it has always been condemned by the best authorities, both Protestant and Papist: as Melancthon, Bellarmin, Scultetus, Rivetus, the Magdeburgh centuriators, Baronius, Chemnitius, Tillemont, Vossius, and Bayle, whose opinions and censures are most of them fully given in the preface to the work itself, by Job. Al. Fabricius, (Cod. apocr. N. T., part 2.)

Besides all these series of fictions on Andrew's life, there are others, quoted as having been written in the same department. "The Passion of St. Andrew," a quite late apocryphal story, professing to have been written by the elders and deacons of the churches of Achaia, was long extensively received by the Papists, as an authentic and valuable book, and is quoted by the eloquent and venerable Bernardus, with the most profound respect. It abounds in long, tedious speeches, as well as painfully absurd incidents. The "Menaei," or Greek calendar of the saints, is also copious on this apostle, but is too modern to deserve any credit whatever. All the ancient fables and traditions were at last collected into a huge volume, by a Frenchman named Andrew de Saussay, who, in 1656, published at Paris, (in Latin,) a book, entitled "Andrew, brother of Simon Peter, or, Twelve Books on the Glory of Saint Andrew, the Apostle." This book was afterwards abridged, or largely borrowed from, by John Florian Hammerschmid, in a treatise, (in Latin,) published at Prague, in 1699,—entitled "The Apostolic Cross-bearer, or, St. Andrew, the Apostle, described and set forth, in his life, death, martyrdom, miracles and discourses."—Baillet's