A hymn to the Virgin Mary (HL, 2, pp 324-5). The author invokes her as the hope of the world and asks her to console the distressed. She was the virgin chosen to be the mother of Christ without the intervention of a man and to suckle him in a miraculous way. The author asks her, the empress of the angels, to comfort sinners but not to honour those whose conduct is unnatural or cruel. He asks her to seek pardon for him from her son, whose anger he fears, since he has sinned against him. He begs her not to withdraw her grace from him. He asks her to enable him to live in the fear of God, worthily, avoiding sin and loving what is righteous. He invokes her peerless virginity, through which God chose her as the mother of his son. He asks that through her prayers, Christ, who cleansed Mary [Magdalen] the sinner of her guilt, may cleanse him, lest hell should engulf him. He invokes her as the rose without thorn, who brings healing to sinners, and asks her to intercede for him with God, that he may be saved from the storms of this foul world, whose torrents