Chapter 8 : The Seventh Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD
She is the Protectress of the Church
Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020) |
§ 4. The third Image represents the wondrous power and strength of the MOTHER OF GOD : the third quality she shows as Protectress
1 I am taking the third image from the second book of Kings[1], the second book of Esdras[2] and the fourth chapter in the Canticle of Canticles[3]. There we learn that David, having reigned for six years in Hebron, defeated the Jebusites and took their fortress of Jerusalem located on Mount Sion. After the conquest, he determined to make this the capital and at the same time the central point of his kingdom, with reference to the seven nations[4] that the people of God had conquered in order to take possession of the promised land. With these thoughts in mind and judging that the site was of prime importance, he called together the most skilful architects he could find and together with them he produced a plan for a fortified city that would be renowned throughout the world. He and the architects decided to fill in a deep valley between two hills in order to produce a solid foundation forming a platform large enough to meet the needs of the project. One end would provide a site for the Temple and the other for the construction of his Palace. This fortress and Royal Residence was to be called henceforth the City of David and was one of the foremost fortified cities in the world, not only from the natural qualities of the site but also because of the skill of the master builders employed.
Footnotes
[1] II Kings (II Samuel): v. 1-9.
[2] II Esdras (Nehemiah) ; iii.
[3] See, e.g., Thy neck, is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks: a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armour of valiant men. Cant. iv. 4.
[4] Deut. vii. 1; Acts xiii. 19.
2 Amongst all these wonders, not only of nature but of human skill, the Sacred Scriptures give particular prominence to a tower so high and so impressively surrounded by bulwarks[1], where everything was designed and constructed with such proportion, such care and with such beauty, that for these reasons it merited the name before all others of the Tower of David. Now, if this Prince took such great care to perfect what is on the outside, do you think he would be any less attentive about the interior ? On the contrary, amongst other unusual features he made a chamber to showcase all the rare and beautiful works of art and nature that he could find; he established a library and filled it with the most excellent works by the best minds that could be found; he built an arsenal and, as he was not only a warrior Prince but also had an inquiring mind, he stocked it with all manner of items, where utility and effectiveness vied with excellence of quality and craftsmanship for pride of place. As we read in the eighth chapter of the second Book of Kings[2], he took to Jerusalem the arms of gold that he had seized from the men of Adarezer. I leave you to imagine how he would have been enriched by the spoils seized after the score of remarkable victories that he won. This is what we learn, for example, from the sacred text in the book of Canticles[3], where it is written that a thousand bucklers hang upon the Royal Tower (meaning an almost limitless number) with all the armour of the valiant men, lords and Princes whom David had overcome.
Footnotes
[1] bulwarks : (or ramparts) this is the Douay-Rheims translation of the Vulgate’s propugnaculis in Cant iv. 4. Fr Poiré uses the word boulevards which might be translated as battlements; the Fillion Bible (1888-1895) uses the word créneaux which refers to the crenels or embrasures in a parapet.
[2] I Kings (II Samuel) ; viii. 7.
[3] Cant. iv. 4.
3 I cannot forget an insightful comment made by Rabbis Solomon and Ibn Ezra who, with reference to the text[1] we have cited about David’s tower built with bulwarks, interpreted this as meaning that he made it a Tower of Learning. Some think that this is because it was very high and could be seen from afar, serving as a landmark for travellers in the same way as those tall towers that were built on the coast which were called lighthouses by the ancients. It may be, as we read in the learned Philo’s book On the Embassy to Gaius, that David maintained in the Tower a collection of all the best books and masterpieces of art and science that he could lay hands on. Finally, as others prefer to believe, this tower was in itself such a supreme masterpiece that the finest craftsmen in the world came to study it and the longer they spent in their study, the more they found to learn.
Footnotes
[1] Thy neck, is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks: a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armour of valiant men. Cant. iv. 4.
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
© Peter Bloor 2025
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