In order to show more clearly the purity of the worship which holy Church pays to the most Blessed Virgin, I will mention two contrary heresies, both equally injurious to the veneration deservedly due to Our Lady. One of these heresies sinned by excess; calling Mary _the Goddess of Heaven_, and offering sacrifices to her as such; the other sinned by default, condemning all honour paid to Our Lady. The Church, who walks in the royal road of moderation, in which virtue consists, condemned both these heresies, defining against the former that no sacrifice whatever could be offered to Mary, as she was a pure creature; and against the latter, that this holy Virgin, being Mother of God the Son, was worthy of special worship, infinitely less than that of her Son, but incomparably greater than that of all the other Saints. To the first, she says, that the Virgin is simply a creature, yet so holy, so perfect, so closely united to her Son, and so much loved by God, as to render it impossible to love the Son sincerely without loving and honouring the Mother. To the second, she says, sacrifice is the supreme worship of latria, due to the Creator alone, and the Blessed Virgin is simply a creature, although most excellent. Indeed, in speaking of Mary, I call her more the creature of God and of her Son than the rest of creation; because God created greater perfections in her than in all other creatures, and she had a greater share in the Redemption than all others, being rescued not only from sin but from the power and inclination to sin. And who does not know that it is a greater benefit to rescue a person from slavery before he is made a slave, than to deliver him after he has become captive! How far are we then from placing the Son and the Mother on an equality, as our adversaries falsely assert?