ABSTRACT

The story of the death of Cain was received by the schoolmen on the authority of the Glossa ordinaria, and in the twelfth century Peter Comestor inserted it in his account of the beginning of the world. The craftsmen contented themselves with showing the people the story of the remotest times, and rarely went beyond the story of Noah, but however short this story might be a place was found for the legend of Cain. Among the numerous medallions devoted to the Genesis story on the facade of the cathedral of Lyons there is one which might well come from Jewish legend. The scenes of the childhood of Christ as portrayed in the art of the thirteenth century include several apocryphal features. Legend and gospel story are so closely interwoven that it is difficult to separate them.