Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/243

 viii] CHRISTIAN PROSE 225 of dubious origin, but destined to extraordinary popu- larity and influence. This was anonymous or pseu- donymous. It received the forms in which it survived at an early though indeterminate period, and its puerile character rendered later remodelling unnecessary to adapt it to the romantic credulity of the Middle Ages. Its main source lay in the legends which had grown up around the canonical accounts of the ministry of Jesus and his apostles, and its chief extant examples are the apocryphal Gospels and the apocryphal Acts of the difTerent apostles.* These were originally written in Greek. Some of the Greek texts still exist, while in other instances only Latin or Syriac or Arabic translations remain ; or again both the Greek version and the translation in one or more of these other tongues are extant. Much of this apocryphal literature received its earliest form among Gnostics or Ebionites; and the narratives were shaped in ac- cordance with the teachings of these heretical or imperfectly Christianized circles. Yet the substance probably was drawn from legends or traditions which were spreading through Christian communities. Later orthodox revisions of these Gospels and Acts omitted the markedly heretical features which made the nar- ratives conflict with Catholic doctrine. When events have occurred which stir the feelings ^ The titles of the latter in Greek were : — wpd^ux ^ acta v«pi^oi = itinera iavfiara — miracula, virtutes it.aprvpt.of, T*A*iw(rt« a Passio, consummatio See Lipiiaa, Die Apokryphen ADOstelgetchichten, Einleitung. Q