Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c1.2

c1.2

But even in these works, we can see the beginnings of a more critical spirit. The *Gesta Romanorum*, for instance, contains stories that are clearly derived from classical sources, and the *Legenda Aurea* is full of accounts of the lives of the saints that are based on earlier, more reliable records. The Church was not entirely indifferent to the truth; it was simply that its conception of truth was different from our own. It was a truth that was not to be found in the dusty archives of the past, but in the living experience of the present.