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 Braudyn, are probably the versifier’s invention. Both the Infancies printed by Horstmann contain many such names, which do not occur elsewhere.

Other miracles which find a place in the vernacular versions or in the Vita Rhythmica (see p. 82) are: Jesus slides on a sunbeam, and other boys attempting this fall and are hurt, and cured; he hangs his pitcher on a sunbeam, other boys’ pitchers are (similarly) broken and mended; he brings bitter herbs to Mary and sweetens them by putting flour in the pot; a lion carries off a shepherd’s boy and is made to bring him back; he finds a hunter killed by a snake and raises him; he cures one who had swallowed a viper in his sleep.

 

I do not propose to include a full version of this book in the present collection. Influential as it was in the later mediaeval period, all or nearly all the contents have already been given in the Protevangelium and Gospel of Thomas. But a full account and analysis will not be out of place.

It is a Latin compilation, possibly as old as the eighth or ninth century, though no manuscript earlier than the eleventh has been hitherto brought to light. It was used by Hrosvita, Abbess of Gandersheim, in her poems in the tenth century.

The two main sources are the Protevangelium and the Gospel of Thomas, but some few episodes are not to be found in either. These will be pointed out in the analysis.

By way of introducing it to the world under good auspices the compiler (probably) provided it with credentials in the shape of pretended letters to and from St. Jerome. These are also commonly found prefixed to the ‘Story of the Birth of Mary’ of which something will be said later. But as Dr. Amann, following Tischendorf, rightly says, the letters apply better to our present text than to the other. They allude to the ‘Infancy of Christ’, and the Birth of Mary stops short at the Nativity.

The letters run as follows:

To their most beloved brother Jerome the presbyter, Cromatius and Heliodorus, bishops, send greeting in the Lord.

We have found in certain apocryphal books the birth of the Virgin Mary and the infancy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherein noticing many passages contrary to our faith, we judge that the whole should be rejected, lest on the pretext of Christ we should afford triumph to antichrist. So while we were considering the matter, there came to us the holy men Parmenius and Virinus, who told us that your holiness had found a Hebrew book written by the hand of the most blessed evangelist Matthew, in which both the birth of the Virgin mother and the infancy of our Saviour were recorded. And therefore we entreat your