Notes
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THE SEVEN SLEEPERS
Παῖδες λιπόντες πρὸς μικρὸν μακροὺς ὕπνονς
Ὕπνωσαν ἆνθις τὸν μετ᾿ εἰρήνης ὕπνον.
These youths, a little while their wondrous sleep forsaking, Sink soon again to know the sleep that knows no waking.
Such were the lines written of the "Seven Sleepers" by a Greek of (perhaps) the seventh century. At that date the knowledge and cult of these confessors were very widely spread from East to West. Their earliest Acta date from about a.d. 500—their supposed awakening having occurred in 434—and before his death in 450 Theodosius the Younger had built at Ephesus a temple over their supposed relics. In the sixth century S. Gregory of Tours translated their Acts into Latin. Of their celebrity in the eleventh century we see evidence in our Life of S. Edward. Yet, in spite of the early testimony to their story and the early acceptance of their cult, critical historical opinion, even of the most orthodox school, has remained hostile. Cardinal Baronius, for example, in the sixteenth century and Dom Adrian Fortescue in the twentieth (see the Catholic Encyclopædia) have rejected the whole story as a fable. Its interest as a parable of the resurrection of the body and its value as an illustration of homihes on that doctrine—points wherein lay its chief appeal to the pious souls who accepted it as historically true—do not disappear with the acceptance of the more sceptical view, and they appear clearly in our present version.
72.
2. The Emperor Decius reigned from a.d. 249 to 251; Theodosius the Great from 379 to 395; Theodosius the Younger from 408 to 450. The dates in Caxton's version are loose and incorrect, as the translator expressly recognizes.
75.
2. "shillings," used as equivalents for solidi—gold coins which at the period of this tale were worth about eight shillings.
S. MACARIUS
81.
1. Macarius lived in Upper Egypt in the fourth century. His history has been confused with that of other personages of the same name.
83.
1. In his repentance for killing the fly that bit him, the ancient ascetic of the Desert was (it is safe to assert) chiefly moved by the thought of his having refused to bear a suffering sent him by divine providence.
