Immaculate Conception

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

Preparation for the Dogma (§ 1).
The Dogma (§ 2).

Scriptural and Patristic Support Lacking (; 3).

Scholastic Opinions (§ 4).
The Feast (§ 5).

The doctrine of the immaculate conception of the

Virgin Mary is a modern dogma of the Roman

Catholic Church which declares the

:. Prepare- mother of Jesus absolutely free from tion for all implication in the fall of Adam and the Dogma. its consequences. Like most doc trines, it was the result of a long development, and embodies in its history the story of a struggle between the Thomist and Saotist parties in the Church which was not ended till 1854

(see 1 5 below). At the Council of Trent the Fran ciscans demanded the explicit exception of Mary in the dogmatic decree on the universality of original

sin, and found valuable support from the learned

Jesuits Lainea and Salmeron. The Dominicans entered a lively protest, and when the perplexed legates asked for instructions from Rome, they

were ordered to try to satisfy both factions. In this spirit was drawn up the decree on original sin published June 17, 1546. For a time the more sober-minded, even among the Jesuits, held to the decree. Bellarmine declared the object of the festival to be simply the conception, not the immaoelate conception, of Mary. Petavius, while personally believing in the immaculate conception, denied that it was of faith. Even when, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Spanish Franciscans, aided by the Jesuits, stirred up fresh excitement over the question, and Philip III. and Henry IV. sent embassies to Rome, the apostolic see preserved its diplomatic attitude. In 1617 Paul V. forbade both parties to engage in public disputes on this question, and Gregory XV. extended this prohibition even to private discussion, answering to the king of Spain that the eternal wisdom bad not yet revealed the heart of the mystery to men. But the tendency in Rome favored the Scotist view more and more. Alexander VII. called the view very ancient and pious, while still declining to pronounce the opposite view heretical. Clement IX. gave an octave to the feast of the conception of the Virgin Mary; Clement XI. raised the festival in 1708 to the rank of a holy day of obligation for the whole Church. Under Gregory XVI. a strong inclination toward dogmatic definition showed itself. Several French bishops and one German received permission in 1844 to insert the term "immaculate" in the mass of the festival. Pius IX. had a special, almost romantic, devotion to the Virgin, to whose protection he attributed his preservation on the occasion of his flight from the Vatican in 1848. While still an exile, he asked the bishops, in his encyclical of Feb. 2, 1849, to say how far a dogmatic definition would agree with their wishes and those of their people. A number of voices were raised in warning, and only three-fourths of the bishops agreed with the pope's desire; but the influence of the Jesuits was too powerful to be resisted. Perrone had already published (1847) an extended treatise to prove that the question was ripe for decision. In 1850 Pius named a commission to investigate the question, in which Perrone and his fellow Jesuit, Passaglia, were the most influential members. It reached no result until 1853, when it reported that no evidence from Scripture was needed for a dogmatic declaration, but that tradition alone sufficed, and that even this need not be shown in an unbroken line up to the time of the apostles.

Since these views were in harmony with the inclination of the pope, he called together in the autumn of 1854 a number of prelates The (54 cardinals and about 140 bishops),

Dogma. who, in a preliminary meeting, greeted the papal decision with loud applause. On Dec. 8 the pope solemnly took his seat in St. Peter's; the deanaf the Sacred College came before him, and in the name of the whole Church begged him to pronounce a final decision on the question which had so long been discussed. The actual terms of the decree, made public by the bull in efaUlis Deus on Dec. 10, are as follows: " In honor of the holy and undivided Trinity, for the glory of

456

the Virgin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the Christian religion, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and of our own office, we declare, pronounce, and define the doctrine which holds that the most blessed Virgin Mary was, in the first instant of her conception, by the singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, with regard to the merits of Christ Jesus the Savior of the human race, preserved free from every stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore is to be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful."

The dogma was not sanctioned by an ecumenical council; but since the Vatican Council of 1870 declared the pope infallible, independent of a council, the decree of 1854 must be received as an infallible utterance, and cannot be changed. Pius IX. had previously, by an encyclical of Feb. 2, 1849, invited the opinion of the bishops on the subject, and received more than 600 affirmative answers; only four dissented from the pope's view; and fiftytwo, while agreeing with him in the dogma itself, deemed it inopportune to define and proclaim it. The dogma of the immaculate conception is the culmination of the steadily increasing veneration of Mary, which appears also in the multiplication of her festivals (see Mary, the Mother of Jesus). It and the Vatican dogma of papal infallibility are the characteristic features of modern Romanism, as distinct from the Romanism of the Council of Trent, and have widened the doctrinal breach between it and the Greek and Protestant Churches.

No passage in favor of the dogma can be found in the Old or the New Testament; the interpretation of the protevangelium (Gem. iii. 15)

3. Scriptural

which makes it refer to Mary and and Christ is ruled out by the Hebrew text. Patristic The Bible declares all men -to be sin- Support ners, and in need of, redemption, and Lacking. exempts Christ alone from this uni versal rule. Mary herself calls God her. Savior (Luke i. 47), thereby including herself in the number of the saved, and implying a sense of personal sin and guilt. With this corresponds the predicate given her by the angel (Luke i. 28) " endued with grace " (E.V. " highly favored"). The Christian Fathers, though many of them (even Augustine) exempted Mary from actual trans gression, know nothing of her freedom from original sin, but always imply, and often expressly teach, the contrary. Some (as Irenæus, Tertullian, Origen, and Chrysostom) interpret Christ's words at the wedding of Cana (John ii. 4) as a rebuke of her unseasonable haste and immoderate ambition. The origin of the dogma must be sought in the apocryphal gospels. Its development was favored by the medieval sentiment of chivalry.

The schoolmen all agreed that Mary was exempt from actual transgression, but divided

4. Scholas- on the question whether she was contic ceived without sin and so was immao-

Opinions. ulate from the very instant of her con ception, or whether she was in the first instance tainted by original sin and made im maculate while she was yet in her mother's womb.

The latter view was taken by Anselm, Hugo of St. Victor, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventura (In senlentiaa, iii. b, iv. 3). Bernard of Clairvaua (d. 1153) rebuked the church of Lyons for celebrating a festival of the conception on the ground that it lacked the approval of the Church, of reason, and of tradition. If Mary, he wrote, was conceived without sin, why might not sinless conception be affirmed of all her ancestors back to the beginning. However, he expressed a willingness to yield in case the Church should appoint the festival (Epist. clgiv.). Bonaventum and others argued against the doctrine on the ground that the conception of the body precedes its "animation" (i.e., the first association of the soul with the body). In the conception of the body there is always concupiscence, so that Mary's body, having been received in the usual way, was sinful, and contaminated the spirit when the spirit came into contact with the body. Duns Scotus (d. 1308) argued for Mary's exemption from hereditary sin from the first moment of her conception by a threefold chain of conjectures. (1) God's grace would be enhanced by releasing one individual from all taint of original sin from the very beginning. (2) By conferring this benefit upon Mary, God would bind Mary to Christ by the strongest ties. (3) The vacancy, left by the fallen angels in heaven, could be best filled by Mary, if she were preserved immaculate from the beginning. As the second Adam was preserved immaculate, so it was fitting the second Eve should be. Duns expressed his conclusion in these words: "If the thing does not contradict the Church and the Scriptures, its reality seems probable, because it is more excellent to affirm of Mary that she was not conceived in sin" (In sententioa, iii. 3; cf. R. Seeberg, Dusa Scotus, Leipsic, 1900, pp. 247 sqq.; J. Schwane, Dogmengeschichte, Freiburg, 1890, pp. 424 sqq.). A warm controversy ensued over the immaculate conception between the followers of Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus. The Synod of Paris in 1387 decided in favor of the Scotist position, but the controversy became so disturbing that Sixtus IV. in 1483 threatened with excommunication either party which denounced the other. The Council of Trent left the doctrine unsettled and referred back to the decree of Sixtus IV. The Jesuits took it up and became its unyielding champions against the Jansenists and all other opponents. To their seal and their influence over Pius IX. the triumph of the Scotist view, in 1854, is largely due.

(PBILIP Sca.7t.) D. S. Scsaag.

The festival of the Inimaculate Conception, of importance since the Reformation, is purely Western; the feast of the Conception of St.

g. The Anne, which the emperor Emanuel Fast. Comnenus (d. 1180) commanded to celebrate on Sept. 9, for which George of Nicomedia (c. 880) wrote a homily, was rather a commemoration of the miraculous deliverance of Anne from the cures of sterility as narrated in the apocryphal gospels. The history of the feast in closely connected with that of the dogma. Although Augustine declares (De natura et gratis, alii.) that out of reverence for the Lord he intends to exclude

457

Christ's mother whenever sin is the subject of discussion, it may be shown by other passages that he is thinking only of actual sin. It was believed, however, that the Scripture spoke of Jeremiah (Jer. i. 5) and John Baptist (Luke i. 15) as being sanctified before their birth, and, although this obviously relates only to their preparation for the prophetic office, it was explained in both cases as signifying their purification from original sin. When Mary came to be placed higher than all the other saints, it was natural that at least an equal prerogative should be asserted of her. This contention is found as early as Paschasius Radbert (De partu trirg£nia). Anselm, indeed (Cur Deus horror, II., xvi.), says that Mary was not only conceived, but born in sin, as all have sinned in Adam. In 1140 certain canons at Lyons defended the theory of her immaculate conception, and celebrated a special festival (festum conceptionis, not immaculate; conceptionis) in honor of it. St. Bernard (Epist. clxxiv., c. 1140 A.D., Eng. transl. Works of Bernard, ed. Eales, ii. 512-518) controverted their opinion as in opposition to Scripture and tradition, asserting that the prerogative given by them to Mary was one which belonged to Christ alone, and admitting Mary's sinleseness only from her birth. Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Bonaventura, and Thomas Aquinas similarly confined themselves to asserting her sanctification before birth; a synod of Oxford, 1222, pronounced the feast unwoemary. The belief in the immaculate conception, notwithet~nding, became increasingly wide-spread, and was supported especially by the Franciscan order. The authority of Thomas Aquinas was first definitely contested by Duns Scotus (d. 1308), who taught the absolute preservation of Mary from original sin as highly probable. This doctrine became one of the principal points of controversy between Dominican, and Franciscans, Thomists and Sootists. The dispute was especially warm in the University of Paris, which pronounced in favor, 1380. The propositions in which the Dominican Johannes de Montesano (d. 1412) attacked the Scotist doctrine as contrary to the faith were condemned both by the university and by the pope in 1389, and Pierre d'Ailly and the chancellor Gerson declared themselves in favor of the Franciscan teaching. The Council of Basel (Sept. 17, 1439) affirmed it as a dogma of the Church, in full harmony with Scripture, tradition, and actual usage; but since by this time the council had taken a schismatic attitude, its decision had no effect. The papal policy, also, did not favor too speedy a decision in the controversy which so stirred the two powerful orders. Even the Franciscan pope, Sixtus IV., who before his elevation had written a treatise in support of the theory of his order, and as pope had confirmed the mass and office of the conception, endowing the festival with a plenary indulgence, yet threatened both parties with excommunication in 1483 if they ventured to secure each other of heresy, since the Church had not formally decided the question. On Mar. 3, 1496, the Sorbonne resolved to receive no one into its fellowship who would not take an oath to defend the doctrine to the best of his power; and 112 doctors of theology immediately took the oath.

Bibliography: The subject is discussed in the works of the principal snhoohnen, iris., Thomas Aquins. Bonsventurs. Albertus Magnus, and Duns Scotus. Cf. F. Morgott, Did Mariologie dos . . . Thomas iron Aquinas, Freiburg, 1878; B. Hander, Do Maria plenihAne pradia secundust S. Beraardum, ib., 1901. In favor of the doctrine are: J. Perrone, Do immaeulato . . . Maria concephb Rome, 1883; C. Paasglia, Do immaculate . . . v irginia conceptu, 3 vols., Rome, 1854-58; W. B.'Ullathorne, The Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, London, 1866; E. Proves, The Romish Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, London, 1887; J. B,-Ferrier, La Mire de dieu, 2 vols., Paris, 1900. Against it are: E. B. Pusey, Eirenicon, part if., London, 1870; J. J. I. iron Döllinger, Dee Papsttam, ad. J. Friedrich, Munich, 1892; K. Base, Handbook to the Controversy with Rome, 2 vols., London, 1908. Of the older Roman Catholic works may be mentioned: J. Turrecremats, Do roeritata eoaceptionia beato rirpinis. Rome, 1647, ed. E. B. Pussy, Oxford, 1889; and J. de Launoy, Prmeoipbons de conoeptu . . . Marie, Louvain, 1877 (by a Jansenist). Consult also the works on the history of doctrine, e.g., Hsrvaak. Dogma, v. 235, vii. 99; Schaff, Crmda, f. 108 sqq. 188, 211-212, 549; and the theological dfotioawies. A special collection of works on the subject exists in the library of Union Theological Seminary, New York.