loveth thy name, O Virgin Mary ; thy grace shall comfort his soul. As a tree irrigated by fountains of water, he shall bring forth the richest fruits of righteousness." In the second Psalm the prayer is directed to the Virgin : " Protect us with thy right hand, O Mother of God," etc. Ps. ix., "I will confess to Thee, O Lady (Domina) ; I will declare among the people thy praise and glory. To thee belong glory, thanksgiving, and the voice of praise." Ps. xv., " Preserve me, O Lady, for I have hoped in thee." Ps. xvii., " I will love thee O Queen of heaven and earth, and will glorify thy name among the Gentiles'" Ps. xviii., " The heavens declare thy glory, O Virgin Mary ; the fragrance of thy ointments is dispersed among all nations." Ps. xli., " As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul for thy love, O Holy Virgin." And so on to the end. The Virgin is throughout addressed as the Psalmist ad- dressed God ; and the blessings which he sought from God, the Romanist is taught to seek from her.1
In like manner the most holy offices of the Church are parodied. The Te Deum, for example, is turned into an address to the Vir- gin. " We praise thee, Mother of God ; we acknowledge thee to be a virgin. All the earth doth worship thee, the spouse of the eternal Father. All the angels and archangels, all thrones and powers, do faithfully serve thee. Tc thee all angels cry aloud, with a never-ceasing voice, Holy, Holy, Holy, Mary, Mother of
God The whole court of heaven doth honour thee as
queen. The holy Church throughout all the world doth invoke
and praise thee, the mother of divine majesty Thou sittest
with thy Son on the right hand of the Father In thee,
sweet Mary, is Cur hope ; defend us for evermore. Praise be- cometh thee ; empire becometh thee ; virtue and glory be unto thee for ever and ever." a
It is hardly necessary to refer to the Litanies of the Virgin Mary in further proof of the idolatrous worship of which she is the object. Those litanies are prepared in the form usually adopted in the worship of the Holy Trinity ; containing invocations, dep- recations, intercessions, and supplications. They contain such
i This Psalter is published under the title Psalterium Virginia Maria, a Devoto Doctore Sancto Bonaventura compilatum. It is given at length by Chemnitz in his Examen Con- cilii Tridentini, edit- Frankfort, 1574, part iii. pp. 166-179. Chemnitz does not refer its authorship to Bonaventura ; but gives it as a document sanctioned and used in the Church of Rome.
a See A Church Dictionary. By Walter Farquhar Hook, D. D., Vicar of Leeds. Sixth edition. Philadelphia, 1854, article Mariolatry. Dr. Hook quotes the so-called " Psalter of Bonaventura; " and refers to Sancti Bonaventura Opera, torn. vi. part ii. from p. 466 to 47?. Fol. Mojruntiae, 1609.
288 PART ni. Ch. XIX. — THE LAW.
prayers as the following : " Peccatores, te rogamus audi nos ; Ut sanctam Ecclesiam piissima conservare digneris, Ut justis gloriam, peccatoribus gratiam impetrare digneris, Ut navigantibus portum, infirmantibus sanitatem, tribulatis consolationem, captivis libe- rationem, impetrare digneris, Ut famulos et famulas tuas tibi devote servientes, consolare digneris, Ut cunctum populum Chris- tianum filii tui pretioso sanguine redemptum, conservare digneris, Ut cunctis fidelibus def unctis, eternam requiem impetrare digneris, Ut nos exaudire digneris, Mater Dei, Filia Dei, Sponsa Dei, Mater carissima, Domina nostra, miserere, et dona nobis perpetuam pacem." More than this cannot be sought at the hands of God or Christ. The Virgin Mary is to her worshippers what Christ is to us. She is the object of all religious affections ; the ground of confidence ; and the source whence all the blessings of salvation are expected and sought.
There was, however, always an undercurrent of opposition to this deification of the mother of our Lord. This became more apparent in the controversy on the question of her immaculate conception. This idea was never broached in the early Church. The first form in which the doctrine appeared was, that from the fact that God says of Jeremiah, " Before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee" (Jer. i. 5), it was maintained that the same might be said of the Virgin Mary. Jeremiah indeed was sanctified before birth, in the sense that he was consecrated or set apart in the purpose of God to the prophetic office ; whereas Mary, it was held, was thus sanctified in the sense of being made holy. All the great lights of the Latin Church, Augustine, Anselm, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Thomas Aquinas, held that if the Virgin Mary were not a partaker of the sin and apostasy of man, she could not be a partaker of redemption. As Thomas Aquinas, and after him the Dominicans, took the one side in this controversy, Duns Scotus and the Franciscans took the other. The public feeling was in favour of the Franciscan doctrine of the immaculate conception. Even John Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, distinguished not only for his learning but also for his zeal in reforming abuses, in 1401 came out publicly in support of that view. He was, however, candid enough to admit that it had not hitherto been the doctrine of the Church. But he held that God communicated the truth gradually to the Church ; hence Moses knew more than Abraham, the prophets more than Moses, the Apostles more than the prophets ; in like manner, the Church has received from the Spirit of God many truths not