days of Christ that it reproduced itself even among the followers of Jesus, though it is true it appeared clothed in a Christian dress. '• The popular religious want," says Dr. Schalf, " had accustomed itself even to female deities, and very naturally betook itself first of all to Mary, the highly favored and blessed mother of the di- vine-human Redeemer, as the worthiest object of adora- tion." But, though it is apparent that remnants of an- cient heathenism thus laid hold even on the newly-found doctrines, it is quite certain also that during the first ages the invocation of the Virgin and of saints must have held a subordinate place in Christian worship, for there is not a word about it in the writings of the fathers of the first five centuries. *' We may scan each page that they have left us, and we shall find nothing of the kind. There is nothing of the sort in the supposed works of Hermas and Barnabas, nor in the real works of Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp ; that is, the doctrine is not to be found in tlie 1st century. There is nothing of the sort in Justin ]\Iartyr, Tatian, Athenagoras, The- ophilus, Clement of Alexandria, TertuUian ; that is, in the 2d century. There is nothing of the sort in Origen, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Cj'prian, jMethodius, Lactan- tius; that is, in the 3d century. There is nothing of the sort in Eusebius, Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Hilary, Macarius, Epiplianius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Ephrem Syrns, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose ; that is, in the 4th century. There is nothing of the sort in Chrysostom, Augustine, .Jerome, Basil of Seleucia, Orosius, Sedulius, Isidore, Theodoret, Prosper, Vincentius Lirinensis, Cyril of Alexandria, popes Leo, Hilarus, Simplicius, Felix, Gelasius, Anastasius, Symmachus; that is, in the 5th century." Nor is there the least trace of IMariolatry among the remains of the Catacombs. Says a writer in the Loml. Qu. Per. July, 1864, p. 85: "As regards the sacred person of the Virgin, she takes that place only in the art of the Catacombs v/hich the purity of earlier Christianity would lead us to predicate. She is seen there solely in a scriptural and historical sense — in the subject of the Adoration of the Wise Men who found ' the young child and his mother.' And this even takes its place among the later productions of classic-Christian art ; while the subject of the Nativity, which occurs on two sarcophagi, evidently belongs to the last decline of that period. With these two exceptions, no trace of a representation of the Virgin can be found in the mural or sculptural art of the Catacombs." We cannot do bet- ter than sum up this portion of our subject in the words of the Kev. E. Tyler, to whose conscientious labors every student of Christian antiquities is so much indebted : "We have examined to the utmost of our ability and means the remains of Christian antiquity. Especially have we searched into the writings of those whose works (A.D. 492) received the approbation of the pope and his council at Rome ; ^ve have also diligently sought for ev- idence in the records of the early councils; and we find all the geniune and inisuspected works of Christian writers — not for a few years, or in a portion of Christen- dom, but to the end of the first five hundred years and more, and in every country in the F^astern and the West- ern empire, in Europe, in Africa, and in Asia — testifying as w-ith one voice that the writers and t'neir contem- poraries knew of no belief in the present power of the Virgin, and her infiuence with God ; no practice, in pub- lic or private, of prayer to God through her mediation, or of invoking her for her good offices of intercession, and advocacy, and patronage ; no offering of thanks and praise made to her; no ascription of divine honor and glory to her name. On the contrary, all the writers through those ages testify that to the early Christians (iod was the only object of prayer, and Christ the only heavenly Mediator and Intercessor in whom they put their trust" (p. 290). There is not a shadow of doubt that the origin of the worship of Mary is to be traced to the apocrvphal legends of her birth and of her death, which, in the course of time, decorated the life of Mary with fantastic fables and wonders of every kind, and
MARIOLATRY
752
MARIOLATRY
thus fumislied a pseudo-liistorical foundation for an iin- scriptural INIariology and jNlariolatrj' (compare Janus, Popf and Council, p. 34 sq.). It is in these productions of the Gnostics (q. v.) that we find the germ of what afterwards expanded into its present portentous propor- tions. Some of the legends of her birth arc as early as the 2d or 3d century. But to the honor of the Chris- tians of that day be it remembered that they unani- moush' and firmly rejected these legends as fabulous and heretical. Witness the conduct of the Church towards the Collyridians (q. v.), and the excesses in the opposite direction it gave rise to by the formation of a sect known as the Antidicomai-ianites (q. v.). "The whole thing," says Epiphanius, when commenting upon the un- warranted practices of the Collyridians, " is foolish and strange, and is a device and deceit of the devil. Let jNIary be in honor. Let the Lord be worshipped. Let jio one worship Marv" (Uieret. Ixxxix, in 0pp. p. lOCG, Paris, 1662).