Mariolatry

For, though it were a knowen corruption, and therefore ſhould haue beene auoyded; yet [Robert] Bellarmine in muſtering vp the Fathers authorities, for proofe of the reading, ipſa (the beſt ground of their Mariolatrie) brings in [John] Chryſoſtom in the rereward.

Our great prophet has so ordered the revelation of God's will, and of the doctrines of life, that Christians have nothing to justify or excuse this Maryolatry,—this idolatrous exaltation of Mary.

St. Bernard [of Clairvaux] was a champion of the Virgin, second only to S^(n.) Buonaventura, the Seraphic Doctor; and both advocated Mariolatry to its wildest extent, substituting her for the Father and the Redeemer.

[I]f this is the rational reverence of Protestantism,—it cannot be long before the ingenuity of our enemies compiles the annals of Bibliolatry, abounding, if not with sad impieties, yet with absurdities as numberless and as noxious as the thousand and one Mariolatries, with which our controversialists are armed.

[O]n the side of the regulation religion [...] can be cited at best the regimental psalmody of Mr. [Rudyard] Kipling, lyrist of trumpet and drum; the stained-glass Mariolatries of Mr. Francis Thompson; and the Godism of Mr. [William Ernest] Henley, whereat the prosaic godly look askance.

Even historically, it is interesting to note, Roman Mariolatry now denies the very circumstances out of which it arose. [...] The second half of the 11th century theology is marked by two outstanding developments; one being the canonical declaration of Transubstantiation and the other being the rise of Mariolatry. Both of these were an attempt to express the saving presence of deity amongst men and directly available to men.

[I]t is understandable that Mariolatry has worked with unparalleled productivity in the history of piety without a sufficient historical basis and even to a great extent without an old tradition. In Mariolatry the church has not, as in Christology, pursued the inner logic of a historically given starting point, but has sought repeatedly to express its own essence in the figure of Mary.

In his Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864, 176–8), [John Henry] Newman's great autobiographical account of his gradual conversion, he tells us that Catholic "Mariolatry," the emphasis that Catholics place upon Mary and Marian devotions, had always been one of his greatest stumbling blocks.

Such mounting departure from truth, as Maryolatry, was instrumental in causing Christianity to be eliminated from another important segment of the Christian world. [...] [T]he overburden of superstition, especially the Maryolatry, caused Christianity to be swept away from that great land [Russia] with the revolution.