Woman in Sacred History: A Series of Sketches Drawn from Scriptural, Historical, and Legendary SourcesStowe, Harriet Beecher
Religion
Woman in Sacred History: A Series of Sketches Drawn from Scriptural, Historical, and Legendary Sources
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Bible -- Biography; Women in the Bible -- Biography
Dr. Pusey, in his "Eirenicon," traces the march of mariolatry
through all the countries of the world. He shows how to Mary
have been ascribed, one after another, all the divine attributes
and offices. How she is represented commanding her son in heaven
with the authority of a mother; and how he is held to owe to her
submissive obedience. How she, being identified with him in all
that he is and does, is received with him in the sacrament, and
is manifest in the real presence. In short, how, by the enormous
growth of an idea, there comes to be at last _no God but Mary_.
Martin Luther describes, in his early experiences, how completely
the idea of the true Redeemer was hidden from his mind by this style
of representation; that in the ceremony of the mass he trembled,
and his knees sunk under him for fear, on account of the presence
of Christ the Judge of the earth. When we look back to the earlier
ecclesiastical history, we find no trace of all this peculiar
veneration. None of the Apocryphal Gospels have higher antiquity
than the third or fourth century.
In Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, article _Mary_, this question is
settled by a comprehensive statement.[7] "What," the writer says,
"was the origin of this _cultus_? Certainly not the Bible. There is
not a word there from which it could be inferred, nor in the creeds,
nor in the fathers of the first five centuries. We may trace every
page they have left us, and we shall find nothing of the kind. There
is nothing of the sort in the supposed works of Hermas and Barnabas,
nor in the real works of Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp; that is,
the doctrine is not to be found in the first century. There is
nothing in Justin Martyr, Tatian, Anathagoras, Theophilus, Clement
of Alexandria, Tertullian; that is to say, nothing in the second
century."
[7] The article is by Rev. F. Meyrick, M. A., one of her Majesty's
inspectors of schools, late fellow and tutor of Trinity College,
Oxford.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account