Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 9 : § 5.4-5

Chapter 9 The Eighth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD

She commands the Church’s armies

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

§ 5. The third Legion of the enemies of God and the Holy Virgin : Heretics

 4   The first cohort comprises those determined to target and denigrate her life and through their calumnies to undermine the exceptional esteem that the Church has always had for her incomparable holiness. At their head is the Emperor Julian, whose wicked nature and scheming mind cherished a secret hatred of the name Christian. He was able to disguise this so effectively earlier in his life that he made everyone think he had a religious and virtuous spirit; but when he felt the time was ripe, he took off this mask and attacked the Christians so ferociously as to cede nothing to previous persecutions such as those of Nero and Diocletian. From the very beginning, he had such a hatred for the Redeemer of the world and His Holy Mother that he wrote a book savagely attacking them, heaping insults upon them and every evil thing he could think of. He is followed by a group of ominous appearance and among these are the modern freethinkers and revolutionaries who show such excesses in what they write and say about the honour of the MOTHER OF GOD that they reveal themselves more vicious then the boldest of those who come before them. Martin Luther, that notorious apostate and Herostratus[1] of our days wanted to gain fame and attention by setting fire to the Church of God. He made so bold as to say[2] that

    • the Holy Virgin was so greatly at fault in losing her Son when he was twelve years old, that it would have been better if she had never been the Mother of God; 

    • the Eternal Father judged her unworthy of being entrusted with the care and safety of His Son; and

    • there was no one who surpassed her in sin. 

Œcolampadius[3], self-styled first Bishop of Basel, says that she was rebuked and reprimanded by her Son for her presumption in wanting to share in His office of Messiah when they were at the wedding in Cana. John Calvin[4], the Father of the wicked rebels and born to bring great misfortune to France, mocks those who preach that the MOTHER OF GOD is free from all stain of sin, sneeringly dismissing this as an issue which is not even worth discussing. Not content with this, he actually seeks out every possible opportunity to besmirch her reputation. In one place[5] he accuses her of prevarication and of being too persistent in promoting her own rights, even to the disparagement of God’s honour. In another place[5], he says that she allowed herself to be carried away by mere considerations of flesh and blood, distracting her Son with her importunate requests, interfering with the preaching of the Gospel and delaying its spread. Elsewhere[7], he says with unmitigated impudence that for all these reasons the Saviour was obliged to put her in her place, placing her on the same level as all other women and giving her to understand[8] that if she is to be His Mother then she must not behave behave with such presumption; for it was not such a big thing as she might imagine. I can well imagine how the zealous servants of this Princess would feel themselves shaken by a holy impatience with these minions of Satan and would have difficulty in keeping their ardent feelings under control. They need only be patient, however, for the justice Heaven will render to these wicked people will be more rigorous and exemplary then any they could administer themselves, especially since we have scarcely begun to hear what these execrable voices of the Holy Virgin’s enemies have to say.

Footnotes

[1] Herostratus : 4th-century BC Greek, accused of seeking fame by burning down the second Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. An eponym for someone who commits a criminal act to become famous.

[2] In Evang. Domin. I post Epiphaniam.

[3] Ad c. 2 Joann.

[4] In Harmonia ad c. 1 Lucæ.

[5]In c. 2 Lucæ.

[6] In c. 12 Matth.

[7] In c. 2 Joann..

[8] In c. 11 Lucæ.

 5   The second cohort is focused particularly on attacking her virginity and includes certain old stagers who have always had a horror for this virtue. Cerinthus leads this group. This man, Jewish by extraction and by his own choice a persecutor of Christianity (which he had left), was by profession a sorcerer. The Devil, whom he called his good Angel, suggested certain ideas to him in his dreams and he started to proclaim that the Saviour was born of Joseph and Mary in the same way as other men[1]. Carpocrates, as reported by St Irenæus[2] and St Epiphanius[3], made the same claim. As for Marcion, whom St Polycarp described as the first born son of the devil, he never ceased to maintain[4] that it was utterly impossible for a virgin to conceive and to give birth. After these, we see Jovinian[5], a mortal enemy of virginity and of fasting; next comes Helvidius[6], the leader of the Antimarianites, or the Anti-dicomarionites, who could never be persuaded to let go of the false opinion that he had of the MOTHER OF GOD, namely that she had other children apart from the Saviour, and that they are the ones referred to by the Evangelists as His brethren.

Footnotes

[1] Iren., lib. II, c. 25.

[2] Lib. I, c. 24.

[3] Hæresi 27.

[4] Iren., lib. I, c. 29 ; Tertul., lib. III contra Marcionem.

[5] August., Hæresi 82.

[6] Hieron., Contra Helvidium ; Epiphan., Hæresi 48 ; August., Hæresi 84.

👑   👑   👑

The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

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. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

© Peter Bloor 2025