IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF Tut: BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, FEAST OF, a festival celebrated on Dec. 8th in the Latin, and on the 9th in the Greek church, in which latter church it is held under the name of "The Conception of St. Anne," the mother of the Virgin Mary. The festival of the conception itself is traceable in the Greek church from the end of the 5th c., and in the Latin dates from the 7th; but a great controversy 'prevailed for a long time in the west as to whether and in what sense the conception of the blessed Virgin diary was to be held immaculate, and in what sense the blessed Vir gin herself was to be held conceived without sin. It was believed to be a consequence of the doctrine of the divine maternity, and a necessary part of the honor due to the incarnation, that the blessed Mother should be held to have been at all times free from the stain of sin. This might have been, either by her having been, like the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. i. 6), or the baptist St. John (Luke i. 35), sanctified before her birth— that is, purified in her mother's womb from the stain of original sin; or by the still higher sanctification of having been entirely exempted from the stain of sin, either—for the discussion was carried to all these subtleties—before the formation of the embryo in the womb of her mother, or at least before its animation by union with the soul, The actual controversy in the west may be said to have commenced with St. Bernard, who not only remonstrated with the canons of Lyons in 1131 for their unauthorized intro duction of this festival in their cathedral, but rejected the opinion of the blessed Vir gin's having been conceived free from original sin, though he admitted her sanctification in her mother's womb (Epist. 174, Ad Canon. Lugdunensis). The discussion thus raised led to a protracted controversy in the schools. The great master of scholastic subtlety, John Duns Scotus, in a disputation held before the university of Paris in 1307, main tained the doctrine of the immaculate conception in its highest sense ; and the entire order to which he belonged, the Franciscan, as well as the school to which he has given his name, the Scotists, afterwards zealously defended it. On the other hand, the Thomist school, which was that of the Dominican order, having denied the immaculate conception, much division for a time existed; but the prevailing tendency was at all times towards the Scotist opinion. The university of Paris, in 1387, condemned the Thomist doctrine. The council of Basel, although, it is true, at the time when it was in conflict with the pope—declared the doctrine of the immaculate conception to be a Catholic dogma, and reprobated in the strongest terms the opposite opinion. Sixtus IV., however, imposed on the defenders of both opinions, in 1470, the obligation of mutual toleration and charity, and renewed this constitution in 1483; but in the end of the same century the university of Paris required, as a condition of the doctorate, an oath on the part of the candidate that he would defend the dogma of the immaculate conception. The council of Trent, without discussing the scholastic dispute, merely
declared that " in its decree on original sin it did not comprehend the blessed and immaculate Virgin Mary," and renewed the constitution of Sixtus IV., already referred to. This abstinence on the part of the council led to a further renewal of the dispute, which reached such a pitch, towards the close of the 16th C. that Pius V. not only pro hibited either side from stigmatizing the opposite with the name of heretical. but for bade all public discussions of the subject, except in theological disputations in the presence of a learned auditory. In the pontificates of Paul V. and Gregory XV., earnest instances were made by the Spanish crown to obtain a definite declaration in favor of the doctrine of the immaculate conception; but the pope again refused, contenting him self with repeating the constitution of Sixtus IV. He added, however, certain new provisions: 1. That disputants, in asserting the doctrine of the immaculate concep tion, should abstain from assailing the opposite doctrine. 2. That no one except the members of the Dominican order, and others specially privileged, should presume to defend, even in private disputation, the doctrine that the blessed Virgin Mary was con ceived in original sin. 3. That, nevertheless, in the public mass or office of the church no one should introduce into the prayers or other formularies any other word than simply conceptio, without adding any epithet involving either doctrine. At the same time, opinion was setting steadily in favor of the doctrine of the immaculate concep tion. Alexander VII., and afterwards Clement IX., added new solemnity to the festival. Clement XI. ordained that it should be observed as a holiday of obligation, and at length Gregory XVI. permitted that the epithet immaculate should be introduced into the public service. In the end, at the instance of bishops in various parts of the church, the late pope Phis IX. addressed a circular to the bishops of each nation, calling for their opinion, and that of their people, as to the faith of the church on the point; and on the receipt of replies all but absolutely unanimous, he issued a solemn decree at Rome, in a numerous council of bishops, on Dec. 8. 1854, declaring the doctrine to be an article of Catholic belief, and proposing it as such to the universal church. This decree has been implicitly accepted throughout the Roman church.