"
The other passage would have been decisive as to the belief of
Athanasius, had it come from his pen. "Incline thine ear, O Mary, to our
prayers, and forget not thy people. We cry to thee. Remember us, O Holy
Virgin. Intercede for us, O mistress, lady, queen, and mother of God."
[Vol. ii. p. 390-401.]
Had Bellarmin been the only writer, or the last who cited this passage
as the testimony of St. Athanasius, {181} it would have been enough for
us to refer to the judgment of the Benedictine editors, who have classed
the homily containing these words among the spurious works ascribed to
Athanasius; or rather we might have appealed to Bellarmin himself. For
it is very remarkable, that though in his anxiety to enlist every able
writer to defend the cause of the invocation of saints, he has cited
this passage in his Church Triumphant as containing the words of
Athanasius, without any allusion to its decided spuriousness, or even to
its suspicious character; yet when he is pronouncing his judgment on the
different works assigned to Athanasius, declaring the evidence against
this treatise to be irresistible, he condemns it as a forgery. [Bellarm.
de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, Cologne, 1617, vol. vii. p. 50.]
Since, however, this passage has been cited in different Roman Catholic
writers of our own time as containing the words of Athanasius, and in
evidence of his genuine belief and practice, and that without an
allusion even to any thing doubtful and questionable in its character,
it becomes necessary to enter more in detail into the circumstances
under which the passage is offered to our notice.
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