n music, was the first to praise her perfection in the
Latin tongue, and St. Augustine in his treatise _De Natura et Gratia_,
maintained that she was the only human being born without original sin.
This was the first important step towards the stripping of the Saviour's
mother of her humanity, and establishing her as a divine being. St.
Irenaeus contrasted Eve, the bringer of sin, with Mary, the second Eve,
the bringer of salvation, and St. Ambrose said: "From Eve we inherited
damnation through the fruit of the tree; but Mary has brought us
salvation through the gift of the tree, for Christ too, hung on the tree
like a fruit."

Hitherto Mary had not been worshipped; all prayers had been addressed to
God and to Christ. The idea of approaching her in prayer appeared for
the first time in a pamphlet entitled "On the Death of Mary," written
about the end of the fourth century, and Gregory of Nazianz pictured
Mary in Heaven, caring for the welfare of humanity. The fourth and fifth
centuries produced the first hymns to the Virgin, written in Syriac; but
orthodox bishops objected to her deification; St. Epiphanus (end of
fourth century) said: "Let us honour Mary by all means, but let us
worship only the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost."

This was the position of the evangelical and historical Mary before the
famous and decisive Council of Ephesus.

There is a very important fact which must not be overlooked. All the
nations dwelling on the shores of the Mediterranean, Semites, and
Egyptians, as well as Greeks and Romans, had been accustomed to the
worship of female deities. In the minds of the ancient peoples, woman,
the symbol of sex, had always been endowed with qualities of magic and
mystery. There was something supernatural in her power of bringing forth
a living specimen of the race, and in all cults the maternal woman
occupied a very important position. Had Christianity suddenly destroyed
this ancient and natural need? We know that the Church had assimilated a
great number of antique superstitions; nor were the female deities
sacrificed. The great Asiatic Mothers had not been forgotten; the very
ancient Babylonian Istar (Astarte), Rhea Kybele of Asia Minor, and above
all the Egyptian Isis, still lived in the heart of man,--subconsciously,
probably--as lofty, sacred memories, but nevertheless influencing his
life. The Egyptian Isis with Horus in her lap is the direct model of the
Madonna with the Child. She represent