dore the devil.--

but now a means had been found to adore the beloved, and yet remain
faithful to God. Once in a way it was remembered that the adored,
strictly speaking, was the Mother of God--if for no other reason, for
fear of the Inquisition which the Dominicans had founded and placed
under the special patronage of Mary--her bodyguard as it were, defending
her from the onslaught of minds all too worldly. Very rarely the adored
earthly woman was identified with the official Queen of Heaven--(this
may have been done occasionally by monks); sometimes as in the case of
Michelangelo and Guinicelli, the beloved was the sole goddess; other
poets, among whom we may include Dante and Goethe, conceived her as
enthroned by the side of Mary.

At this point I must interrupt my argument, and briefly sketch the
position occupied by Mary in the western world from the dawn of
Christianity.

_(b) The Queen of Heaven._

During the first two hundred years Mary did not occupy a prominent place
in the Christian communities; even in the fourth century she was still
regarded as a human woman and denied divinity by St. Chrysostom, who
reproached her with vainglory. But in proportion as Christ transcended
humanity, and was more dogmatically and formally interpreted by the
Church--more especially the Greek Church--the desire for a mediator
between the wrathful Deity and sinful humanity grew more pronounced, a
mediator who, although a human being, could be endowed after the manner
of the ancient demi-gods with super-human virtues. The Mother of the
Saviour gradually assumed this position. She had been an earthly woman,
born of earthly parents, and would be able to understand human needs and
wishes, and she had become the Mother of God. Would not her intercession
have weight with the Son of God? Simultaneously with the growing
recognition of asceticism, the doctrine of the immaculate conception
gained ground; in the course of time this moment was more and more
emphasised, and virginity was set up as an ideal.

St. Athanasius (fourth century) had written: "What God did to Mary is
the glory of all virgins; for they are attached as virginal saplings to
her who is the root." At the close of the fourth century a long and
bitter controversy arose over the question as to whether Mary had
remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus. St. Ambrose, St. Jerome and
St. Augustine were in favour of this new doctrine. St. Ambrose, the
founder of Wester