MARTYROLOGY, in the church of Rome, is a
catalogue or list of martyrs, including the history of
their lives and sufferings for the sake of religion. The
term comes from μαρτυρ, "witness," and λογος, "dico,"
or λογος, "colligo."
The martyrologies draw their materials from the
kalendars of particular churches, in which the several
festivals dedicated to them are marked; and which
seem to be derived from the practice of the ancient
Romans, who inserted the names of heroes and great
men in their fasti, or public registers.
The martyrologies are very numerous, and contain
many ridiculous and even contradictory narratives;
which is easily accounted for, if we consider how many
forged and spurious accounts of the lives of saints and
martyrs appeared in the first ages of the church, which
the legendary writers afterwards adopted without ex-
amining into the truth of them. However, some good
good critics, of late years, have gone a great way to-
wards clearing the lives of the saints and martyrs from
the monstrous heap of fiction they laboured under. See
the article LEGEND.