CATHOLIC SEALS. 
Of the Homage paid to the VIRGIN MARY. 
O N every Seal belonging to the Cathedrals, Canonries, and Monafteries, elta- 
blifhed in North Britain, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries ; 
that asra, when the Catholic Inftitutions prevailed, in full influence and fplendor ; 
on all the feals, as well as on the other moft facred monuments of the Church, the 
Holy Virgin is the moft diftinguiflied Perfonage; to her the Pontiffs kneel, 
the Saints bend to invoke her name, and adoring Angels guard her throne. She 
is feated on the moft fplendid tabernacles, crowned with various diadems, compofed 
of the moft hallowed fymbols ; amidft wreaths of ftars and facred rays, expreffive 
of univerfal dominion, benevolence, and power. 
Some exceedingly interefting fpeculations of divine Truth mull have given rife 
to fo extraordinary an application of the Evangelical records. It may not, there- 
fore, be unworthy of the difcerning eye of philolbphic enquiry, to examine, by 
careful and deep refearch into antiquity, from whence this fo furpriflng veneration 
fprung. 
This fubjeft deferves our attention the more, as the homage in queftion was 
not only the well cultivated fruit of popular enthufiafm, but a devotion that arofe 
from tenets of the Church, examined and authorized by men of enlightened un- 
derftandings, and eftablifhed with all the wifdom and knowledge, which the facred 
Hierarchy could beftow on a fubjeft of fuch divine importance. Their deep and 
foaring fpeculations in the fifth century gave rife to the fo celebrated Nestorian 
Controverfy, on the event of which the fates of a great part of the Chriftian world, 
in the moft interefting and momentous point of view, for a long time depended. 
On the ifl’ue of that controverfy, Nestorius, though highly eminent for the fub- 
limity of his piety and do&rine, and long diftinguifhed as a faithful and ftudious 
pallor of the Church, fuffered the moft humiliating difgrace and banifhment, be- 
caufe he would not in his liturgies admit of the Virgin Mary’s being ftiled the 
‘‘Mother or God.” While St. Cyril, equally at leaft, diftinguiflied for the 
extent and brightnefs of his underftanding, as for the finccrity and purity of his 
faith, owed in a great mealure, the lading honour of his canonization — to that 
zeal wherewith he had defended the indifpenfible importance of the homage due to 
the Holy Virgin. This aifo fixed him in the patriarchal throne of Egypt, where 
he rivalled the fplendor of wearing an imperial diadem. And that defence of 
the Divinity of the Virgin Mary was made by him, and by his followers, 
with all the light and aid which they could derive from the moft daring refearches' 
of philofophic knowledge and difeernment, applied to the Divine Adminiftrations 
and Government of the Univerfe. * 
But it is not our purpofe in the following illuftration, to enter on the argu- 
ments wherewith the above doQrine was fupported, or whereby it was oppofed ; 
but to examine what influence the more hallowed fymbols of the Egyptian Fanes, 
and the sacred Mysteries of the Gentile world had, in blending it with the prin- 
ciples of the Evangelical Faith. “ To unveil the hidden wifdom of the Holy Ora- 
“ cles, imparted by the primaeval hieroglyphics, and to unravel the facred nature 
" of the communications given in the Myfteries of the San&uary ; thefe are the 
* See Boyle’s Diet, — Art. Neftorias. 
t wo 
IQS' 
