Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Omitted in our kalendar, because there had been so many fabulous
and superstitious stories devised about it in the Roman
Church, where they now observe this day with more festival
solemnity than they do the Ascension of Christ Himself.
But they have no certain ground for their feast; for, first, how long the blessed Virgin Mary lived, and at what time or place she died, no account can be given out of the holy
Scriptures, which say nothing either concerning the time of
her nativity, or the day and manner of her death. Nor
is there, secondly, any mention made hereof in all the
writings of the ancient fathers during the first five ages
of the Christian Church. But in after times there rose
up a generation of men, who, being not content with the
former silence of Scripture and antiquity herein, fell to surmise and make many stories about it of their own heads,
fancying to themselves rather what they would have bad
done, than what was truly and really done in this matter ...
The truth is, that the story of her assumption, now so
much celebrated and generally believed in the Roman
Church, is grounded only upon uncertain fables, first devised by men that gave their minds to vanity and superstition; of which kind the world never wanted store ...
And for this consideration it was, that the Church of
England did by public authority abrogate this feast of the
blessed Virgin's Assumption, whose soul nevertheless we
believe to be assumed in paradise, there expecting the resurrection of her body (which was the choicest vessel of God's
grace that ever the world had among all His saints) for the
consummation of her endless felicity.
John Cosin, 'On the Kalendar' in
Notes on the Book of Common Prayer,
Works, Volume V.
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