Note 2 — I J.

There cannot be a stronger instance of the absurd and superstitious veneration that was paid to these laws, than that the most learned writers of the times thought they could not form a perfect character, even of the blessed Virgin, without making her a Civilian and a Canonist. Which Albertus Magnus, the renowned Dominican Doctor of the thirteenth century, thus proves in his Summa de laudibus Christiferæ Virginis (divinum magis quam humanum opus) qu. 23. §. 5. “Item quod jura civilia, & leges, & decreta scivit in summo, probatur hoc modo: sapientia advocati manifestatur in tribus; unum, quod obtineat omnia contra judicem justum & sapientem; secundo, quod contra adversarium astutum & sagacem; tertio, quod in causa desperata: sed beatissima Virgo, contra judicem sapientissimum, Dominum; contra adversarium callidissimum, dyabolum; in causa nostra desperata; sententiam optatam obtinuit.“