Thanks for posting these, JM. This is some really interesting stuff. I haven't watched all of them yet, but I watched the first one and will watch the others later.
One thing, though: the earliest hymn to St. Mary the Theotokos is found in a third century liturgical text of the Coptic (Egyptian) Nativity liturgy, c. 250 AD. I don't remember its more famous Latin title off the top of my head, but today when we sing it in Arabic it is
fi zol hamaytiki (beneath your protection). Here it is with modern instrumentation, if you're interested:
I know it might not make much of a difference to most people whether it was mid-3rd century or 4th as he says in the video, since that's not a long span of time, but I think pointing out the presence of this hymn is important for a few other reasons:
(1) To be included in the text of a Nativity/Christmas liturgy suggests that it probably predated the composition of said liturgy by at least some time, since obviously we do not reinvent the wheel anew every Nativity. Really for any prayer to be accepted into the Church like this, where it is publicly proclaimed as part of our corporate worship, it is a sign that what we are looking at is usually very old and quite solid. By contrast, the 'newest' hymns that I am aware of in the Coptic Orthodox tradition in particular are some we borrowed from the Greeks in the 1850s-1860s at a time when we were considering reuniting in Egypt, like the hymn that celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit
Asomen To Kyrio and a few others. (Coincidentally, it was also in the 1850s-1860s when the first organized Protestant missions came to Egypt to convert the Coptic Orthodox people to Christianity, as those missionaries understood it.) The fact that we know the time period to which our newest additions to the hymns can be dated (as well as some other liturgical changes specific to the Coptic Orthodox rites) hopefully shows that we are not afraid to admit when something is new, so it's not really a race to get to whatever point of doctrine or practice 'first' or whatever. Hence, speaking personally, I don't think the "Protestantism is so new" observation is really even much of a criticism, depending on the context. If that's all someone has to say, I would say "Yes, and? You have a problem with people coming to Christ if they did so after you?" But then I am not as irenic as the man in the video.
(2) Though I'm writing about the Coptic Orthodox Church in particular (which is neither Catholic or Eastern Orthodox) because that's where the earliest evidence of the earliest known Marian hymn is found, it would be a mistake to suggest as the man in the video seems to that this veneration of the Theotokos was not widespread. The hymn in question also appears in the liturgies of the Roman Catholic, Armenian, Eastern Orthodox, and Ambrosian churches (so, a mix of West, East, and 'Orient'), indicating wide acceptance that has transcended subsequent schisms.
