Part 29 (1/2)
”Ay so, my maid? Or is it rather to trust our own fantasy of what Christ would say?”
Blanche was silent for a moment; then she answered,--”But He did say, 'This is My body.'”
”Will you go further, an' it like you?”
”How, Master Tremayne?”
”'This is My body, which is broken for you.' Was the bread that He held in His hand the body that was broken? Did that morsel of bread take away the sin of the world? Look you, right in so far as the bread was the body, in so far also was the breaking of that bread the death of that body,--and no further. Now, Mistress Blanche, was the breaking of the bread the death of the body? Think thereon, and answer me.”
”It was an emblem or representation thereof, no doubt,” she said slowly.
”Good. Then, inasmuch as the breaking did set forth the death, in so much did the bread set forth the body. If the one be an emblem, so must be the other.”
”That may be, perchance,” said Blanche, sheering off from the subject, as she found it pa.s.sing beyond her, and requiring the troublesome effort of thought: ”but, Master Tremayne, there is one other matter whereon the speech of you Gospellers verily offendeth me no little.”
”Pray you, tell me what it is, Mistress Blanche.”
”It is the little honour, or I might well say the dishonour, that you do put upon Saint Mary the blessed Virgin. Surely, of all that He knew and loved on this earth, she must have been the dearest unto our Lord. Why then thus scrimp and scant the reverence due unto her? Verily, in this matter, the Papists do more meetly than you.”
”'More meetly'--wherewith, Mistress Blanche? With the truth of Holy Scripture, or with the fantasies of human nature?”
”I would say,” repeated Blanche rather warmly, ”that her honour must be very dear to her blessed Son.”
”There is one honour ten thousand-fold dearer unto His heart, my maid, and that is the honour of G.o.d His eternal Father. All honour, that toucheth not this, I am ready to pay to her. But tell me wherefore you think she must be His dearest?”
”Because it must needs be thus,” replied illogical Blanche.
”I would ask you to remember, Mistress Blanche, that He hath told us the clean contrary.”
Blanche looked up with an astonished expression.
”'Whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in Heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother.' Equally honourable, equally dear, with that mother of His flesh whom you would fain upraise above all other women. And I am likewise disposed to think that word of Paul,--'Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more'--I say, I am disposed to think this may have his reverse side. Though He hath known us after the flesh, yet thus, now that He is exalted to the right hand of G.o.d, He knoweth us no more. And if so, then Mary is now unto Him but one of a mult.i.tude of saved souls, all equally fair and dear and precious in the eyes of Him that died for them.”
”O Master Tremayne!”
”What would you say, Mistress Blanche?”
”That is truly--it sounds so cold!” said Blanche, disparagingly.
”Doth it so?” asked the Rector, smiling. ”Cold, that all should be beloved of His heart? Dear maid, 'tis not that He loveth her the less, but that He loveth the other more.”
As Blanche made no response, Mr Tremayne went on.
”There is another side to this matter, Mistress Blanche, that I daresay you have ne'er looked upon: and it toucheth at once the matter of images, and the reverence due unto Saint Mary. Know you that great part of the images held in wors.h.i.+p for her by the Papists, be no images of her at all? All the most ancient--and many be very ancient--were ne'er made for Mary. The marvel-working black Virgins--our Lady of Einsiedeln, our Lady of Loretto, and all such--be in very truth old idols, of a certain Tuscan or Etruscan G.o.ddess, elder than the days of the Romans. [Note 3.] Again, all they that are of fair complexion--such as have grey eyes [blue eyes were then called grey] and yellow hair-- these be not Mary the Jewess. We can cast no doubt she was dark.
Whence then come all these fair-complexioned pictures? We might take it, in all likelihood, from the fancy of the painters, that did account a fair woman to be of better favour than a dark. But search you into past history, and you shall find it not thus. These fair-favoured pictures be all of another than Mary; to wit, of that ancient G.o.ddess, in her original of the Babylonians, that was wors.h.i.+pped under divers names all over the world,--in Egypt as Isis; in Greece, as Athene, Artemis, and Aphrodite; in Rome as Juno, Diana, and Venus: truly, every G.o.ddess was but a diversity of this one. [Note 4.] These, then, be no pictures of the Maid of Nazareth. And 'tis the like of other images,-- they be christened idols. The famed Saint Peter, in his church at Rome is but a christened Jupiter. Wit you how Paganism was got rid of? It was by receiving of it into the very bosom of the Roman Church. The ceremonies of the Pagans were but turned,--from Ceres, Cybele, Isis, or Aphrodite, unto Mary--from Apollo, Bacchus, Osiris, Tammuz, unto Christ.
Thus, when these Pagans found that they did in very deed wors.h.i.+p the same G.o.d, and with the same observances, as of old--for the change was in nothing save the name only--they became Christians by handfuls;--yea, by cityfuls. What marvel, I pray you? But how shall we call this Church of Rome, that thus bewrayed her trust, and sold her Lord again like Judas? An idolatrous Christianity--nay, rather a baptised idolatry! G.o.d hath writ her name, Mistress Blanche, on the last page of His Word; and it is, Babylon, Mother of all Abominations.”
”I do marvel, Master Tremayne,” said Blanche a little indignantly, though in a constrained voice, ”how you dare bring such ill charges against the Papistical Church. Do they not set great store by holiness, I pray you? Yea, have they not monks and nuns, and a celibate priesthood, consecrate to greater holiness than other? How can you charge them with wickedness and abomination?”
”Poor child!” murmured the Rector, as if to himself,--”she little wist what manner of life idolaters term holiness! Mistress Blanche, yonder cloak of professed holiness hideth worser matter than you can so much as think on. 'Tis not I that set that name on the Papistical Church. It was G.o.d Himself. Will you tell me, moreover, an' it like you,--What is holiness?”