amination. Yet, in spite of this, or along with this,
there was growing the adoration of a woman, the mother of Him whom the
world called the Son of God. Little was known about her; so much the
better for the pious hagiologists, who thought they did no wrong in
piecing out scant fact with abundant legend. A regular cult of the
Virgin arose, reaching such proportions that the Church had to do
something to recognize it. Numerous festivals were established in her
honor, some with the sanction of the Church, some without that sanction,
some celebrated throughout Christendom, some only locally: the
Annunciation, the Visitation, the Purification, the Assumption.

The mystic worship, the tendency to find hidden meanings in things of
the most ordinary appearance to the lay eye, the extravagant symbolism,
were at their height in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The
scholastic theologians and sermon writers applied their fantastic
methods to all phases of the religious life; so we must not be surprised
to find them treating even the Virgin in this way. One of the
extraordinary instances which we can give occurs in a sermon delivered
in Paris by the Chancellor of the university, Stephen Langton, later
Archbishop of Canterbury. His name, by the way, is Latinized for us as
_Stephanus de Langeduna_, whence it was easy and flattering to deduce
_Stephanus Linguae tonantis_. As a text the preacher takes nothing more
nor less than a popular song, _Bele Aalis main se leva_, of which the
following is the sense: "Sweet Alice arose in the early morn, dressed
herself and adorned her fair body, and went into the garden. There she
found five flowrets, of which she made a chaplet covered with roses. By
my faith, therein has she betrayed thee, thou who lovest not." It is a
little love song; and the author, whoever he may be,--probably some
forgotten strolling minstrel who saw the girl go into the garden and
wrought the incident to suit his fancy,--certainly had no religious
intent. But Stephen Langton endeavors to make a mystic application of
the song to the Virgin, and, as he says, "thus to turn evil into good."
Let me quote a few lines of the sermon to show how this _tour de force_
was accomplished. _"Videamus quae sit_ Bele Aeliz.... Cele est bele Aeliz
_de qua sic dicitur: Speciosa ut gemma splendida ut luna et clara ut
sol, rutilans quasi Lucifer inter sidera_, etc.... _Hoc nomen Aeliz
dicitur ab a quod est sine et lis litis, quasi sine