MARIE DANS LE DOGME REA ME CPE RE RER RE

Cette conclusion n'est point si abstruse et si compliquée, si éloignée des lois ordinaires de la logique, qu'elle n’ait été vue tout de suite par les Pères eux-mêmes et qu’elle n’ait été possible qu'après la définition du dogme? Non, elle était suffisamment obvie, et elle ne, put échapper à la subtilité des anciens écrivains qui y portèrent leur attention. Qu'il nous suffise de citer Théodore, évêque d’An-

upon her trial? She could not have stood against the wiles of the devil, though she was innocent and sinless, without the grant of a large grace. And this she had a heavenly gift, which was over and above and additional to that nature of hers, which she received from Adam, a gift which had been given to Adam also before her, at the very time (as it is commonly held) of his original formation.....

» Now, taking this for granted, because I know that you and those who agree with you maintain it as well as we do, I ask you, have you any intention to deny that Mary was as fully endowed as Eve? is it any violent inference, that she, who was to cooperate in the redemption of the world at least was not less endowed with power from on high, than she who, given as a helpmate to her husband, did in the event but cooperate with him for its ruin ? If Eve was raised above human nalure by that indwelling moral gift which we call grace, is it rash to say that Mary had even a greater grace ? And this consideration gives significance to the Angel's salutation of her as full of grace.

«And if Eve had this supernatural inward gift from the very first moment of her personal existence, is it possible to deny that Mary too had this gift from the very moment of her personal existence ? I do not know how to resist this inference : well, this is simply and litteraly the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. I say the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is in its subtance this, and nothing more or less than this (putting aside the question of degrees of grace) ; and it really does seem to me bound up in the doctrine of the Fathers, that Mary is the second Eve. » (Certain difficul. Sell by anglicans, ediz. Longmans, 1900, p. 44).

cyre, ami de saint Cyrille, un des orateurs les plus illustres du concile d’Ephèse. Il sexprimait ainsi dans son Discours sur Marie mère de Dieu, n° IT (Gal., T. x, p. 475): « Dieu a substitué à la Vierge Eve instrument de mort, pour nous rendre la vie, une autre vierge bien plus agréable à son coeur, pleine de gràce divine, une Vierge incluse dans le sexe féminin mais non participante de la faute de la femme, une vierge innocente, immaculée, libre de toute faute, sans tache, sainte d’esprit et de corps ; un lys parmi les épines, ignorante des maux qui viennent d’Eve... Digne de son créateur, elle nous fut donnée par la divine providence, non pour encourager la désobéissance mais pour nous guider sur la voie de l’obéissance... fille d'Adam, mais très différente de notre premier père ».