The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

MARY THE SAVIOUR. 375mour, " I asked whether I was to understand him as implying,that as we regard Eve as the first sinner, so we are toregard Mary as the first Saviour,—the one as the author ofsin, and the other as the author of the remedy."" He replied that such was precisely the view he wishedto express ; and he added, that it was taught by St Alphonsode Liguori, and was a growing opinion."*But we can adduce still higher authority in proof of thecharge that Rome now knows no other God than Mary, andworships no other Saviour than the Virgin. In the EncyclicalLetter of Pius IX., issued on the 2d of February1849, soliciting the suffi-ages of the Roman Catholic Church,preparatory tothe decree of the pontiff on the doctrine ofthe immaculate conception, terms are applied to the VirginMary which plainly imply that she is possessed of divine fulnessand perfection, and that she discharges the office ofRedeemer to the Church. " The most illustrious prelates,the most venerable canonical chapters, and the religiouscongregations," says the Pope, " rival each other in solicitingthat permission should be granted to add and pronouncealoud and publicly, in the sacred Liturgy, and in the prefaceof the mass to the blessed Virgin Mary, the word im-'maculate ;' and to define it as a doctrine of the CatholicChurch, that the conception of the blessed Virgin Marywas entirely immaculate, and absolutely exempt from allstain of original sin." The document then rises into a strainof commingled blasphemy and idolatry, in which the perfectionsof God and the work of Christ are ascribed to theVirgin, who " is raised, by the greatness of her merits, above allthe choirs of angels, up to the throne of God ; xoho has crushedunder thefoot of her virtues the head of the old serpent. -fThefoundation of our confidence is in the Most Holy Virgin, since* Mornings among the Jesuits at Rome, pp. 43-45.+ The doctrine of the pontifical bull we find re-echoed in the sermonsand tracts of inferior priests. " It was sin that cost Mary all her sorrow ;not her own, but ours. For our disobedience she painfully obeyed." (TheGlory of Mary, by James Augustine Stothert, p. 130.)