Primitive Christian Worship Part 24

A periculo mortis libera nos, Domine.--Hiem. cciv.

Tu nos ab hoste protege. Eripe me de inimicis meis, Domine.--Ps. cxlii. 11.

Et hora mortis SUSPICE. _Suscipe_, Domine, servum tuum.--Hiem. ccvi. {342} ]

But another hymn in the office of the Virgin, addressed in part to the blessed Saviour himself, and partly to the Virgin Mary, is still more revolting to all my feelings with regard to religious worship. The Redeemer is only asked to remember his mortal birth; no blessing is here supplicated for at his hands; his protection is not sought; no deliverance of our souls at the hour of death is implored from Him; these blessings, and these heavenly benefits, and these divine mercies, are sought for exclusively at the hands of the Virgin alone. Can such a mingled prayer, can such a contrast in prayer, be the genuine fruit of that Gospel which bids us ask for all we need in prayer to G.o.d in the name and for the sake of his blessed Son?

"Author of our salvation, remember that once, by {343} being born of a spotless virgin, thou didst take the form of our body!

Mary, mother of grace, mother of mercy, do thou protect us from the enemy, and receive us at the hour of death. Glory to thee, O Lord, who wast born of a Virgin, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, through eternal ages. Amen[129]."

[Footnote 129:

Memento, Salutis Auctor, Tu nos ab hoste protege, Quod nostri quondam corporis, Et hora mortis suscipe.

Ex illibata Virgine, Gloria tibi, Domine, Nascendo formam sumpseris. Qui natus es de Virgine, Maria mater gratiae, c.u.m Patre et Sancto Spiritu, Mater misericordiae, In sempiterna saecula. Amen.

In the new version, (referred to in page 260 of the present work,) this hymn stands thus:--

Memento, rerum Conct.i.tor, Maria mater gratiae, Nostri quod olim corporis, Dulcis parens clementiae, Sacrata ab alvo Virginis, Tu nos ab hoste protege, Nascendo forrnam sumpseris. In mortis hora suscipe, &c.

aest. clv.]

Could the beloved John, to whose kind and tender care our blessed Lord gave his mother of especial trust, have offered to her such a prayer as this? To G.o.d alone surely would he have prayed for deliverance from all evil and mischief. To G.o.d alone would he have prayed:--"In the hour of death, good Lord, deliver us, and all for Jesus Christ's sake, our only Saviour and Mediator."

To one other example of the practice of the Church of Rome I must refer.

The rubric in our Book of Common Prayer directs that "at the end of every Psalm throughout the year, shall be repeated, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen." In the Roman Breviary also we find this rubric: "This verse, _Gloria_, is always said in the end of all psalms, EXCEPT IT BE OTHERWISE {344} NOTED." [aest. 3.] Such notifications occur at the end of various psalms.

On the Feast of the a.s.sumption [aest. 595.], fourteen psalms are appointed to be used. At the close of every one of these psalms, without however any note that the Gloria is not to be said, there is appended an anthem to the Virgin. In some cases, so intimately is the anthem interwoven with the closing words of the psalm, as that under other circ.u.mstances it would induce us to infer that the Gloria was intended to be left out, especially as in the Parvum Officium of the Virgin [aest.

clv.], though to the various psalms anthems in the same manner have been annexed, yet the words "Gloria Patri et Filio" are inserted in each case between the psalm and the anthem. Be this as it may, the annexation of the anthem has a lamentable tendency to withdraw the thoughts of the worshippers from the truths contained in the inspired psalm, and to fix them upon Mary and her a.s.sumption; changing the Church's address from the Eternal Being, alone invoked by the Psalmist, to one, who though a virgin blessed among women, is a creature of G.o.d's hand. Thus, at the conclusion of the 8th psalm; "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the world," we find immediately annexed these two anthems, "The holy mother of G.o.d is exalted above the choirs of angels to the heavenly realms. The gates of paradise are opened to us by thee, [by thee, O Virgin [Quae gloriosa]] who glorious triumphest with the angels."

Thus again, an anthem is attached to the last verse of the 95th (in the Hebrew and English versions the 96th). "He shall judge the earth in equity, and the people with his truth. Rejoice, {345} O Virgin Mary; thou alone hast destroyed all heresies in the whole world. Deem me worthy to praise thee, hallowed Virgin: Give me strength against thy enemies." To the 96th (97th), the latter clause of that address is repeated, with the addition of the following: "After the birth thou didst remain a virgin inviolate. Mother of G.o.d, intercede for us."

An instance of the anthem being so intimately interwoven with the psalm, as to render the insertion of the "Gloria," between the two, to say the least, forced and unnatural, occurs at the close of the 86th (87th) psalm. The vulgate translation of the last verse, differing entirely from the English, is this: "As the habitation of all who rejoice is in thee." This sentence of the Psalmist is thus taken up in the Roman Ritual: "As the habitation of all us who rejoice is in THEE, Holy Mother of G.o.d."

The object proposed by the Church from of old in concluding each psalm by an ascription of glory to the eternal Trinity, was to lead the worshipper to apply the sentiments of the psalm to the work of our salvation accomplished by the three Persons of the G.o.dhead. The a.n.a.logous end of these anthems in the present service of the Church of Rome is to fix the thoughts of the worshipper upon Mary. This practice unhappily sanctions the excesses into which Bonaventura and others have run in their departures from the purity and integrity of primitive worship.

Cardinal du Perron informs us, that at the altar in the office of the ma.s.s, prayer is not made directly to any saint, but only obliquely, the address being always made to G.o.d. But if prayers are offered in other parts of the service directly to them, it is difficult to see what is gained by that announcement. Surely it is trifling {346} to make such immaterial distinctions. If as a priest I could address the following prayer to the Virgin in preparing for offering ma.s.s, why should I not offer a prayer to the same being during its celebration?

"O mother of pity and mercy, blessed Virgin Mary, I a miserable and unworthy sinner, flee to thee with my whole heart and affection, and I pray thy most sweet pity, that as thou didst stand by thy most sweet Son hanging upon the cross, so thou wouldest vouchsafe mercifully to stand by me a miserable priest, and by all priests who here and in all the holy Church offer Him this day, that, aided by thy grace, we may be enabled to offer a worthy and acceptable victim in the sight of the most high and undivided Trinity. Amen." [O Mater pietatis et misericordiae, beatissima Virgo Maria, ego miser et indignus peccator ad te confugio toto corde et affectu. Et precor dulcissimam pietatem tuam, ut sicut dulcissimo Filio tuo in cruce pendenti ast.i.tisti, ita et mihi misero sacerdoti et sacerdotibus omnibus hic et in tota sancta ecclesia ipsum hodie offerentibus, clementer a.s.sistere digneris, ut tua gratia adjuti dignam et acceptabilem hostiam in conspectu summae et individuae Trinitatis offerre valeamus. Amen.--Rom. Brev. Hus. Hiem. p. ccx.x.xiii.]

This is called, in the Roman Breviary, "A PRAYER to the blessed Virgin before the celebration of the ma.s.s," and is immediately followed by another prayer directed to be offered to any saint, male or female, whose feast is on that day celebrated. "O Holy N. behold I, a miserable sinner, DERIVING CONFIDENCE FROM THY MERITS, now offer the most holy sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, FOR THY HONOUR AND GLORY. I humbly and devotedly pray thee that thou wouldest deign to intercede for me to-day, that I may be enabled to offer so great a sacrifice {347} worthily and acceptably, and to praise Him eternally with thee and with all his elect, and that I may live with Him for ever." [O sancte N. ecce ego miser peccator de tuis mentis confisus, offero nunc sacratissimura sacramentum corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri Jesu Christ! PRO TUO HONORE ET GLORIA; precor te humiliter et devote ut pro me hodie intercedere digneris, ut tantum sacrificium digne et acceptabiliter offerre valeam, ut Eum tec.u.m et c.u.m omnibus electis ejus aeternaliter laudare et c.u.m eo semper regnare valeam.--Hiem.

ccx.x.xiii.]

Such, Christian brethren, is the result of our inquiries into the real practice of the Church of Rome with regard to the worship of the Virgin Mary at the present day, in every part of the world where allegiance to that Church is acknowledged. Can we wonder that individuals, high in honour with that Church, have carried out the same worship to far greater lengths? I have ever present to my mind the principle of fixing upon the Church of Rome herself that only which is to be found in her canons, acknowledged decrees, and formularies. And unhappily of that which directly contravenes the Gospel-rule and primitive practice, far more than enough is found in her authorized rituals to compel all who hold to the Gospel and the integrity of primitive times, to withdraw their a.s.sent and consent from her worship. But with this principle before us, surely common justice and common prudence require that we should see for ourselves the practical workings of the system. "By their fruits ye shall know them," is a principle no less sanctioned by the Gospel than suggested by common sense and experience And, indeed, the shocking lengths to which priests, bishops, cardinals, and canonized persons have gone in this particular of the worship of the Virgin, might well {348} cause every upright and enlightened Roman Catholic to look anxiously to the foundation; to determine honestly, though with tender caution and pious care, for himself, whether the corruption be not in the well-head, whether the stream do not flow impregnated with the poison from the very fountain itself; whether the prayers authorized and directed by the Church of Rome to be offered to the Virgin be not in themselves at variance with the first principles of the Gospel--Faith in one G.o.d, the giver of every good, and in one Mediator and Intercessor between G.o.d and men, the man Christ Jesus, whose blood cleanseth from all sin: in a word, to see whether all the aberrations of her children in this department of religious duty have not their prototype in the laws and ordinances, the rules and injunctions, the example and practice of their mother herself.

Indeed I am compelled here to say, that, however revolting to us as believers in Jesus, and as worshippers of the one true G.o.d, are those extravagant excesses into which the votaries of the Virgin Mary have run, I have found few of their most unequivocal ascriptions of divine worship to her, for a justification of which they cannot with reason appeal to the authorized ritual of the Church of Rome.

In leaving this point of our inquiry, I would suggest two considerations: 1st, If it was intended that the invocation of the Virgin should be exclusively confined to requests, praying her to pray and intercede by prayer for the pet.i.tioners, why should language be addressed to her which in its plain, obvious, grammatical, and common sense interpretation conveys the form of direct prayers to her for benefits believed to be at her disposal? And, 2ndly, If the Church had {349} intended that her members, when they suppliantly invoked the Virgin Mary, and had recourse to her aid, should have offered to her direct and immediate prayers that she would grant temporal and spiritual benefits, to be dispensed at her own will, and by her own authority and power, in that case, what words could the Church have put into the mouth of the pet.i.tioners which would more explicitly and unequivocally have conveyed that idea?

SECTION II.--WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN, CONTINUED.

I have no intention of dwelling at any length on the extraordinary excesses to which the adoration of the Virgin Mary has been carried in the Church of Rome, I do not mean by obscure and illiterate or fanatical individuals, but by her celebrated prelates, doctors, and saints. My researches have brought to my knowledge such a ma.s.s of error and corruption in the worship of Christians as I never before had any conception of; and rather than bring it all forward, and exhibit it to others, I would turn my own eyes from it altogether. Still many reasons render it absolutely necessary that we should not pa.s.s over the subject entirely in silence. Few in England, I believe, are aware of the real facts of the case; and it well becomes us to guard ourselves and others against such melancholy results as would appear to be inseparable from the invocation and worship of the Virgin. If indeed we could be justified in regarding such palpable instances of her worship in its most objectionable form as the {350} marks of former and less enlightened times, most gladly would I draw a veil over them, and hide them from our sight for ever. But when I find the solemn addresses of the present chief authorities in the Church, nay, the epistles of the present sovereign Pontiff himself, cherishing, countenancing, and encouraging the selfsame evil departures from primitive truth and worship, it becomes a matter not of choice, but of necessity, to give examples at least of the deplorable excesses into which the highest and most honoured in that communion have been betrayed. On the present Pope's encyclical letter [A.D. 1840] we have already observed; and in this place I propose to examine only one more of those many excesses meeting us on every side, which characterize the public worship of the Virgin. The instance to which I refer seems to take a sort of middle station between the authorized enjoined services of the Church of Rome, and the devotions of individuals and family worship. It partakes on the one hand far too much of a public character to be considered in the light of private religious exercises; and on the other it wants that authority which would rank it among the appointed services of the Church. The devotional parts of the services are found neither in the Missals nor the Breviaries, and the adoption and celebration of the service seems to be left to the option and care of individuals. But the service is performed in the Churches,--a Priest presides,--the Host is presented to the adorations of the people,--and a sermon is preached by an appointed minister. The service to which I am referring is performed every evening through the entire month of May, and is celebrated expressly in honour of the Virgin Mary. {351}

The month of May is dedicated to her, and is called Mary's month.

Temporary altars are raised to her honour, surrounded by flowers and adorned with garlands and drapery; her image usually standing before the altar. Societies are formed chiefly for the celebration of the Virgin's praises, and in some Churches the effect, both to the eye and to the ear, corresponds with the preparation. One thing only is wanting--the proper object of worship. I have now before me a book of hymns published professedly for the religious fraternities in Paris, and used in the Churches there. [Nouveau Recueil de Cantiques a l'usage des confreries des Paroisses de Paris. Paris, 1839.] Many of these hymns are addressed to the Virgin alone; some without any reference to the Son of G.o.d and Man, the only Saviour, and without any allusion to the G.o.d of Christians; indeed, an address to a heathen G.o.ddess more entirely dest.i.tute of Christianity can scarcely be conceived. I copy one hymn entire.

"Around the altars of Mary Let us, her children, press; To that mother so endeared Let us address the sweetest prayers.

Let a lively and holy mirth Animate us in this holy day: There exists no sadness For a heart full of her love.

Let us adorn this sanctuary with flowers; Let us deck her revered altar; Let us redouble our efforts to please her.

Be this month consecrated to her; Let the perfume of these crowns Form a delicious incense, {352} Which ascending even to her throne May carry to her both our hearts and our prayers.

Let the holy name of Mary Be for us a name of salvation!

Let our softened soul Ever pay to her a sweet tribute of love.

Let us join the choirs of angels The more to celebrate her beauty; And may our songs of praise Resound in eternity.

O holy Virgin! O our mother!

Watch over us from fhe height of heaven; And when from this sojourning of misery, We present our prayers to you; O sweet, O divine Mary!

Lend an ear to our sighs, And after this life Make us to taste of immortal pleasures."

[Autour des autels de Marie Nous ses enfants, empressons-nous; A cette Mere si cherie, Adressons les voeux les plus doux.

Qu'une vive et sainte allegresse Nous anime dans ce saint jour; Il n'existe point de tristesse Pour un coeur plein de son amour.

Ornons des fleurs ce sanctuaire, Parons son autel revere, Redoublons d'efforts pour lui plaire.

Que ce mois lui soi, consacre; Que le parfume de ces couronnes Forme un encens delicieux, Qui s'elevant jusqu'a son trone, Lui porte et nos coeurs et nos voeux.

Que le nom sacre de Marie Soit pour nous un nom de salut; Que toujours notre ame attendrie, D'amour lui paie un doux tribut.

Unissons-nous aux choeurs des anges, Pour mieux celebrer sa beaute.

Et puissent nos chants de louanges Retentir dans l'eternite.

O Vierge sainte! o notre Mere!

Veillez sur nous du haut des cieux; Et de ce sejour de misere, Quand nous vous presentons nos voeux, O douce, o divine Marie!

Pretez l'oreille a nos soupirs;-- Et faites qu'apres cette vie, Nous goutions d'immortels plaisirs.

--"Cantiques a l'usage des Confreries." Paris, 1839, p. 175.]

In the course of the present work I have already suggested the propriety of trying the real import, {353} the true intent, and meaning and force of an address to a Saint, by subst.i.tuting the holiest name ever uttered on earth, for the name of the Saint to whom such address is offered; and if the same words, without any change, form a prayer fit to be offered by us sinners to the Saviour of the world, then to ask ourselves, Can this be right? I would earnestly recommend the application of the same test here; and in many other of the prayers now offered (for many such there are now offered) by Roman Catholics to the Virgin. Suppose, instead of offering these songs of praise and prayer, and self-devotion to Mary in the month of May, we were to offer them, on the day of his nativity, to our blessed Lord, would they not form an act of faith in Him as our Saviour and our G.o.d?

"Around the altar of Jesus, Let us, his children, press; To that Saviour so endeared Let us address the sweetest prayers. {354} Let a lively and holy mirth Animate us in this holy day: There exists no sadness For a heart full of his love.

Let the holy name of Jesus Be for us a name of salvation!

Let our softened soul Ever pay to HIM a sweet tribute of love.

O holy Jesus! O our Saviour!

Watch over us from the height of heaven; And when from this sojourning of misery, We present our prayers to Thee; O sweet, O divine Redeemer, Lend an ear to our sighs; and after this life, Make Thou us to taste of immortal pleasures."

SECTION III.--BONAVENTURA.