Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/17

 water minister to the righteous; wild beasts, dogs, serpents, lions, bears and tigers are tamed by a single word from the mouths of the apostles, or turn their rage against the persecutors ; dying martyrs are encompassed by wreaths of light or heavenly roses and lilies and enchanting odors, while the abyss opens to devour their enemies. The Devil himself is often introduced into these stories in the form of a black Ethiopian, and plays a considerable part. But the visionary element is the favorite one. Our Lord often appears to his servants, now as a beautiful youth, and again as a seaman, or as a shepherd, or in the form of an apostle; holy martyrs return to life to manifest themselves, at one time to their disciples, at another to their persecutors. Dreams and visions announce beforehand to apostles their approaching martyrdom, or to longing souls among the heathen the fulfillment of their desires. All this fantastic scenery has been left, for the most part, untouched by Catholic revisers, and remains, therefore, in works which in other respects have been most thoroughly recast. Yet it was only in very rare cases that these romantic creations of fancy were themselves the original object in view with the writers who produced them. That object was either some dogmatic interest, or, where such retired into the background, an ascetic purpose. Many of these narratives were simply invented to extol the meritoriousness of the celibate life, or to commend the severest abstinence in the estate of matrimony. At this point Catholic revisers have been careful throughout to make regular alterations, now degrading legitimate wives to the position of concubines, and now introducing objections connected with nearness of kin or other circumstances which might justify the refusal or the repudiation of a given marriage. But where merely the praise of virginity was concerned the views of Catholics and Gnostics were nearly identical, except that the former refused to regard the maintenance of that estate as an absolute or universal moral obligation.

Recent investigations have shown that in large portions of these Acts genuine reminiscences are to be found, though not in reference to the legends themselves, yet in regard to the setting in which they are presented to us, their secular