Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Idea of English Miracles of the Virgin
- 2 The Theophilus Legend in England: Mary the Advocate, Mary the Jew
- 3 The Theophilus Legend in England, Again: From the Devil’s Charter to a Marian Paradigm
- 4 The Virgin and the Law in Middle English Contexts
- 5 The Fate of English Miracles of the Virgin
- Afterword
- Appendix 1 ‘The Founding of the Feast of the Conception’ in the South English Legendary
- Appendix 2 ‘Blood on the Penitent Woman’s Hand’ (Bodleian Library MS e Museo 180)
- Appendix 3 The Charter Group Miracles and Other Short Texts from British Library MS Additional 37049
- Appendix 4 An Index of Miracles of the Virgin Collated with Existing Lists
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - The Virgin and the Law in Middle English Contexts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Idea of English Miracles of the Virgin
- 2 The Theophilus Legend in England: Mary the Advocate, Mary the Jew
- 3 The Theophilus Legend in England, Again: From the Devil’s Charter to a Marian Paradigm
- 4 The Virgin and the Law in Middle English Contexts
- 5 The Fate of English Miracles of the Virgin
- Afterword
- Appendix 1 ‘The Founding of the Feast of the Conception’ in the South English Legendary
- Appendix 2 ‘Blood on the Penitent Woman’s Hand’ (Bodleian Library MS e Museo 180)
- Appendix 3 The Charter Group Miracles and Other Short Texts from British Library MS Additional 37049
- Appendix 4 An Index of Miracles of the Virgin Collated with Existing Lists
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Þys ys þe disposiciun of þe tabyll at our lady auter yn þe cathedrall kyrke of yorke. Þat ys for to say þat ower lady ys ymagened in v maner of wysys. Þe fyrst ys our lady hauyng yn here hand the tabelis offe moyeses and vndir here fete þe bernyng buske of moyses and also þe figure off þe worlde.
York altar table description, c.1425The Middle Ages saw the rise of Mary mediatrix. As Jaroslav Pelikan has summarized it, ‘the systematic clarification of the title Mediatrix was the principal objective expression of Mariology and the chief theological contribution to Christian teaching about Mary during this period’, but this was sometimes in tension with the dominant ‘literary form and devotional motif of the Mater Dolorosa’. Nevertheless, both the human suffering of mother Mary and her superhuman (often aggressive) intercession and advocacy were internationally recognized. Eastern theologians often addressed her as ‘Mediatrix of law and of grace’, and this title, as it was reflected in medieval Marian devotion, was in some ways very logical: ‘If Christ is both judge and mediator, then modest and anxious human sinners may well look for an advocate who will mediate with Him.’ Indeed, the whole legal apparatus of saintly intercession cannot be called unpredictable within a wide view of the Judeo-Christian tradition, which always saw the relationship with God as a matter of covenant. What Richard Firth Green has called ‘bargains with God’ or the ‘need to believe in a deus pactor’ is not only common in popular medieval hagiography – an expression of a potent ‘covenantal theology’ – but also transcends temporal and cultural divides. Still, such bargains were ‘particularly common in England’, and where other saints might broker agreements based on symbolic gestures of ‘trothplight’, such as ‘bowed groats’ or token rings or monetary payment, the Virgin Mary was very often entrenched in documentary modes. She showed special attention to agreements that were expressed in charters or that included written conveyances.
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- Information
- Miracles of the Virgin in Medieval EnglandLaw and Jewishness in Marian Legends, pp. 104 - 137Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2010