In this article we shall look at the historical development of their teaching in very general terms. In a later article we shall, the Lord willing, deal with the relevant part of The Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, chapter VIII, Our Lady as approved by Vatican Council II. As we do so it is important to remember that not all the excesses shown in Roman attitudes to Mary have received official approval, and some have been condemned.

We have to understand that Rome's view of Mary is a consequence of development from the little that is said about her in the New Testament. This development depends very much on seeing her significance as symbolic. This has led Rome to invest her with the status of being the first and model Christian.

Certainly we do well to emulate her humility, trust in God, and her submission to His will as we have seen them described in Luke 1. We would also accept fully with Rome the historicity of the virginal conception and birth as set out by Matthew and Luke. It is interesting, though, that some Roman scholars with liberal attitudes towards Scripture are at one with their non-Roman counterparts in understanding the Gospel accounts as symbolic and not historic on this matter.

In the first few centuries of the Church there were some who saw Mary as the second Eve, whose obedience, as opposed to the first Eve's disobedience, has led to our salvation. Just as Adam was summed up in Christ, so Eve was summed up in Mary. This was expressed by Irenaeus (c130-c200) in his doctrine of recapitulation contained in The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching.

Later, in the fifth century, the title `Mother of God' took on serious significance in the Monophysite controversy. Put briefly, the church at Alexandria stressed the deity of the Person of Christ, whereas Antiochene teaching made plain the presence of two natures in the one Person, one fully human, the other fully divine. The title `Mother of God' was used by the Alexandrians and their supporters as a test of where people stood on this issue. To deny the title to Mary was to deny the deity of Christ in their eyes. The title remained hers even after Leo of Rome provided the formula which defined Christian orthodoxy in terms of two natures in one Person at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

Devotion to Mary grew throughout the Middle Ages and this led to a number of different titles being given to her. From among them two remain important causes of disagreement. The first, coredemptrix, seems to have dropped out of official favour in recent times. This is a title which suggests that in some way she has merited salvation for sinners. The second, mediatrix, is still in favour, and refers to her role in obtaining grace for sinners.

Throughout the following centuries Mary has occupied this important role in popular Roman thought and devotion. We have not the time to go into detail here, but for many Roman Catholics Mary presented a far more accessible way to God than the Lord Jesus in His majestic splendour. A simple way of explaining it goes along this line. "Who does a son want to please more than his mother? So it is with Jesus. Get His mother to intercede for you for He won't refuse her." Our response to that, guided directly by Scripture, would be that this denotes lack of faith in the promises of the Lord Himself and goes clean contrary to the exhortations in Hebrews 4:16 and 10:22. To go to Mary instead of obeying the Word of God is surely disbelieving and disobedient.

Papal Decrees
We must look now at developments in the last century and a half. In 1854 Pius IX, in his Bull Ineffabilis Deus, declared the Immaculate Conception to be a doctrine revealed by God to be firmly and constantly held. "We declare, pronounce and define: the doctrine that maintains that the most Blessed Virgin Mary in the first instant of her conception, by a unique grace and privilege of the omnipotent God and in consideration of the merits of Christ Jesus the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin."

Way back in the thirteenth century Thomas Aquinas (c1225-74) did not accept this doctrine whereas Duns Scotus (c1264-1308), the original 'dunce', did. Pope Sixtus IV instituted a feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1476, and in 1846 the Roman bishops in the USA named Mary, the Immaculate Conception, as the patroness of their nation.

In 1950 Pius XII declared and defined the doctrine of the Bodily Assumption of Mary in these words: "The Immaculate Mother of God, Mary ever Virgin, after her life on earth, was assumed, body and soul, to the glory of heaven."

This was declared to be divinely revealed dogma though it has no biblical warrant. No support was claimed from the Early Fathers either. The justification for this doctrine appears to be that it was fitting that the body which had given birth to the Lord should be preserved from corruption. It may also be claimed that this doctrine affirms the dignity of the human body and that it will be raised from the dead.

It is surprising that Rome does not appear to believe that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and New Testament teaching such as that in 1 Corinthians 15 are a sufficient basis for faith and confidence.

Apparitions
Whilst not all claims concerning appearances of Mary have been recognised by Rome three major sites are recognised as the scenes of genuine appearances. In 1990 John Paul II beatified Juan Diego, an Aztec peasant, who claimed to have seen Mary in 1531 at Guadalupe in Mexico. In Europe there are the better known sites of Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal. Apparitions were claimed there in 1858 and 1917 respectively. Both have become major centres of pilgrimage.

Papal Actions
Papal actions have also shown how important Mary is in Roman thought. In 1944 Pius XII dedicated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He did this again ten years later when he made that year, the centenary of the Immaculate Conception's official proclamation, one of special devotion to Mary.

In 1964 Paul VI declared Mary to be the Mother of the Church at the closing of the third session of the Vatican Council. Ten years later, in Marialis Cultus or Devotion to Mary he argued that such devotion should be biblical, without sentimental and exaggerated expressions or the acceptance of legends. If such admonitions were properly acted upon it would require a wholesale change in Rome that could hardly escape attention. We have yet to see it.

John Paul II's devotion to the Black Madonna, the Virgin of Czestochowa, is well known. This is not surprising in the light of his Polish birth and love for his native country. Mary was declared to be the Queen of Poland after victory in a 1656 battle. The shrine is thus important to Polish nationalism.

John Paul has also visited the shrine at Fatima. In 1982 it was to thank the Virgin for saving his life when he was shot in an attempted assassination. He returned in 1991 to thank her in addition for interceding for the deliverance of Eastern Europe from communist rule. He also placed the whole world in the care of 'Our Lady of Fatima'. A Protestant would think God should have the credit.

In Redemptoris mater, marking the Marian year of 1987/8, John Paul, among other matters, stressed Marian devotion as a unifying factor between the Eastern churches and Rome. In fact, he maintained that Mary, as our "common mother", represented the unity of all Christians. Once again, Protestants are left wondering why our union in Christ is not enough. Scripture says that we are all one in Christ Jesus, not in Mary (Galatians 3:28).

This is a very sketchy outline, but we hope that it gives a clear picture of the way in which Mary's position developed within Roman thinking. Our future look at Vatican II will examine the official teaching issued there, and later reproduced in The Catholic Catechism.

Roman Catholics would say that the honour they give to Mary enhances the supreme position they give to her Son. Our response has to be that Scripture knows nothing of this, and that we look alone to our Saviour for our eternal well-being and our relationship with God. Christ alone brings us to God, and in and through Him alone we receive all that God wills to bestow upon His children.

Having said that, the Roman devotion to Mary does challenge us in our devotion to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. As Isaac Watts expressed it,