MARY 



MARY I. 



73 



Fathers, especially tlieir commentaries or deduc- 

 tions from the scriptural narrative, some from the 

 apocryphal writings of the first centuries, and 

 snme from medieval or modern legendaries. The 

 genealogy of our Lord in St Matthew is traced 

 through Joseph (q.v. ); and, as it is plainly assumed 

 that Mary was of the same family with her husband 

 Joseph, the evidence of the descent of the latter 

 from David is equivalently an evidence of the 

 origin of Mary from the same rnval house. But 

 the genealogy of Christ as traced in St Luke is 

 commonly held to be the proper genealogy of his 

 mother in the flesh, Mary. '1 he incidents in lier 

 personal history recorded in Scripture are few in 

 number, and almost entirely refer to her relations 

 with our Lord. They will be found in Matt, i., 

 ii., xii. ; Luke i., ii. ; John ii., xi\. ; and Acts, i., 

 where the last notice of her is of her ' |>ersevering 

 in prayer ' with the disciples and the holy women 

 at Jerusalem after our Lord's ascension (Acts, i. 14). 

 The apocryphal gospels entitled ' The Gospel of the 

 Nativity of Mary,' and the ' Protevangelion of the 

 Birth of Christ,' contain some additional, but, of 

 course, unauthentic particulars as to the lineage, 

 birth, and early years of Mary, among which is 

 the miraculous story of her lietrothal with Joseph, 

 immortalised by the pencil of Raphael. As to her 

 history after the ascension of her Son the traditions 

 differ widely. A letter ascribed to the Council of 

 Epliesiis speaks <>f her as having lived with John at 

 that city, where she died, and was buried. Another 

 epistle, nearly contemporaneous, tells that she died 

 and was buried at Jerusalem at the foot of the 

 Mount of < Hives. Connected with this tradition is 

 the incident which has so often formed a subject of 

 sacred art, of the apostles coining to her tomb on 

 the third day after her interment, and finding the 

 tonilp empty, but exhaling an 'exceeding sweet 

 fragrance.' On this tradition is founded the liclief 

 of her having been assumed into heaven, which is 

 celebrated in the festival of the Assumption (q.v.). 

 The date of her death is commonly lixed at the 

 ye.ir of our Lord 63, or, according to another 

 account, the year 48. Another tradition makes 

 her survive the crucifixion only 11 years. 



Of theological questions regard ing the B.V.M. 

 (Betita Virgo Mtti-ia), one is treated at IMMACU- 

 LATE CONCEPTION. The perpetual virginity of 

 Mary is not explicitly attested in Scripture, and 

 there are even certain ambiguous phrases which 

 at lirst sight seem to imply that children were 

 born of her after the birth of Jesus, as that of 

 his lieing called (Matt. i. 2o; Luke, ii. 7) her 

 '_/iV>/-l>ni son,' and that of James and others 

 being more than once called 'brothers of the Lord ;' 

 for which see JosKi'if. The perpetual virginity of 

 Marv is held as a firm article of belief in the Human 

 and Eastern churches. 



MARIOLATRV ((jr. Maria, and latreia, 'adora- 

 tion ') is the name given by polemical writers to 

 the worship paid by Uoman Catholics to the Virgin 

 Mary. This name is intended to imply that the 

 Catholic worship of the Virgin is the supreme 

 worship of lull-fin or adoration, which Catholics 

 earnestly disclaim, although, from her relation to 

 our Lord, they hold her worship, which they style 

 /ii/jierdulia, to l>e higher than that of all other 

 saints. Many examples of prayers addressed to 

 Mary (such as the ' Litany of the Sacred Heart of 

 Mary '), of acto of worship done in her honour, anil 

 of expressions employed regarding her, are alleged 

 hy controversialists, for the purpose of showing 

 that the worship of Mary in the Roman Church is 

 in ell'ect 'adoration.' To these and similar allega- 

 tions Roman Catholics reply that many of the 

 objected prayers and devotional practices are 

 entirely unauthorised by the church, and that 

 ome of them are undoubtedly liable to misinter- 



pretation ; but they further insist that all such 

 prayers, however worded, are to be understood, 

 and are, in fact, understood by all Roman Catholics, 

 even ordinarily acquainted with the principles of 

 their faith, solely as petitions for the intercession 

 of Mary, and as expressions of reliance, not on her 

 own power, but on the efficacy of her prayers to her 

 Son. 



Although no trace is found in the New Testa- 

 ment of any actual worship of the Virgin Mary, 

 yet Roman Catholic interpreters regard the lan- 

 guage of the angel Gabriel, who saluted her as 

 'full of grace,' or 'highly favoured,' and as 'blessed 

 amongr women,' and her own prediction in the 

 canticle of the Magnificat, that 'all nations should 

 call her blessed" (Luke, i. 48), as a foreshadowing 

 of the practice of tlieir church ; and they rely 

 equally on the language employed by the early 

 Fathers, as, for instance, Irena-ns, regarding the 

 Virgin, although Protestants consider it as having 

 reference to the Incarnation. But it seems quite 

 certain that dining the first ages the invocation of 

 the Virgin and the other saints must have held a 

 subordinate place in Christian worship ; the reason 

 for which, according; to Roman Catholics, was 

 probably the fear which was entertained of reintro- 

 ducing among the recent converts from paganism 

 the polytheistic notions of their former creed. 

 But from the time of the triumph of Christianity 

 in the 4th century, the traces of it become more 

 apparent. St Gregory Nazianzen, in his panegyric 

 of the virgin martyr Justina, tells that in her hour 

 of peril she 'implored Mary the Virgin to come to 

 the aid of a virgin in her danger.' But it was only 

 after the heresy of Nestorins that the worship of 

 Mary seems toliave obtained its full development. 

 His denial to her of the character of mother of God, 

 and the solemn affirmation of that character by the 

 ecumenical council of Kphesus (430 A.D.), had the 

 efl'ect at once of quickening the devotion of the 

 people and of drawing forth a more marked mani- 

 festation on the part of the church of the belief 

 which had been called into question. The 5th and 

 6th centuries, both in the East and in the West, 

 exhibit clear evidence of the practice ; and the 

 writers of each succeeding age till the Reformation 

 speak with gradually increasing enthusiasm of the 

 privileges of the Virgin Mary, and of the efficacy 

 of her functions as a mediator with her Son. St 

 Bernard, and, still more, St Bonaventura, carried 

 this devotional enthusiasm to its greatest height. 

 The institution of the ' Rosary of the Virgin Mary,' 

 the appointment of a special oflice in her honour, 

 and, more than all, the fame of many of the 

 sanctuaries which were held to be especially sacred 

 to her worship gave a prominence to the devotion 

 which Protestants find it difficult to reconcile with 

 the honour which they hold due to God alone. 

 The chief festivals of the Virgin, common to the 

 Western and Eastern churches, are the Concep- 

 tion, the Nativity, the Purification, the Annuncia- 

 tion, the Visitation, and the Assumption. The 

 Roman Church has several other special festivals, 

 with appropriate offices all, however, of minor 

 solemnity. For accounts of representations of 

 Mary in Art, see MADONNA, PiETA. 



Mary I., queen of England, daughter of Henry 

 VI II. by his first wife, Catharine of Aragon, was 

 born at Greenwich on 18th February 1516. She 

 was in her youth a great favourite with her 

 father, and at the age of seven was betrothed to the 

 Emperor Charles V. In her tenth year she was 

 sent with certain commissioners and a species of 

 viceregal court to the marches of Wales to carry 

 out measures for the better government of the 

 country. She was well educated, a good linguist, 

 and fond of music. She was virtuous and pious, 

 devoted to her mother, and devoted to her church. 



