§ 81. THE WORSinP OF MARY. MAKIOLOGY- 403
and in the later times of the Middle Age, furtlier added to the festival part of the church year the feast of Corpus Christi, in celebration of the mystery of transiibstantiation, on the Thursday after Trijiity. It thus invested the close of the church yeai with a purely dogmatic im2:»ort. Protestantism has retained the feast of Trinity, in opposition to the Antitrinitarians ; Imt has, of course, rejected the feast of Corpus Christi.
In the early church, Pentecost was the Inst great festival of the Christian year. Hence the Sundays following it, till Advent, were counted from Whitsunday.' The number of the Sundays in the second half of the church year therefore varies between twenty-seven and twenty-two, according to the time of Easter. In this part of the year we find even in the old lectionaries and sacrament aries some subordinate feasts in memory of great men of the church ; such as the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, the founders of the church (June 29) ; the feast of the chief martyr, Laurentius, the representative of the church militant (August 10); the feast of the archangel Michael, the representative of the church triumphant (September 29).
§ 81. TJy Exaltation of the Virgin. Mariology.
Oanisius (R. C.) : De Mtoria Virgine libri quinque. Ingolst. 1577. Lam BERTiNi (E. 0.) : Comment, duro de J. Christi, matrisqiie ejus festis. Patav. 1751. Perrone (R. C.) : De Immaculata B. V. Marise conceptu. Rom. 1848. (In defence of the new papal dogma of the sinless conception of Mary.) P. W. Gentiie : Die Jungfrau Maria, ilire Evangelien u. ihre Wunder. Halle, 1852. Comp. also the elaborate articla, "Maria, Mutter des Herrn," by Steitz, in Ilerzog's Protest. Real-Encycl. (vol. ix. p. 74 ff.), and the article, " Maria, die htil Jungfrau,'' by Reithmatr (R. C.) in Wetzer u. Welfe^'ti Kathol. Kirchenlex. (vi. 835 flf}; also Uie Eiremcoii-vunlvoMiv^y between PtssE-j and J. H. ISTewman, 1866.
Into these festival cycles a multitude of subordinate feasti^ found their way, at the head of which stand the festivals of the holy Virgin Mary, honored as queen of th(! army of Baints.
* So in tbe Roman church even after the introduction of the Trinity festival
410 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
The worship of Mary was originally only a reflection of the worship of Christ, and the feasts of Mary were designed to contribute to the glorifying of Christ. The system arose from tlie inner connection of the Virgin with the holy mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God ; though certainly, with this leading religious and theological interest other motives combined. As mother of the Saviour <.)f the world, the Vii-gin Mary unquestionably holds forever a peculiar position among all women, and in the history of redemption. Even in heaven she must stand peculiarly near to Him whom on earth she bore nine months under her bosom, and whom she followed with true motherly care to the cross. It is perfectly natural, nay, essential, to sound religious feeling, to associate with Mary the fairest traits of maidenly and maternal character, and to revere her as the highest model of female purity, love, and piety. From her example issues a silent blessing upon all generations, and her name and memory are, and ever will be, inseparable from the holiest mysteries and benefits of faith. For this reason her name is even wrought into the Apostles' Creed, in the simple and chaste words: '"Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary."
The Catholic church, however, both Latin and Greek, did not stop with this. After the middle of the fourth century it overstepped the wholesome Biblical limit, and transformed the " mother of the Lord " ' into a mother of God, the humble '• handmaid of the Lord " * into a queen of heaven, the "highly favored"^ into a dispenser of favors, the "blessed among women"* into an intercessor above all women, nay, we may almost say, the redeemed daughter of fallen Adam, who is nowhere in Holy Scripture excepted from the universal sinfulness, into a sinlessly holy co-redeemer. At first she was
The Protestants, on the contrary, as fur as they retained the ecclesiastical calendar (Lutherans, Anglicans, &c.), make the first Sunday after Pentecost the basis, and , count the First, Second, Third Sunday after Trinity^ instead of the First, Second, He., Sunday after Wliitsunday.
' 'H f.i.-!}Tr]p Tov Kvplov, Luke i. 43.
• 'H SovXtj Kv^luv, TiUke i. 38.
■ K«x'»P''r'''/"f«") (pass, part.), Luke 1. 28.
' EyAoyrjufj/Tj tV -yvfaifiV, Luke i. 28.