Note 3 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
Hist. Apparitionis Deiparæ supra Columnam, Beato Jacobo apud Cæsaragustam prædicante. Ex cod. membraneo, qui in Archivo Sanctæ Maria de Pilari asservatur. Espana Sagrada, t. xxx. p. 426. Risco adds to this account, the Collect, which, from time immemorial, has been used in the Church of the Pillar. It may be added here as a curiosity for those who are not accustomed to such things. Omnipotens æterne Deus, qui Sacratissimam Virginem matrem tuam inter choros Angelorum super columna marmorea a te ab alto emissa venire, dum adhuc viveret, dignatus est, ut Basilica de Pilari in ejus honorem a Protomartyre apostolorum Jacobo suisque sanctissimis discipulis ædificaretur; præsta quæsumus ut ejus meritis et intercessione fiat impetrabile quod fida mente poscimus. Qui vivas et regnas, &c.
The French, as may be supposed, ridicule this fable; but, it is worthy of remark, that, in the early part of the last century, the Spanish annalist, Ferreras, represented the story as of doubtful authority; his book passed through the hands of the usual censors, and was printed; and then Philip V. the first of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain, a Frenchman by birth and education, personally interfered, commanded Ferreras to cancel the heretical leaf, and sent the edict in which this was decreed to Zaragoza, there to be deposited among the archives of the Virgin’s church, in proof of his especial devotion to our Lady of the Pillar.