That the opponents in this matter can be reconciled to some degree by certain facts
1 min • Digitized on May 9, 2023
From A Defense of the Teachings of Mary, page 94
By St. John Henry Newman
1. I have almost anticipated my first remark already. It is this: that the height of our offending in our devotion to the Blessed Virgin would not look so great in your Volume as it does, had you not placed yourself on lower ground than your own feelings towards her would have spontaneously prompted you to take.
I have no doubt you had some good reason for adopting this course, but I do not know it; what I do know is, that, for the Fathers’ sake who so exalt her, you really do love and venerate her, though you do not evidence it in your book.
I am glad then in this place to insist on a fact which will lead those among us, who know you not, to love you from their love of her, in spite of what you refuse to give her; and Anglicans, on the other hand, who do know you, to think better of us, who refuse her nothing, when they reflect that you do not actually go against us, but merely come short of us, in your devotion to her.