V THE CULTUS OF SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN BY THE VENERABLE JOHN H. THORPE, B.D. ARCHDEACON OF MACCLESFIELD; VICAR OF ST. GEORGE'S, STOCKPORT SYNOPSIS Object of the following. To examine the place assigned to St. Mary the Virgin in thought and devotional literature, and the ground for it. The inquiry must mainly regard Roman Catholic doctrine and practice, because they furnish the fullest examples. But the inquiry has now a wider scope in face of recent developments elsewhere. The inquiry is not made in any mere spirit of controversy, but rather to set forth the grounds on which those rely who cannot worship or pray to the Virgin. A distinction must be drawn between honouring the Virgin and regarding her in the lights furnished by the illustrations quoted. The purely Protestant attitude a reaction. The Church of England has guarded against both extremes. In order to appreciate the case to be examined it is necessary to give examples of the extent and extravagance to which the cult of the Virgin has been carried in Roman Catholic teaching. 1. Extracts from the Roman Missal and Breviary, showing— (a) Prayers offered to the Almighty in her name for her merits, through her mediation, advocacy, and intercession. (b) Prayers to herself, beseeching her to employ her good offices of intercession with the Eternal Father, and with her Son, in behalf of her petitioners. (c) Prayers to her directly for her protection from all evils, spiritual and bodily; for her guidance and aid, and for the influences of her grace. (d) The ascription of divine praises to her, in acknowledgement of her attributes and acts of power, wisdom, goodness, and mercy, and of her exalted state above all spirits of life and glory in heaven; and for her share in the redemption of the world, and the benefits conferred on the individual worshippers. 2. Some brief extracts from R.C. devotional writers of authority showing the steadily increasing exaggerations of the official language already quoted, the whole constituting an eloquent and startling warning. THE PLACE of the B.V.M. IN HOLY SCRIPTURE The Old Testament gives no hint of any such association with the Messiah either in prophecy or in type. The nature of the Godhead there revealed allows no such place to a creature as is assigned to the B.V.M. The New Testament The angelic salutation. The Magnificat. The infancy of Our Lord. These give no ground for the cult. Examination of the chief passages in the Gospels bearing on our Lord's "attitude" towards her. St. Matthew xii. 46. St. Luke xi. 27. St. John ii. 3. St. John xix. 2. The special significance of this. Examination of the Acts and the Epistles. Acts i. 14. Galatians iv. 4. 1 Tim. ii. 15. Silence of St. John and St. Peter, especially where we would expect her to be mentioned, very striking. General Our Lord's teaching about Himself and about prayer wholly incon sistent with the claims now made for the B.V.M. She is not a prominent person in His Ministry, and not in the "inner circle." Not present at the Transfiguration, the institution of the Holy Communion, the Resurrection, or the Ascension. Examination of the phrase "Mother of God." It has no bearing on this controversy. Comparison of her character with Christ's and to His detriment unavoidable. The general duty of asking the prayers of our fellow-Christians has no bearing on this subject. Prayers to the Virgin demand and imply in her Omniscience and Omnipotence. No ground to think the Virgin anything more than a creature and subject therefore to all the limitations of a creature. Illustrations from the N.T. of the Virgin's limitations in knowledge. No reason from Scripture or reason to think that death has made any such change in her nature or condition such as is assumed by those who pray to her. Inventions and fables. (1) Distinctions in worship. (2) The Assumption. (3) The Holy House of Loretto. (4) The Immaculate Conception. V THE CULTUS OF SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN REGARDING Christendom to-day as a whole we observe three degrees of estimation in which the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord, is held. A large number of Protestant Christians may be said to ignore her in their devotions and thoughts, if indeed they do not regard any mention of her with suspicion and dislike. Perhaps it is possible to account for this by the law of reaction. Undoubtedly some Christians. have attributed to her offices, titles, and powers which appear to these at least to go far beyond the warranty of Holy Scripture, primitive practice, or sound reason. Thus, because some have given extravagant honours to the Virgin, others give her none at all. In contrast to these the Church of England has in her Liturgy recognised, without apology or hesitation," the peculiar eminence and unparalleled privilege which belong to her. The Church of England directs the Virgin's hymn-the Magnificat-to be sung daily throughout the year at Evensong. Two days in the year—the Purification and the Annunciation-are set apart with special Collects, Epistles, and Gospels to recall the minds of Church-people to the Virgin. This honour is greater than that given to any of the Holy Apostleseven the greatest. On Christmas Day she cannot be absent from the thoughts of all who rejoice with The intelligence over the miracle of the Incarnation. Church of England cannot be charged with forgetting the place of honour which belongs to the Blessed Virgin, nor-which is no less important in view of what follows can she be charged with going beyond that which has been revealed, or forgetting the nature of God Himself, or the honour and office of our Divine Lord in the work of our salvation. It is now, however, a matter of common knowledge that the place thus assigned by the Church of England to the Blessed Virgin does not satisfy a section of her members. These, attaching a very high value to an increased realisation of the Communion of Saints, and pressing the scripturally inculcated practice of the duty and value of asking for the prayers of our fellowChristians here on earth, have not hesitated to extend such requests to the saints departed, of whom the Blessed Virgin is regarded as the highest in honour and power. So far as they are clergy it would appear to be rather unfortunate that they have not waited for some authority for the teaching and practices they have resorted to with such zeal and persistency. In this respect the Church from which they have received their mission, and to whose corporate judgement they, as her accredited teachers, are bound (as they have promised) to submit, has, in the XXIInd Article, spoken in such terms as appear to lay those who have solemnly assented to them under a very serious weight of moral responsibility (which "the man in the street probably call common honesty ") in introducing on their own personal initiative alone such teaching as is now becoming a somewhat startling feature in our modern Church life. The late learned Dr. Wordsworth, Bishop of Salisbury, in his booklet The Invocation of Saints and the XXIInd Article (S.P.C.K.), has examined this so thoroughly that I content myself with referring any reader who desires to go further into this matter to his learned and sober arguments, would |