§ 130. THE WORSHIP OF MARY. 839
The Church never officially put its stamp of commendation upon the popular belief that the Son is austere. Neverthe less, even down to the very eve of the Reformation, the belief prevailed that Christ's austerity had to be appeased by Mary's compassion.
THE VIRGIN BIRTH OP CHRIST. — The literary criticism of the Bible of recent years was as much undreamed of in this period of the Middle Ages as were steamboats or tele phones. Schoolman and priest seem never to have doubted when they repeated the article of the Creed, " Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary." Homily and theological treatise lingered over the words of Isa. vii : 14 : " Behold a virgin shall conceive," and over the words of the angelic annunciation : " Hail, thou that art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women . . . The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." They dis cussed the conception and virginal birth in every possible aspect, as to the part the Holy Spirit had in the event and the part of Mary herself. Here are some of the questions propounded by Thomas Aquinas: Was there true matri mony between Joseph and Mary ? Was it necessary that the angel should appear in bodily form ? Was Christ's flesh taken from Adam or from David ? Was it formed from the purest bloods of Mary? Was the Holy Spirit the primary agent in the conception of Christ? Was Christ's body animated with a soul at the instant of conception ?
None of the Schoolmen goes more thoroughly than Hugo of St. Victor into the question of the part played by the Holy Spirit in the conception of Jesus. He was at pains to show that, while the Spirit influenced the Virgin in con ception, he was not the father of Jesus. The Spirit did not impart to Mary seed from his own substance, but by his power and love developed substance in her through the agency of her own flesh.1
1 De MaridK virg., Migne, 176. 872. Bernard even uses the word " impreg nate," impregnare, to indicate the Spirit's influence. Migne, 183. 59.
840 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
According to Anselm, God can make a human being in four ways, by the co-operation of a man and woman ; with out either as in the case of Adam ; with the sole co-operation of the man as in the case of Eve ; or from a woman without a man. Having produced men in the first three ways, it was most fitting God should resort to the fourth method in the case of Jesus. In another work he compares God's creation of the first man from clay and the second man from a woman without the co-operation of a man.1
Thomas Aquinas is very elaborate in his treatment of Mary's virginity. " As a virgin she conceived, as a virgin gave birth, and she remains a virgin forevermore." The assumption that she had other children derogates from her sanctity, for, as the mother of God, she would have been most ungrateful if she had not been content with such a Son. And it would have been highest presumption for Joseph to have polluted her who had received the annunciation of the angel. He taught that, in the conception of Christ's body, the whole Trinity was active and Mary is to be called "rightly, truly, and piously, genetrix Dei," the mother of God.2
The mediseval estimate of Mary found its loftiest expression in the doctrine of the immaculate conception, the doctrine that Mary herself was conceived without sin. The School men were agreed that she was exempt from all actual trans gression. They separated on the question whether she was conceived without sin and so was immaculate from the in stant of conception or whether she was also tainted with original sin from which, however, she was delivered while she was yet in her mother's womb. The latter view was taken by Anselm, Hugo of St. Victor, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and even Bonaventura.3 The view that she was conceived without sin and thus was never tainted with original sin was advocated by Duns Scotus, who, however, did not go further than to assert for it probability. Bernard, writing to
1 Cur Deus homo, II. 8 ; De concept, virg., Migne, 158. 445.
2 Summa, III. 28, 1, etc., Migne, IV. 258, 262, 294, 298, etc.
3 In Sent., III. 5, IV. 3, 1, Peltier's ed., IV. 53 sqq., V. 59.