NESTORIUS.

(Reflections produced by the defeat of )

The disputes between Nestorius and St Cyril, have only served to augment the honours of the

Holy Virgin by accident. These two prelates did not contend about any point of devotion: their quarrel had no relation to worship; and supposing that, at the time, the Holy Virgin had been invocated, Nestorius did not pretend to alter the custom, nor did St Cyril require it to be enlarged. The difference between them was about a speculative opinion: one apprehended the confounding the two natures of Jesus Christ; and the other feared the human nature of our Saviour would be looked upon as a person. We may however conclude, that the defeat of Nestorius, and the innovation introduced into Christianity, by establishing the worship to the Virgin three or four hundred years more or less, after the ascension of Jesus Christ, has been countenanced by the natural and mechanical disposition of mankind, since it has made a continual and prodigious progress, and still subsists at this very time in all the full vigour it ever obtained. There is no conceiving that if it had not met with very great dispositions in the human passions, it could have made such progress, destitute as it was of all support from scripture and authentic tradition. This has moved some curious wits to enquire what those natural modifications of the soul of man might be, which have favoured the innovations here spoken of; and this is the result of their enquiries.

In the affair of religion, there is nothing which better suits with the gross genius of the people, than representing Heaven to them as resembling the earth. This was the reason, that the fancies and caprices of the poets, concerning the marriage of the gods, their councils, their divisions and intrigues, passed so easily upon the Greeks, and afterwards upon the Romans, for articles of faith. It was impossible to raise man to the gods; and therefore the gods were to be brought down to man; and thus was formed the point of contact and center of union. Had it been

said, that God governed the world by simple acts of his will; and that he was alone in Heaven; this would not have satisfied the imagination of the people, who have no example of such a thing. But if you tell them, that a God assisted with several other divinities governs the world, that the court of Heaven is pompous and magnificent, that every one there has his post, and suffers not another to encroach upon his employ, they will easily believe you, because the mind of man is accustomed to the like ideas borrowed from what they daily see in the government of the states, and the courts of great kings. Such courts are not without females; we there find a queen-mother, and a reigning queen whose authority is sometimes equal to that of the king. Thus the people easily believed what was told them of Cybele and Juno; and because amongst men the power of a queen-dowager is generally less, than that of the reigning queen; hence the worship of Cybele, mother of the gods, was esteemed inferior to that of Juno, sister and wife of Jupiter. This wife of Jupiter had abundance of temples under different titles. It is no wonder, since she was considered as the queen of the world, and as a queen who interested herself in its government; and besides it is the custom to pay our respects to the ladies, with greater care and ceremony, than to men of equal quality.

By such prejudices as these the Christians have been easily persuaded, without any example, or command, or permission of scripture, without any authority of the tradition of the first ages, that the saints in heaven are continually employed as mediators betwixt God and man. We find in the courts of princes, and proportionally in those of governors, and intendants, that nothing is done without the recommendation of a favourite, either of a secretary of state, or a steward of the household, or a lady in

waiting, &c. We see innumerable instances of those miscarrying who neglect these intercessors, and venture to apply directly to the head, and it is of absolute necessity to make choice of some subaltern patrons. Nothing has contributed more than this to establish the custom of worshipping the saints: all the arguments of a protestant controversialist will hardly have the same weight with a huguenot, as these comparisons; and in general all those who are a little acquainted with the way of the world, will be affected with the parallel they hear made by their parish priest betwixt the mediation of saints, and the recommendation of a great prince's officers. Popular notions suit very well with a celestial court, where the angels, apostles, and martyrs, are perpetually employed in recommending terrestrial affairs to God, in soliciting the dispatch of a decree, and putting him in mind of this and that, as is usually practised in the courts of princes.

But whilst we only stock Heaven with saints and angels, masculine solicitors and mediators, we do not complete the popular ideas. These require a queen as well as a king: a court without women is something absurd, and shocks the natural taste with its irregularities. Consequently it was natural that the people should applaud the new invention of a mother of Jesus Christ, established in Heaven the queen of men and angels, and of all nature. This hypothesis filled up the chasm which was before apparent in the celestial court, and corrected all its irregularity. Hence it must follow, that the people’s devotion would immediately flame out for this almighty and most merciful queen. It is a general and reasonable prepossession, that women are more disposed to charitable actions than men. They are incomparably more officious towards the poor, the sick, and the captive; and if there be any favour to be begged, as the life of a deserter, they are the

persons who solicit, and take upon them to soften those in whose power it is to save him. A more certain success was therefore to be expected from the invocation of the holy Virgin, than from any other. We need not wonder that the honours paid to her, exceed those which the heathens paid to Juno: for the dignity of queen-mother and reigning queen did not centre in the person of Juno; and besides, she was looked upon as proud, morose, and revengeful: whereas the holy Virgin was at once queen-mother and queen-consort, free from all faults, and abounding with unspeakable goodness. It is very well known, that courtiers grow cold and become discouraged when a queen has too much pride, and is too prone to punish. This is the reason that Juno could not have so many adorers, as she would have had, upon the persuasion of her being a goddess, purely beneficent. My reader already imagines with what zeal the people contributed to build chapels and altars to the holy Virgin, and to offer her jewels and ornaments of all sorts; for according to the vulgar notions, these are things that please women, and this is the way that leads to their favour. Let us now take a view of a new device, which these liberalities and offerings have given rise to.

The monks and parish-priests perceiving that the devotion to the holy Virgin brought in a great revenue to their cloisters and churches; and that it increased in proportion as the people were more strongly persuaded of the authority and goodness of this queen of the world, laboured with all their industry to enlarge the notion of her power and inclination to do good. The preachers made use of all the hyperboles and figures that Rhetoric could furnish. The legendaries made a collection of all sorts of miracles: the poets engaged in the design; and annual prizes were established, for those who made the finest poems in praise of the mother of God.

What was at first an oratorical sally, or a poetical rapture, became afterwards an aphorism of devotion. The divinity professors laid hold on these subjects, and were not the least concerned in corrupting them. It became a custom in all desperate diseases, and all other dangers which seemed inevitable, of making vows to our lady of such or such a place, as also when they desired children, or any other blessing. It happens every where, both amongst Infidels and Christians, that some patients, given over by their physicians, recover from their distempers against all probability, and others by unforeseen incidents avoid misfortunes which were thought to be unavoidable. We see in all countries of the world, that women, who have been barren many years, at last conceive. The vows I am speaking of are a wonderful artifice; for if they effect not a deliverance, there are a thousand evasions; as that they were not made with a faith sufficiently fervent, &c. There is no register kept of the ill successes, and people are not allowed to attend to them. If the sick person recovers, if barren women happen to be with child, &c. this is attributed to the vow: the list of miracles is enlarged with it in the new edition; offerings are multiplied, and devotion spreads farther and farther. We have lately learned from the gazettes, that the king of Spain, who was at the very point of death, towards the end of September 1700, escaped this danger; and because, amongst other objects of devotion, there was brought to him an image of our lady of Beelen, which has but very lately been in vogue, his recovery was ascribed to the efficacy of this image. If he had not relapsed some weeks after, and died the first of November following, this Notre-Dame had acquired a reputation that would have eclipsed the rest; for the preachers would have set off the miracle with all the circumstances which the conjuncture of public affairs might have furnished in abundance. These gentlemen have been the great promoters of this worship: it was they, I suppose, who first advanced, that Jesus Christ had reserved judgment to himself, and had left to his mother the whole distribution of graces; a sure method to bring over to the Virgin all the acts of the most tender devotion. This maxim is no longer a mere flight of a Rhetorician, grown warm in his pulpit; it is got into the books which are put into the hands of the votaries. Is anything more likely to strengthen the worship of the holy Virgin, than to affirm that God gives her an infinite number of signed blanks, that she may distribute as she pleases the things that appertain to God? The world therefore is indebted to her for salvation and all other good things, and not to God; since it is she who chooses the persons, and puts them down with what gratification she thinks fit, in the void space of the grant. The Heathens did not deal thus with Jupiter: they said that in regard to punishment he acted by the advice of the other gods; but that he consulted none of them in the case of benefits and rewards. This is a conduct which wise men have recommended to monarchs; and we see that worldly kings are the immediate authors of a pardon, but they appoint judges for the condemnation of criminals.

When we call to mind that the devotion to the Virgin is a fruitful source of gain to the churches and convents, we shall easily discover the reason that has occasioned a division so different from this, betwixt Jesus Christ and his holy mother, with respect to warrants of justice, and patents of grace. Nothing is more proper than this to make the holy Virgin the principal and almost the sole object of prayers, and vows, and pilgrimages, and even of love, and of gratitude, and of all the internal acts of piety. Let us once more consider the court of princes, the grand model of most religions. There are some princes who suffer

themselves to be so engrossed by a favourite, that they bestow no place, except upon his recommendation. Present a petition to them yourself; particularise all your services; humbly beg but as a just recompense the government of a town, and they will refuse it you. Let but the favourite speak for you the next day, and they will grant it to you immediately. When things are reduced to this state in a court, much more pains are taken to gain the good graces of the favourite than those of the monarch; and there is a good deal of reason for this conduct; prudence enjoins it. Nay, I will go farther yet, and maintain that both reason and justice require that such as have obtained the government of a town by the method I have been mentioning, should think themselves obliged for it not to the prince their master, but to his favourite, and should reserve all their gratitude and friendship for the favourite as the true cause of their promotion. The prince is only a remote and indirect cause, an accidental, indefinite, and general cause. He is the fountain of authority, but it is another who determines it, and applies it to the benefit and advantage of such and such persons. By this parallel you see that, according to the hypothesis of those doctors who say that no favours are bestowed upon earth, but at the nomination and recommendation of the holy Virgin, it is to her, and not to God, that each private man owes his good fortune, and that it is for her, and not for God, he ought to have a suitable degree of love and gratitude. He could obtain nothing of God if the Virgin did not interest herself in it; consequently it is she who ought to be the object of his devotion: this is founded on good sense, and the reasons of it are demonstrative.

Is it to be wondered at, after this, that the acts of religion have taken in the Romish church that turn which we find they have? Is not this a true discovery of their foundation? However it be, the worship of

the holy Virgin is grown to such a prodigious height, and maintains itself to so great a degree, that the Jansenists, who would be offering their, opinion upon this subject, have gained nothing by it: and for one man who conforms to their limitations, there are two thousand, literally speaking, who follow father Crasset. Consider, I pray, the obstacles met with in the Sorbonne, when the book of a Spanish nun was censured there. See the article Agreda. ¹⁰⁰ The most proper means to put a stop to the mischief, would be to lay an interdict on panegyrics, and to oblige the votaries who desire to testify their gratitude by their liberalities, to send them not to the Virgin's chapels, but to the Hospitals. A preacher is not ignorant that his auditors have been often present at the panegyrics of our Lady, and have read the finest sermons that have been published upon that subject. If therefore he would be heard and admired, he must take a new flight, and soar higher than all those who went before him; and this is a great cause of errors. The principal thing would be to forbid, under pain of simony, all those who serve privileged altars, and who preside over the worship, to receive so much as the value of a penny from any votary. This would be the way to dry up the sources of the legendaries and preachers, and of pretended miracles; but is not this an impracticable method? “Hoc opus, hic labor est.”—Art. Nestorius.