untless multitude of angels, to take up
the soul of his mother; He summoned his disciples by thunder and storm
from all parts of the world. The Virgin then bade Peter first, and
afterwards the rest of the Apostles, to come with burning torches[120].
The Apostles surrounded her bed, and "an outpouring of miracles flowed
forth." The blind beheld the sun, the deaf heard, the lame walked, and
every disease fled away. The Apostles and others sang, as the coffin was
borne from Sion to Gethsemane, angels preceding, surrounding, and
following it. {316} A wonderful thing then took place. The Jews were
indignant and enraged, and one more desperately bold than the rest
rushed forward, intending to throw down the holy corpse to the ground.
Vengeance was not tardy; for his hands were cut off from his arms[121].
The procession stopped; and at the command of Peter, on the man shedding
tears of penitence, his hands were joined on again and restored whole.
At Gethsemane she was put into a tomb, but her Son transferred her to
the divine habitation.

[Footnote 120: This author here quotes the forged work ascribed
to Dionysius the Areopagite, to which we have before referred.]

[Footnote 121: This tradition seems to have been much referred
to at a time just preceding our Reformation. In a volume called
"The Hours of the most blessed Mary, according to the legitimate
rite of the Church of Salisbury," printed in Paris in 1526, from
which we have made many extracts in the second part of this
work, the frontispiece gives an exact representation of the
story at the moment of the Jew's hands being cut off. They are
severed at the wrist, and are lying on the coffin, on which his
arms also are resting. In the sky the Virgin appears between the
Father and the Son, the Holy Dove being seen above her. The same
print occurs also in another part of the volume.]

Nicephorus then refers to Juvenal, Archbishop of Jerusalem, as the
authority on which the tradition was received, that the Apostles opened
the coffin to enable St. Thomas (the one stated to have been absent) to
embrace the body; and then he proceeds to describe the personal
appearance of the Virgin. [Vol. i. p. 171.]

I am unwilling to trespass upon the patience of my readers by any
comment upon such evidence as this. Is it within the verge of
credibility that had such an event as Mary's assumption taken place
under the extraordinary circu