The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 8 : § 1. 4-5

Chapter 8 : The Seventh Star or Splendour in the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

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)

Mary’s soul was unique in being totally free of any sin

§ 1. The MOTHER OF GOD was exempt from original sin

First proof, taken from the person of the Saviour

 4   I can already hear people arguing that by the time the King entered His Palace, grace had already been in possession of it for a long time and had cleansed it of everything malodorous. If this is allowed to be the case, this means I have to imagine a situation where a woman could become the immaculate and worthy Mother of the most worthy and immaculate Son of God, to use the words of Origen, even though she could be reproached for having once been so filthy and stained with sin .[1] 

You who are reading this discussion, you are nowhere near God’s purity and holiness which give Him an infinite aversion to sin – is that not true? Now, according to St Augustine[2], God never fails to do what right reason tells us is the best thing to do. So if God were to have asked your advice on whether it was proper for Him to unite His divinity to flesh which had previously been damaged and infected by sin (because the flesh of the Son is that of the Mother), would you honestly have answered in the affirmative? Taking this idea further, if it had been possible for you to create a mother according to your own wishes, would you have shown her so little respect and so little affection on your part? Remember the wise words of Solomon[3] : the glory and the dishonour of the father and the mother redound unto their children. Do you really think God in His infinite wisdom and incomparable goodness would have done something which you with your tiny spark of reason would have rejected? This would mean either that He showed less honour to His mother than you would to yours or that He paid less attention to what was fitting for Him than you did in relation to yourself. This would be contrary to reason.

Footnotes

[1] Homil. 1 ex Variis.

[2] Lib. III de Libero Arb., c. 5..

[3] For the glory of a man is from the honour of his father, and a father without honour is the disgrace of the son. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) iii. 13.

 5   Be so good as to read what the Saints say on this question:

When I speak of sin, says the incomparable St Augustine[1], do not for one moment imagine that the Virgin Mary had any involvement whatsoever with sin; for we know that she received graces   proportionate to the honour she had of conceiving and bearing Him whom we know to have been without sin and by these she was able to overcome every kind of sin.

Note the serious declaration of St Cyprian : 

 

No, no… God’s justice would not allow this chosen vessel to be tarnished with common insults - this says it all and there is nothing more to add. There was a most remarkable difference between Mary and all others, for although she shared the same nature she had nothing whatsoever in common when it came to sin. The fulness of grace was due to the Mother, producing in a superabundant glory which rendered her peerless in regard to the purity of her body and her mind.

St Anselm said no less[2] : 

It was entirely reasonable for the Virgin to have a purity so excellent that it is impossible to conceive of any greater beneath God.

Now, who could claim this purity for the MOTHER OF GOD whilst accepting she had been tarnished by the repulsive stain of original sin (which I shall cover shortly)? I do not really see how there could be any doubt about this, in view of the principle[3] accepted by all the Holy Fathers and Theologians on this question. As soon as they come across anything improper attributed to the MOTHER OF GOD, they will not hear it spoken of in any manner. Now, supposing we wish to show that Mary did not suffer from concupiscence in any way whatsoever, that her body was not subject to ordinary laws, was exempt from corruption and that she never experienced the labour-pains and mess of child-birth – the above principle comes into play straight away and there is no argument more convincing than the simple statement that this would have been most unbefitting for the Mother of the divine Word and unworthy of the flesh most pure with which eternal Wisdom was to be clothed. This consideration alone makes any well-constituted mind pause, for the conclusion cannot be rebutted. The opprobrium of original sin is vastly more shameful and repugnant than all the imperfections mentioned above which subsist without sin; so who would not believe that there is less impropriety in burning away original sin? If Mary were given a choice between freedom from sin and freedom from being reduced to dust after death, there can be no doubt that Mary would have preferred the common lot suffered by human bodies to sin, and that the saintly and innocent Mary[4] would have chosen to plunge in the flames of all natural failings rather than to be stained by sin and become even for a single instant the enemy of her creator.

Footnotes

[1] De Natura et Gratia, c. 36.

[2] Lib. de Conceptu Virginali, c. 18...

[3] That Mary was exempt from sin.

[3] Poiré’s text uses the word hermine (ermine or stoat) which I have translated as Mary. The ermine featured as a symbol in various ways during the Middle Ages. Here is one example: Pureté morale, agilité, intelligence et innocence sont associées à ce petit animal au pelage blanc… selon l’une des légendes les plus célèbres, c’est lors d’une partie de chasse qu’Anne de Bretagne (1477 – 1514) aurait gracié l’animal prêt à se laisser tuer par des chiens plutôt que de traverser une étendue boueuse. La devise de la Bretagne serait ainsi née : “Kentoc’h mervel eget bezan saotret” (”Plutôt la mort que la souillure”). Moral purity, agility, intelligence and innocence are associated with this little animal with white fur... According to one of the most famous legends, Anne of Brittany (1477-1514) is said to have spared this animal in the course of a hunt because it preferred to be killed by her hunting dogs rather than cross an expanse of mud. This is said to be the origin of the Brittany motto : Death before dishonour. Taken from Les symboles de la Bretagne. 

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >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 2024