The Legends Of The Saints
Subtitle: An Introduction To Hagiography
Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
Published: 1907
Place of publication: London, England
Language: eng
Number of pages: 241
Table of contents: title: CONTENTS; title: Introduction vii; title: CHAPTER I.; title: Preliminary Definitions.; title: Hagiographic documents — Imaginative tales. Artificial compositions — Romances — Popular inventions — Myths — Tales — — Legends — The hagiographic legend: its two principal factors 1; title: CHAPTER II.; title: The Development of the Legend.; title: I. Unconscious distortion of truth by the individual — By the people — Level of popular intelligence — Tendency to simplification — Ignorance — Substitution of the abstract form for the individual type — Poverty of invention — The borrowing and transmission of legendary themes — Examples — The antiquity of certain themes — Artificial grouping of incidents and persons — Cycles 12; title: II. Predominance of sense impressions over the intelligence - Localisations and loot-prints — Literary origin of certain of these — Iconographic legends — Popular etymology — Miracles — The soul of the people — Energy of expression — Exaggerated feeling — Ambitions of individual churches — Morality of the mob — Local claims 40; title: CHAPTER III.; title: The Work of the Hagiographer.; title: I. The meaning of the term "hagiographer" — Literary methods — Moralities — Ancient ideas concerning history — Special views of mediaeval hagiographers 60; title: II. Sources — False attributions — Written tradition — Oral tradition — Pictorial tradition — Relics of the past — Choice of sources — Interpretation of sources — Inscriptions — Use of the various categories of documents 70; title: III. Dearth of material and methods of supplementing it — Amplification by means of stock incidents — Acts of St Clement of Ancyra — Compilation and adaptation — Life of St Vincent Madelgarus — Antiquity of the process — Forgeries 91; title: CHAPTER IV.; title: The Classification of Haoiooraphic Texts.; title: Defective system — Classification according to subjects — According to categories of saints — System adopted. Historical point of view — Division into six classes — Application of system to Ruinart's Acta Sincera — The "Supplements" of Le Blant 107; title: CHAPTER V.; title: The "Dossier" of a Saint.; title: Documents concerning St Procopius of Caesarea — Account given by Eusebius — Monuments testifying to the cultus — The three legends of St Procopius — Analysis of the three legends — The synaxaries — Latin acts of St. Procopius — Adaptations to St. Ephysius and to St. John of Alexandria - Conclusions 125; title: CHAPTER VI.; title: Pagan Survivals and Reminiscences.; title: I. Rites and symbols common to Christianity and to ancient religions — Suspicious practices — Incubation — Collections of miracles — Literary borrowings from pagan sources — Unavoidable analogies — Superstitions 148; title: II. Saint-worship and hero-worship — The centre of hero-worship — Solemn translations — Relics — Fortuitous coincidences 160; title: III. Pagan survivals in worship — Holy places — Christian transformations — Adaptation of names — A method for ascertaining primitive titles — Sacred sources 168; title: IV. Dates of festivals — Alteration of object — Difficulty of proving coincidences — A method for ascertaining dates of pagan festivals — Examples 178; title: V. Pagan legends — Christian adaptations — Three cases to be considered — Examples : Legend of St. Lucian of Antioch — Legend of St. Pelagia and allied legends — St. Livrada 186; title: VI. Mythological names — Other suspicious names — Iconographic parallels — The Blessed Virgin — "Saints on horseback" 207; title: CHAPTER VII.; title: Concerning Certain Hagiographic Heresies.; title: Direct relation established between the history of a saint and his legend — Exaggerated confidence in hagiographers — Ill-considered appeals to local tradition — Confusion between a probable and a truthful narrative — Excessive importance attributed to the topographical element — Legend held in utter contempt 214; title: Index 233