Our Lady's Dowry: How England Gained That Title

by Hermenegild Tosf, Rev T E Birdgette CSSR, Hermenegild

England obtained the name of Our Lady's Dowry, not precisely because of special devotion, but by the solemn consecration that her King Richard II. had made of his dominions; and that, since this consecration has never been retracted, England remains still Dos Mariae. To my rejoinder that not merely England's monarchs, but the great majority of the nation, had, de facto, in every possible way repudiated this consecration to Our Lady, as well as the devotion that led to it, he would scarcely listen. He neither knew, nor could bear to know, anything of the sacrileges and blasphemies of those outside. Our Lady had always her faithful few, and they had never forfeited their glory or their rights. I promised, therefore, to remove what might give pain to the chivalrous, by omitting the second member of my title, on condition that I should at the same time show that I had not been the first to write as if England had lost her ancient glory, not indeed de Jure, but de facto. The following short catena of passages from Catholic writers since the Reformation will show that both Mr. Waterton's view and my own-if there is really any difference-may claim precedents.1. Mr. Waterton, who has carefully investigated the origin of the title Dower or Dowry of Mary, was led to the conclusion that it arose from an act of donation or consecration made by King Richard II. This conclusion rests mainly on a picture formerly in the English College at Rome. He regretted that he could neither trace its history nor ascertain any details about it'. Since the publication of his book and my own, I have been fortunate enough to discover a document which will supply the desired information to some extent. A manuscript in the British Museum, written early in the reign of James 1, of a violent anti-Catholic nature, contains what appears to be a Verbatim transcript of a broadside or leaflet then, or very lately, in circulation among Catholics.2. In 1651 the Rev. Father Edward Worseley published A Brief Explication of the Office of the Blessed Virgin's In his dedicatory epistle to Lady Throckmorton, he says: 'I made choice to compose this work in honour of the most Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, whose Dowry our own now distracted country was sometimes not undeservedly stiled, both in respect of the peculiar devotion our religious predecessors, above other nations of the Christian world, bore towards her, and her reciprocal procuring, by her powerful intercession, innumerable select favours for them "3. Father Claude de la Colombiere, in a sermon preached before the English Court, exclaimed: O England, unhappy England! thou art an example of the truth of the saying, "The abuse of grace leadeth to obduracy! " I will not dwell on the honours received by the Mother of God at the hands of Englishmen in other days, nor speak of their devotion to the Queen of angels, so great that England in those days was called the portion or dowry of Mary.'s4. The author of a book called Primitive Christian Discipline not to be slighted, printed in 1658, exclaims: Miserable England, though sometime for a true professor of all virtue stiled: The Dowry of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, until brazen-faced heresy thus overwhelmed it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 148490740X
• ISBN13: 9781484907405
• Release Date: May 2013
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 518 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.2" x 6.0"