The great popularity of lives of the saints is due partly to that trait, inherent in human nature, of genuine devotion to any one of proved courage, especially when that courage is of the spirit, an invincible religious faith and fortitude. Weak and unstable Christians found inspiration in these saintly lives, and by continued meditation learned many lessons of deep meaning. But, in addition to the ethical interest, there was sympathy for the human experiences and the strange and fearful adventures of these elect of the Lord. As the metrical romances ministered to popular delight in knightly deeds, so, too, these legends of the saints satisfied the world-old love of struggle and of victory. Saint Margaret, Saint Katherine, Saint Juliana, were the women saints whose lives were best known to the Middle Ages, but the many legendaries of the day gave ample record of scores of other saints. For versions of the life of Saint Margaret, see Early English Text Society, No. 13. "The Golden Legend" in seven volumes (Temple Classics, E. P. Dutton and Company, New York) contains the fullest collection of lives of the saints. Middle English collections have been edited by Carl Horstmann. Fox's "Book of Martyrs" should be remembered, also. PIOUS TALES The superstitions of the Middle Ages reveal themselves very fully in the various accounts of miracles performed by God, Christ, the Virgin, the saints, or by the relics treasured in churches and religious houses. The study of mediæval religious life must include an examination of some of these fervent and naïve records of the supernatural power of holy objects and holy folk. The intense reverence accorded to sanctified things created, among mediæval Christians, a passionate disregard for the dictates of human reason. At first this blind faith and total abasement before sacred relics was a triumph of the spirit, but before long it became a triumph of the body, for physical well-being and material prosperity were sought rather than spiritual enlightenment. In Chaucer's Pardoner's "Prologue" and in Erasmus's account of his journeys to Walsingham and to Canterbury one finds pictured the credulous and wholly unlovely side of the subject. When idealism declines and becomes sheer bigotry, without the charm of imaginative power, it must have its Wiclif and its Luther. A Miracle of God's Body "A Miracle of God's Body" is translated from Robert Mannyng of Brunne's "Handlyng Synne" (Manual of Sins). Early English Text Society, No. 123, p. 333. See also p. 172 under Homily. A Miracle of the Virgin "A Miracle of the Virgin" is from a group of eight miracles, printed in Horstmann's edition of "The Minor Poems of the Vernon Manuscript." Early English Text Society, Part I, No. 98, pp. 138-166. Other legends connected with the Virgin are to be found in the following volumes: UNDERHILL, E. The Miracles of Our Lady. E. P. Dutton & Company, New York, 1906.