§ 130. THE WORSHIP OF MARY. 837
mass of monks and from the people! A few citations will suffice to show the implicit faith placed in Mary's interces sion and her power to work miracles.
Peter Damiani tells of a woman who, after being dead a year, appeared in one of the churches of Rome and related how she and many others had been delivered from purgatory by Mary in answer to their prayers. He also tells how she had a good beating given a bishop for deposing a cleric who had been careful never to pass her image without saluting it.1
Csesar of Heisterbach abounds in stories of the gracious offices Mary performed inside the convent and outside of it. She frequently was seen going about the monastic spaces, even while the monks were in bed. On such occasions her beauty was always noted. Now and then she turned and gave a severe look to a careless monk, not lying in bed in the approved way. Of one such case the narrator says he did not know whether the severity was due to the offender's having laid aside his girdle or having taken off his sandals. Mary stood by to receive the souls of dying monks, gave them seats at her feet in heaven, sometimes helped sleepy friars out by taking up their prayers when they began to doze, sometimes in her journeys through the choir aroused the drowsy, sometimes stretched out her arm from her altar and boxed the ears of dull worshippers, and sometimes gave the staff to favored monks before they were chosen abbots. She sometimes undid a former act, as when she saw to it that Dietrich was deposed whom she had aided in being elected to the archbishopric of Cologne.2
To pious knights, according to Coesar of Heisterbach, Mary was scarcely less gracious than she was to the inmates of the convent. She even took the place of contestants in the tournament. Thus it was in the case of Walter of Birbach who was listed and failed to get to the tournament field at the appointed hour for tarrying in a chapel in the worship of Mary. But the spectators were not aware of his
1 De variis mirac., Migne, 145. 586 sq. ; De bono suffr., Migne, 145. 564.
2 Dial, VII. 13, 19, XI. 12, VII. 12, 39, 40, 51, etc.
838 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
absence. The tournament began, was contested to a close, and, as it was thought, Walter gained the day. But as it happened, Mary herself had taken the knight's place and fought in his stead, and, when the knight arrived, he was amazed to find every one speaking in praise of the victory he had won.1 Thomas of Chantimpre 2 tells of a robber whose head was cut off and rolled down the valley. He called out to the Virgin to be allowed to confess. A priest, passing by, ordered the head joined to the body. Then the robber confessed to the priest and told him that, as a young man, he had fasted in honor of the Virgin every Wednesday and Saturday under the promise that she would give him oppor tunity to make confession before passing into the next world.
All these collections of tales set forth how Mary often met the devil and took upon herself to soundly rebuke and punish him. According to Jacob of Voragine3 a husband, in return for riches, promised the devil his wife. On their way to the spot, where she was to be delivered up, the wife, suspecting some dark deed, turned aside to a chapel and im plored Mary's aid. Mary put the worshipper to sleep and herself mercifully took the wife's place at the husband's side and rode with him, he not noticing the change. When they met the devil, the "mother of God" after some sound words of reprimand sent him back howling to hell.
Mary's compassion and her ability to move her austere Son are brought out in the Miracle Plays. In the play of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, the foolish virgins, after having in vain besought God for mercy, turned to the Virgin with these words : —
Since God our suit hath now denied
We Mary pray, the gentle maid,
The Mother of Compassion,
To pity our great agony
And for us, sinners poor, to pray
Mercy from her beloved Son.4
1 Dial., VII. 38. 2 II 264.
8 The Assumption of Mary. Temple Classics, IV. 249. * Hase, Miracle Plays, 31.