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MARY. 



should be called the Son of God, the long expected 

 Saviour of the Jews. " How shall this be," she 

 replied, " seeing I know not a man?" The angel 

 informed her that the power of God should over- 

 shadow her, and make that which was impossible a 

 reality, as had been the case with her aged friend 

 Elizabeth, who was barren. She bowed in submis- 

 sion to the will of the Supreme, " Behold the 

 handmaid of the Lord : be it unto me according to 

 thy word.'' The feelings excited by her high and 

 wonderful destiny raised her above doubt, and the 

 song of praise into which she bursts forth at her 

 meeting with Elizabeth expresses the joy which she 

 felt at her destination. The little we learn of her 

 feelings at the birth of Christ, the salutations of 

 the shepherds, and his presentation in the temple, 

 show that the emotions which were excited by the 

 annunciation still remained. She sees the connexion 

 between the vision of angels, which the shepherds 

 related, and what she already knew : she was not 

 astonished when she heard the prophetic blessing of 

 Simeon. At the wedding in Cana, she sought the 

 miraculous power of her Son to relieve the embar- 

 rassment occasioned by a want of wine. She doubt- 

 less attended him through all his perilous course, 

 with ever- watchful anxiety; for we find her absorbed 

 in silent sorrow at his cross, with the beloved disciple 

 John. To his care, Jesus intrusted her as to a son, 

 after which she disappears from history. 



Towards the end of the fourth century, parties 

 were formed among the Christians, which paid her 

 too little or too much veneration. Some Thracian and 

 Scythian women, having a very slight knowledge of 

 Christianity, carried into Arabia their pagan feelings 

 towards a mother of the gods, and established a 

 formal worship of the Virgin Mary. They worship- 

 ped her as a goddess with prayers, processions, and 

 sacrifices, and, among other ceremonies, offered her, 

 on a carriage consecrated to her service, small cakes 

 (Greek, koilyris), whence they were called Collyrid- 

 ians. Even orthodox theologians began to maintain 

 the opinion that Mary always remained a virgin as 

 a doctrine of faith ; and a party in Arabia, which 

 regarded her as the actual wife of Joseph and the 

 .mother of several children by him, was called An- 

 tidikomarianites, that is, the adversaries of Mary. 

 At the end of the fourth century, Helvidius in Pal- 

 estine, and bishop Bonosus in Illyria were declared 

 heretics for the avowal of similar opinions. Poetry 

 and the Catholic church readily adopted the image 

 of Mary for an ideal of female excellence. With the 

 worship of saints, the veneration of the Virgin Mary 

 is naturally connected. In the sixth century, the 

 Christian church began to celebrate festivals in her 

 honour, of which the Purification, the Annunciation, 

 and the Visitation (the visit of Mary to Elizabeth) 

 are still retained in many Protestant countries. The 

 Greek and Catholic Christians, and the schismatic 

 churches in the East, observe several feasts besides 

 the above in honour of the Virgin ; for instance, the 

 birth of Mary, and her ascension to heaven ; that is, 

 her death and reception to heaven (by the Catholics 

 called the Assumption). The festival of the imma- 

 culate conception is celebrated only by the Catholic 

 church. It was first introduced in 1145 : it was not 

 received, however, universally, on account of the 

 violent opposition of the Dominicans. These dis- 

 ciples of St Thomas Aquinas (q. v.) refused to admit 

 that Mary was conceived and born without original 

 sin. The council of Trent left this dispute undecided, 

 notwithstanding the violence with which it had often 

 been renewed. The worship of Mary gave rise to a 

 belief in the miraculous power of several old images 

 of the Virgin. Those at Loretto, in Italy, and 

 Caeustochow, in Poland, are particularly celebrated 



for their healing powers, both in diseases of mind 

 and body. To such images, the Catholics have been 

 accustomed to perform pilgrimages to obtain the 

 indulgence promised to pilgrims by the papal bulls. 

 Several religious orders have been instituted in 

 honour of the Virgin Mary, among which are the 

 mendicant order of Servites, and all the orders of 

 females called by her name ; for example, the nuns 

 of the Conception, of the Annunciation (see Francis- 

 cans), of the Visitation. For the Catholic worship 

 of the Virgin, so important in history, and for its 

 influence on the fine arts, see f'irgin, and Saints. 

 Sacred history mentions several Maries : 



1. Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus, the 

 ready scholar and tender worshipper of Jesus, to 

 whom he vouchsafed his peculiar friendship and an 

 imperishable name (Matthew xxvi. 13). 



2. Mary of Magdala, or Mary Magdalene, who 

 was cured by Christ of an inveterate disease, and 

 proved her gratitude by the most devoted adherence 

 to him. She served him with her property, attended 

 him on his journeys, and wept at his crucifixion. 

 She was the last to leave his grave, and the first to 

 visit it on the morning of the resurrection, and to 

 behold her risen Lord. See Magdalene. 



3. Mary, the wife of Cleophas, the mother of the 

 apostle James, and, 4. Mary, the sister of Mary the 

 mother of Jesus, both of whom we find at his cross 

 and his sepulchre, and who had probably been in his 

 train. 



MARY OF MEDICI, daughter of Francis II of 

 Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, was born at Flor- 

 ence, in 1573, and married to Henry IV., king of 

 France, in 1600. After his death, in 1610, she be- 

 came regent. The duke of Epernon had obliged the 

 parliament of Paris to confer on her the regency. 

 Mary, at the same time regent and guardian of her 

 minor son, Louis XIII., dismissed the great Sully, 

 and allowed herself to be guided by Italian and 

 Spanish favourites. The state lost its respect abroad, 

 and was torn by the dissensions of the great within. 

 A treaty, concluded in 1614, granted to the malcon- 

 tents everything which they had asked for ; but 

 party spirit rose anew, as Mary's conduct ca sed 

 universal dissatisfaction, she having given herself 

 totally up to the guidance of the marshal d'Ancre 

 and his wife, the two most shameless favourites 

 that ever stood near a throne. The death of this 

 marshal, murdered by order of Louis XIII., put an 

 end to the civil war. Mary was banished to Blois, 

 whence she proceeded to Angouleme. Richelieu, 

 then bishop of Lugon, reconciled the molher aiul 

 son, in 1619, but Mary, dissatisfied with the non- 

 fulfilment of the terms of the agreement, kindled a 

 new war, which, however, was soon subdued. After 

 the death of the connetable de Luynes, her enemy, 

 Mary stood at the head of the council of state. In 

 order to strengthen her authority, she introduced 

 Richelieu, her favourite, into the council ; but hardly 

 had the cardinal reached the summit of his greatness, 

 when he made his former protectress sensible that he 

 was no longer dependent upon her, and she immed- 

 iately laboured to effect his downfall. Louis XIII. 

 having fallen seriously sick at Lyons, she obliged 

 him to promise to abandon the cardinal. In order to 

 avoid the fulfilment of this promise, the king endea- 

 voured to reconcile the two parties after his recovery. 

 Mary was not to be moved, and the king was so much 

 displeased that he consented to sacrifice her. A 

 secret council of state was held, the chief mover of 

 which was the cardinal, who showed, in a long speech, 

 that either the queen or he himself must be sacrificed. 

 He then set forth the dangers which threatened the 

 state from without and within so forcibly, that the 

 king held himself lost without the support of his 



