1. Causes of Increased Veneration
The first
tendency toward this exaggeration of her importance was the outgrowth of the Christologicsl
development. The more the awe
and reverence of
the early
Church
for the God-Man attempted to
find
adequate expression, the more
natural it was that a portion of it
should be transferred to his mother,
the vehicle of his redeeming incarnation.
As early as the middle of the
second century; she appears as the antitype of Eve,
bringing life
into the world as Eve brought death
(Justin,
Dialogue, c.;
Irenaeus, III., iii. 4, V., xix.
1; Tertullian,
De carne Christi, vii.);
and later the
Western Church applied
Gen. iii. 15
to her (in the
Vulgate version with the feminine pronoun,
ipsa
conteret ca;vut tuurra). A
further impulse was given
to the devotion to Mary by the exaggerated reverence for the ascetic life and
for celibacy, as spread
by monasticism from the fourth century. She
became the type.and ideal of virginity. Tertullian
had admitted her marriage
(De monogamia, viii.),
and Basil had recognized
(Hemilia in Christi
genersctionem, v.)
that the natural sense of
Matt. i. 25
favored this view. But Epiphanius
(Hær., Lyxviii.)
controverted as heretics (under the name of Antidicomarianites, q.v.) those who said that she had
married Joseph and had children by him. From
this time on the title of "Virgin" became an
inseparable predicate of hers. Pope Siricius (c. 392)
confirmed the sentence of the' Illyrian bishops
against Bonosua on the charge of sharing the-heresy
of Helvidius. The theory of a merely nominal
marriage was generally accepted; Origen accounts
for it by the necessity of concealing the mystery of
the virgin birth from the princes of this world
(Homilia in Lucam, vi.).
These developing views took shape as legends
in
a long series of Apocryphal narratives. The most
important of these is the
Protevangdium JowN,
2. Apocryphal Legends
Justin and
Tertullian. According to
it, Joachim and Anna, long childless,
prayed fervently for offspring, and
vowed their child, if they should have
one, to the service of the Lord. Mary was born and
solemnly dedicated. When she was twelve, all the
widowers were
assembled and their staves blessed
in the temple. Out of that of Joseph emerged a
dove which settled on his head, designating him as
the destined guardian of the maiden. Miraculous
signs accompanied the birth of her child; the visit
of the Magi and the massacre of the Innocents came
in their proper places, but instead of the flight into
Egypt the concealment of the child in a corner of
the inn, followed by the miraculous rescue of
Elisabeth and John the Baptist and the murder of
Zacharias by command of Herod. Although the
Apocryphal literature was officially repudiated, not
a few features of it crept into the tradition of the
Church, such as the'names of Mary's parents, her
education in the Temple, and the nominal marriage
with Joseph, already an aged man. A further series
of legends deal with the life of Mary after the
Ascension, especially in the Apocryphal narrative
De trmnadu Mario',
dating from the middle of the
fourth century. In the differing versions the duration
of her life after the Ascension
is
variously given
as from two to twenty-four years. A tradition
assigning her later life (under the care of the apostle
John) and death to Ephesus was known to Epi
phanius, (Her., Ixxviii. 11); other ancient traditions
give Jerusalem for both (for the legend of her
assumption see below, III.). Yet in spite of all this
development of glorifying tradition, there was no
tendency, before the end of the fourth century to
promote a regular cultus of the Virgin, or even to
address prayers to her. The change which took
place about that time may have been partly due
to the great influx of pagans into the Church.
Their old religions, largely growing out of nature
worship, and emphasizing the opposition of the
sexes, passed by an easy transition to the Gnostic
ayxygiai, and thus to the idea of the cooperation of
a created principle in the work of redemption. This
principle was naturally found in Mary, the second
Eve. Epiphanius (Hevr., lxxix.) condemns the
Collyridians (q.v.), a sect of fanatical women calling
themselves priestesses of Mary, who on festival
days solemnly offered cakes to her
and then feasted
upon them, as in the pagan Thesmophoria and in
Jer. vii. 18, xliv. 59.
The Nestorian controversy (see Nasmoxros)
marked
the most
important turning-point in the
development of devotion to
Mary. Although in essence Christological, it centered around
3. Theotokos
the question debated. between the
and Alexandrian and Antichian schools,
Iconoclastic on the basis of their differing views
Controver- as to the relations of the two natures
sies. in Christ and the communicability of
the divine attributes to humanity, as
to whether Mary was to be called the
mother of
God
(Theotokm)
or merely the mother of Christ.
The former was officially adopted at the council of
Ephesus in 431, and the devotion became increasingly fervent throughout the whole Church with
each succeeding century. The veneration of the
martyrs
had already spread to such an extent that
it was a simple completion to place Mary at their
head as queen of the heavenly hosts. Prayer to her
became a universal custom. Churches and altars
were erected in her honor, and her picture was exposed for veneration. When, in spite of the dogma
of Chalcedon, the humanity of Christ had been, in
the popular mind, swallowed up in the divinity,
the need was felt of further human mediation
through which the divine Majesty might be approached and the severity of the awful Judge
mitigated. From the lowly recipient of grace, she
became a source and giver of grass. The Iconoclastic controversy served still further to enhance
the veneration of her (see
Images and Image Worship, II.). The second Council of Niesea (787)
declared that veneration paid to her image passed
on to her, and that he who adored
(ho
proakunan)
the image adored the original. A regular tradition
grew up as to her appearance: the most celebrated
picture of her was that attributed to St. Luke,
which existed in numerous copies, each with its
own tradition; others in Italy and Spain were
believed to have been painted by angels.
The reverence for woman mentioned as early as
Tacitus among the traits of the Germanic peoples
developed into the romantic service of medieval
chivalry, and Mary
was still further exalted as
the crowning glory of womanhood,
4. The enthroned even above the angels.
Middle Ages.
Among ecclesiastical writers,
Ildephonsus (q.v.; d. 887) demonstrated
her perpetual virginity once more
against the long-departed Jovinian and Helvidius
and against the Jews in his book De illibata beats
virginia
virginitate. Ratramnus wrote c. 845
against those who asserted that Jesus was born in
some miraculous manner different from the ordinary;
but this view was supported by Paschasius Radbert.
A still higher level of Marian devotion was reached
in the eleventh century. Peter Damiani sings the
praises of .Mary as the perfect creature,'asaerte that
nothing is impossible to her, and says that
she
restores hope to the despairing. Bernard of Clair
vaux (Sermo in xativitatem, iv.) asks: "Dost thou
fear the divine Majesty in the.Son? . Wilt thou find
an advocate before him? Flee to Mary; in her
humanity is pure. The Son will listen to the mother,
and the Father to the Son." Many more equally
strong expressions might be collected from medi
eval theologians; and liturgical formulas kept
pans with theological teaching. Scholasticism at
tempted to satisfy scrupulous consciences by making
a distinction between labia, the worship due to God
alone, and dulia, the veneration which might be
lawfully paid to saints and sacred objects;. the
highest form of the latter, or hyperdulia, was as.
signed to Mary. From the eleventh century a
special office of the Blessed Virgin was recited in the
monasteries, which the Synod of Clermont (1095)
extended to the -clergy in general. Nothing, how
ever, contributed so largely to the spread of daily
devotion to her as the introduction of the Ave Maria
or angelic salutation as a normal supplement to the
Lord's Prayer in popular devotions. After the
middle of the twelfth century it spread from
France,
where St. Bernard aided its diffusion, to Germany,
England, Spain, and other countries, and by the
end of the thirteenth was practically universal in
western Christendom. The introduction of the
recitation of the
Angelus (q.v.) three times a day
and of the
Rosary (q.v.), with its ten Aves for one
Pater noster, tended to increase the influence of
this short and easily remembered form of prayer.
Devotion to Mary was promoted zealously by the
religious orders. The Teutonic Knights chose her
for their patroness; the Dominicans aided with the
rosary from 1270; the Franciscans were ardent
advocates of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception; the Carmelites boasted of her special favor,
asserting that their sixth general, St. Simon Stock,
had seen a vision (1246) in which she gave him a
scapular with the promise that he who died wearing
it should be delivered from the eternal fire.
