Download History: Two concepts about Mary served to clarify her relationship

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ANGELUS - ANGLICANISM
History: Two concepts about Mary served to
clarify her relationship with the angels, the
queenship (qv) and the primacy (qv). An eight
century liturgical antiphon for the feast of the
Assumption says: "The holy Virgin Mary is
exalted above the choirs of angels to the heavenly
kingdom."8 The eleventh century will bring the
hymns, Regina Caeli, A ve Regina Cae/orum,
and Ave Domina angelorum; similar titles occur
in local or particular liturgies of that time. At
the beginning of the eleventh century too, St.
Fulbert of Chartres (qv) used the title Queen
of Angels as did St. Anselm (qv) about the same
time. It will frequently recur thereafter.
The Palamite theologians took Mary's
primacy in creation, after that of Christ, as
fundamental. For Gregory Palamas (qv), since
Mary is Mother of the Creator, supreme therefore over all creatures, all graces are, without
her, inaccessible to angels and men; through
her, men are associates of angels. Nicholas
Cabasilas (qv) thinks that Mary is Mediatress
between God and angels. Theophanes of Nicae
(qv) is more explicit: Mary is the Mediatress
of divinization to angels and men. He follows
Pseudo-Dionysius' view that inferior orders
are illuminated by the higher and asserts that
Mary surpasses all the orders of angels; she is
angel, archangel, power, cherubim and
seraphim. 9
Bernardine of Siena (qv) saw Mary as the
channel of grace from the soul of Christ to
angels; he saw her as their spiritual mother,
Christ's partner at the centre of the one, the
unitary Civitas Dei. He would be followed by
the whole Franciscan school of the seventeeth
century.tv St. Lawrence of Brindisi (qv) sees
Mary as exalted above all the angels by Christ;
he is the foundation of the whole created
universe.
Teaching Authority: The modern Popes freely
use phrases like "exalted above all the choirs
of angels," "Queen and sovereign of angels. " Pius
XII referred to Mary six times as Queen of
angels. Vatican II is discreet about the angels.
They will accompany the Lord when he comes
in his majesty (Lumen Gentium, 49). The
Church has venerated the martyrs with "special
devotion, together with the Blessed Virgin
Mary and the holy angels." (Lumen Genium,
50). Mary's excellence over them is stated: "She
far surpasses all other creatures, both in heaven
and on earth"; "She was exalted by the Lord
as Queen of the universe"; "As the most holy
Mother of God she was exalted by divine grace
above all angels and men." (Lumen Gentium,
53, 59, 66)
IOn Angels, cf. E. Peterson, Le livre des anges, (Paris,
1953); J. Cardinal Danidlou, Les anges et leur mission,
(Chevetogne, 1951); J. Duhr, in DSp, I, 580-625; r. Danielou,
La Theologie du Judeo-Christianisme, (Paris, 1958), Ch. IV,
V; A. de Villamonte, "Maria y los Angeles," in ME, VI,
401-438. 2G. Vermes, Discovery in the Judean Desert,
(New York, 1956), 214; also his Jesus the Jew, (London,
Fontana Books, 1976), 61ff. On Qumran angelology, cf.
J. Fitzmyer, S.l. in Paul and Qumran, ed. J. MurphyO'Connor, D.P., (London, 1968), 31-47. 3"De Transitu
Mariae Apocrypha Aethiopice," ed. V. Arras, I, CSCO 343,
67, p.26. 4CSCO 343, 89, pp.34-35. sW. Wright, Contributions to the apocryphal Literature of the NT, (London,
1865), 49-50. 6CSCO 343, 38. 7 Testament of Mary,
ed. C. Donahue, (New York, 1942), 55. 8Apud G. Frenaud, O.S.B., in ME, V, 74. "Serm. in Sanctiss. Deiparam, ed. M. Jugie, (Rome, 1955), 80ff. lOW. Sebastian,
O.F.M., De B. V. Maria universali gratiarum mediatrice
ab 1600 at 1700, (Rome, 1952).
ANGELUS, THE - See Supplement; p. 379.
ANGLICANISM (16th Century)
The collapse of Marian devotion in England
was due to many causes.' England did not
escape the decline which was widespread in
Europe at the time, a decline due to weak
theology from which came reliance on unwarranted legends, the Apocrypha, and similar
things. In places, piety degenerated into superstition. St. Thomas More gives examples of the
strange deviations which could be found at the
time: a religious, hiring assassins, used to get
them to recite the Hail Mary first in his private
chapel; a Franciscan preached that anyone who
daily recited the Rosary could not lose his soul.
In the sixteenth century, however, official
attitudes and policies in regard to Marian
doctrine and piety did not change at once. The
formularies of faith drawn up during Henry
VIII's reign were, in the context, unobjectionable. The initial confession of faith, The
Ten Articles (1536), enjoined respect for the
authority of the Fathers and of the "four holy
Councils," which, of course, included Ephesus.
More important still was the approval of images
as "kindlers and stirrers of mens' minds," helping
them to lament their sins and offences. This, it
was stated, applied especially to images of Christ
and Our Lady. But there was a warning about
"censing,kneeling or offering unto them."
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