The Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic dogma holding that from the first instant of its creation, the soul of the Virgin Mary was free from original sin; this doctrine is not to be confused with that of the Virgin Birth, which holds that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin mother. It is based on the biblical idea of Mary's holiness (Luke 1:28), early church teachings on Mary as the "new Eve," and the belief that Mary is the mother of God (Theotokos, or "God-bearer"), articulated at the Council of Ephesus (431). The feast of the Immaculate Conception is observed on Dec. 8.
The story of the conception of Mary is found in the Protevangelium of Saint James; chapter 4:9 was sometimes deliberately mistranslated as the childless woman has conceived (rather than, correctly, shall conceive) in her womb. This added a miraculous element to the process and transformed the angelic visitation to Anna into an analogy of the Annunciation.
Despite divergent scholarly opinions, the Roman Catholic church has consistently favored belief in the Immaculate Conception; a festival of that name was celebrated in the Eastern church as early as the 5th century and in the Western church from the 7th century.
The principal theological controversy concerning Mary in the early Renaissance centred on the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Theologians questioned whether Mary, like John the Baptist, was sanctified in her mother's womb before birth, as opposed to being free of original sin at the moment of conception. Supporters of purification after conception claimed that the idea of Mary's Immaculate Conception directly contradicted Christ's role as the Universal Redeemer.
By the 1380's a clear split had emerged between the Franciscan and Dominican Orders. It was defended and preached by the Franciscan friars under the inspiration of the 13th-century Scottish theologian John Duns Scotus and vigorously opposed by the Dominican order following the precepts of St Thomas Aquinas.
Pope Sixtus IV, a Franciscan, defended it, establishing in 1477 a feast of the Immaculate Conception with a proper mass and office to be celebrated on December 8. This feast was extended to the whole Western church by Pope Clement XI in 1708. In 1854 Pope Pius IX issued a solemn decree defining the Immaculate Conception for all Roman Catholics, but the doctrine has not been accepted by Protestants or by the Orthodox churches. In 1950 Pope Pius XII solemnly defined as an article of faith for all Roman Catholics the doctrine of the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven.
The feast of the Conception of St. Anne appears in the Orient not earlier than the end of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth century. The feast originated in the monastic communities. The monks, who arranged the psalmody and composed the various poetical pieces for the office, also selected the date, 9 December, which was always retained in the Oriental calendars. Gradually the solemnity emerged from the cloister, entered into the cathedrals, was glorified by preachers and poets, and eventually became a fixed feast of the calendar, approved by Church and State.
It is registered in the calendar of Basil II (976-1025) and by the Constitution of Emperor Manuel I Commenus on the days of the year which are half or entire holidays, promulgated in 1166, it is numbered among the days which have full sabbath rest. Up to the time of Basil II, Lower Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia still belonged to the Byzantine Empire; the city of Naples was finally conquered by Roger II in 1127. The influence of Constantinople was consequently strong in the Neapolitan Church, and, as early as the ninth century, the Feast of the Conception was doubtlessly kept there, as elsewhere in Lower Italy on 9 December, as indeed appears from the marble calendar found in 1742 in the Church of S. Giorgio Maggiore at Naples.
In the Western Church the feast appeared first in Ireland. The Martyrology of Tallaght, compiled about 790, and the Feilire of St. Aengus (800) register the Conception of Mary on 3 May. St. Aengus adds, in the lower margin of the Feilire, that the conception (Inceptio) took place in February, since Mary was born after seven months - a singular notion found also in some Greek authors.
In England the feast is first found in a calendar of Old Minster, Winchester (Conceptio S'ce Dei Genetricis Mari), dating from about 1030, and in another calendar of New Minster, Winchester, written between 1035 and 1056; a pontifical of Exeter of the eleventh century (assigned to 1046-1072) contains a "benedictio in Conceptione S. Mariae "; a similar benediction is found in a Canterbury pontifical written probably in the first half of the eleventh century, certainly before the Conquest. These episcopal benedictions show that the feast not only commended itself to the devotion of individuals, but that it was recognized by authority and was observed by the Saxon monks with considerable solemnity.
No controversy arose over the Immaculate Conception on the European continent before the twelfth century. The Norman clergy abolished the feast in some monasteries of England where it had been established by the Anglo-Saxon monks.
It was, however, soon revived; several documents records that it was first restored at Ramsey, pursuant to a vision vouchsafed to Helsin, Abbot of Ramsey on his journey back from Denmark, whither he had been sent by William I about 1070. An angel appeared to him during a severe gale and saved the ship after the abbot had promised to establish the Feast of the Conception in his monastery.
Towards the end of the eleventh century, through the efforts of Anselm the Younger, it was taken up again in several Anglo-Norman establishments. That St. Anselm the Elder re-established the feast in England is highly improbable, although it was not new to him. He had been made familiar with it both by the Saxon monks of Canterbury, and by the Greeks with whom he came in contact during exile in Campania and Apulin (1098-9). The treatise "De Conceptu virginali" usually ascribed to him, was composed by his friend and disciple, the Saxon monk Eadmer of Canterbury.
When the canons of the cathedral of Lyons, who no doubt knew Anselm the Younger as Abbot of Bury St. Edmund's, introduced the feast into their choir after the death of their bishop in 1240, St. Bernard deemed it his duty to publish a protest against this new way of honouring Mary. He addressed to the canons a vehement letter, in which he reproved them for taking the step upon their own authority and before they had consulted the Holy See.
The letter of St. Bernard did not prevent the extension of the feast, for in 1154 it was observed all over France, until in 1275, through the efforts of the Paris University, it was abolished in Paris and other dioceses.
After the saint's death the controversy arose anew between Nicholas of St. Albans, an English monk who defended the festival as established in England, and Peter Cellensis, the celebrated Bishop of Chartres. Nicholas remarks that the soul of Mary was pierced twice by the sword, once at the foot of the cross and again when St. Bernard wrote his letter against her feast. The point continued to be debated throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and illustrious names appeared on each side.
St. Peter Martyr, Peter the Lombard, Alexander of Hales, St. Bonaventure, and Albert the Great are quoted as opposing it. St. Thomas at first pronounced in favour of the doctrine in his treatise on the "Sentences", yet in his "Summa Theologica" he concluded against it. Much discussion has arisen as to whether St. Thomas did or did not deny that the Blessed Virgin was immaculate at the instant of her animation, and learned books have been written to vindicate him from having actually drawn the negative conclusion.
The Franciscan Duns Scotus argued in favour of the feast and with the exception of the Dominicans, all or nearly all, of the religious orders took it up. The Franciscans at the general chapter at Pisa in 1263 adopted the Feast of the Conception of Mary for the entire order. The controversy continued, but the defenders of the opposing opinion were almost entirely confined to the members of the Dominican Order.
In 1439 the dispute was brought before the Council of Basle where the University of Paris, formerly opposed to the doctrine, proved to be its most ardent advocate, asking for a dogmatical definition. After it had been discussed for two years, the bishops declared the Immaculate Conception to be a doctrine which was pious, consonant with Catholic worship, Catholic faith, right reason, and Holy Scripture; nor, said they, was it henceforth allowable to preach or declare to the contrary.
The Dominicans, including St. Antoninus, Bishop of Florence (d. 1459), continued to oppose the doctrine. Finally, on 27 February 1477, the Franciscan Pope Sixtus IV in the Bull Cum Praecelsa adopted the feast for the entire Latin Church and granted an indulgence to all who would assist at the Divine Offices of the solemnity.
The Office adopted by Sixtus IV was composed by Leonard de Nogarolis, whilst the Franciscans, since 1480, used a very beautiful Office from the pen of Bernardine dei Busti. As the papal Bull did not prove sufficient to appease the conflict, Sixtus published, in 1483 and 1484, two further decrees, both entitled Grave nimis, in which he punished with excommunication all those of either opinion who charged the opposite opinion with heresy.
In 1497 the University of Paris decreed that henceforward no one should be admitted a member of the university, who did not swear that he would do the utmost to defend and assert the Immaculate Conception of Mary.