Virgin would perhaps have remained prostrate at the foot of the Cross.  Dragged by a Byzantine Court, backed by popular insistence and impelled by overpowering self-interest, the Church accepted the Virgin throned and crowned, seated by Christ, the Judge throned and crowned; but even this did not wholly satisfy the French of the thirteenth century who seemed bent on absorbing Christ in His Mother, and making the Mother the Church, and Christ the Symbol.

The Church had crowned and enthroned her almost from the beginning, and could not have dethroned her if it would.  In all Christian art—­ sculpture or mosaic, painting or poetry—­the Virgin’s rank was expressly asserted.  Saint Bernard, like John Comnenus, and probably at the same time (1120-40), chanted hymns to the Virgin as Queen:—­

O salutaris Virgo Stella Maris
 Generans prolem, Aequitatis solem,
 Lucis auctorem, Retinens pudorem,
      Suscipe laudem!

Celi Regina Per quam medicina
 Datur aegretis, Gratia devotis,
 Gaudium moestis, Mundo lux coelestis,
      Spesque salutis;

Aula regalis, Virgo specialis,
 Posce medelam Nobis et tutelam,
 Suscipe vota, Precibusque cuncta
     Pelle molesta!

O Saviour Virgin, Star of Sea,
 Who bore for child the Son of Justice,
 The source of Light, Virgin always
     Hear our praise!

Queen of Heaven who have given
 Medicine to the sick, Grace to the devout,
 Joy to the sad, Heaven’s light to the world
     And hope of salvation;

Court royal, Virgin typical,
 Grant us cure and guard,
 Accept our vows, and by prayers
     Drive all griefs away!

As the lyrical poet of the twelfth century, Adam de Saint-Victor seems to have held rank higher if possible than that of Saint Bernard, and his hymns on the Virgin are certainly quite as emphatic an assertion of her majesty:—­

Imperatrix supernorum! 
 Superatrix infernorum! 
 Eligenda via coeli,
 Retinenda spe fideli,
 Separatos a te longe
 Revocatos ad te junge
    Tuorum collegio!

Empress of the highest,
 Mistress over the lowest,
 Chosen path of Heaven,
 Held fast by faithful hope,
 Those separated from you far,
 Recalled to you, unite
     In your fold!

To delight in the childish jingle of the mediaeval Latin is a sign of a futile mind, no doubt, and I beg pardon of you and of the Church for wasting your precious summer day on poetry which was regarded as mystical in its age and which now sounds like a nursery rhyme; but a verse or two of Adam’s hymn on the Assumption of the Virgin completes the record of her rank, and goes to complete also the documentary proof of her majesty at Chartres:—­

Salve, Mater Salvatoris! 
 Vas electum!  Vas honoris! 
     Vas coelestis Gratiae! 
 Ab aeterno Vas provisum! 
 Vas insigne!  Vas excisum
     Manu sapientiae!