The Blessed Mary

 THIS title is found in Athan. Orat. ii. § 70. "Let those who deny that the Son is from the Father by nature and proper to His substance, deny also that He took true human flesh of Mary Ever-Virgin." Vid. also Athan. Comm. in Luc. in Collect. Nov. t. 2, p. 43. Epiph. Hær. 78, 5. Didym. Trin. i. 27, p. 84. Rufin. Fid. i. 43. Lepor. ap. Cassian. Incarn. i. 5. Leon. Ep. 28, 2. Pseudo-Basil, t. 2, p. 598. Cæsarius has [ aepiais ]. Qu. 20. On the doctrine itself, vid. the controversial Tract of S. Jerome against Helvidius; also a letter of S. Ambrose and his brethren to Siricius, and the Pope's letter in response. Coust. Ep. Pont. t. i. p. 669-682.

 Pearson, Bishop of Chester, writes well upon this subject. Creed, Art. 3. (A passage from him is also incidentally quoted infr. art. [ eusebeia ].) He says here, "As we are taught by the predictions of the Prophets that a Virgin was to be Mother of the promised Messias, so are we assured by the infallible relation of the Evangelists, that this Mary 'was a Virgin when she bare Him.' ... Neither was her act of parturition more contradictory to virginity than that former [act] of conception. Thirdly, we believe the Mother of our Lord to have been, not only before and after His nativity, but also for ever, the most immaculate and blessed Virgin ... The peculiar eminency and unparalleled privilege of that Mother, the special honour and reverence due unto her Son and ever paid by her, the regard of that Holy Ghost who came upon her, the singular goodness and piety of Joseph to whom she was espoused, have persuaded the Church of God in all ages to believe that she still continued in the same virginity, and therefore is to be acknowledged as the Ever-Virgin Mary." Creed, Art. 3.

 He adds that "many have taken the boldness to deny this truth, because not recorded in the sacred writ," but "with no success." He replies to the argument from "until" in Matt. i. 25 by referring to Gen. xxviii. 15, Deut. xxxiv. 6, 1 Sam. xv. 35, 2 Sam. vi. 23, Matt. xxviii. 20.

 He might also have referred to Psalm cix. 1 and 1 Cor. xv. 25, which are the more remarkable because they were urged by the school of Marcellus as a proof that our Lord's kingdom would have an end, and are explained by Euseb. himself, Eccl. Theol. iii. 13, 14. Vid. also Cyr. Cat. 15, 29, Naz. Orat. 30. 4, where the true force of "until" is well brought out, "He who is King before He subdued His enemies, how shall He not the rather be King after He has got the mastery over them?"

 I have said in a note on the word in the Aurea Catena, that the word "till" need not imply a termination at a certain point of time, but may be given as information up to a certain point from which onwards there is already no doubt. Supposing an Evangelist thought the very notion shocking that Joseph should have considered the Blessed Virgin as his wife, after he was witness of her bearing the Son of God, he would only say that the vision had its effect upon him up to that date, when the idea was monstrous. If one said of a profligate, that, in consequence of some awful warning, he had said a prayer for grace every night up to the time of his conversion, no one would gather thence that he left off praying on being converted. "Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death;" had she children after it? This indeed is one of Pearson's references. Vid. also Suicer de Symb. Niceno-Const. p. 231. Spanheim, Dub. Evang. part i. 28, 11.

 Athan. elsewhere compares the Virgin's flesh to the pure earth of Paradise out of which Adam was formed. She is [ anergastos ge ]. Orat. ii. § 7, and so Iren. Hær. iii. 21 fin., and Tertullian, "That virgin earth, not yet watered by rains, nor impregnated by showers, from which man was formed in the beginning, from which Christ is now born according to the flesh from a Virgin." Adv. Jud. 13, vid. de Carn. Christ 17. "Ex terra virgine Adam, Christus ex virgine." Ambros. in Luc. lib. iv. 7. Vid. also the parallel drawn out t. v. Serm. 147. App. S. August. and in Proclus, Orat. 2, pp. 103, 4, ed. 1630, vid. also Chrysost. t. 3, p. 113, ed. Ben. and Theodotus at Ephesus, "O earth unsown, yet bearing a salutary fruit, O Virgin, who didst surpass the very Paradise of Eden," etc. Conc. Eph. p. 4 (Hard. t. i. p. 1643). And so Proclus again, "She, the flowering and incorruptible Paradise, in whom the Tree of Life," etc. Orat. 6, p. 227. And Basil of Seleucia, "Hail, full of grace, the amaranthine Paradise of purity, in whom the Tree of Life," etc. Orat. in Annunc. p. 215. And p. 212, "Which, think they, is the harder to believe, that a virgin womb should be with child, or the ground should be animated?" etc. And Hesychius, "Garden unsown, Paradise of immortality." Bibl. Patr. Par. 1624. t. 2, pp. 421, 423.

 Vid. the well-known passage in S. Ignatius, ad Eph. 19, where the devil is said to have been ignorant of the Virginity of Mary, and of the Nativity and the Death of Christ; Orig. Hom. 6, in Luc. Basil, (if Basil,) Hom. in t. 2, App. p. 598, ed. Ben. and Jerome in Matt. i. 18, who quote it; vid. also Leon. Serm. 22, 3. Clement. Eclog. Proph. p. 1002, ed. Potter.

 "Many," says Athanasius, "have been made holy and clean from all sin; nay, Jeremias was hallowed even from the womb, and John, while yet in the womb, leapt for joy at the voice of Mary Mother of God." Orat. iii. § 33. vid. Jer. i. 5. And so S. Jerome, S. Leo, etc. as mentioned in Corn. à. Lap. in loc. who adds that S. Ephrem considers Moses also sanctified in the womb, and S. Ambrose Jacob. S. Jerome implies a similar gift in the case of Asella (ad Marcell. Ep. 24, 2). And of S. John Baptist, Maldon. in Luc. i. 15.

 It is at first strange that these instances of special exemptions should be named by early writers, without our Lady also being mentioned; or rather it would be strange, unless we bore in mind how little is said of her at all by Scripture or the Fathers up to the Council of Ephesus, A.D. 431. It would seem as if, till our Lord's glory called for it, it required an effort for the reverent devotion of the Church to speak much about her or to make her the subject of popular preaching; but, when by her manifestation a right faith in her Divine Son was to be secured, then the Church was to be guided in a contrary course. It must be recollected that there was a disciplina arcani in the first centuries, and, if it was exercised, as far as might be, as regards the Holy Trinity and the Eucharist, so would it be as regards the Blessed Virgin.

 I have insisted upon this deep sentiment of reverence in matters of sacred doctrine in my "History of the Arians," written long before I was a Catholic, and I may fairly quote here one of several passages contained in it, in solution of a difficulty with which at that time I was not concerned. For instance, I say, ch. 2, § 1: "The meaning and practical results of deep-seated religious reverence were far better understood in the primitive times than now, when the infidelity of the world has corrupted the Church. Now, we allow ourselves publicly to canvass the most solemn truths in a careless or fiercely argumentative way; truths, which it is as useless as it is unseemly to discuss before men, as being attainable only by the sober and watchful, by slow degrees, with dependence on the Giver of wisdom, and with strict obedience to the light which has already been granted. Then, they would scarcely express in writing, what now is not only preached to the mixed crowds who frequent our churches, but circulated in prints among all ranks and classes of the unclean and the profane, and pressed upon all who choose to purchase. Nay, so perplexed is the present state of things, that the Church is obliged to change her course of acting, after the spirit of the alteration made at Nicæa, and unwillingly to take part in the theological discussions of the day, as a man crushes venomous creatures of necessity, powerful to do it, but loathing the employment." I am corroborated in my insistence on this principle by the words of Sozomen, who says, "I formerly deemed it necessary to transmit the confession drawn up by the unanimous consent of the Nicene Council, in order that posterity might possess a public record of the truth; but subsequently I was persuaded to the contrary by some godly and learned men, who represented that such matters ought to be kept secret, as only requisite to be known by disciples and their instructors." Hist. i. 20.

 In an Anglican Sermon of a later date, I apply this instinctive feeling to the fact of the silence of Scripture about the Blessed Virgin in its narrative of the Resurrection. "Here perhaps," I say, "we learn a lesson from the deep silence which Scripture observes concerning the Blessed Virgin after the Resurrection; as if she, who was too pure and holy a flower to be more than seen here on earth, even during the season of her Son's humiliation, was altogether drawn by the Angels into paradise on His Resurrection," etc. Par. Serm. vol. iv. 23. And I refer in a note to the following passage in the Christian Year:

 "God only, and good angels, look   Behind the blissful screen,  As when, triumphant o'er His woes,  The Son of God by moonlight rose,   By all but Heaven unseen;  As when the Holy Maid beheld   Her risen Son and Lord,  Thought has not colours half so fair,  That we to paint that hour may dare,   In silence best adored."

 Such doubtless were the spirit and the tone of the Church till Nestorius came forward to deny that the Son of God was the Son of Mary. Thenceforward her title of Theotocos, already in use among Christian writers, became dogmatic.

 Mater Dei. Mother of God. Vid. art. [ antidosis idiomaton ]. Athanasius gives the title to the Blessed Virgin, Orat. iii. § 14, § 29, § 33. Orat. iv. 32. Incarn. c. Ar. 8, 22.

 As to the history of this title, Theodoret, who from his party would rather be disinclined towards it, says that " the most ancient ([ ton palai kai propalai ]) heralds of the orthodox faith taught the faithful to name and believe the Mother of the Lord [ theotokos ], according to the Apostolical tradition ." Hær. iv. 12. And John of Antioch, whose championship of Nestorius and quarrel with S. Cyril are well known, writes to the former, "This title no ecclesiastical teacher has put aside; those who have used it are many and eminent, and those who have not used it have not attacked those who used it." Concil. Eph. part i. c. 25. (Labb.) And Alexander, the most obstinate or rather furious of all Nestorius's adherents, who died in banishment in Egypt, fully allows the ancient reception of the word, though only into popular use, from which came what he considers the doctrinal corruption. "That in festive solemnities, or in preaching and teaching, [ theotokos ] should be unguardedly said by the orthodox without explanation, is no blame, because such statements were not dogmatic, nor said with evil meaning. But now after the corruption of the whole world," etc. Lup. Ephes. Epp. 94. He adds that it, as well as [ anthropotokos ], "was used by the great doctors of the Church." Socrates, Hist. vii. 32, says that Origen, in the first tome of his Commentary on the Romans (vid. de la Rue in Rom. lib. i. 5, the original is lost), treated largely of the word; which implies that it was already in use. "Interpreting," he says, " how [ theotokos ] is used, he discussed the question at length." Constantine implies the same, with an allusion to pagan mythology of an unpleasant kind; he says, "When He had to draw near to a body of this world, and to tarry on earth, the need so requiring, He contrived a sort of irregular birth of Himself, [ nothen tina genesin ]; for without marriage was there conception, and childbirth, [ eileithuia ], from a pure Virgin, and a maid, the Mother of God, [ theou meter kore ]." Ad. Sanct.. CSt. p. 480. The idea must have been familiar to Christians before Constantine's date to be recognised by him, a mere catechumen, and to be virtually commented on by such a parallelism.

 For instances of the word [ theotokos ], besides Origen. ap. Socr. vii. 32, vid. Euseb. V. Const. iii. 43, in Psalm. cix. 4, 703, Montf. Nov. Coll.; Alexandr. Ep. ad Alex. ap. Theodor. Hist. i. 3, p. 745; Athan. (supra); Cyril. Cat. x. 19; Julian Imper. ap. Cyril. c. Jul. viii. p. 262; Amphiloch. Orat. 4, p. 41 (if Amphil.) ed. 1644; Nyssen. Ep. ad Eustath. p. 1093; Chrysost. apud Suicer Symb. t. ii. p. 240; Greg. Naz. Orat. 29. 4; Ep. 101, p. 85, ed. Ben. Antiochus and Ammon. ap. Cyril. de Recta Fid. pp. 49, 50; Pseudo-Dion. contr. Samos. 5, p. 240; Pseudo-Basil. Hom. t. 2, p. 600, ed. Ben.

 Pearson on the Creed (notes on Art. 3), arguing from Ephrem. ap. Phot. Cod. 228, p. 775, says the phrase Mater Dei originated with St. Leo. On the contrary, besides in Constantine's Oration as above, it is found, before S. Leo. in Ambros. de Virg. ii. 7; Cassian. Incarn. ii. 5, vii. 25; Vincent. Lir. Commonit. 21. It is obvious that [ theotokos ], though framed as a test against Nestorians, was equally effective against Apollinarians and Eutychians, who denied that our Lord had taken human flesh at all, as is observed by Facundus Def. Trium Cap. i. 4. And so S. Cyril, "Let it be carefully observed, that nearly this whole contest about the faith has been created against us for our maintaining that the Holy Virgin is Mother of God; now, if we hold," as was the calumny, "that the Holy Body of Christ our common Saviour was from heaven, and not born of her, how can she be considered as Mother of God?" Epp. pp. 106, 7. Yet these sects, as the Arians, maintained the term. Vid. supr. Heresies .

 As to the doctrine, which the term implies and guards, the following are specimens of it. Vid. S. Cyril's quotations in his de Recta Fide, p. 49, etc. "The fleshless," says Atticus, "becomes flesh, the impalpable is handled, the perfect grows, the unalterable advances, the rich is brought forth in an inn, the coverer of heaven with clouds is swathed, the king is laid in a manger." Antiochus speaks of Him, our Saviour, "with whom yesterday in an immaculate bearing Mary travailed, the Mother of life, of beauty, of majesty, the Morning Star," etc. "The Maker of all," says S. Amphilochius, "is born to us today of a Virgin." "She did compass," says S. Chrysostom, "without circumscribing the Sun of righteousness. Today the Everlasting is born, and becomes what He was not. He who sitteth on a high and lofty throne is placed in a manger, the impalpable, incomposite, and immaterial is wrapped around by human hands; He who snaps the bands of sin, is environed in swathing bands." And in like manner S. Cyril himself, "As a woman, though bearing the body only, is said to bring forth one who is made up of body and soul, and that will be no injury to the interests of the soul, as if it found in flesh the origin of its existence, so also in the instance of the Blessed Virgin, though she is Mother of the Holy Flesh, yet she bore God of God the Word, as being in truth one with it." Adv. Nest. i. p. 18. "God dwelt in the womb, yet was not circumscribed; whom the heaven containeth not, the Virgin's frame did not straiten." Procl. Orat. i. p. 60. "When thou hearest that God speaks from the bush, and Moses falling on his face worships, believest thou, not considering the fire that is seen, but God that speaks? and yet, when I mention the Virgin womb, dost thou abominate and turn away? ... In the bush seest thou not the Virgin, in the fire the loving-kindness of Him who came?" Theodotus of Ancyra ap. Conc. Eph. (p. 1529, Labb.) "Not only did Mary bear her Elder," says Cassian in answer to an objector, "but her Author, and giving birth to Him from whom she received it, she became parent of her Parent. Surely it is as easy for God to give nativity to Himself, as to man; to be born of man, as to make men born. For God's power is not circumscribed in His own Person, that He should not do in Himself what He can do in all." Incarn. iv. 2. "The One God Only-begotten, of an ineffable origin from God, is introduced into the womb of the Holy Virgin, and grows into the form of a human body. He who contrives all ... is brought forth according to the law of a human birth; He at whose voice Archangels tremble ... and the world's elements are dissolved, is heard in the wailing of an infant," etc. Hil. Trin. ii. 25. "'My beloved is white and ruddy;' white truly, because the Brightness of the Father, ruddy, because the Birth of a Virgin. In Him shines and glows the colour of each nature; ... He did not begin from a Virgin, but the Everlasting came into a Virgin." Ambros. Virgin. i. n. 46. "Him, whom, coming in His simple Godhead, not heaven, not earth, not sea, not any creature had endured, Him the inviolate womb of a Virgin carried." Chrysost. ap. Cassian. Incarn. vii. 30. "Happily do some understand by the 'closed gate,' by which only 'the Lord God of Israel enters,' that Prince on whom the gate is closed, to be the Virgin Mary, who both before and after her bearing remained a Virgin." Jerom. in Ezek. 44. init. "Let them tell us," says Capreolus of Carthage, "how is that Man from Heaven, if He be not God conceived in the womb?" ap. Sirm. Opp. t. i. p. 216. "He is made in thee," says S. Austin, "who made thee ... nay, through whom heaven and earth is made; ... the Word of God in thee is made flesh, receiving flesh, not losing Godhead. And the Word is joined, is coupled to the flesh, and of this so high wedding thy womb is the nuptial chamber," etc. Serm. 291, 6. "Say, O blessed Mary," says S. Hippolytus, "what was It which by thee was conceived in the womb, what carried by thee in that virgin frame? It was the Word of God," etc. ap. Theod. Eran. i. p. 55. "There is one physician," says S. Ignatius, "fleshly and spiritual, generate and ingenerate, God come in the flesh, in death true life, both from Mary and from God, first passible, then impassible, Jesus Christ our Lord." Ep. ad Eph. 7.