[526] This legend is first mentioned by Gregory of Tours in the sixth century, (De Gloria Mart., lib. i, c. 4,) next by John Damascenus in the eighth century, but is most fully detailed in the Legenda Aurea in the fourteenth. Some of the earlier paintings represent with touching naiveté the translation of the soul of Mary as a new-born infant to heaven, where it is received in the arms of her Divine Son. In later art the assumption is more literally represented, and Mary is received and crowned by the three persons of the Holy Trinity, while angels bear her train. Bodily assumption was also attributed to John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene.
[527] E. g., Psa. lxviii, 1: “Let Mary arise, and let her enemies be scattered.” On one of the principal churches of Rome may still be read the awful perversion of Scripture: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of Mary, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
[528] The expression of Modestus, patriarch of Jerusalem in the seventh century.
[529] In allusion to the woman in the Apocalypse, xii, 1.
[530] See a fresco in the Campo Santo, Pisa.
[531] In the church of Gesù e Maria at Rome.
[532] Janua Cœli.
[533] Stella matutina.
[534] Refugium peccatorum.
[535] Succurre miseris.