“This is the faith concerning Mary the Virgin, which except every one believe faithfully and firmly he cannot be saved.” [Haec est fides de Maria Virgine:  quam nisi quisque fideliter firmiterque crediderit, salvus esse non poterit.]

In the Litany addressed to her, these sentences are found.

“Holy Mary, whom all things praise and venerate, pray for us,—­be propitious,—­spare us, O Lady.

“From all evil deliver us, O Lady.

“In the devastating hour of death, deliver us, O Lady.

“From the horrible torments of hell, deliver us, O Lady.

“We sinners do beseech thee to hear us.

“That thou wouldest vouchsafe to give eternal rest {364} to all the faithful departed, we beseech thee to hear us. &c. &c.”

[Sancta Maria, quam omnia laudant Et venerantur, ora pro nobis.  Propitia esto.  Parce nobis, Domina.  Ab omni malo libera nos, Domina.  In hora mortis devastante libera nos, Domina.  Ab inferni horribili cruciamine libera nos, Domina.  Peccatores te rogamus, audi nos.  Ut cunctis fidelibus defunctis requiem AEternam donare digneris, te rogamus, audi nos.]

I will add to this catalogue of prayers and praises to the Virgin, only the translation of one prayer more from the same canonized Saint; it contains a passage often referred to, but the existence of which has been denied.  It stands, however, in his works, vol. vi. page 466.

“Therefore, O Empress, and our most benign Lady, by THY RIGHT OF MOTHER COMMAND thy most beloved Son [JURE MATRIS IMPERA tuo dilectissimo Filio], our Lord, Jesus Christ, that He vouchsafe to raise our minds from the love of earthly things to heavenly desires, who liveth and reigneth.”

* * * * *

Now let any man of common understanding and straightforward principles say, whether any, the most ingenious refinement can interpret all this to mean merely that Bonaventura invoked the Virgin Mary to pray for him, or for his fellow-creatures.  It looks as though he were resolved on set purpose to exalt her to an equality with the Almighty, when we find him not once, not casually, not in the fervent rapture of momentary excitement, but deliberately, through one hundred and fifty Psalms, applying to Mary the very words dictated by the Holy Spirit to the Psalmist, and consecrated {365} to the worship of the one supreme God; and then selecting the most solemn expressions by which the Christian Church approaches the Lord of heaven and earth, our Father, our Saviour, our Sanctifier:  employing too the very words of her most solemn form of belief in the ever-blessed Trinity, and substituting Mary’s name for the God of Christians.  On the words, “By thy right of mother command thy Son,” beyond the assertion of the fact that there they are to this day, I wish to add nothing, because the very denial of their existence often repeated shows, that many Roman Catholics themselves regard them as objectionable.