The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-05-31

lived their life, and died; and in many
of them it is Mary's part in the Re-
demption that is emphasized, her vir-
tues that are extolled. The trouba-
dours laid their homage at her feet,
as did the ballad makers of Brittany,
the minstrels of England. the bards of
Ireland and Scotland, the bartinikas of
Russia, and the silver-tongued mime
singers, homage so full of love, so
trustful of help, that it shames our
colder faith.
Tribute of the Middle Ages.
The Middle Ages grew old with the
best of their life yet to be. Jacapone
da Todi and Dante voiced the feelings
of the great century in which they
lived. With the exception of the Dies
Irae, no hymn finer than the Stabat
Mater was ever written. In stanzas of
rare beauty of form it sings the sweet
but bitter sorrow that pierced the
heart of the Mother of God on Calvary.
Only on such a theme could such ten
der verse be written. No poem the
equal of Dante's ever came from the
heart of man, and no part of the Divine
Comedy is more lovely than that in
which Beatrice, type of earthly love as
it exists among Mary's children, leads
the poet to the feet of Our Lady
crowned Queen of heaven. Lady" he
makes st. Bernard pray, 80 great
thou art, thy power so high, Who longs
for grace, nor breathes to thee his
soul, Would have his wishes without
wings to fly"
The glories of the 18th century
passed The Renaissance and later
the -lukewarmness, sin,
and then heresy-chilled and hardened
many hearts, many, but not all. The
children of the Church continued to
sound Mary's praises constantly and
ardently, as they had done in the Ages
of Faith, among them Vittoria Colonna
and Tasso, Southwell and Crashaw,
and in our day, Coventry Patmore,
Francis Thompson, Aubrey de We're
and Alice Meynell. This is not strange.
1t would be surprising, indeed if it
were otherwise. But at first sight it
seems peculiar that there is hardly a
Protestant writer, however, prejudiced,
who does not only unconsciously yield
to her influence, but praise her in
words as eloquent as his pen ever
finds. Men who fling their taunts at
monks and nuns, at our ceremonies
and many of our beliefs, speak with
reverence of her whom their churches
disown more vehemently than the
practices or institutions which arouse
their ire. 1t is not that, one time or
the other, these writer's speak in.
sincerely. But when they are most
truly poets, then they are mostly truly
Catholic. When they rise above their
petty prejudices, their genius, seeking
the ideal, finds itself at Our Lady's
feet. The poet longs for beauty anG
truth. Could he seek beauty and no
find Mary, seek truth and avoid her
AS Poe could make sad failure o
life and yet write his truly Catholic
hymn in our Blessed Mothers honor
so Ruskin could carp at things Catho
lie, but laud her; so Wordsworth
could breathe hatred of Catholicity
and afterward write the immortal son
net beginning,
Mother, whose virgin bosom was un
crost,
With the least shade of thought. to sill
allied,
and containing the oft-quoted lines
Woman! above all women glorifie,
Our tainted natures solitary boast.
1t was much the same with Sir Wa
ter Scott About much that we rever
he said bitter words that make on
: blood boil; but he, too, sang his hymn
to our Mother in "The Lady of tn
: Lake." thereby atoning to his Catholi
readers for many an unwarrante
, thrust.
"AlTs Well that Ends Well ha
Shakespeare's one passage in he
honor, a passage that has given ris
to much controversy. When tn
countess learns of her sons wicked
ness she says:
"He cannot thrive
| Unless her prayers, whom Heaven d.
. lights to hear
And loves to grant, reprieve hi1
; from the wrath
Of greatest justice"
But the subject of Our Lady's plac
) in the realm of letters is inexhaustiblt
) One principle, however, is paten
everywhere, in every age. Literature
, pure and high, beauty loving an
beauty seeking, literature worthy {
Christians, flourishes only in tn
, shadow of her mantle; and, to borro7
the words of Ernest Hello, "whoeve
, takes a step away from her takes
step in the direction of barbarism."