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IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, THE

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 335 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, THE . This See also:

dogma of the See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:Church was defined as " of faith " by See also:Pope See also:Pius IX. on the 8th of See also:December 1854 in the following terms: " The See also:doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin See also:Mary, from the first instant of her conception, was, by a most singular See also:grace and See also:privilege of Almighty See also:God, in view of the merits of Jesus See also:Christ, the Redeemer of the human See also:race, preserved from all stain of See also:Original See also:Sin, is a doctrine revealed by God, and there-fore to be firmly and steadfastly believed by all the faithful." i These words presuppose the distinction between original, or racial, and actual, or personally incurred sin. There is no dispute that the Church has always held the Blessed Virgin to be sinless, in the sense of actual or See also:personal sin. The question of the Immaculate Conception regards original or racial sin only. It is admitted that the doctrine as defined by Pius IX. was not explicitly mooted before the 12th See also:century. But it is claimed that it is implicitly contained in the teaching of the Fathers. Their expressions on the subject of the sinlessness of Mary are, it is pointed out, so ample and so See also:absolute that they must be taken to include original sin as well as actual. Thus we have in the first five centuries such epithets applied to her as "in every respect See also:holy," " in all things unstained," "super-See also:innocent" and " singularly holy "; she is compared to See also:Eve before the fall, as ancestress of a redeemed See also:people; she is " the See also:earth before it was accursed."2 The well-known words of St See also:Augustine (d. 430) may be cited: " As regards the -See also:mother of God," he says, " I will not allow any question whatever of sin." s i From the See also:Bull Ineffabilis See also:Deus. 2 See See also:Passaglia's See also:work, referred to below. a De natura et gratia, cap. See also:xxxvi. It is true that he is here speaking directly of actual or -personal sin. But his See also:argument is that all men are sinners; that they are so through original depravity; that this original depravity may be overcome by the grace of God, and he adds that he does not know but that Mary may have had sufficient grace to over-come sin " of every sort " (omni ex See also:paste).

It seems to have been St See also:

Bernard who, in the 12th century, explicitly raised the question of the Immaculate Conception. A feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin had already begun to be celebrated in some churches of the See also:West. St Bernard blames the canons of the See also:metropolitan church of See also:Lyons for instituting such a festival without the permission of the Holy See. In doing so, he takes occasion to repudiate altogether the view that the Conception of Mary was sinless. It is doubtful, however, whether he was using the See also:term " Conception " in the same sense in which it is used in the See also:definition of Pius IX. In speaking of conception one of three things may be meant: (1) the mother's .co-operation; (2) the formation of the See also:body, or (3) the completion of the human being by the infusion of the rational or spiritual soul. In See also:early times conception was very commonly used in the first sense—" active " conception as it was called. But it is in the second, or rather the third, sense that the word is employed in See also:modern usage, and in the definition of Pope Pius IX. But St Bernard would seem to have been speaking of conception in the first sense, for in his argument he says, " How can there be See also:absence of sin where there is concupiscence (libido)? " and stronger expressions follow, showing that he is speaking of the mother and not of the See also:child.' St See also:Thomas See also:Aquinas, the greatest of the See also:medieval scholastics, refused to admit the Immaculate Conception, on the ground that, unless the Blessed Virgin had at one See also:time or other been one of the sinful, she could not justly be said to have been redeemed by Christ.5 St See also:Bonaventura (d. 1274), second only to St Thomas in his See also:influence on the See also:Christian See also:schools of his See also:age, hesitated to accept it for a similar See also:reason.6 The celebrated See also:John See also:Duns Scotus (d. 1308), a Franciscan like St Bonaventura, argued, on the contrary, that from a rational point of view it was certainly as little derogatory to the merits of Christ to assert that Mary was by him preserved from all taint of sin, as to say that she first contracted it and then was delivered?

His arguments, combined with a better acquaintance with the See also:

language of the early Fathers, gradually prevailed in the schools of the Western Church. In 1387 the university of See also:Paris strongly condemned the opposite view. In 1483 Pope See also:Sixtus IV., who had already (1476) emphatically approved of the feast of the Conception, condemned those who ventured to assert that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was heretical, and forbade either See also:side to claim a decisive victory until further See also:action on the See also:part of the Holy See. The See also:council of See also:Trent, after declaring that in its decrees on the subject of original sin it did not include " the blessed and immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God," renewed this See also:prohibition:$ Pope See also:Paul V. (d. 1651) ordered that no one, under severe penalties, should dare to assent in public acts " or disputations that the Blessed Virgin was conceived in original sin. Pope See also:Gregory XV., shortly afterwards, extended this prohibition to private discussions, , allowing, however, the See also:Dominicans to argue on the subjects among themselves. See also:Clement XI., in 1708, extended the feast of the Conception to the whole Church as a holy See also:day of See also:obligation. See also:Long before the See also:middle of the 19th century the doctrine was universally. taught in the Roman Catholic Church. During the reign of Gregory XVI. the bishops in various countries began to See also:press for a definition. Pius IX., at the beginning of his pontificate, and again after 1851, appointed commissions to investigate the whole subject, and he was advised that the doctrine was one .4 S. Bernardi Epist. clxxiv.

7. Summa theologia, part iii., quaest. 27, See also:

art. 3. e In librum III. sententiarum distinct. 3 quaest. i. art. 2. In librum III. sententiarum dist. 3 quaest. i. n. 4; Cfr. Distinct. 18 n.

15. Also the Summa theologia of Scotus (compiled by a See also:

disciple), part iii., quaest. 27, art. 2. 8 Seas. v. De peccato originale. which could be defined and that the time for a definition was opportune. On the 8th of December 1854 in a See also:great See also:assembly of bishops, in the See also:basilica of St See also:Peter's at See also:Rome, he promulgated the Bull Incffabilis Deus, in which the See also:history of the doctrine is summarily traced, and which contains the definition as given above. The festival of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, as distinct from her Nativity, was certainly celebrated in the See also:Greek Church in the 7th century, as we learn from one of the canons of St See also:Andrew of See also:Crete (or of See also:Jerusalem) who died about A.D. 900.1 There is some See also:evidence that it was kept in See also:Spain in the time of St Ildefonsus of See also:Toledo (d. 667) and in See also:southern See also:Italy before A.D. 1000.

In See also:

England it was known in the 12th century; a council of the See also:province of See also:Canterbury, in 1328, ascribes its introduction to St See also:Anselm. It spread to See also:France and See also:Germany in the same century. It was extended to the whole church, as stated above, in 1708. It is kept, in the Western Church, on the 8th of December; the Greeks have always kept it one day later. The See also:chief repertoire of Patristic passages, both on the doctrine and on the festival, is See also:Father See also:Charles Passaglia's great collection, entitled De immaculato Deiparae See also:semper Virginis conceptu Caroli Passaglia See also:sac. S.J. commentarius (3 vols., Romae, 1854-1855). A useful statement of the doctrine with numerous references to the Fathers and scholastics is found in Hurter's Theologia Dogmatica (5th ed.), torn. i. See also:tract. vii. cap. 6, p. 438. The See also:state of Catholic belief in the middle of the 19th century is well brought out in La Croyance generale et constante de l'Eglise touchant l'immaculee conception de he bienheureuse See also:Vierge See also:Marie, published in 18J5 by Thomas M. J. Gousset (1992-1866), See also:professor of moral See also:theology at the See also:grand See also:seminary of See also:Besancon, and successively See also:archbishop of Besancon and See also:cardinal archbishop of See also:Reims.

For See also:

English readers the doctrine, and the history of its definition, is clearly stated by Archbishop See also:Ullathorne in The Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God (2nd ed., See also:London, 1904). Dr F. G. See also:Lee, in The Sinless Conception of the Mother of God; a Theological See also:Essay (London, 1891) argued that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is a legitimate development of early church teaching. (^IJ. C.

End of Article: IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, THE

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