angels and patriarchs also, even Adam and Eve, were made witnesses of the wonderful spectacle. Still the resui'rection and ascension of Mary are in the Ro- man church only a matter of " devout and probable opinion," not an article of faith ; ^ and a distinction is made between the ascensio of Christ (by virtue of His divine nature) and the assujnptio of Mary (by the power of grace and merit). But since Mary, according to the most recent Roman dogma, was free even from original sin, and since death is a consequence of sin, it should strictly follow that she did not die at all, and rise again, but, like Enoch and Elijah, was car- ried alive to heaven. In the ]\Iiddle Age — to anticipate briefly — yet other festi- vals of Mary arose : the XATivnT of Mart,' after a. d. 650 ; the Pkesentation of Mart,* after the ninth century, founded on the apocryphal tradition of the eleven years' ascetic disci- pline of Mary in the temple at Jenisalem ; the VisriATioN of Mart,^ in memory of her visit to Elizabeth ; a festival first mentioned in France in 12i7, and limited to the western ' According to later representations, as in the three discourses of John Damasce- nus on this subject, her body rested, like the body of the Lord, thi-ee days uncor- rupted in the grave. ■' The Greek council of Jerusalem in 1672, which was summoned against the Calvinists, officially proclaimed it, and thus almost raised it to the authority of a dogma. ' Nativitas, natalis B. M. V. ; yeve^\tov, &c. * Festum preseniationis. * Festum visitaiionis. « 428 THIED PEKIOD. A.D. 311-590. church ; and the festival of the Immaculate Cokception,' which arose with the doctrine of the sinless conception of Mary, and is interwoven with the history of that dogma down to its official and final promulgation by Pope Pius IX. in 1854. § 84. The Worship of Martyrs and Saints. I. Sources: The Memorial Discourses of Basil the Great on the martyr Mamas (a shepherd in Cappadocia, t about 275), and on the forty mar- tyrs (soldiers, who-are said to have suffered in Armenia under Licinius in 320) ; of Geegoet JSTaz. on Cyprian (t 248), on Athanasius (t 372), and on Basil (t 379) ; of Geegory of Nyssa on Ephraim Syrus (f 378), and on the megalomartyr Theodoras ; of Cheysostom on Bernice and Prosdoce, on the Holy Martyrs, on the Egyptian Martyrs, on Meletius of Antioch ; several homilies of Ambrose, AuGTiSTrsrE, Leo the Great, Peteb Cheysologtjs, O^saeius, &c. ; Jeeome against VigUantius. — The most important passages of the fathers on the veneration of saints are conveniently collected in : '• The Faith of Catholics on certain points of controversy, confirmed by Scripture and attested by the Fa- thers. By Berington and Kirk, revised by Waterworth." 3d ed. 1846, vol. iii. pp. 322-416. II. The later Literature : (1) On the Roman Catholic side: