“Since the time of Gregory the Great, the Ave Maria has been part of the Roman liturgy as a prayer to be said on particular feast days. It had not been prescribed as a prayer which every Christian should know. It did not have the status of the creed or the Pater Noster. In the twelfth century the Ave Maria emerged as a popular catholic prayer. In 1198 at the synod of Paris, Odo de Soliac, bishop of Paris, prescribed that priests should exhort the people to pray the “Salutation of the blessed virgin” (Mansi 22:681). In the next century the prayer was recommended by a number of local councils. Not all these bodies reacted to a direct Cathar menace; for example, the action of the council of Covntry in 1237 scarcely responded to a Cathar danger. But the conciliar actions did reflect an ideology which the cathar menace had made prominent in the Church. In 1254, when the Cathars had been destroyed in southern France and a council of Catholic bishops met in the old cathar seat of Albi to root out the effects of the heresy, the three prayers prescribed to be taught to every child over seven were the Creed, the Pater Noster, an the Ave Maria (Mansi 23:837). The central cathar tenet was indirectly denied by the prayer, “Hail Mary, full of grace. The lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.””
