The Feast of the Immaculate dogma now held on this point was evolved by the subtleties and refinements of the schoolmen in the 12th and 13th centuries ; and after a debate of 600 years, in which popes and cardinals, kings and their ambassadors, sage doctors of philosophy and I heated enthusiasts, have taken part, it has only been made an article of faith by a decree of Pope Pius the ninth within the last ten years (Dec. 8th, 1354) The doctrine asserted is that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin. The distinction established is between absolute freedom from original sin in the first instant of conception, and absolute freedom from original sin from the first instant of conception ; for many theologians who granted the latter hypothesis would not allow the former. The arguments to prove it—partly the fitness of things, partly the miracles performed by the Vir gin in favour of the most dissolute and wicked of both sexes, provided they were diligent in the cele bration of her hours,' and the injunctions she laid upon those whom she had rescued from death under such circumstances, to celebrate the feast of her conception. The suppositions by which it is rendered credible—either that all Adam's posterity were implicated in his guilt, with a reservation in favour of that person of whom the Son of God was to be born, or that the curse fell upon the whole man Adam, with the exception of one single particle of his substance, which was to descend uncontaminated through all his posterity in one line, and ultimately to be formed into the sinless body of the Virgin. Foremost amongst its abettors were Duns Scotus and his followers the Scotists, and his commentator Bellarmine—the canons of Lyons, whose church was one of the first to celebrate her immaculate conception, and who thereby exposed themselves to the castigation of St. Bernard—the fathers of the council of Basle, wno pronounced in its favour after the council itself had been declared schismatic (438)—the kings Philip III. and IV. of Spain, who in vain solicited the Popes Paul V. and Gregory XV. to pronounce in its favour—and several popes who, without venturing to make it an article of belief, approved of offices for its celebration, gave indul gences to those who celebrated them, and sanc tioned fraternities and sisterhoods instituted in its honour. Against the dogma we have St. Augus tine and the whole body of the fathers who wrote before the controversy, but expressed themselves unequivocally on the point—Peter Lombard, St. Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, St. Bernard, and the Dominican brotherhood, with Vincent Ban dello the general of their order. The feast is said to have been instituted on the occasion of the preservation from shipwreck of St. Anselm, after wards Archbishop of Canterbury, and by the direc tion of Mary herself, who informed him that the day of her conception was the 8th of December.
The Nativity of the Virgin.—There is a good deal of controversy as to the time of its first cele bration, and its origin. It is celebrated on the 8th September, and is not traceable further back than the 9th century. There is a Romish calumny that Queen Elizabeth substituted her own birthday in its place.
Her Presentation in the Temple, November 21, mentioned in very early martyrologies, and in a constitution of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus.
Her Espousals, January 23.
The Annunciation, March 25.
The Visitation, July 2, established by Urbain VI., and approved by the council of Basle.
The Purification, February 2, established in the East under the Emperor Justinian, and a little later in the West.
The Assumption (Kolpqats, in the Greek Church), celebrated originally at different times, but fixed to be on the r5th August about the time of Charle magne. There has been almost as much diversity of opinion as to whether the body of the Virgin was taken into heaven, as there has been on the subject of her immaculate conception. Usuard, a writer of the 9th century, whose opinion is respected in the Church of Rome, says, 'That although her sacred body is not found on earth, the church, which is a pious mother, celebrates her blessed memory, not doubting in the least but that she died according to the condition of all mankind.
But the church being deliberate in her judgments, hath rather chosen to own she knows not where this sacred temple of the Holy Ghost is hidden, than teach anything herein either vain or apocry phal.' These words of Usuard were originally introduced into the service of the feast of the assumption, but were afterwards, about 155o, taken from it to introduce instead a sermon which taught just the reverse. But this sermon was again suppressed by the chapter of the Cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris, in 1668, and the pas• sage from Usuard restored (Fleetwood, Bishop of Ely, in Gibson's Preservative front Popery). The principal authorities on this subject are Launoy, Jacques Boileau, Joly, Combefis, Tillemont, on one side, and Gaudin and l'Advocat Billiad on the other. There appeared at Louvain, in 1786, Dis cussio Historica an de fide sit Assumptio, by P. J. Marant, a work which excited a good deal of indignation among the Belgian Catholics.
Besides the great festivals in honour of Mary, Particular churches and fraternities have had their private ones. Several religious orders have chosen her for their especial patroness, and the whole kingdom of France was, in 1638, placed under her protection by a vow of Louis XIII. Festivals have been established in honour of particular objects connected with her, as the chamber in which she was born, and which was conveyed miraculously from Nazareth to Loretto, la Cintola at Prato, la Saint Chemise at Chartres, the rosary which she gave to Saint Dominick, and the sca pular which she gave to Simon Stock ; and indul gences have been granted on the occasion of these festivals, and the devotions they elicited. Books have been written to describe her miraculous pic tures and images, and the boundless extent and diversity of the literature to which her worship has given rise may be inferred from a description of two of the 115 works, all on the same subject, of Hyppolyte Marracci, a member of the congrega tion of the Clerks of the Mother of God, born r6o4. Bibliotheca Mariana is a biographical and bibliographical notice in alphabetical order of all the authors who have written on any of the attri butes or perfections of the holy Virgin, with a list of their works. The number of writers amounts to more than 3000, and the number of works in print or MS. to twice as many. This rare and highly valued work is accompanied by five curious and useful indices. The other is Conceptio imma culatx Deiparce Virginis Maria celebrata MCXV anagrammatibus prorsus purls ex hoc salutationis Angelico programmate deductir ' Ave Maria gratiti plena Dominus tecum.' This work, of which he was only the editor, certainly exceeds in laborious trifling the production of Father J. B. Hepburne. the Scotch Minim, who dedicated to his patron, Paul V., seventy-two encomiums on the Virgin, in as many different languages.
It would take volumes to relate all that has been said on the mere subject of her name, and to enumerate the epithets by which she has been addressed. Gesenius derives 13"0 from nn, contumacia ; Schleusner, referring to Ruth i. 20, from 1:1?, amarus fuit, or from 01'1, altum esse, eminere, the I passing into an 4 mobile, and the hemantic being prefixed. This last deri vation is the more affected by the learned of the Church of Rome. But the devotees of Mary are bound by no puny rules of verbal criticism ; with them Star of the Sea is the favourite meaning of the name ; others prefer myrrh of the sea, and others say that God called the gathering together of the waters Maria (seas), that he might be the first to pronounce the name of Mary.
The cultus of the Virgin, though in some respects repulsive, and though directly at variance with the solemn words ' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve,' was, under many of its aspects, touchingly beautiful, and there cannot be a doubt that to the veneration and love with which she was regarded we are in debted for efforts in art, and emotions in connection with it, which could not possibly have resulted from any other cause.
(Lightfoot's Works ; Alford's Greek Testament; Wordsworth, Do. ; Bengel's Gnomon ; Biographic Universelle ; Gibson's Preservative from Popery.) M. H.