Works › The Mariale: Questions on “Missus est”
Volume 37 · p. 231
Question 159. Whether she had the properties of Thrones?
QUAESTIO CLIX. Utrum habuerit proprietates Thronorum?
Restat nunc videre de suprema hierarchia, in qua primus ascendendo est ordo est Thronorum, quorum sex sunt proprietates.
Prima est celsitudo. Secunda, regis circumdatio. Tertia, stabilis collocatio. Quarta, regni susceptio. Quinta, regis delatio. Sexta, familiaris apertio.
Proprietas prima convenit beatissimae Virgini in summo: ipsa enim in altissimis habitat, et thronus ejus in columna nubis 1. Ipsa etiam est illa sedes sapphirina, quam vidit Ezechiel super firmamentum 2, id est, super altitudinem omnium sanctorum in gloria confirmatorum, ut puta quae exaltata est super omnium Angelorum choros. Item, Augustinus: « Si caelum vocem, altior es. »
Secunda proprietas est regis circumdatio, quam lucide habuit in summo: quia quem non solum Angeli, imo caeli capere non poterant, tuo gremio contulisti 3. Item, In tua se clausit viscera factus homo. Hoc est enim novum imo omnium novorum novissimum, quod haec mulier circumdedit virum gremio uteri sui, sicut dicitur, Jerem. XXXI, 22.
Tertia proprietas fuit stabilis collocatio. Hanc etiam in summo habuit beatissima Virgo: quia rex caeli non solum ipsam in solium gloriae aeternaliter elegit, sed in ipsa requiescens, de ipsa sua sede corpus sibi fecit, quod sibi in unitatem personae assumpsit et numquam deposuit.
Quarta proprietas est regis susceptio. Hanc autem in summo habuit beatissima Virgo. Throni enim ipsum in se susceperunt per inhabitantem gratiam: ipsa autem sanctissima Virgo sic etiam ipsum suscepit, et plenius, quia per gratiae plenitudinem et praesentiam corporalem.
Quinta proprietas est regis delatio. Hanc etiam in summo habuit beatissima Virgo: quia ipsum regem gloriae mundum detulit de caelo. Unde ipsa est verum ferculum quod fecit sibi verus Salomon, quod ipsum in mundum tulit, et in mundo circumtulit, quando ascendit super nubem levem et ingressus fugit in Aegyptum.
Sexta proprietas est familiaris apertio. Hanc habuit expresse beatissima Virgo in summo: quia, ut dicit Bernardus: « Qualiter splendor ille inaccessibilis virgineis se infuderit visceribus, soli datum est scire, cui soli datum experiri. » Item, Proverbiorum, XXX, 18 et 19: Tria sunt difficillia mihi, et quartum penitus ignoro: ... viam viri in adolescentia, scilicet sua. Unde Joannes propheta et plus quam propheta, nescit solvere corrigiam calceamenti ejus 4. Et ipse nuntius Gabriel quaesiti modi quaestionem non solvit, sed ad Spiritum sanctum transmittit instruendam.
Sic igitur manifestum ex his, quod beatissima Virgo proprietates omnium Thronorum etiam habuit in summo.
QUESTION 159. Whether she had the properties of Thrones?
It now remains to see concerning the highest hierarchy, in which the first order, ascending, is the order of Thrones, whose properties are six.
The first is loftiness. The second, surrounding of the king. The third, stable placement. The fourth, reception of the king. The fifth, carrying of the king. The sixth, familiar opening.
The first property belongs to the most blessed Virgin in the highest degree, for she dwells in the highest places, and her throne is in a pillar of cloud 1. She is also that sapphire seat which Ezekiel saw above the firmament 2, that is, above the height of all saints confirmed in glory, as one who has been exalted above the choirs of all Angels. Likewise, Augustine says: “If I call you heaven, you are higher.”
The second property is surrounding of the king, which she clearly had in the highest degree, because him whom not only Angels, indeed the heavens, could not contain, you bore in your womb 3. Likewise, made man, he enclosed himself in your inward parts. For this is new, indeed the newest of all new things, that this woman surrounded a man in the womb of her uterus, as is said in Jeremiah 31:22.
The third property was stable placement. The most blessed Virgin also had this in the highest degree, because the king of heaven not only eternally chose her for the throne of glory, but, resting in her, from her as his seat made for himself a body, which he assumed to himself into unity of person and never laid aside.
The fourth property is reception of the king. The most blessed Virgin had this in the highest degree. For the Thrones received him in themselves through indwelling grace; but this most holy Virgin also received him in this way, and more fully, because through fullness of grace and bodily presence.
The fifth property is carrying of the king. The most blessed Virgin also had this in the highest degree, because she carried the very king of glory, the world, from heaven. Whence she is the true litter which the true Solomon made for himself, which bore him into the world and carried him about in the world, when he mounted the light cloud and, having entered, fled into Egypt.
The sixth property is familiar opening. The most blessed Virgin expressly had this in the highest degree, because, as Bernard says: “In what way that inaccessible splendor poured itself into virginal inward parts, it was given to her alone to know, to whom alone it was given to experience.” Likewise, Proverbs 30:18-19: Three things are difficult for me, and the fourth I utterly do not know: ... the way of a man in his youth, namely his. Whence John, prophet and more than prophet, does not know how to loose the strap of his shoe 4. And the messenger Gabriel himself does not solve the question about the asked manner, but sends her to the Holy Spirit to be instructed.
Thus therefore it is manifest from these things that the most blessed Virgin also had the properties of all Thrones in the highest degree.
If a page does not appear, its photograph has not been uploaded yet.