ABSTRACT
In order to understand Marian Catholic theology and spirituality, this chapter explores how the authors treated the subject of their texts: revelation, which they referred to as the Word of God. In his Assault of the Sacrament, Miles Hogarde presented the Catholic doctrine of the eucharist in an extended tableau which illustrated the role of faith and reason in assenting to revelation as transmitted through scripture and tradition. Scripture, the canon of Jewish and Christian texts held sacred by the church, possessed the chief place among the channels of revelation. For Marian authors, tradition was the Word of God not contained in scripture: the living faith of dead Christians, which originated in the teachings of the apostles. Marian theologians attempted to discuss revelation according to the humanist influences they had received in their university education and printed literature.
