Question LII. Whether the blessed Virgin had dulia?

Latin (Borgnet)English

p. 98

QUAESTIO LII. Utrum B. Virgo habuerit duliam?

Consequenter videndum est de dulia. Est autem dulia honor creaturae debitus et exhibitus. Et haec habet duas partes: duliam simpliciter quae debetur creaturis, et hyperduliam quae debetur excellentibus creaturis, ut beatae Virgini et sanctae cruci.

1. Habuit autem beata Virgo actum hyperduliae in summo, respectu aliarum creaturarum: improportionabiliter enim majus est adorari quam adorare: ergo improportionabiliter majus est hyperdulia adorari, quam adorare hyperdulia: sed omnes alii sancti adorant hyperdulia beatam Virginem: ergo ipsa omnes excellit hyperdulia.

2. Item, Actus duliae habuit super omnes excellenter: actus enim duliae intenditur per ea per quae et actus latriae intendebatur, per dignitatem videlicet personae exhibentis, per minus debitum exhibitionis, et per humilitatem servitutis. Per dignitatem personae exhibentis excellit omnes: nulla enim digna persona vel creatura potuit aliam creaturam intantum honorare inquantum dignissima creaturarum mater Dei.

3. Item, Cum esset dignissima et suprema creaturarum omnium, quam omnes debent revereri et honorare, minime debitum fuit ut alias creaturas honoraret.

4. Item, Servitus humillima et indebitissima fuit, qua inferiorem se honoravit: quia proxima Deo per incorruptionem, purificationem pollutis matribus constitutam absque legis praecepto observavit, et Filium cum oblationibus offerens, sacerdotibus legalibus reverentiam exhibuit, per quod obedientiam et humilitatem consummavit, sicut scriptum est: Sine modo, sic enim decet nos implere omnem justitiam ¹. Glossa: Perfectam humilitatem. Et distinguit ibi triplicem humilitatem et obedientiam. Prima quae exhibetur inferioribus, secunda pari, tertia quae superiori. Et prima vocatur omnis justitia, id est, perfecta justitia, quam beatissima Virgo in summo exhibuit, quando Deo propinquissima fuit, et dignissima inferioribus et sibi jure subditis, ipsa super legem posita, secundum legem, legi et ministris ejus obedivit: in quo se summe inclinavit et humiliavit: summum enim citra Deum in sursum est summa incorruptio, juxta illud: Incorruptio facit esse proximum Deo ². Summe autem distans ab incorruptione deorsum, est corruptio: post corruptionem sequitur poena posita pro corruptione, ut est mulierum corruptarum purificatio: summa igitur inclinatio humilitatis fuit, quando se excellentissima incorruptione Virgo sub onus corruptis impositum spontanee se inclinavit.

Et sic patet quomodo in beatissima Virgine, et dulia, et latria, et obedientia, et humilitas, fuerunt in summo ³.

QUESTION LII. Whether the blessed Virgin had dulia?

Consequently one must consider dulia. Now dulia is the honor owed and shown to a creature. And this has two parts: dulia simply speaking, which is owed to creatures, and hyperdulia, which is owed to excellent creatures, such as to the blessed Virgin and to the holy cross.

1. Now the blessed Virgin had the act of hyperdulia in the highest degree with respect to other creatures. For to be adored is disproportionately greater than to adore. Therefore to be adored with hyperdulia is disproportionately greater than to adore with hyperdulia. But all other saints adore the blessed Virgin with hyperdulia. Therefore she surpasses all by hyperdulia.

2. Likewise, she had the acts of dulia excellently above all. For an act of dulia is intensified by the things by which the act of latria was also intensified, namely by the dignity of the person showing it, by the lesser debt of showing it, and by the humility of service. By the dignity of the person showing it she surpasses all: for no worthy person or creature could honor another creature as greatly as the Mother of God, the worthiest of creatures, could.

3. Likewise, since she was the worthiest and highest of all creatures, whom all ought to revere and honor, it was owed in the least degree that she honor other creatures.

4. Likewise, the most humble and most unowed service was that by which she honored one inferior to herself; for, being nearest to God through incorruption, she observed without the precept of the law the purification established for polluted mothers, and, offering her Son with offerings, she showed reverence to the legal priests, by which she consummated obedience and humility, as it is written: Allow it now, for so it becomes us to fulfill all justice ¹. The Gloss says: perfect humility. And there it distinguishes threefold humility and obedience: the first, which is shown to inferiors; the second, to an equal; the third, to a superior. And the first is called all justice, that is, perfect justice, which the most blessed Virgin showed in the highest degree, when, being nearest to God and most worthy, she obeyed inferiors and those subject to her by right, while she herself was placed above the law, according to the law, obeying the law and its ministers. In this she inclined and humbled herself supremely. For the highest thing upward short of God is the highest incorruption, according to that saying: Incorruption makes one nearest to God ². But what is supremely distant downward from incorruption is corruption. After corruption there follows the punishment appointed for corruption, such as the purification of corrupted women. Therefore the highest inclination of humility was when the Virgin, in most excellent incorruption, spontaneously inclined herself under the burden imposed on the corrupted.

And thus it is clear how in the most blessed Virgin dulia, latria, obedience, and humility were in the highest degree ³.

Notes

Matthew 3:15. (Matth. III, 15.) ↩
Wisdom 6:20. (Sapient. VI, 20.) ↩
For the solution of the objections, see below after Question LXI. (Pro solutione objectorum, vide infra post Quaest. LXI.) ↩