"
It was but a small step from the worship of a beloved mistress to the
cult of the Virgin Mary. The Church, hostile at first, finally
acquiesced, and "through her official acknowledgment of a female deity,
open enmity between the religion of the Church and the religion of woman
was avoided." A woman, that is to say, the Virgin Mary, had stepped
between God and humanity as mediator, intercessor and saviour.
Both Dante, the inspired woman-worshipper of the Middle Ages, and the
more modern Goethe, saw in metaphysical love the triumph over all things
earthly. And far above either of these intellectual heroes looms the
awe-inspiring figure of Michelangelo, the scoffer, to whom love came
late in life; in his ecstatic adoration of Vittoria Colonna, the
enthusiasm of Plato and the passion of Dante are blended in a more
transcendent flame.
Sexual Mystics and the Brides of Christ present the darker aspect of
metaphysical love. All the latter, including even Catherine of Siena (a
clever politician who kept up a correspondence with the leading
statesmen of her time), Marie of Oignies, and St.
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