ay.

Joseph von Goerres, an illustrious champion of the Church during the
first half of the nineteenth century, writes as follows concerning
legends:

"The histories of the lives of the saints were gathered from the
earliest times. A collection of such histories is found in 'The Golden
Legend.' The Passionales, too, containing the life of a saint for every
day in the year, belong to this sort of literature. In Germany these
histories were at first translations from the Latin; later, they were
written in the native idiom, and, in style, were of a charming
simplicity. At that time, when the upper classes did not yet judge
themselves too highly cultivated to share in the Faith, and not too
privileged to join in the sentiments and affections of the people, and
were therefore more in harmony with the lower ranks of society, these
legends were in general circulation among all classes: among the wealthy
in manuscript, among the poor orally and in the form in which they had
become acquainted with them in church and elsewhere.

"In early times the science of criticism was unknown; therefore little
care was exercised in separating the poetic additions from the authentic
legends, especially as the Church had not yet spoken on the subject.
Faith was yet of that robust sort which is not affected by miraculous
occurrences. Nearly all Europe then still accepted the adage now current
only in Spain, 'It is better sometimes to believe what can not be
established as truth, than to lose a single truth by want of faith.' But
later the science of criticism came into its rights. The Church
established canonical rules, according to which a strict investigation
of all the facts submitted to her judgment was to be made, and rejected
everything that could not stand the most rigid examination.

[Illustration: Mary, the Mother of Sorrows]

"Then Art devoted itself to that legendary lore which the Church,
declaring it outside of her domain, permitted to be embellished at will.
Thus poetic legends were multiplied, their authors being more or less
convinced that the reader would be able to distinguish truth from
poetical embellishment. The common people continued to make little
distinction and did not permit criticism to influence their ancient
beliefs. They regarded these legends as they regard the pictures of the
saints; not as portraits of the persons depicted--for in the very next
church the same saint might be represented in a quite differen