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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^arlin fJcVJ..SHcllier. HollyeJ' i >> • ^ ■ -3 I {\^% ^k> .? Tf.Vft't^--. '■ A HTSTOJiy ()F U % A V ■ V, ' I. A J, .sATf ■ i')£K4L, C. E. : ■ I . J'-', 153 a i;;: :.. :i..v I nAi •TU.- -JLL .^■*^. i u 5 s s & s 2 -«? .3 f v a O Mi &h Thou art all fair, my love, and there is not a spot in thee. ,i POLEMICAL TREATISE ON TBB IMMACULATE CONCEPTION ' i OF TBI BLESSED VIEGIN. BY CARDINAL LAMBRFSCHINI. TO WHICH 18 ADDHD, A HISTORY OF THE DOCTRIKE, BY FATHEK FELIX, S.J. THB FBENOH POBTION OT THE WORK TBAN8LATBD BT MBS. J. BADLIER, AND THK LATDf EXTBACTS TROJC THE HOLT rATHSBS, BT A CLEBOYMAN. TO WHICH ABB APPENDED, A DI8C0CB8K ON THK IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, BT 8T. ALPHON- BUS MARIE DB LIGUORI; THE LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF HJS HOLINESS POPE PIUS IX ; CARDINAL WISBMAn's PASTORAL ON THB DECLARATION OF THK DOGMA AT ROME, ETC., ETC. -<^-¥- NEW-YORK: D. A J. SADLIER A CO., 164 WILLIAM STREI BOSTON: 128 FEDERAL STREET. MOKTREAL, 0. I. : COR. OF ST. PBAN0I8 XAVIBR AND NOTRB DAMB STRBBT8. I860. /''"°' "'^''^ *"*«*«' "y 'ove, my dove, my beautiful one, and come. i\A% Wk hereby approve of the publication of a Treatise on the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by His Eminence Cardinal Lambruschini. VERY REV'D. WM. STARRS, V. G. NKW-YonK, Feast of St. Joseph, March 19, 1855. Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1865, by D. k J. SADLIER & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of thf United States for the Southern District of New-York. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. -**- ^HE work now offered to the pub- lic is made up of several parts. Of these, the principal is the fa- mous Treatise of the late lamented Cardinal Lambruschini, containing copious extracts from the works of the Holy Fathers : the latter are, m this translation, rendered from the Latin by a clergyman who kindly undertook that most im- portant part of the translation. We give as an Introduction a series of articles which appeared some years ago in Z'Ami de la Religion, from the pen of an eminent Jesuit, Father Felix. They were written as a review of Father Perrone's work on the Immaculate Conception. Although both treating of the same subject, ih^ two works are entirely different: that of his Eminence Cardinal Lambruschini gives, as it were, the theological bearmgs of the question; that of the learned Jesuit is of a more philosophic nature, and pre- iv translator's preface. Bents rutlier the rationale of what may be consid- ered the great question of the day. Both together will, it is hoped, form a complete treatise on the Immaculate Concejption. To both these works we have appended the Latin quotations in the form of notes, for the satisfaction of the learned. In order to make the work still more complete, we have given an account of the proceedings at Kome during the memorable days preceding and succeeding the declaration of the Dogma. These we have copied from the most reliable of the pub- lic journals. We also append the Discourse of St. Alphonso Liguori on the Immaculate Conception ; the Letters Apostolic (Latin and English) of our Holy Father Pius IX, announcing the solemn defi- nition of the doctrine, together with the beautiful Pastoral of Cardinal Wiseman on the same subject. Thus complete, we send forth the work, in the name and honor of Her whom all Christians de- light to honor, now more than ever, as the Queen conceived without sin. Montreal, Feast of the Purification of B. V. Mary, February 2d, 1855. CONTENTS. "■ —♦•———__ HmwRrcAL Sketch or thr Costrovkrst on the Immacdlab Conception By'^" Father Felix, S. J., """. uy Dedication, .....' ^ Introduction, . . • • 87 89 I, n. Conception ia either active or passive. ' 40 III. The passive Conception of Mary was Immaculate 4. IV. It was most fitting that Mary should be exempt from original Sin, . . .42 V, VI. This exemption is proved by arguments talcen from the Holy Scriptures, . 48 VII. There is nothing contrary to the Immaculate Conception of Mary to be de- duced from the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, . . . « VIII. The Council of Trent inclines to our opinion, ^g IX, X. Ihe Declaration of the Council of Trent confirms the opinion that Mary was exempt.from original sin. . . ' 62 XI. The opponents of the doctrine seek in vain or a renewal of the Constitu- ions of Sixtus IV, attributing to the deciaraUon a meaning contrary to that pious opinion, . . . """iuy • 64 XII, '^'^Ar? on°^ **"" ^*""'"" "^ ^"'' '"^°P**^ "y ^^ P'-ov'^c'al Council of XIII. ^"''tion o'fZrr ^°°"? ''''°"' ''' °'''°'°° "' *^' Immaculate Concep- VI C O N T K N T 8 . *» ZIT. tMm Prohibition to speak against the opinion that Mary was exempt from original 8ln %\ XV. The opinion favorable to Mary's privilege may alone be maintained either In public or in private, 68 XVI, XVII. Alexander VII renews and confirms the Constitutions of his predecessors In favor of the Immaculate Conception, ....... 68 XVIII. Judgment of the Holy Fathers on the present question — The silence of the two first centuries Is by no means Inimical to the Immaculate Concep- tion, but on the contrary supposes It, 66- XIX. Document which Justifies that supposition, •••••••M XX. Origen admits the fair privilege of Mary, •••••••tt XXI. The Greek Liturgy and Menologies confirm our doctrine, . • • . tp XXII. The Fathers of the fourth century are favorable to the pious opinion that Mary was exempt from original sin, 70 XXIII. Famous testimony of St. Jerome in favor of our doctrine, . t • • Tl XXIV. Important testimony of St. Augustine on the subject, . • • • . 78 XXV. The word renascendi employed by the holy Doctor is not at all farorabla to the contrary opinion, 74 XXVI. Those passages wherein the holy Doctor affirms that original sin was trans- mitted to all men, do not include the Blessed Virgin Mary, . . .76 xxvii— xxxn. Testimony of other Fathers of the Church In favor of Mary's privilege, . 77 XXXIU. St. Bernard was never opposed to the doctrine of the Immaculate Concep- tion of Mary ; he is defended against such an imputation, . . .91 88 66 C0NTKNT8. yJi — »« XXXIV, XXXV. f^„ It Is probftble that In lils letter to the Chiioiih of Lyon«, the Saint ipoke of U\e active and not of the jmsglve conception, 35 XXXVI-XXXVIII. Bt. Thomas is exonerated from the charRe of denying the Immaculate Con- ceptlon of Mury— I'usBuges from his works which are favorable to it, . 88 XXXIX. The writings of the holy Doctor have been altered ia lome pUoei, , , ft Xli— XLII. Examples of these Interpolation', aa XLIII. Doctrines of the Theologians on this sukiJeot, .....,, M xuv. Bt. Domlulck u defender of our doctrine, • • • « M XLV. St. Vincent Ferrier defends our doctrine, . . • , iflt XLVI. It was also the opinion of Albert the Great, ^ ^ iqo XLVII. John of Viterbo, an adversary of the pious opinion, became its defender^ Reasons of this change, ••..... i/u XLVm. Consequences which proceed from this document, • . • , . 106 XLIX. Opinion of Thaulere, Melchior Cano, and Noel Alexander, . , , .log L. Opinion of Vincent Justinian, --jo LI. Favorable testimony of St. Bernardlne of Sienna, St. Bruno, St. Lawrence Justinian, St. Thomas of Vlllanova, St. Aiphonso de Liguori, . . .109 LII-LIV. The Theologians of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with few excep- tions, strenuously defend our doctrine, .... 11« LV. Authority of Suarez, LVL Authority of Petau, ..... „- "^ii CONTENTb. ».«. _ Authority of Corneille de la Pierre, Uj LVIIL Cardinal Bellarmine is favorable to the pioua opinion that Mary was ex- einpt from the original stain, jjj Testimony of Barradi, ^^ LX. Father Corrio an illustrious defender of the pious opinion— Cardinal Gerdil also professcu the same doctrine, ........ 121 LXI. All the Universities have adopted this opinion i22 LXII. Popes and Bishops, Monarchs and Nations, favorable to the pious opinion, 128 ■ ' LXIII. The common consent of the faithful proves the truth of the opinion that Mary was exempt from original sin, j28 LXIV. The unanimous consent of the faithful is preparing a formal definition of the present question, ,„„ LXV. Prophecy contained in the Fortieth Psalm relating to this privilege of Mary, 129 LXVI, LXVIl. Our doctrine is not the less valid h. ause the Church has not yet defined the question— The Miraculous Medal, and miracles wrought by it, . . 182 APPENDIX. Disccurse on the Immaculate Conception of Mary, by . Alphonsus de I^'g"""-! jgg The Litany of the Holy Virgin, with extracts from the Fathers, . ! 169 Letters Apostolic of our Most Holy Lord Pius IX, by Divine Providence Pope* concerning the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception of the 'Virgin Mother of Qoa (Latin and JEufflish), 577 Cardinal Wiseman's Pastoral on the declaration of the dopm'a in Rome, . 220 The Festival of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, and the ceremonies of the publication of the dogmatic decree at Rome,' December the 8th, 1854, from the Jiornale de Roma and I'Univera, . 288 INTRODUCTION. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CONTROVERSY. BY FATHEK FELIX, 8. J. Men whose minds love to follow in events here below the traces of the divine plans, have some- tjmes asked themselves, " Why has God permitted the belief in the Immaculate Conception to meet with contradiction in the Church? Was it his will that, agitated by dispute, as the tree by the tempest, that belief, by the very effect of the agi- tation, should strike its roots deeper in the souls of men ? that emerging one day from the shock of human ideas, it should glorify the spotless Yirffin , by the splendor of its testimony ? Or rather, was It his purpose to hold opinion divided and science m suspense for a certain time, to leave love the merit of a free and devoted adhesion ? God alone knows. But what imports it that Providence lias not yet decided? There is a clear manifestation of God s designs to bo found in history; it is this: When It pleased the Lord to open a career of 6 INTRODUCTION. contest for this belref, till then undisputed, he that day decreed that it should be victorious ; and that toilsome march through a course of agitation, was, accoraing to the designs of God, but a long prelude to the victory. This is what we find out by fol- lowing the Keverend Father Perrone in his his- torical account of a controversy famous in the annals of theology. The belief in the Immaculate Conception lived in the minds of men, long ages before it was pub- licly spoken of: for it is worthy of notice that, in the Church, the peaceful reign of belief always precedes the noise of controversy which time brings on. Silently controlling minds, it went on dis- playing itself more and more by its natural ex- pression, the ceremonies of woi-ship and liturgic forms, when an unforeseen event disturbed the peace of a secular possession. Desirous of obtain- ing for their church an advantage already enjoyed by so many others, the canons of Lyons took it into their heads one day to institute in that re- ligious city, the feast of the Immaculate Con- ception, and without applying to Rome, they made the solemn inauguration on their own authority. On hearing this, St. Bernard, whose thought filled the Church, whose eye overlooked the world, raised his voice from the depth of his cloister with a cry of admonition and alarm. He was amazed and indignant to see observed in the sanctuary a INTEODUCTION. solemnity unauthorized by the Pontifical sanction, and he let fall oh the Chapter of Lyons the full weight of his displeasure. Whatever might have been St. Bernard's opinion, that great man was set down as an opponent, and his name became, thenceforward, a watchword. Under the influence of his renown, the battle-field was extended far and wide. Two parties are speedily formed : on one side is Nicholas of St. Albans, and on the other Pierre de Celles, covering with the lustre of their respective names a host of others of lesser note : the former contending for the ancient tra- ditions of Great Britain, his native country ; the latter for the honor of the great Saint interested in the debate. This struggle, maintained with equal ardor for and against the institution of the festival, continued till the end of the twelfth century. It is, however, to be observed, in passing, that all those who then declared against the solemnity, never pretended to oppose the belief, whilst the defenders of the festival considered themselves bound by the force of circumstances to defend the privilege. But the human mind, ever prone to penetrate, does not long accept intermediate discussions.' Thus, from being at first engaged on the cele- bration of the feast, the controversy soon passed on to the more dogmatical discussion of the belief; and in this condition it continued all through the 9 INTRODUCTION. thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, agitated as it was by the master minds of the day. Although more radical than it was at the outset, the dis- cussion had not yet sufficiently disengaged the main point from its accessories ; and as it always happens, the want of precision on the real object of the controversy, prevented any good that might have accrued on behalf of the truth, until the lu- minous mind of St. Bonaventure at length dis- cerned and revealed to the contending parties the true nature of the question. The word Conception was perpetually recurring on both sides ; but what was the meaning of that word ? Did it signify the concurrence of material elements in the formation of the virginal body of the Blessed Virgin Mary ? or did it simply indicate the union of her holy soul with the body already formed? This distinction was a ray of light illuminating the whole thesis: - the Seraphic Doctor had made it understood that, in the latter case, the question was simply this whether in forming this marvellous work, God had united to the body of the Blessed Yirgin, a soul adorned with, or deprived of original justice. Re- duced to this formula, the controversy was pro- longed, without either party gaining much ad- vantage over the other, when suddenly there was seen to enter the lists a man who was to change the face of things. That man, immortalized by this discussion, was John Duns Scotus. God was 1 N T R O D tJ T 1 O N . 9 about to show the power of a genius sent by hira for the triumph of a cause, when with equal learn- ing and devotion, that man takes his stand on the firm ground of truth. Laying hold of the diffi- culty just where St. Bonaventure left it, and plunging into the very heart of the question, the Franciscan, by a new mode of attack, armed him- self with the arguments of his opponents ; and in presence of all the assembled glories of cotempo- rary science, he pleaded, it is said, the cause of the Immaculate Conception with so much power and effect, that in a very short time his opinion per- vaded the schools. The voice of Duns Scotus acted on the minds of men as an electric shock • the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was everywhere propagated with the fame of that great contest ; the feast was on all sides inaugurated amid the applause of the churches ; a Roman l^ontift was seen to welcome it to the Eternal Oity, and, encouraged by so high an example, the Benedictines, the Carmelites, the Celestines, the Trinitarians, the children of St. Augustine and of bt. Bernard, and especially those who had given to the cause its most illustrious champion, all hastened to open their sanctuaries to a doctrine which was rapidly advancing towards explicit belief. But such is the misery of human contests: even where science ai: : levotion are brought to bear on the struggle, I know not what mysterious instinct 10 INTRODUCTION. it is that tends to protract discussion, even when victory appeared decided. The triumph of the pravailing party appears to the others a calamity which must be averted at all risks. Thus it was that the very success contributed to raise again a standard which appeared for ever fallen. The dogma was thought to be compromised by the propagation of a belief which did not quite agree with the theology of its adversaries ; the phantom of heresy, evoked by zeal, frightened the defenders of the faith, and it so happened that their very de- votion to Catholicity carried the sons of St. Domi- nic over to the opposition. But notwithstanding the power of these auxiliaries, and the halo of glory which encircled their name, the issue of the contest was no longer doubtful. They could still dispute, but they could not overcome. The thesis of Duns Scotus reigned supreme. The Sorbonne itself, at first astonished at the Franciscan's bold- ness, had, at length, adopted his opinion ; and it is well known what it soon after did iii order to secure the services of its doctors on behalf of the glorious privilege. Hence, great was its indignation on hearing one of its own members, opposing Catholic dogma to the Immaculate Conception, charge its defenders with heresy. This insulting accusation, so imprudently made by Jean de Montezon, against a cause so highly patronized, excited a fresh tumult. The two camps were already formed, genius and 1 N T R O D U C T I O 1^ . 11 learning being found on both sides, when the Coiincii of Basle, lifting up its voice amid the clamor of the contest, declared the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception pious, conformaUe to Scripture, and in harmmiy with Catholic faith and worship, and commanded its adversaries to be silent. But what could a headless Council do to calm such a storm? It is true, the Pontiffs were tliere to support the defenders of the pious belief with the weight of their venerated word. Sixtus ly was peculiarly favorable to the cause. He was seen alternately throwing open in its favor the treasury of the Church, encouraging by indul- gences the office of the Immaculate Conception, menacing with his thunders any one who dared to tax with mortal sin the celebration of that office, or to mention as heretical the doctrine which teaches that Mary was never defiled with the origi- nal stain. Although deeply wounded, the oppo- sition was not crushed, and the Council of Trent found it still living. It was thought at one time that the august tri- bunal where the Holy Ghost, through the organ of the Church, decides so many important disputes, would at length put an end to this discussion. IJie opinion of the Fathers was not doubtful ; but adversaries were there, covering themselves, for 3'!rL^"-^*>^ ''''^^' ^^'^ *'''P^® recommendation of ,.,..f.^ ^ . Catholic devc'tion. The Di- VI rt 12 INTRODUCTION. vine Wisdom presiding over the Council sng- gested moderation, and the decree was not made. Not that a single doubt lingered in the mind of that holy assembly ; for, in order to testify to the entire world its sympathy for the Immaculate Conception, the Council declared that it had no intention to include the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary^ Mother of God, in the decree which proclaims the universal propagation of original sin in the race of Adam ; and it added that the Con- stitutions of Sixtus IV were to be maintained. For the good sense of the people, this was suffi- cient ; for obstinate science, it was too little : the . party survived this heavy blow. In vain did St. Pius Y proscribe a proposition of Baius rejecting Mary's privilege ; in vain did he give to the feast of the Conception the hitherto unheard-of sanction of a rigorous precept ; in vain did he forbid, under the most severe penalties, the continuance, in any of the vulgar tongues, of a dispute which could only scandalize the people ; in vain did the Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition obtain, at the re- quest of the Spanish monarch, a decree marked with the pontifical seal, forbidding any one to af- firm, thenceforward, that Mary was conceived in original sin ; it was still necessary for Gregory XV to silence the adversaries once again, and to forbid them from making their debates public'. Driven back, then, into the depth of souls, the INTRODUCTION. ' — •■- 18 opposition 8oon endeavored to return into the con- troversy by way of equivocation. The word con- cejption, so long and so warmly contested, would be given up ; but the word immaGulate, to what did it refer? was it to the conception itself? or was it not rather a simple qualification of the person ? This sophistical distinction openly belied all the antecedents of the controversy; it even insulted the great names mixed up with it on either side ; and yet it was about to renew the struggle, when in 1661, on the very day of the Conception, ap- peared the ever memorable Constitution of Alexan- der VII. There, every avenue was closed against the spirit of contention ; there, the meaning of the festival was clearly explained, the pontifical dispo- sitions revealed, the treasury of the Church opened wider than ever, the devotion to the Immaculate Conception explicitly drawn up, approved, and en- couraged; finally, every succeeding Pontiff re- newed and sanctioned the menaces of his predeces- sors against any writing or discourse impuffninff the pious belief. r 8 s « Tliis was a death-blow to a desperate cause, which had long exhausted its strength by discus- sion. From that hour opposition was unheard of within the Church ; doubt and negation, which for- merly manifested themselves in clamor and dissen- sion, dared no longer assail the mind, and there were none but sectarian voices to disturb from time u INTRODUCTION. to time the unanimity of a concert which has con- tinued for two centuries. Tliis universal concord, after a struggle so long and so determined, is a grand and most eloquent testimony in favor of the Immaculate Conception. Yet God had still higher manifestations in store for it. The nineteentli cen- tury was to form, as it were, an apogee of glory for this holy belief. Our own age has seen Eome covering it more than ever with the majesty of its approbation. In our days we hear Catholic voices sing in the Litany : Queen conceived without sin, pray for us. What do I say ? Even amid the pomp of the Sacrifice, is it not given us to hear that word which was a sign of contradiction, re- sounding like the echo of an unanimous belief, and going up to heaven with the people's prayer? What was wanting to complete the triumph? Only to see the adversaries themselves coming over in a spirit of love and devotion to the cause they had so long struggled against. Well! this com- pletion of success God reserved for this age. The unspotted Yirgin now beholds the most sturdy op- ponents of her privilege glorying in laying down their arms at her feet as a magnificent trophy of her victory. And was not the general of that valiant militia himself seen, on the 10th of Decem- ber, 1843, soliciting in Rome, for his brethren, the privilege of celebrating, juxtaproprium ritum, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and to chant INTRODUCTION 15 at the Preface, in the chapels of their Order, that word against which they had so long struggled with all the power of their learning and their voice ? Sons of St. Dominic, receive the felicita- tions of a grateful and rejoicing brotherhood. That cause which must have triumphed by your agency, if truth were not stronger than genius, was destined to fail in your hands ; but even in that, God pre- pared for you a new species of triumph, for He was about to show by your example that there is a glory still greater than that of victory ! Such is the term appointed for the belief in the Immaculate Conception after running such a stormy course. For five hundred years has it been at- tacked, and for five hundred years has it been vic- torious. Threatened by genius, by genius is it gloriously defended. Always denied by some, it at length receives the consent of all ; finally, ac- cused at one time of heresy by a rash theologian, it manifests itself in the nineteenth century as a devotion eminently Catholic. Such are the mys- terious ways of God. That long series of combats was but the march to a solemn triumph. Wonder- ful policy of God ! When He permits a truth to be subjected to human discussion, the voices of men are uplifted ; but He, amid the tumult of the strife, silently pursues his course, and hurries on the debate to its inevitable term, where victory awaits the truth. The thought that slowly pierces 16 INTRODUCTION. each successive pliaso of that long controversy, ap- pears in the nineteenth century with all the splen- dor of a supreme definition ; and, if it be true that the past and tlie present prophesy, may we not say that the belief in tlie Immaculate Conception has m Its history a presage of its future, and, as it were, a prediction of its Canwlic destiny ? ^ What we are now to consider is : Canthehelief m the Immaculate Conception, as it now stands, receive the sanction of a dogmatical definition f The question is twofold ; it regards both the theory and the application; let us divide the elements of the thesis in order to examine them separately It IS of history that this belief never figured in the creed, and that it long divided the minds of men : now, the first question is. Can a belief hitherto free, and long even an object of serious discussion, become an article of faith ? Suppose the affirma- tive; It is incontestable that any belief whatsoever, in order to take its place in the Catholic creed' inust have the conditions requisite to form a suffi- cient basis for the dogmatical definition : does the Immaculate Conception possess the.e jt^rovious con- ditions ? This is the second questi^ n To ask whether a belief once disputed may be inserted in the creed, is, at the first glanCe, a ques- tion which may appear useless to men versed in *h3ology. ^Nevertheless, there are few questions \\S\oh it imports us more to examine at the present INTRODUCTION It ^orsy, ap- lio splon- true that e not say ption has nd, as it he helief > stands^ tuition f e theory nents of )arately. id in the )f men : hitherto ciission, affirma- tsoever, creed, a siifR- loes the 'US con- nay be a ques- *sed in estions )resent day by the test of true principles. What, say some, decree faith, create dogma, institute a truth on such a day of such a year! Such is the scandal of ig- norance arining from the heresy and incredulity of our age. It is, therefore, very necessary to ascer- tain, in the first place, the part which the Church has to play in dogmatical delinition. All belief dogmatically defined must make part of revelation ; must consequently be contained in the divine word, whether written or transmitted; for if the word of the Church is the immediate and living rule of our faith, she herself lias in the word of God her supreme and fundamental rule. The Church, by dogmatical decision, does not, then, create the truth ; she makes neither the dogma, nor the revelation of the dogma; she merely prockims its existence with an infallible, indeclinable au- thority. The dogma which authority proclaims to- day, was yesterday ; before the decision, it existed in its substance ; after the decision it appears with its formula, and is of obligation. The part of the Church, in dogmatical decision, may then be de- fined : The legitimate and infallihle declaration of a revealed truth. But a truth may be many ways contained in revelation. It may be in it in the terms which express it, that is to say, explicitly, to speak the language of theology; and in that case, the ofHce of the Church is usuallv confined to pro- clamnng the divine inspiration of the books which 18 INTRODUCTION. contain those truths, which may be called the pri- mary truths of Catholic dogma. Such are, in gen- eral, the propositions which express the mysteries of the birth, hfe, and death of our Saviour, and all the truths formally enunciated in the Holy Scrip- tures. But there are also truths in the depository of revelation which we would seek in vain under their strict terms ; and yet they are in it : but how are they in it? Implicitly, say the theologians: that is to say, they are in it, as the conclusion is in its principle ; or else they are in it of themselves, as truths of immediate revelation, but in a sort of latent condition, living in shade and silence, till uplifting the veil which covered them, and emerg- ing by degrees from a certain primitive obscurity, they one day appear in the light derived from the motion of things. Then the truth is marked out, it is perceived, and manifesting itself thus openly be- fore the error which denies it, the Church recognizes it as her thought, and says, on beholding it: That is my faith ; I never lelieved otherwise. Can a truth so circumstanced rank with articles of faith ? The question thus laid down has long since re- ceived an affirmative solution from theologians of the first order. Bellarmine, Yasquez, Melchior Cano, Suarez, Petau, are here in perfect harmony. Some words from that famous man who summed up, in his ov/n person, the theological school of the sixteenth century, will suffice to indicate the I lii{ INTEODUOTION ID opinion of that age. " It is certain," says Siiarez, " that we now believe truths which the Church did not formerly believe with explicit faith, although they were implicithj contained in the primitive doctrine.' A truth may have been long disputed, and yet a day may come when the Church finds sufficient reasons for inserting it in the Catholic creed. For," adds that great man, "the Church, by her authority, has often decided such contro- versies, without any new revelation, as may be shown by manifest examples."" Tliese words of Suarez put us in the way of a decisive demonstration in a Catholic point of view It is the property of an infallible institution that the deed brings with it the right. You ask what the Church can do ? Behold what she does. At Kice, the Church declares the baptism of heretics valid ; yet who is ignorant of the solemn debate between St. Stephen and St. Cyprian? At Flo- i-ence, the Church declares that the saints, after , their entire purification, immediately enter into glory. ^ Yet every one knows what a noise was made m the Church by the famous question of the Veium est ahq„am propositionem er^plicith nunc credi de fu\. qiue antea e^plicith non credebatur ab EcclesU oiZ! ; ' cite ia docUuna antiqua continorotur ' ^ '"'"'' '"''P^'' 20 INTRODUCTION. beatific vision. At Trent, the Church proclaims it of tradition and -of divine revelation, that adultery does not break the conjugal tie ; yet had not learned doctors and provincial councils professed a con- trary doctrine ? We might here, with the theolo- gians, multiply examples frequent in history ; but let us hasten to conclude : the Church has, in the lapse of ages, opened her creed to truths previously free, and even opposed by some of the learned and the virtuous ; that is undeniable ; the cause is, therefore, judged ; the right does exist. But it is remarkable that the opinion of Catholic doctors, and the practice of the Church, are strongly confirmed by reason and good sense. If, indeed, the Church can only define that which is revealed,' there is no law that everything revealed must be immediately defined. What is there to hinder that luminary which God has placed in the bosom of his Church from gradually attaining its perfect radiance ? . . . Why should not our dogma have, without changing its nature, its peculiar mode of . growing, and developing itself? . . . Wliat ! shall it be said, development in the immutable, and in the hosom of the unchangeable, the progress of time! And why not ? Doubtless, to impress on Catholic dogma its incommunicable character, it was requi- site that that dogma should be formed at a single cast, and spring into existence complete in all its parts. Eut Providence has its time for all things, M INTRODUCTION. 21 proclaims it liat adultery [ not learned issed a cou- tlie theolo- listoiy; but has, in the 5 previously learned and e cause is, of Catholic ire strongly If, indeed, is revealed, ed must be hinder that ! bosom of its perfect gma have, ir mode of , at ! shall it and in the ? of time! m Catholic was requi- at a single :e in all its all things, : and could it not postpone tlie full manifestation thereof? And as science was one day to reproach Catholicity with shutting up the human mind in a stationary dogma, was it not expedient to provide successive developments for our dogmatic unity, in order to show the world how it is possible to be both immutable a7id progressive? Yes, it was good to oppose to a progress vainly devised by man, the reality of Catholic progress. Philosophy has long dreamt of progress; but all the elements of progress are wanting to it. Progress must have a startmg-point ; where is that of philosophy ? It must have a fixed terminus; where is the terminus ot philosophy ? It must have a law of progression • where, once more, is that of philosophy ? For it' the unknown is at both ends of human develop- ments Fatally thrown between two mysteries, the life of humanity realizes nothing but an irregular transformation; and that progress, with- out begmning and without end, is but the perpe- tuity of destruction. It is very different with Cathohc doctrine ; it knows where it starts • it knows where it is to end ; and its course lyinc^'be- tween two terms immutably fixed, accompl!;hes the only progress that reason can approve. Ever immutable, ever substantially the same. Catholic dogma, according as it advances in time, dilates treasuie which has its source in the iQfinite. Now 22 INTRODUCTION it dispels the lingering shadows of the past from a truth which is to illumine the future. Now it begets at the appointed time the conclusions which spring from its eternally fruitful principles, ac- cording as the assaults of error urge it on to the development of its divine seeds. Thus dogma goes on increasing without, brightening with all the truths which God raises over his Church, growing larger and clearer in the minds of men, but never • changing, never transformed. And thereby, it solves the grand problem : Progress in immutO' hility, and stability in motion. There is nothing in this theory to alarm enlight- ened orthodoxy. Suarez laid its solid foundations. Discussing the subject now before us, that great doctor proposes this question : " Has faith pro- gressed in the Church, as regards certain truths which are now of faith, and in former times were not so?"' And after a profound examination of Uie truths successively added to the Catholic creed, the learned theologian concludes thus : " Thus, therefore, can the Church progress with a certainty of faith."' Moreover, Suarez is here but a faithful echo of Catholic antiquity. Vincent de Lerins professed that doctrine w^ith a rigor and a boldness ^ Una superest expedienda difficultas, an scilicet in Ecclesid CatholicA creverit fides, quoad aliquas propositiones credeudas de fide posteriori tempore, qiise antea non credebantur tanqudm de fide. " lik ergo potest Ecclosia proficere ctiam cum certitudine fidel "i INTRODUCTION. 23 which defied our humanitarian progress at a dis- tance of fifteen centuries. Let us hear the philo- sopliical challenge of that theologian, so dog- matically exact : What I it may perhaps be said, 'there is, then, no progress in the Church of Christ.' There is progress in it, and very great progress ; but it is indeed progress, and not change; for, by progress, a thing increases, remaining still itself; whereas, by change, it is transformed into something else." And after having shown how the human body passes through all the phases of its development, while still retaining its identity, "even so," he continues, "must the Christian dogma, following the laws of a similar progress, strengthen with years, increase with time, rise with age, yet still incorruptible and unalterable in ita integrity." And if it be asked what the holy Church meant by the dogmatical decrees of her Councils, the philosophic theologian replies: "She meant that what antiquity had simply believed, should be thenceforward believed with more pre- cision, and that ancestral inheritance which she had received from the hands of tradition she would charge the Scripture to transmit to posterity, con- taining in a few words a great quantity of matter • and for the furtlier enlightenment of mind, most frequently designating by a new word a faith which was not new."^ 'Foreitan dicet aliquis : NuUus-ne ergo in Ecclesid Christi pro/' 24 INTEODUCTION Such is the profound yet simple theology of Vincent de Lerins; such is still the Catholic 'doc- trine regarding development and the stability of dogma. And thus it happens to the theory of progress, as it does to every other anti-Christian doctrine : what it pursued with toil and trouble, is found in the bosom of Catholicity. In leaving us, philosophy may carry off a word, the thing re- mains with us. In vain does the activity of man stir up an idea that comes from us, demanding of it an unknown perfection and felicity. Whilst his wisdom perishes in the midst of his abortive works, old reality continues ever blooming in the heart of Catholicity, and calmly pursues that upward course which is to terminate in God. fectus hnbebiturreligionis? Habeatur pland, et maximiia sed ,ta tamen ut vere profectus sit ille, fidei non permutatio.' biquidem ad profectum pertinet, ut in semetipsum unaqiiiBquo xt% amphficetur; ad permutationem ver6 ut aliquid ex alio in aliud transvertatur , . . . . . Ita etiam Christianas religionis dogma sequatur has docot profectuiim regulas, ut annis scilicet consolidetur, dilatetm- torn- pore, sublimetur jstate, incorruptum tamen, illibatumque porma- . . . Quid unqudm aliud conciliorum dccretis enisa est nisi ut quod ante4 simpliciter credebatur, hoc idem posted diUgontiCis crederetur . . . nisi ut quod prius d majoribus sold traditione susceperat, hoc deind^ posteris per scripturaj chirographum con- signaret, magnam rerum summam paucis litteris comprehendendo et plerumque propter intelligentiaj lucem, non novum fidei flensura' novffi appellationis proprietate signando. (Vincent. Lirin. Com. momt. c. XXIII.) INTKODUCTION. 25 Tims the opinion of theologians, the practice of the Church, are confirmed by the eminently ra- tional theory of Suarez and Yincent de Lerins. We are to conclude then that the Catholic creed may grow in extension, according as the Church, by her infallible authority, increases the number of truths formally defined, and that, consequently, a revealed truth, which never made part of the creed properly so called, may, by a providential order of things, be placed in a condition which authorizes the Holy Catholic Church to stamp it with the immutable seal of a defined dogma. Whether the belief in the Immaculate Conception of the holy Mother of God is now in this condition, is what we are about to consider. Suarez feared not to say to the men of his age : " I afiirm that this truth may be defined whenever the Church thinks proper; because the Sove- reign Pontifi-s Sixtus lY and Pius Y, in their Constitutions, and tlie Fathers of Basle, in their Declaration, suppose that the controversy may be decided in both senses, and, moreover, because this truth of the supernatural order may attain such a position that the holy Church, without any new or explicit revelation, may find sufficient reasons to define it dogmatically, in virtue of a tacit and im- phcjl ^rcvelation, suffic iently manifest."^ «,L^''' ;'«;it^tem hanc posse definiri ab Ecclesid, quando~H expedirejudicavent . . . Nam Ecclesiam posse hanc controver- 26 INTRODUCTION. ! So said Suarez, at the end of the sixteenth cen- tury, with the greatest theologians of the school. What would he say now ? Does the Church now find in the new situation of the belief sufficient motives for afiirming, by a solemn declaration, the, at least, implicit revelation of the Immaculate Conception of the blessed Virgin Mary ? This is the whole question. Doubt appears no longer possible, amid the blaze of light which now surrounds our holy belief; and Suarez in the nineteenth century would not hesitate to decide, that it may henceforward, whenever the Church pleases, take its place in the Catholic creed. A rapid glance over its theological foundations will suffice to settle all doubts. The dogmatical definition must, we have said, rest on the revealed word. Let us then interrogate the sources of revelation. What says the Scrip- ture ? We must at once confess that the belief of the Immaculate Conception is not revealed therein by any direct testimony : nowhere does it present the strict formula of the doctrine. But if the Scrip- ture alone does not carry conviction, who may deny eiara decidere apert6 suiiponunt Sixtns IV et Pius V iu suis De- cretis, et idem senserunt Patris Concilii Basiliensis . . . Seciindo htec Veritas est supernatiiralis et potest pervenire res ad eum sta- turn, in qao absque novd et explicita revelatione, habeat Ecclesia motiva sufficieiitia ad veritatem banc definiendam, ex implicit^ et tacita Dei revelatione sibi eufficienter propositd. (In 3 S. Tboni, q. 27, a. 2.) ill INTRODUCTION. £7 that it strangely induces it? Can all those pas- sages go for nothing wherein the greatest Doctors thought they perceived the mind of God? And that famous Conteret^ if it do not of \\&^i finish the demonstration, who will dare to deny that it strik- ingly begins it? If Mary herself Avere one day to fall under tlie dominion of Satan, what becomes of the energy of that prediction : She shall crush thy head? a word whose incomparable solemnity seems to foretell not only a triumph, but the plenitude, the very ideal of victory. Is the Holy Scripture silent on this point? Even so, tradition is also the voice of God ; what matter if Scripture be silent whilst tradition speaks? But does tradition indeed speak of the Immaculate Con- ception ? Let us see. Tradition has its instruments and its witnesses ; numerous instruments, and divers witnesses, who in their testimony corroborate each other, but of whom one alone would suffice to attest it. And first the holy Fathers present themselves as living echoes repeating it from age to age ; let us then examine their testimony. Do the doctors of the first centuries explicitly testify the belief of the primitive Church? Sup- pose they do not, no one will conclude that wit- nesses are wanting to tradition; tradition being able, without the holy Fathers, to accomplish its work and pursue its course. The first Fathers spoke little of the Immaculate Conception: it is 28 I N T K (► D i: C T I O N i easy to conceive that the design of God was to instruct Iiis Church by little and little ; and that almost unbroken silence need not surprise us, see- ing that the defenders of the faith had many more decisive questions to maintain. They did not give the precise formula of our belief: why should they, when it was the belief of all, and when no one dreamed of disturbing its peaceful reign? It is when error rises to attack, that truth, in its turn, rises to defend itself Yes, it is on the day of its denial, that any belief whatsoever standing out from the multitude of truths tacitly admitted, and show- ing itself as it really is, says to the opposer : " Y^ou deny me; well : here I aynP As regards the doc- tors of the fifth century, how can we wonder to see them occupied, before all else, with the universal law of sin and the dominion of concupiscence, since they had to contend against a heresy insolently denying both one and the other, the heresy of Pe- lagius ? There is no word of exception, when the law itself is in question. We may even add that in their vehement defence of the law, it is not difficult to suppose an ajyparent opposition to the privilege. Illustrious names have, therefore, been cited against us, and if we might believe certain men, St. Augustine, St. Fulgentius, Ferrand the deacon, St. Ildefonso, and many others, were the avowed enemies of the privilege. And what was the result of the laborious investigation of their writ- INTRODUCTION. 99 ings? What thoughts were brought to light from 80 many accumuLited texts? The flesh of Mary was sinful flesh ; Mary was suhject to that u?iwer^ sal law which projmgates original sin in all the race of Adain. Tliis is just what all these doctors did not fear to atMrm under forms more or less severe. But, this language is only surprising to the careless or the ignorant. The flesh of Mary was sinful flesh. Who is ignorant that the flesh of Mary proceeded, like ours, from a corrupted source ? Who is ignorant that concupiscence, often identified even with sin in the language of Scrip- ture and of the Fathers, had its share in the for- mation of her virginal body? Mary was suhject to the universal law of original sin. Could the holy Fathers say otherwise ? And what is proved by their verbal proclamation of the law, when in their opinion the privilege escaped the law? Did some of the holy Fathers really mean to deny the privilege ? It is difficult either to affirm or deny it with full conviction : but it is generally certain that, under these divers forms, the idea of attribut- ing original sin to the Blessed Virgin is not to be tound. Popular conviction gave a meaning to these words, and it was this : Excepting the incom- parable privilege of Mary, the torrent of concupis- cence brought defilement with life ; and save tlie exception, the law of universal propagation subject- ed it to original sm. Besides, if the holy Fathers, defending the law of original sin, meant to exclude 80 1 K T K O D U T I O N . Mary's i)rivilege, Augustine's triumph must evi- dently liavo annihiljitcd our lioly belief. How then are we to account for the fact that after the defeat of Pelagius, and the solemn proclamation of the law of sin, the belief takes a flight till then un- heard of? We must here make choice between two alternatives. We must either admit this sim- ple interpretation, or otherwise take in their literal sense those formulas of the holy Fathers, and then it will not only be defilement in the conception, but also in the birth, and in the very life of the Blessed Virgin, that will spring from these texts ; many of the holy Fathers pushing the boldness of their words so far. The silence of the first Fathers of the Church would then prove nothing against Mary's privilege; neither would the apparent opposition of the doc- tors who came after them. But hitherto we are in hypothesis ; what says reality ? Do the Fathers and the Doctors manifest only opposition towards the Immaculate Concep- tion ? Do they even observe the neutrality of si- lence ? And has history no name to evoke, no tes- timony to record in favor of that holy belief? In reading over the work of Father Perroue,' we see pass in review before us a long array of Catholic doctors, each having a w^ord in support of it and a ' It was a revie-w of tbia work on the Immaculate Conception that gave rise to these articles of Father Felix, which appeared in four numb"™ of VAmi d« la Religion. INTIIODUCTION. 81 tribute of praise to glorify it. More than forty in turn attest this tradition, which stretches from the cradle of Christianity to the days of St. Bernard, when tlie banner of opposition was first raised : here we find St. Denis of Alexandria, St. Justin, St. Epiphanius, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Tertullian, Origen, St. Ephraim, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Fulgentius, Theodore of Ancyra, St. Maximus, St. Peter Chrysologus, St. Sal)ba8, St. Andrew of Crete, Esychius and Theodore of Jerusalem, St. Germanus, John the Geometrician, Fulbert of Chartres, Paschase Radbert, St. John Damascene, Sophronius, St. Peter Damian, St. Anselm, St. Bruno : such are the names found amongst a crowd of less famous names and of anonymous authoi-s. ' Some of these testimonies suppose the Immaculate Conception, others express it in equivalent terms, others formally define it, and so by divers ways all end in the same point, the ImmaGulate Concep- tion ; and such is the energy of their words and the drift of their assertions, that if Mary knew for one instant the stain of sin, we must admit that all these men, so great by virtue, so illustrious by genius, so venerable by antiquity, have made a compact to connive at error through all time and space. Let us then venture to say with Father ^ See pages 51-G8 and 210-219 of Father Perrone's work, where the texts are quoted and discussed by the author. The narrow limits of an artido will not permit us to give the quotatiouB in detail. 32 INTRODUCTION. I Perrone : Few of the truths ah-eady inscribed in the creed, would find in variety such admirable unity of evidence. The voice of the Fathers is not, then, silent. Had it been so, we repeat, does any one think that the tradition could come down to us ? Yet there is a voice stronger, more vast in its eloquence than the voice of the doctors ; it is that which speaks in prayer, resounds in hymns, and goes forth like an oracle from the depth of the sanctuary — the voice of the Liturgy. The Liturgy supposes the belief, and openly manifests it. A faithful and a magnifi- cent translation, it does something more than ren- der the Christian thought ; it makes it shine out. And let us bear in mind that it is not the idea of one man, of one bishop, of one doctor ; it is the idea of a church, often of a great nation, which glitters in the splendor of the temple. Thus, be it said in passing, great -was the oversight of those who understood not that, by inaugurating new lit- urgies, they condemned to death the most lively witnesses of Catholic tradition, and often in one day effaced the vestiges of fifteen ages of faith. An ancient liturgy is like a man who is at once the cotemporary of the past and present ; an old man, who never dies, and is there to tell the living the faith of generations passed away. Well, what is the testimony of the Liturgy? Does us life of eighteen centuries say nothing as to our present belief? Let us leave hostile erudition to pursu© INTRODUCTlO]^, 38 conjecture and weary itself with driftless details. It is certain that liturgies, doubly respectable from their antiquity and the sanctity of their authors^ assert more or less the Immaculate Conception ; it is certain that even in the fifth century the East celebrated the feast of the Conception, and that in the seventh century it was there highly honored ; it is also certain that in the tenth century, at the latest, the West joined the East in the celebration. It even appears incontestable, that long before that period Italy had taken the initiative, and that so early as the fifth, and even the fourth century, the belief in the Immaculate Conception was manifested with the pomp of ceremonial. We say the Imma- culate Conception; for is it to be supposed that the Church, who honors nothing but what is holy, would have celebrated the feast of the Conception, if she had not believed in the sanctity of the Conception ? This united voice of the doctors and the liturgy, the double expression of the same thought, must have exercised a powerful influence on the belief; and God thus prepared for the Immaculate Concep- tion the most imposing of its proofs, the unanimous consent of the clergy and the people in one com- mon opinion, which may be regarded as that of the Church herself. The Holy Ghost, whose invisible action is everywhere present in the supernatural order, himself concurs with events to form by little and little this grand concert of truth. "Yes," says Suarez, " we must believe that this universal 84 INTRODUCTION concord of minds and hearts in the same faith and the same love was formed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit." If you follow through the lapse of ages the career of the pious belief, how can you doubt but that God conducts it ? Received at first without any formula, by I know not what Catholic instinct, you see it emerge from obscurity, slowly pierce the forms of worship as it were through a transparent veil, and even in the fifth century, such is tlie power and universality of its prescription, that Pelagius brings it forward against Augustine as a manifest and acknowledged fact. After that memorable struggle, after the solemn declaration which seemed as though it would anni- hilate it, by propounding the univei'sal pro2:)agation of the original taint, the belief, far from perishing, appeared more vivid than ever. ... At length the hour of contest comes in its turn. For ages long, error has been trying its impotent arms one by one against it. From the height of their thrones, the Roman Pontifi's contemplate the struggle: they strike from time to time ; and it is worthy of note that, of so many blows whose wounds are still felt by the opposition, not one aims at that belief which has all the sympathy of the Church. At length, a day arrives when error has done its work . . . the belief triumphs over all . . . and ever since, not a thought denies, not a word attacks it, not a mani- festation except in its favor. It is Catholicity by fact^ the fairest prelude to Catholicity by right. INTRODUCTION 35 Thanks to Heaven, the happy day foreseen by Siiarez lias dawned on us. The belief in the Im maculate Conception has dispelled its final clouds, and by the light which surrounds it, the Church discovers and may proclaim it as a truth of divine revelation. We may also speak of the propriety of the glorious privilege, of its conformity with the nature of things, in the depths of man and of God. Assuredly we do not pretend to base a whole demonstration on propriety; but nevertheless it cannot be denied that great light comes from that side. Propriety may sometimes go so far as to amount to certainty, especially when it is sup- ported by positive testimony. We all acknowledge that God has given our Mother an unequalled majesty in the creation, so that in the order of na- ture, as in the order of grace, Mary is the first. Kow a special prerogative, an incomparable privi- lege in an unexampled dignity, is order ; it is in- deed that lofty fitness from which God does not derogate. If sanctity, preceding birth, could invest privileged souls in the maternal womb, does it not seem to you that Mary's sanctity ought to extend farther ? Eve, the mother of tli'e dead, is created in life ; ought Mary, the mother of the living, to be conceived in death ? Mary came into the world to deliver, to triumph with her redeeming and vic- torious Son ; was it meet that she should commence her existence by slavery and defeat ? The angels on their first appearance shone in justice ; doubt- 36 i I f I I N t R O t) U C T I N . less it was not expedient that the Queen of An^relg should shine with histre inferior to that of her sub- jects But this is not all: Marv, considered with regard to God, is greater still; s],e enters into the most meflable union with the Holy Trinity The Father chose her for his daughter, as the doctors say; it was necessary, therefore, that he should make her to his own likeness, and that his sanctity should be reflected in her. The Son chose her for his mother; can it then be conceived that, free to make her all pure and brilliant, he would deny her a lustre which would reflect on himself? Lastly the Holy Ghost said to her: Thou art my spouse; could the supreme Sanctifier espouse guilt? Doubtless he could sanctify his spouse before the hour of union ; but were not even a remembrance of sm, a vestige of Satan, too much, a thousand tmies too much, in the Virgin predestined to that divine marriage? There is also a voice, then, in the divme harmonies, which seems to us to reveal that It was reasonable and proper that Mary should have been conceived Immaculate. But God would not commit the care of this divine truth to liuman reason alone; for he himself, ever since he revealed It to the world, has kept watch over it, and the word, Mary Immamlate, which now makes so many hearts throb, comes down to us in a tradition of eighteen centuries as a word of God, the un- shaken support of the word of the Church. TO THE MOST EMINENT AND REVEREND LORD CAEDINAL J. F. FEAISTSONI, PREFECT OF THE SACRED CONGREGATION OF THE PROPAGANDA, ETC., ETC., ETC. Most Eminent Lord and Dear Friend : I have long- desired to give your Eminence a public proof of Tiiy sincere veneration and esteem for those great anJ shining virtues which win tlie admiration of all men. If holiness of life and profound knowledge of divine things are the two qualities which reflect the greatest lustre on a churchman, and a person invested with the most sublime dignity ; who has manifested both in a higher degree than your Eminence in the high and onerous functions which you have filled, first in Portugal, and since in Rome ; especially in the prefecture of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, judiciously confided to your vigilant care by our Holy Father Pope Gregory XVI, with his wonted apprecia- tion of true merit ? But, conspicuous amongst all your Eminence's other virtues, the fruit of solid and sincere piety, is a tender devo- tion to Mary, our beloved Mother, to whom you have consecrated 88 DEDICATION. »< the purest affections of your filial heart ; affections which are, un- doubtedly, most dear and acceptable to Her. Hence it is that, having projected and now terminated a theological work on the. Immaculate Conception of our great Queen, I thought I could not do better than dedice' ■ o youi Eminence, who holds the same doctrine that I here u, and who, moreover, has more than once urged me to undertake this work, and to have it pub- lished when brought to a close. Vouchsafe then to accept this offering, not for what it is in itself, but in consideration of the subject, which, I am sure, interests you as much aa any other. You will thereby favor me with yet another proof of the friend- ship wherewith you have for long years honored me, and at the same time excite ray warmest gratitude. With these sentiments, I will now subscribe myself. Your Eminence's Most humble and devoted servant, . L. Cardikal Lambruhchini, Bishop of Sabiua. Rome, Dec. 25th, 1842. POLEMICAL TREATISE ON THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY. The subject which we are about to discuss in this brief polemical treatise, has ah-eadj engaged the learned pens of some of our ablest writers. Amongst these we may mention St. Alphonso de Liguori, Cardinal Sfondrate, Suarez, the Jesuit Budrolio, Father Trombelli, the Capuchin Louis Francis d' Argentan, Federici, and many others ; not to speak of tlie numerous -ody of theologians of the illustri- ous and deserving Order of St. Francis, who have, at all times and in all places, defended and main- tained with edifying zeal that glorious privilege whereby the Mother of God was conceived without the slightest shade of original sin. If we, never- theless, proposed, in our turn, to maintain, as far as our strength would permit, the sacred cause of our common Mother, it was not that we thought it re- quired our aid, or that we hoDed to add nnv thino- 40 THE IMMACULATE new to what has been already said or written by otliers, but because we, too, desired to present tlie Queen of Heaven with at least one small flower from our poor garden, as a proof of the tenderness and constancy of our filial devotion to her. More- over, if we cannot flatter ourselves with the hope of saying any thing new, we sliall, at least, present under a new form the reasons previously alleged by other authors on this subject, and we shall treat it with such order and precision that we may rea- sonably hope it will not be displeasing to Mary, to whom it is consecrated, and that it will also be received with kind indulgence by those of her faithful servants who may have the kindness to read it. It is with this confldence that we enter at once upon a discussion so delicate and so important. I. First of all, it is necessary to deflne exactly the meaning of the word emception^ and to determine its true signiflcation in the case before us, in order to avoid the confusion of ideas which might arise from the want of a precise notion of the object to be considered n. CONCEPTION 18 EITHER ACTIVE OR PASSIVE. Concej)tion is either active, and then there is OONCKPTION OP MARY. 41 question of the generation of tlie body and its organization ; or passive, and then it is effected when God places the soul in that body already duly formed and organized. " The word conception may be taken in a twofold sense : for it is either active, and then it regards the formation of the body ; or it is passive, and then it signifies the conjunction of the rational soul with the body. For the infusion and the union with the body, rightly organized, is commonly denominated passive conception, which takes place at the very instant in which the rational soul is united to the body with all its members and organs." Thus speaks the immortal Benedict XIY, with most of the theologians.' m. THE PASSIVK CONCEPTION OF MARY WAS IMMACULATE. In saying that the conception of Mary was im- maculate, we do not mean the active conception, that is to say, the generation of her blessed body ; * " Conceptio dupliciter accipi potest ; vel enim est activa, m qua sancti Beatas Virglnis parentes opere maritali invicem con- venientes prsestitenint ea, qute maxim^ spectabant ad ipsius cor- poris formationera, organisationem, et dispositionern ad recipien- dara animam rationalem A Deo infundendam ; vel est passiva, cum rationalis anima cum corpore copulatur. Ipsa enim infusio, et unio cum corpore debits organisato vulgo nominatur couceptio passiva, quse scilicet fit illo ipso instanti, quo rationalis anima cor- pori omnibus membris ac suis organis constanti unitur." 4A THE I M M A C i: LATE ' * to be conceived by a woman without the marital assistance is a privilege reserved for Jesus Christ alone. We mean only the jpassive conception, and we say that the blessed soul of the Holy Virgin, in being united to the body, was, by virtue of the sanctifying grace in which it was created, entirely preserved from contracting the least shade of ori- ginal sin. rv. IT WAS MOST FITTING THAT MARY SHOULD BE EXEMPT FROM ORIGINAL SIN. Now, that this fair privilege was granted to Mary, who will dare to doubt ? Is it at all credible that God would have permitted her to be defiled by sin —she who was destined for nothing less than to receive into her womb the precious Lily of the val- ley, the Object of all the prophecies, the Hope of nations, the Desired of the eternal hills, the Saviour of the world ? Was it beyond his power to exempt from the common law of sin that creature so privi- leged, whom he loved with a special predilection, and distinguished so far as to make her the instru- ment of our redemption ? Now, if he could do this, and that it became his own dignity to do it, what difficulty is there in admitting that he did do it, and that, applying to the Blessed Yirgin by anticipation the merits of the passion and death of his beloved Son, he exempted her from the CONCEPTION or MART 43 necessity of being, even for one instant, the slave of sin, liis deadly enemy ? Can it be supposed that he did not bestow on Mary a greater privilege than that which was granted to Jeremiah and St. John the Baptist, sanctified in the maternal womb ? •M ORIOIXAL V. Tins EXEMPTION 18 PROVED BY ARGUMENTS TAKEN FROM THE HOLT SCRIPTURES. It is true that the Divine Scriptures do not expli- citly afiirm that this extraordinary privilege was conceded to Mary ; but it is also true that enough is said, both in the Old and New Testament, to leave sufficient room for the inference. What else could God have meant to indicate, when, cursing the angel of darkness figured by the serpent (who had induced Eve, and through her Adam, to trans- gress the divine precept by eating the forbidden fruit), he pronounced those remarkable words re- corded* in the third chapter of Genesis : " I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and betwe.Ti thy seed and her seed : she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel," — what else, I repeat, could God have meant to indicate by these words than that Mary should never be sub- jected to the empire of Satan ? Otherwise, that is to say, if she was to have contracted the original fault, how would that perpetual enmity be verified 44 T H K IMMACULATE I which was put between licr uiid tlic devil, so as to seciiro her from every assault of the latter ? Now the sacred interpreters have no doubt that this i)re- diction refers to Mary ; on the contrary, they afHrm it with one accord : " By the woman (says the learned Father Tirin) is specially designated the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, bringing forth Christ for us ... , as she became the most pure Eve, that is, mother of the living, so did she crush the head and overthrow the power of this serpent. Fii-st, because she admitted in hei-self none, not even ori- ginal sin (the first, and, as it wei'e, the head of all sin) : Again, because she had in herself no concu- piscence, or evil thought (which is the beginning or head of actual sin) : Finally, because she com- pletely overthrew and put to flight all tyrannies and heresies, the spawn and offspring of the serpent, through the power of Christ her son."* * " Per muliereni prsBcipuo designatur beatn Virgo Maria, quae pariendo nobis Christum . . . , ut facta est puri-'sima Eva, id est Mater viventium : ita penitua eontrivit caput et potentiam hujus eerpentis. Primii quia nullum ne quidem originale (quod primum et quasi caput est omnium peccatorum) in se admisit. Deinde quia nullum etiam peccati fomitem, vel pravam cogitationem (qure prineipium, seu caput est actualis peccati) in se hnbuit. Denique, quia hseresos et tyrannides omnes, per virtutem Christi seminis et filii sui, qui illius quoque semen et filii sunt, perfectti devicit et profligavit." CONCEPTION OF MARY, 48 71 So also, thoRe other words found in tho fourth chapter of the Canticle of Canticles, seventh verse, " Thou art all fair, O my love ; and there is not a spot in thee," why should we not say that the Holy Ghost addressed them to Mary, whom he was to fructify in the fiilliess of time, by his divine power, and who was thus to become his spotless spouse ? It is certain that the Church herself ap- plies them to her in her Liturgy, and that grave writers precisely see in them the privilege of her exemption from the original fault. " Tlierefore im- maculate," says St. Jerome, quoted by Sophronius, I' because corrupt in nothing." ^ Thus, if she was in no way subject to corruption, neither was she so in her first conception. vn. THERE 18 NOXniNa CONTBAUY TO THE IMMAC3ULATE CONCEPTIOK OF MARY TO BE DEDUCED FROM THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS. Some bring forward the well-known text of St. Paul, who, in his first Epistle, to the Corinthians, affirms that all, without exception, die in Adam ' "Ideo immaculata, quia in nullo corm^ta."— Semi, de At- twnptione. 3 THE IMMACULATE the death of sin : " In Adam all die ;" whence they conclude that as the Blessed Virgin was cer- tainly a daughter of Adam by nature, it followed that she, like all the rest of mankind, must have been conceived in original sin. I am quite willing to admit the general law laid down by St. Paul for all the descendants of Adam ; but, I ask, could God, or could he not, according to the good pleas- ure of his gracious will, free Mary from that gen- eral law to which all men are subject ? If he could, and that the dignity of the Mother of the Word made man required that he should, wherefore deny- that he has done it ? What ! are there not many other general laws which bind all the rest of the children of Adam, and from which Mary was un- doubtedly exempted, although that exemption can- not be demonstrated by a clear and formal text of Scripture ? Thus, for instance, it is a common law that all women conceive their children in the or- dinary way : the Blessed Yirgin was exempt from this, as she conceived hers by the operation of the Holy Ghost. It is a common law that all women cease to be virgins in becoming mothers : the Bless- ed Yirgin was not subject to that law, since she is a Virgin Mother, who lost nothing of her virginal purity by bringing 'forth the Son of God; that purity became perfect in her, because of her child- bearing. It is a general law that all mothers bring forth with pain: "In sorrow shalt thou bring CONCEPTION OF MARY. 47 forth :" the Blessed Virgin was freed from this law, for St. Thomas says expressly that on the contrary she experienced the greatest joy in giving birth to her divine Son : " In the Virgin's parturition there was no pain, but the greatest joy." ' It is a common law that every child of Adam is subject to some actual sin : such was not the case with the Blessed Virgin, the general belief of the Church being that she never committed an actual sin in the whole course of her life. It is a general law that all hu- man bodies are reduced to dust after their death : well ! the Blessed Virgin did not undergo that rig- orous punishment, seeing that, after her death, her body having remained three days in the tomb, she arose as did Jesus Christ, and was triumphantly received into heaven on the day of her Assump- tion. Now, I say, if it be a Catholic opinion, un disputed by any one, that the Blessed Virgin was exempted from so many other general laws, com- mon to the rest of mankind, what difficulty is there in admitting that God plso exempted her from that of original sin, which universally affects all the posterity of Adam ? The contrary opinion appears to me so repugnant to the sublime dignity of Mother of God, that I think it ought to be regarded as the- ologically absurd. * " In partu Virginia nullus fuit dolor, sed maxima jucunditas." — IIIp. q. 85. 48 THE IMMACULATE vm. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT INCLINES TO OUK OPINION. Influenced, as we believe, by this grave reflec- tion, the Fathers of the Council of Trent showed themselves, not only disposed, but at one time, actually resolved to decide the present question ac- cording to the proposition of the saintly Cardinal Pacheco ; nevertheless, certain weighty considera- tions, together with the love of peace, determined the holy assembly to stop at the terms contained in the Decree " On Original Sin," reported in the Fifth Session of the same Council. Here are the words of the learned and exact Cardinal Pallavi- cini, in his History of the Council of Trent, b. YIl. ch. vii. : " Besides the discussions on discipline, they carefully examined the decrees for the defini- tion of dogmas on original sin ; and as Pacheco urged the Fathers, from the very beginning, to de- fine the question concerning the Mother of God, it was thought that he artfully proposed a subject too diflicult to be decided by the next session. But it afterwards appeared that he was actuated by a sincere devotion to the Blessed Virgin. There had lately arrived two theologians of his own nation, sent to the Council by the Pope, Diego Lainez and Alphonso Salmeron ; the former of whom espe- cially, as we find in the ancient memoirs of our CONCEPTION OF MARY 49 I company, spoke often and eloquently in favor of Pacheco's opinion. In a general congregation held on the 8th of June, the Decree on original sin being read, as had been agreed upon in the private meetings, Pacheco, seeing that a definitive decision on this point could not be obtained in the few re- maining days, required that to the general propo- sition which declared that sin common to all men, these words should be added : " With respect to the Blessed Virgin, the holy Council defines no- thing, although piously believing that she was con- ceived without original sin." The greater part of the Fathers then adopted his opinion ; but the bishops belonging to the Order of St. Dominic, and the other members of that Order present at the Council, warmly opposed it, and gained over some to their party by alleging that if one of the two opinions were declared pious, the contrary opinion was, of course, declared impious ; which was tacitly defining the question. They, conse- quently, advised the adoption of terms prejudicial to neither of the two opinions, so that both might remain as they then were in the Church. With this intention, the Decree was drawn up at the meetings of the theologians in the following terms : " The holy Council declares that, in this Decree, where there is question of original sin, it does not intend to include the Blessed Virgin Maiy, Mother of Jesus Christ, and means to declare no- ■ill I 60 THIC IMMACULATE thing moro on that subject than what has been de- creed by Sixtiis ly of happy memory." This did not satisfy Cardinal de Jaen. He as- serted that, in the preceding Congregation, more than two-thirds had consented to add the words, " of whom it is piously believed that she was con- ceived without original sin." " It cannot be denied," he added, " that this opinion is conformable to piety, for not only do all the regular ordei-s, except one, and all the acade- mies adhere to this belief, as the most pious, but the Church also celebrates with a solemn rite the feast of the Conception." The Legates were divided in opinion ; for Cardinal del Monte professed his belief in the Innnaculate Conception ; Massarello relates of Cervin that he held the contrary opinion ; with regfird to Pole, I have no data by which to judge ; it is, however, certain that all three were desirous to prevent discussions amongst Catholic jpartieSy and to make use of no expressions that could give any of them an advantage over the othere. Cervin stated that if, at the last meeting, something had been said by the bishops on this point, it was not said at the request of the Legates, nor in the form required for decrees ; that, in the preceding Congregation of the 28th May, it had been resolved that there should be no decision given on this controvei"sy, or neither of the opinions called in question. He pdded that, if the proposed CONCEPTION OF MART. _- »» 61 formula waa considered hurtful to either, it might be changed ; but that, on the other hand, it would be inexpedient to introduce another, whereby some might obtain indirectly what the Council refused to grant directly. Then the Bishop of Astorga prb- posed the suppression of that clause where it was said that the Council meant to declare nothing at present ; his object was, in my opinion, to have it, at least, remain declared that the Virgin is not ne- cessarily included in the general affirmation of the original sin contracted by all men, and that, conse- quently, the arguments brought forward in support of the contrary opinion might not render her ex- emption less probable. " Bertano and the other Dominicans applauded this proposition, as is usual with those who escape the greater danger : but Cardinal Pacheco and his adherents were not satisfied. Meanwhile the opin- ions were again taken, and that session was of un- usual length. The conclusion was that, although the majority believed the Conception really imma- culate, nevertheless the majority judged it expedi- ent to withhold any formal rejection of the contrary opinion. Hence it was that the words of the Decree were arranged according to the revisal of the Bishop of Astorga, to the great regret of Pacheco." ' * Any one desirous of more ample details on the history of this Decree may read Father Strozzi's " Controversy on the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary;" and Father Piazza in his Discourse, l! 62 TEE IMMACULATE IX. DECLARATION OF THK COUNCIL. It really occurred, as Pallavicini relates, since the holy Council, after having formally established in its decree the dogma of the transmission of ori- ginal sin to all the descendants of Adam, added thereto this important clause : " However, this same holy Synod declares that, in this decree, in which it treats of original sin, it has no intention to in- clude the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Gpd ; but that the Constitutions of Pope Sixtus IV, of happy memory, are to be observed under the penalties comprised in said Constitu- tions, which it hereby renews." * X. THE DECLARATION OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT CONFIRMS THK OPINZOIT THAT MARY WAS EXEMPT FROM ORIGINAL SIN. Two things are clearly to be deduced from the " ImmaculatsB Conceptionia Matris Dei Maria," quoted by the eru- dite Abb6 Zaccaria, in his notes on Pallavicini. The latter of these fully refutes Launoy and Dupiu, declared enemies of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, * " Declarat tamen ha3c ipsa sancta Synodus non esse suae inten- tiouis comprohendere in hoc Decreto, ubi de peccato original! agitur, Beatam et Iramaculatam Virginem Mariam Dei Genitrl- cem ; sed observandas esse Constitutiones felicis recordationis Sixti PapsB ly, sub psenis in ejus Constitutionibus contentis, quai in* novat" CONCEPTION OP MABY. 08 foregoing history and the portion of the decree wliich we have given, viz. : 1st, that the chief and most notable part of those venerable Fathers ap- peared to be persuaded that the Blessed Virgin was exempt from original sin, and were even dis- posed to publish a solemn definition to that effect ; had it not been that, as Pallavicini shows, their desire to avoid all occason of discord at that par- ticular time, together with other prudential motives, induced them to adopt, instead of that definition, a middle course, in order to promote peace: 2d, that these Fathers, nevertheless, did solemnly de- clare that they had no intention to include in their decree om original sin, the most Blessed Virgin, the true Mother of God. Now, was not this form of expression equivalent to a formal exception of Mary, on the part of the Fathers of Trent ? Other- wise, how could they have said that they had no intention of including her in their decree on origi- nal sin ? What meaning has the phrase, " She is not included in it," if not precisely this, " She is ex- cluded from it " ? Thus, following the spirit and the letter of the text quoted, it must be concluded that it Avas the opinion of the Fathers of Trent that Mary, in her conception, was exempted and pre- served from original sin. This opinion of the Fathers of Trent is further attested by the title of Immaculate given to the Blessed Virgin in their declaration, seeing that the meaning they assigned m m^ I \i\ 54 THE IMMACULATE to that word and the sense in which they used it, was fixed by the nature of the stain treated of in the decree : the question was of original, and not of actual sin ; hence, in styling Mary the Immac- ulate, it was their intention to say that she was not conceived in original sin. XI. THE OPPONENTS OK THE DOCTRINE SEEK IN VAIN FOR A RENEWAL OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF 8IXTU8 IV, ATTKIBtJTINQ TO THE DECUIRATION A MEANING CONTRARY TO THAT PIOUS OPINION. It will be said that the Council of Trent, in this same declaration, renewed the two famous Consti- tutions of Sixtus IV, who, under pain of excommuni- cation, prohibited either of the two parties to preach, write, or teach that it was sinful and heretical to maintain the contrary opinion. But what does that prove? Nothing more than this, that the holy Council declined giving any decision on the sub- ject. Now, this is a fact which we do not deny. But even so, does it in any degree weaken our in- terpretation of the favor wherewith the Fathers, with few exceptions, regarded the opinion that Mary was absolutely exempt from original sin ? Certainly not ; especially as in one of the Consti- tutions of Sixtus lY, confirmed and renewed by the Fathers of Trent, that sovereign pontiff, after having said : " We deem it meet, or rather due. CONCEPTION OF MART. __ »« 55 used it, jd of in and not Immac- was not ENEWAL OF ECUkRATION t, in this 3 Consti- jmmuni- D preach, 'etical to iocs that the holy the 8ub- lot deny, in onr in- Fathers, lion that inal sin? e Consti- lewed by itiff, after ther due, that all the faithful of Christ give praise and thanks to Almighty God .... for the admirable concep- tion of the same Immaculate Virgin, and that they say and assist at the masses and other divine offices appointed for tliat purpose in the Church of God," immediately opens the treasures of the Church for the benefit of the faithful " of both sexes, who, on the day of the festival of the Conception of the same Virgin Mary, and during its Octave, shall devoutly celebrate and recite the mass and office of the Conception of the same glorious Virgin, or assist at these canonical hours, as often as they shall do so, they may obtain the very same indulgence and remission of sins, as, according to the Consti- tutions of Urban IV, of happy memory, approved in the Council of Vienna, and of Martin V, and other Koman pontiffs, our predecessors, they ob- tain, who celebrate and recite Mass and the Ca- nonical Hours on the feast of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, from tlie first vespers, and during its octave, according to the Constitution of the Eoman Church, or will assist at such Mass, Office, and Hours.'" Thus every one sees that great favors are accorded to this feast; and the * " Dignum, quin potiCis debitum reputamus, universes Christi fideles, ut omnipotenti Deo . . . . de ipsius immaculatse Virginia mira Conceptione gratias et laiides referant, et instituta propterea in Ecclesia Dei Missas et alia divina Officia dicant, et illis intersint .... utriusque sexiis, qui Missam et OflSciura Conceptionis 56 THE IMMACULATE very fact of its being placed on a level with Corpus Christi and its Octave, clearly shows how it was regarded by the Holy See ; neither let us forget that the Constitutions of Sixtus lY were in each of tlieir parts confirmed and renewed by the Coun- cil of Trent. We are then to conclude that, if the Fathers of that Council, for the reasons assigned by Cardinal Pallavicini, abstaHed from defining the question of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, on the other hand, their own declaration shows that it was their intention to favor our opinion in pre- ference to the other, although they did not openly condenm the latter. XII. DEFINITION OF THE COUNCIL OF BASLE, ADOPTED BY THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF AVIGNON. Long before the Council of Trent, that of Basle had, in the most explicit terms, declared the doc- ejusdcm Virginia gloriosse in die festivitatis Conceptionis ejusdem Virginia Mariae, et per Octavas ejus, devote celebraverint et dixerint, autillia Horia canonieia interfuerint, quotiea id fecerint, earadem prorsus indulgentiam et peccatorum remiasionem conse- quantur, quam juxta felicis recordationia Urbani IV, in Concilio Viennensi approbatse, ac Martini V et aliorum Romanorum Pon- tificum prjBdecessorum Nostrorum Conatitutiones, conaequuntur illi, qui Misaam etHoras Canonicaa in Feato Corporis et Sanguinis Domini Noatri Jesu Chriati a prirais Vesperia, et per illius Octavas, juxta Eomanse Ecclesise constitutionem celebrant, dicunt, aut Miswe, Officio, et Horn hujusmodi intersunt." CONCEPTION OF MART. 57 tOVINCIAL trine of the spotless conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, " as pious and in harmony with ec- clesiastical worship, Catholic faith, right reason, and holy Scripture, and to be approved, held, and embraced by all Catholics," ' so that it was " un- lawful for any one to maintain or to preach the contrary." ' This definition was afterwards renew- ed by a Provincial Council oi Avignon, quoted even by Benedict XIY in his work, before referred to, de Festis Sanctorum. This was no fault to the Council of Avignon, because the doctrine was true, although it had been defined as of faith by a Coun- cil which had ceased to be legitimate, and had be- come, on tha contrary, a regular conventicle. In fact, it was adopted not only by a great number of theologians, Italian, French, German, Polish, Flemish, English, Scotch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Oriental; but also by many academies and universities, especially that of Paris, which, in 1496, hesitated not to oblige its members, by the sanctity of an oath, to defend it, under pain of be- ing expelled from the university, and forfeiting its grades and privileges.' The same university, which then contained many ' "Tanquampiam et conaonam cultui ecc^esiastice, fidei Catho- licse, rectse rationi, et sacroe Scripturje ab omnibua Catbolicis ap- probandam, tenendam et amplectendam." " "Nulli de ccetero lieitiim esse in conti'arlum prcci licare et docere." • The following is the substance of the statute drawn up by these 58 TTIR IMMAOULATE learned men, went so far as to declare that it pro- fessed as of faith the doctrine which affirms that tlio Blessed Virgin was conceived without the least shade of origuial sin. doctors : '• We, being all nssemblod together the third time, after much grave and mature deliberation, have bound and pledged ourselves by a Bpecial (mth to defend and maintain that most pious doctrine which declares the blesHcd Mother of God to have been preserved from original sin by a special privilege of God; which doctrine we have long believed and do still believe true ; decree- ing that henceforth no one can be enrolled in this sacred college unless ho profess, by the same oath, that to the best of his ability he will be a strenuous supporter and defender of this religious docti'ine. But if, which Heaven forbid! any one of us, going over to the enemies of the Virgin, shall in any mannei; dnro to favor the contrary assertion, which we deem false, impious, and erroneous, despising not only our authority, but that of the Synod and the Church, which is, undoubtedly, the highest, him we decree to be stript of our honors and driven from our society as a heathen and a publican." " Un:7ersi terti6 congregati post multam, gravera et maturam deliberationem, in ejus piissimaj doctrina?, quas benedictissimam Dei Matrem ab originali peccato, Dei singulari dono, fuisse pneservatani affirmat ; quamque jampridem veram credidimus et credimus, de- fensionem et propxignationem speciali Sacramento conjnrabimus noaque devovimus; statuentes ut nemo deinceps sacro huic nostro Collegio adscribatur, nisi de hujus religiosaj doctrinsB assertorem, strenuumque propugnatorem semper pro viribus futurum simili juramento profiteatur. Quod si quis ex nostris, quod absit, ad hostes Virginis transfuga, contrarioe assertionis, quam falsam, ini- piam et erroneam judicamus, spretd non nostrd tantilm, sed Synodi et Ecclesise, quae procul dubio summa est, auctoritate, patrocinium quacumque ratione suscipere ausus fuerit, hunc Uonoribus nostris privatum atque exauctoratum d nobis et consortio nostro, velut ethnicum et publicanum, procul abjiciendum decernimus." CONCEPTION OF MABT, XIII. BOW TUB SOY&aKiaN FONTIFFS PAYORED THK OFINION OF THS IMMAOC* LATE OONOEPTION OK UABT. Above ally it must he remembered that the Roman Pontiffs, far from having ever rejected or opposed our opinion, on the contrary, favored and protected it. Sixtns IV, in the Constitution of 1476, ah'eady cited, and commencing with the words : " Cum prcecelsa meritorum insignia,^^ not only granted indulgences to those who profess devotion to the Lnmaculate Conception of Mary, but prescribed in her honor the Mass and Office with this prayer: " God, who, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, hast prepared a fit dwelling for thy Son ; grant, we beseech thee, that as, through the fore- seen death of the Son of this same Virgin, thou hast preserved her from all stain, so we also may by her intercession come pure to thee." * This prayer was used in the Catholic Church for nearly a century, that is, from the pontificate of Sixtus IV to that of Pius V. It is true, however, that, in the course of the year 1568, that Pontift' suppressed the office of the Conception, printed and published under Sixtus ' " Cum prjEcelsa meritorum insignia Deus, qui per Iinmaculatam VirginisCouceptionenadignum Filio tuo liabitaculum prseparasti ; concede, qusesumus, ut sicut, ex morte ejusdem Filii sui prsevisa, earn ab omni labe prajservasti, ita nos quoque mua- do3 ejus interceesiono, ad Te pervenire concedas." 60 THE IMMACULATE IT, restricting to the Franciscans the power of re- citing it. He took this step, not because tliere was any thing objectionable in the office, but simply because he wished to prescribe for the whole Church a uniform mode of public prayer; for there were then divers offices for the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, for instance, that of Leonard de Bussis, of Francis Quignonez, of Eobert Gaguin and others. The Pontiff thought proper to choose from amongst so many offices that of the Abbe Helsin, according to the rite and form established in the office of the Nativity, merely substituting the word Conception for that of Natimty. From this we must conclude that Su Pius y in no way impeded the devotion to the Immaculate Conception, but rather promoted it. The fact is, that, as the Church, in the feast of the JVTativity, does not celebrate the sanctification of Mary, let it take place when it might, but merely solemnizes her Nativity as holy ; so, in the feast of the Conception she does not celebrate the sanctifi- cation, but venerates as holy and immaculate the Conception of the Blessed Yirgin. And we must here observe, that it was just St. Pius Y who, in the Eoman Breviary and in the Ecclesiastical Cal- endar, established as a precept for the whole Church the feast of the Conception of Mary ; a feast which proves, it seems to me, that that holy Pontiff fa- vored the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. CONCEPTION OF MARY. 61 XIV. -• PROHIBITION TO 8PBAK AGAINST THE OPINION THAT MARY WAS EX- EMPT FROM ORIGINAL SIN. In the year 1616, Paul Y, under the penalties and censures contained in the Constitutions of Six- tus IV, forbade any one, in public preachings, les- sons, conclusions or any other public act whatso- ever, to dare to affirm that the Blessed Virgin was conceived in original sin. Ar 1 as it happened in a few years after, that is in 1622, that scandals and dissensions arose in Christendom because of the contrary opinion, Gregory XV immediately re- newed the Decree of Paul V, and extended it equally to writings and private discourses : "order- ing and commanding all and each of the above- named not to attempt to assert in future, that the same most Blessed Virgin was conceived in original sin, until such article shall have been defined by the Apostolic See ; or until it shall be otherwise ordained by His Holiness and the Apostolic See ; not even in sermons or private writings, nor in any manner to act or treat concerning this affirmative opinion, those, however, excepted, to whom it shall be otherwise specially allowed, in this matter, by the Holy Apostolic See." ' He afterwards permits Mandans et prsecipiens omnibus, et singulis supradictis, ne de csetero, donee articulus hujusmodi a Sede Apostolica definitus, 62 THE IMMACULATE the Dominican Fathers, by his Indult of the 28th July of the same year, " to discuss freely in pri- vate discourse, or in conferences amongst them- selves, but not with others, the doctrine of the same Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, without incurring any of the penalties contained in the said Decrees."^ He, at the same time, ordained and prescribed, under the heaviest penalties, that all and every ecclesiastic should make use of no other word than that of Concej^tion^ either in reciting the divine Office or in celebrating Mass, either in pub- lic or in private. And that, because some had sub- stituted for the word Concejption that of Sanctifica- tion / whereby they showed that they did not ven- erate the animation of the Blessed Virgin, but, on the contrary, her purification from original sin by means of sanctifying grace. vel per Sanctitatem suam, et Sedem Apostolicam fuerit aliter ordinatum, neque etiam in sermonibus et scriptis pvivatis audeant asserere, quod Eadem Beatissima Virgo fuerit concepta cum peccato originali, nee de hac opinione affirmativa aliquo modo agere, seu tractate, exceptis tamen, quibus d, Sancta Sede Apostolica fuerit aliter super his specialiter indultum ." * " Ut in quibuscuraque privatis eonim colloqiiiis, seu conferen- tiis Intel* se dumtaxat, et non inter alios, aut cum aliis, de ma- teria ejusdem Cenceptionis B. M. V. disserere et tractare absque ullo poenarura, in dictis decretis contentarum, incursu, liberd et licit6 possint" CONCEPTION OP MARY, 68 XV. THE OPINION FAVORABLE TO MABy's PRIVILEGK MAT ALONE BE MAIN- TAINED, EITHER IN PUBLIC OR IN PRIVATE. It results from the Decree of Gregory XY that the contrary opinion was banished from amongst men, and that it was forbidden to manifest itself in any way either public or private, verbally or in writing ; so that the pious opinion alone might be promulgated, either in public or private, verbally or in writing, always and in every place. Thus, the former opinion, that is to say, that which denies the exemption of the Blessed Virgin from original sin, has been condemned to the most rigorous si- lence, because it has been found irreconcilable with ecclesiastical tradition and Christian piety. XVI. ALEXANDER VII RENEWS AND CONFIRMS THE CONSTITUTIONS OF HIS PREDECESSORS IN FAVOR OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. At length Alexander YII followed the example of his predecessors, in his Constitution " Solicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum," published in the year 1661. He expresses himself in these terms : " We consid- ering .... and wishing, after the example of the Koman Pontiffs, our predecessors, to foster this laudable piety and devotion, festival and homage rendered to her in the Roman Church, and never 64 THE IMMACULATE changed since the institution of tlie worship itself, likewise to protect this piety and devotion towards the Blessed Virgin preserved (the grace indeed of the Holy Ghost preventing) from original sin ... . We renew and command to be observed, under the censures and penalties contained therein, the con- stitutions and decrees issued by the Eoman Pon- tift's our predecessors, and particularly by Sixtus IV, Paul V, and Gregory XV, in favor of the opinion which asserts that the soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary was, in its creation and infusion into the body, endowed with the grace of the Holy Ghost, and preserved from original sin ; and also in favor of the feast of, and devotion to the Concep- tion of the same Virgin Motlier of God, tendered in accordance with this pious opinion, as stated above.'" *" Solicitude omnixim Ecclesiarnm" .... " Nos considerantes . . , yolentesque laudabili laiic pietati, et devotioni.et; Festo, et. cul- tiii secundiliu illam exhibito in Ecclesia Romana, post ipsius cultds institutioiiem mimquam immutato, Roinauoriim Pontificuin Pncde- cessorum nostroruin exemplo fovere, noenon tueri pietatein et devotioneni banc colendi et celebrandi, Beatissinmni Virgineni, proBveniente scilicet Spiritils Sancti gratid, 4 peccato origiiiali prte- servatam; .... Constitutiones et Decreta a Romanis Pontiiicibiis prajdecessoribus nostris, et pra;cipu6 d Sixto IV, Paulo V, Grego- rio XV, edita in favorem sententias asserentis animam B. Marite Virtjinis in sua creatione et in corpus infusione, Spiritils Sancti gratia donatam, et A peccato orijinali prajservatam fiiisse, neouon in favorem Festi, et cultils Conceptionis ojusdem Virginia Deljxira; secundutn piam istam senteutiam, ut prajfertur, exhibiti, inuova- nms, et sub censuris et poenia iu iisdem Coustitutionibus couteutis, observari mandamus." 1 L CONCEPTION OP MARY 65 XVII. From all these acta of the Sovereign Pontiffs, acts so solemn and so explicit, (while there is not one posterior act to be found in favor of the con- trary opinion,) it is manifest that the Holy Apostolic See, or rather the entire Church, has always shown, and still does show itself, disposed to favor the doc- trine which maintains that Mary has been exempt- ed from original sin, although she has not yet made it an article of faith/ XVIII. JUDGMENT OF THE HOLT FATHERS ON THE PRESENT QUESTION — THE SILENCE OF THE TWO FIRST CENTURIES IS BY NO MEANS INIMICAL TO THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, BUT ON THE CONTRARY SUPPOSES IT. "We have now to ascertain what was thought of this matter by the Holy Fathers who have trans- mitted to us the sacred tradition of the Church, and whose authority must ever be invoked in all ques- tions of ecclesiastical discipline and Catholic faith. Now, we are free to confess that the two first asres of the Church are entirely silent on the point of ^ Most of our readers are aware that this work was written sev- eral years ago. It is sad to think that the pious Cardinal did not live to witness the solemn declaration of the Immaculate Concep- tion. May we not hope that he shares Mary's triumph in heaven since he was deprived of that consolation on earth? — Translator. ee THE IMMACULATE which we treat. But that silence, very far from invalidating our doctrine, proves, on the contrary, tliat it was then professed and universally adopted. During those two centuries, Mary was venerated by all with a particular devotion, and regarded as highly privileged, by reason of her sublime quality of Mother of God, and that she had never had an equal in plenitude of grace. If her exemption from original sin had been only called in question by some Doctor, assuredly, others would have taken up the defence, and the writings of those two cen- turie:i would present some indication of the fact ; but there is neither trace nor record of any such discussion : therefore, the silence of the two first ages of the Church is rather favorable to the belief in the Immaculate Conception, as it leaves room to suppose it. XIX. DOOUMKNT WHICH JUSTIFIES THAT SUPPOSITIOK, This supposition is, morever, founded on a docu- ment of considerable importance, viz., the well- known letter of the Priests and Deacons of Achaia, in which is related the martyrdom of the glorious apostle St. Andrew, and the discourse pronounced by him before his passion, in presence of the pro- consul Egeus. In this discourse, the holy apostle thus sprke: "And, therefore, because the first CONCEPTION OF MARY. 67 man was created of immaculate earth, it was ne- cessary that of an immaculate virgin should be born that perfect man, by whom the Son of God (who fii-st formed man) was to restore that eternal life which men had lost." '■ This comparison of the virgin earth shows us Mary immaculate in her very origin, even as was the earth of which the first man was formed, before God had as yet said to Adam : " Cursed is the earth in thy work." " This docu- ment was at first considered spurious, or at least doubtful, because it was in Latin, and no Greek copy known; but, since the latter was found in the Bodleian Library, and published by Charles Christian "Woog, a Protestant writer, all doubt has ceased, so that the celebrated Morcelli made no difficulty of inserting it as true and authentic in his Calendar of the Church of Constantinople^ under the date of the 30th ISTovember. It would follow, then, from this document, that the belief in the Ln- maculate Conception of Mary was professed by the faithful, even in the two first ages of the Church, and that it is supported by clear apostolic testi- mony. ' " Et propterea, quod ex iramaculatA terrS, creatus fuerat pri- mus homo, necesse erat ut ex iramaculatd Virgine naseeretur per- fectus homo, quo Filius Dei, qui ant6 condiderat hominem, vitam seternam quam perdiderant homines, repararet." * Gen. iii. 17. 68 THE IMMAOUL ATB ? \ XX. ORIOBN ADMITS THE FAIR FRIYIXEOE OF MART. Let US now pass on to the third century. Then appeared Origen, who, not in an apologetic man- ner (for no one raised a doubt on the subject), but naturally and without discussion, expressed himself, with regard to Mary, in such a manner that we can clearly infer from his words that he thought of the privilege of the Blessed Virgin precisely what we ouvselves do. Here is how he states his opinion in the Homily YI in Lucam : " But because the angel saluted Mary by a new form of expression, wholly unprecedented in the Scripture, there are a few words to be said on the subject. For his salu- tation, Ave gratid plena^ which in Greek is Ke;^a- pLTUfievTjj I cannot remember reading such another in any part of the Scripture ; neither is it here ad- dressed to a man. For Mary alone is this saluta- tion reserved. If Mary had known that a similar salutation was ever made to any one else (she being well acquainted wilu the written law, and with all the predictions of the prophets) the salutation would never have alarmed her as it did."^ Now, the * " Quia vero Angelus novo serraone Mariam salutavit, queni in omni Scripturfi invenire non potiii, et de hoc pauca dicenda sunt. Id enim quod ait Ave gratid plena, quod groec^ dicitnrKexapi'TUfievf}, ubi in Scripturis alibi legerim non recorder ; s«d neque ad virura CONCEPTION OF MARY. 69 Greek word KexapLriofitvr}, not only signifies /^^^^ of grace, according to the Vulgate, but may also sig- nify formed in grace. That Origon gave precisely that meaning to the Greek word in question, is clearly manifested in his First Homily, cited by St. Alphonso de Liguori, where he speaks thus of Mary : " Neither was she infected by the breath of the poisonous serpent." * If, then, Origen thought that the wicked serpent, that is to say, the devil, never attacked Mary, not even .with his pestilential breath, we must necessarily conclude that Origen considered Mary exempt from original sin. XXI. THE GREEK LITURGY AND MENOLOGIES CONFIRM OUR DOCTRINE. We have next the Liturgy of the Greek Church, reported by Lebrun," anfl much more ancient than St. John Chrysostom, wherein Mary is styled " in all respects blameless;'" which sufficiently indi- cates that that Church believed her conceived with- out the original fault. istiusmodi sermo est Salve gratid plena. Soli Marine hsec aaluta- tio servatur. Si enim seivisset Maria et ad alimn quempiam stin- ilem factum esse sermonera, habebat quippe legis scientiam, et erat sancta, et prophetarura vaticiaia quotidiana medifcatione cog- noverat ; numquara quasi peregriaa earn salutatio terruisset." Nee serpentis venenosi afflatibus infecta est." " T. iv. p. 408. ' " Omni ex parte inculpata." 4 70 THE IM»IACULATK And before Lebntn, Father Wangnerect, a Je- suit, ill ins ( rutlito work entitled: Pictas Mariana Gm'-oi'um, printed at Munich, bj Wagner, in 1G47, collected many passages from tlie oldest Greek Menologies wherein Mary is styled, now " free from all blemish," ' now as the only one who has escaped the spiritual death of original sin, now as " Her who was formed pure from all eternity," ' and again as " the only one who was worthy from all eternity to become the mother of God." * This work, now very rare, and only made known to us after our own was considerably advanced, elicited the highest praise from two learned cardinals, Ba- ronius and Sirlet, not to speak of the Bollandists who held it in the greatest esteem. XXJI. THE FATHERS OF THE FOURTH CENTURY ARE FAVORABLE TO THE PIOUS OPINION THAT MART WAS EXEMPT FROM ORIGINAL SIN, In the fourth century, we must quote Am- philacus, bishop of Icona, who, in his fourth Dis- course in 8. Deiparam^ says that God formed the Virgin " without sin and without stain." * St. Ambrose, in his Treatise on the 118th Psalm, * " Omni nsevo intacta." ' " Ab a3terno mimda fuisse dignoscitur." * " Sola ab seterno digna quse Deipara fieret." * " Sine macula et sine peccato." CONCEPTION OF MARY 71 commenting on the seventli Vi rse, calls her " a vir- gin freed by grace from every stain of sin."* Here, certainly, the holy Doctor makes no dis- tinction between actual and original sin ; therefore, according to him, Mary was also exempt from the latter : otherwise ho could not speak of her as free from every stain of sin. St. Epiphanius, who died in the year 403, expresses himself thus in his Opuscule De Laiidi- his Virginis : " She was superior to all beings, God alone excepted ; more beautiful by nature than the Cherubim, the Seraphim, and all the an- gelic host, . . . the immaculate sheep who brought forth Christ the Lamb." » xxni. FAMOUS TESTIMONY OF ST. JEEOME IN FAVOE OF OUE DOCTEINB. Let US continue the chain of the Fathers. St. Jerome, a Doctor of great authority, commenting on the 77th Psalm, and explaining the words: "He conducted them with a cloud by day," thus speaks : " Behold the Lord cometh into Egypt in a lig^ t cloud. The light cloud we must under- stand, either as properly signifying the body of the Virgo per gratiam ab omni integra labe peccati." • " Solo Deo excepto, cunctis superior extitit, naturd formosior est ipsis Cherubim, Seraphim, et omni exereitu Angelorum, ovie immaculata, quae peperit Agnum Christum." 72 THE IMMACULATE t Saviour, as bciiif? liglit and l)ur(lcned with no sin : or we may certainly take the light cloud as signi- fying Holy Mary. . . . Behold the Lord cometh into the Egypt of this world on a light cloud, which is the Virgin. ' And he conducted them with a cloud by day.' He said beautifully ly day, for that cloud was never in darkness, but always in lio-ht." ' Now if, according to the doctrine of St. Epiphanius, after God comes Mary, whose nature is fairer and more noble than the angelic nature itself; and if the Blessed Virgin was, according to St. Jerome, pretigured by that light cloud foretold by the prophet which was always in light and never in darkness, it is quite evident that both these great Doctors believed Mary exempt from original sin ; for if that sin could have defiled her even for an instant, how could it be verified in her that she was " never in darkness, but always in light " ? > El dcduxit eos in nube diei. " Eece Dominus venit iEgyp- tum in nebuU levi. Nubera levem, aut propria Salvatoris corpus debemiia accipere, quia leve fuit, et nullo peccato prregravatum : aut cert^ nubem levem debemua sanctam Mariam accipere, nullo Bemine humano prsegravatam. Eccft Dominus venit in J<:gyptum sojculi istius super nubem levem, Virginem. Et deduxit eos in nuhe diei. Pulchr6 dixit diei ; nuhes enim ilia non fuit in tene- bris, sed semper in Itice." OONOEl'TION OF MARY 73 XXIV. iMFOnXANT TESTIMONY OF ST. AUGUSTINE ON TUK SUBJECT. But let US now come to the doctrine of St. Au- gustine, 80 much abused by those who favor the contrary opinion. That great Doctor (who may be considered as the organ and interpreter of all the Fathers who preceded him), refuting Pelagius, who alHrmed that all the children of baptized parents are born free from original sin, expresses himself thus : " Except, therefore, the Holy Virgin Mary, whom, tln-ough respect for the Lord, I will not suffer to he named when there is question of sin; for, do wo not know that, in order to conquer sin entirely, a fullness of grace has been conferred on her who merited to bear Him who, it is certain, had no sin ? This Virgin, then, being excepted, could we assem- ble all those saints (viz., those of the old law), when they lived here on earth, and ask them if they were without sin, what would be their an- swer ? would it be what this man says, or what St. John the Apostle said ? I ask you, if they could be questioned on this point (however great might have been their sanctity while in the body), would they not all cry out with one accord : ' If we say we have not sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us ' ? " ' * " Excepts itaque sanctd Virgine Mari4, de quA, propter honorem Domini, nullum prorsus, cikn de peccatis agitur, haberi volo quaes- 74 THE IMMACULATE i ' XXV. THE "WORD " RKNASCENDI " EMPLOYED BY THE HOLY DOCTOR IS NOT AT ALL FAVORABLE TO THE CONTRARY OPINION. And Julian having made this objection : " Thou dost transfer Mary herself to the devil by the con- dition of birth," ' as if the holy Doctor had said that Mary also, by the condition of nature, must have been born subject to the devil, he imme- diately replied in these terms : " We do not trans- fer Mary to the devil by the condition of birth ; for that condition itself is dissolved by the grace of regeneration ;" ' the meaning of these words is that Mary was exempted from original sin by vir- tue of a special grace which preserved her from it. The word regeneration {renascendi) cannot be op- posed to this sense, as thougli the holy Doctor tioncm ; unde enim scimus quod ei plus gratue collatum fuerit ad vincendum omni ex parte pejcatum, quae concipere ac parere me- ruit quern constat nullum habuisse peccatum ? Hac ergo Virgiue excepta, si omnes illoa Sanctos, et Sanctas, cum hie vivevent con- gi'egare possemus, et interrogare utrum essent sine peccato, quid fuisse responsuros putamus, utrum hoc, quod iste dicit, an quod Joannes Apostolus ? Rogo vos, quantalibet fucrint in hoc cor- pore cxcellentia sanctitatis, si de hoc interrogari potuissent, nonne un& voce claraarent ; Si dixerimus quia peccatum non ha- bemus, nos ipsos decipimus, et Veritas in nobis non est ?" * "Tu ipsam Mariam diabolo nascendi conditiinie transcribis." " " Non transcribimus Mariam diabolo conditione nascendi ; sed ideo, quia ipsa conditio solvltur gratia reuascendi." (Op. imp. contra Julianum, lib. IV.. p. 122.) CONCEPTION OF MAEY. »« 75 meant to indicate that Mary escaped the shivery of the devil by means of purification from sin ; since it is clear, from the context of the whole dis- course, that St. Augustine spoke against Julian precisely with reference to the conception that we call passive, declaring Mary's Conception imma- culate from the fi^^st moment, as the schools say, and not from the second. That such was the real intention of St. Augustine, clearly results from his Xllth Sermon In Natali Domini, w^liere we find these precise words: " The Church, like Mary, has perpetual integrity and incorrupt fruitfulness. For that which Mary merited in the flesh, the Church preserved in the spirit ; the only difference is that the former bore one, the latter many." ' Here, the holy Doctor institutes a comparison between Mary and the Church ; he says that the purity of the one was equal to that of the other, and that purity was perpetual, "perpetual integrity:" hence, according to St. Augustine, there was not a single moment in which Mary, like the Church, was not perfectly pure and undefiled: therefore, the holy Doctor ■excludes Mary from the defilement of original sin ; and, consequently, in the text cited above, the word regeneration can have no other meaning than that which we have given it. 1 1< Ecclesiffi, sicut Mariae, perpetua integritas et incorrupta foe- cunditas. Quod enim ilia meruit in carne, hsec servavit in mente, nisi quod ilia peperit unum, haec parit miiltos." 76 THE IMMACULATE I I XXVI. THOSE rA89AGES WHEREIN THE HOLY DOOTOR AKKIUMS THAT OUIGINAt SIN WAS TRANSMirrED TO AtL MEN, DO NOT INCLUDE THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Ifj ill other places in his works, he seems to af- firm the contrary, as when, in iiis Epistle to Optat, De Origine Animamm, he says in general : " That no one is born of Adam unbound by the chain of sin and damnation, and that no one is delivered therefrom unless by regeneration through Christ ;" ' and in the second book of his .Baptis7)io Farvido- rum : " There is not amongst the sons of men, nei- ther was there nor will there be, any one who was never bound by the chain of sin ;"" and finally (as it is superfluous to quote all the places where such general expressions are to be met) when he adds, in his JEnchiridlon, chapter VI : " All children, with- out any exception, contract sin in their birth ;'" we must always bear in mind the declaration made by the holy Doctor in the book Oti Nature and Grace, cliapter XXXVI, and elsewhere : " Except the Blessed Virgin, whom I will not sufter to be named when sin is in question, because she totally over- ' " Neniinem nasci ex Adam nisi vinculo delicti, et damnationis obstnctuin,neminemqiie indeliberari nisi renasccndo per Clu-istnin.' » " Non ef5t in filiis liominuni, nee fait, nee erit qui nullo unqxiarn peecato fuerit ol>striotu3." • " Nullo excepto, parvuli nascendo peccatum traxerunt." OOKCEPTION OF MART. 77 came sin,'" and consequently suppose that these general conclusions do not include the Blessed Vir- gin : otherwise, it would appear as though St. Au- gustine had contradicted himself; which cannot be supposed without the most grievous injury to so great a Doctor. XXVII. TESTIMONY OF OTHER FATHERS OK THE CHUHCH irf FAVOR OF MARt's PRIVILEGB. After St. Augustine, we like to quote St. Ephraim, tlie Syrian, by whom the Blessed Yirgin is pro- claimed " Immaculate and unsullied, incorrupt and wholly chaste, and most remote from all filth and stain of sin, the Spouse of God and our Queen.'" St. Cyril of Alexandria, who flourished in the fifth century, expresses himself in a manner still more decisive. Here are his words : " All men, except Him who was born of a Virgin, and that same most holy Virgin of whom was born the Man- God, are born in original sin, and we come into this world afflicted with the most grievous blindness, ^\ Inch indeed we inherit from our first parent, the Excipio Beatarr Virginem, de qud nullam prorsus liaberi qutestionem volo quoties de peccato agitur, quia vioit omni parte peccatum." " Iniinaculata et intemerata, incorrupta et prorsiis pudica, atque ab omni sorde et' labe peccati alienissirna, Dei sponsa et Domina nostra." {Orat. Be Sanctd Dei Genetrice.) 78 THE IMMACULATE origin of our race." ' And lie gives, moreover, the motive for tins exception, since he goes on to say : " Who ever heard of an architect, building a house for himself, and giving possession of it to his great- est enemy ?" " Let us follow up St. Cyril with St. Maximus, bishop of Turin, who says explicitly : " Mary was a fit dwelling for Christ, not because of the disposi- tion of her body, but on account of original grace.'' ' Then, we have St. Proclus, disciple and successor of St. John Chrysostom, who affirms that Mary was formed essentially pure.*' XXVIII. The sixth century presents St. Fulgenilus, who judiciously remarks' that the Angel, addressing ^ '< Omnes homines, excepto illo, qui de Virgine natus est, et sacratissimd eiiam Virgine, ex quS, Deus homo prcdiit in mundum, exenipta, cum peccato originali nascimur, ct gravissima cseeitate depressi in mundum venimus, quam quidem cajcitatem de radice primi parentis contraximus." {In Evavrj. Joan. lib. "VI, adjecto explanationi Cyrilli per Judocum Cliclitoveum Neoportuensem, Docterum Tlieologum, cap. XV, Oper. S. Cyrilli Alexandrini. Busileaj, 1566.) " In. Cone. Eph. N". VI. " Quia unquam audivit architectum, qui sibi domum «dificavit, ejus occupa -^em et possessionem primo suo iniraico cessisse." * " Idoneum pland Maria Christo habitaculum non pro habitu corporis, sed pro gratia originali:' (St. Maximus, Horn. V, ante Natale Domini.) * Orat V, Laudat. 8. Qenitricis. * 8erm. de Laudibus Marine. CONCEPTION OF MARY. 79 Mary as full of grace, wished to convey the :dea that the ancient sentence of the first wrath was ah- solutely destroyed with regard to her. XXIX. In the seventh century, St. Ildefonso taught, in formal terms, that Mary was exempt from original sin : " It is certain that she was exempted from original sin." ' XXX. In the eighth century, St. John Damascene wrote: " Since it was to be that the Virgin Mother of God was to spring from Anne, nature did not by any means dare to anticipate the embryo of grace, but waited until grace should have produced its fruit.'" He speaks still more positively in his second Dis- course on the Assumption^ where he says : " To this paradise the serpent had no access.'" If then, in the blessed Conception of Mary, nature dared not to anticipate the birth of grace, but waited till the latter had produced its fruit ; and if the serpent, ' " Constat earn ab originali peccato fuisse iramunera." (msmtt de Virg. May.) \ r - ""Quoniaai Suturnni erat, ut Dei Genitrix ac Virgo ex Annd onretur, nat n-a gratlaj foetum antevertere minirad ansa est, varum tantirper e-, r.ectavit dum gratia fructum suum produxisset." ' fOrat. De Nativ. B. M. V.) * '•' Ad hunc paradisum serpens aditum non habuit." 80 THE IMMACULATB that is to say, tlio dovil, luid no access to Hor, aa- suredly alio was exempt from original sin. XXXI. St. Peter Daniian, wlio flourislied in tlio tenth century, entirely excludes Mary from tlie ^Miilt of Adam, that is to say, original sin with its evil con- cupiscence. Hero is what lie says : " The flesh of tlio Virgin, roceived from Adam, admitted none of Adam's guilt.'" And wliy? Because, replies 8t. An.ielm, that bright luminary of tlie eleventh cen- tury, '' it was litting that the Virgin, whom God prepared to be tlie mother of his only Son, should shine with a purity than which, mider God, none greater can bo conceived."" And in order that Tio doubt might arise from the generality of these terms, the holy Doctor, afterwards commenting on the 12th chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, explains his idea more clearly by these words : "All have been dead in sin, whether original, or w. fully incurred ; no one has ever been excepted, save only the Moth'^r of Go-^ ''" Assuredly, these * " Caro Virginis, ex Adam suinpta, niaculas Adam non admwifc." (Orat. 11 De Nativ. Maricc.) " " Decuit at Virgo, quam Deus unigenito Filio siio prteparnvit in Matrem, ed puritate niterot, qud major sub Deo nequit iutelligi." {De Ooncoptu Virginali, cap. XVIII.) ' "Orauesmortuisunt inpeccatisslvooriginalibus, si' „ voluntato additis, uemine pvorsus excepto, demptii Matre Dei." («t. Auselni.) CONCEPTION OF MARY, 81 words are so formal and precise, that they require no explanation. XXXII. In the course of the thirteentli century, St. Bona- venturo, in his Second Sermon on the Blessed Vir- gin, taught that " our Lady was full of grace in her sanctification, a grace truly preservative against the defilement of original guilt.'" Many others preached the same doctrine, and especially the learned and meritorious Order of Franciscans, who always professed and vigorously defended it. XXXIII. ST. BERNARD WAS NEVER OPPOSED TO THE DOCTRINB OF THE IMMA- CULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY — UK IS DEFENDED AGAINST SUCH AX IMPUTATION. As St. Bernard closes the series of the Fathers of the Church, it is proper to examine here whether he was really of the contrary opinion, as the pro- fessors of that opinion have falsely and unjustly pretended. Their only foundation is the famous Letter addressed by the holy Doctor to the Chapter of the Church of Lyons, when, influenced by the example of other particular churches, who liad done the same, it adopted, in its turn, the custom Domina nostra fuit plena gratiil in siid sanctificatione, gratifi, scilicet, prseservativd contra fceditatem originalis culpae." 82 THE IMMACULATE of celebrating the feast of the Immaculate Concep- tion of Mary. The holy Abbot exclaimed against the institution of that festival, and it is quite true that he declared it novel, unknown to the holy Fathers, and foreign to the ecclesiastical rite. " Wherefore we wonder much," wrote he, " that some are now pleased to desire a change of existing colors, to introduce a new solemnity, which the ecclesiastical rite knows not, which reason approves not, and which ancient tradition recommends not." ' Without entering here on the critical examination of the question whether that letter is wrongly at- tributed to the holy Doctor (as many eminent theo- logians think), and admitting it, on the contrary, as authentic, I say it does not at all prove St. Bernard averse to our opinion. Let us see how he justifies his reprimand, addressed to the Chapter of Lyons, for having instituted this solemnity : " For, if it thus seemed proper, the matter should have leen first referred to the authority of the Apostolic See, and not to act thus rashly and unadvisedly on the simple notions of a few unlearned persons. I had, indeed, noticed this error heretofore amongst some, but I chose to connive at it, as proceeding from simplicity and devotion to the Yirgin. But, hav- * " Unde miramur satis, quod visum fuerit hoc tempore quibua- dam vestriim voluisse mutare colovem optimum, novam iiducendo celebritatera, quam ritus ecclesiasticus nescit, non probat ratio, non oommendat antiqua traditio." CONCEPTION OP MARY. 83 ing detected superstition amongst the wise, and in that famous and noble church of wliich I am spe- cially a son, I know not how I could longer remain silent without great scandal to you all. Yet what I have said is by no means prejudicial to thoc-e of sound wisdom ; I reserve this whole matter, with all others of a similar nature, for the special exami- nation and decision of the Roman Church, and am prepared to abide by its decision, even if it be of a different opinion." ' Here the holy Doctor stops. It must be observed that at that period the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was not yet solemnly introduced into the Church. Still, the faithful and the clergy of some places, of their own accord, honored the Mother of God under that title and by that festival. Hence it was that St. Bernard, full of zeal to banish from the Church all the errors and inconveniences which might be introduced by the individual mind, considering, on the one side. 1 « ' Nam, si sic videbatur, consulenda erat pvius Apostolicse Sedig auctoritas, et non ita prtecipitanter, atque inconsult^, pauconim sequenda simplicitas imperitorum. Et ant6 qiiidem apud aliquos eiTorem compereram, sed dissiraulabam parcens devotioni, qu£e do siinpliei corde et amove Virginis veniebat. Veruni apud sapientes, atque in famosd nobilique Ecclesia, et cujus specialitei- filius sum, superstitione deprehensa, nescio an sine gravi ofFensd etiam vestri omnium dissimulare potuerim. Qua5 autem dixi, absque pioejudi- cio sano dicta sint sanius sapientis; Romanse prajsertim Ecclesia} auctoritati atque examini totum, sicut et cseteva, qua; hujusmodi sunt, universa reservo, ipsius, si quid aliter sapio, paratus judicio emendare." 84 THE IMMAOFT. ATB -•♦- that the Holy See had given no decision on thifl head, and, on the other, seeing it adopted by a church so ancient and so ilhistrious as that of Lyons, feared lest the example of that cluirch, the iirst planted amongst the Gauls, might cause the solem- nity to be generally propagated, to the great detri- ment of the rights and the supreme authority of the Roman Church. lie, consequently, disapproved, and condemned the Chapter of Lyons for having taken upon itself to celebrate and institute such a festival, without having first consulted the Apos- tolic See : " For, if it thus seemed proper, the mat- ter should have been first referred to the authority of the Apostolic See, and not to act thus rashly and unadvisedly on the simple suggestions of a few un- learned persons." If he adds that such a feast was new, and neither approved by reason, nor recom- mended by tradition, it was still from the same mo- tive, because that institution took place without the authority of the Holy See, to whose judgment he, moreover, submitted his own opinion on that point and on all others : " I reserve this whole matter, with all others of a similar nature, for the special examination and decision of the Roman Church, and am prepared to abide by its decision." OONOEPTION OF MAUY 85 XXXIV. IT IS PROBAnLK THAT, TN lit, lkTTKR TO TIIK 0AN0N9 OF I.T0N8, THE BAINT SrOKE OF TIIK '• ACTIVK," AND NOT OK THE "rASHIVIc" CONOEr- TION For the rest, amongst the learned who liavo written on this aul)ject, some liave tliought that the Ahbot of Clairvaux, when cond(3raning, in tJio letter quoted above, tlie introduction of the feast of the Immacuhite Conception, or when he adds in his Sermon on the Assumption : " If she contracted original guilt from her parents, yet Christian piety forbids us to think that she was less sanctified in the womb than was Jeremias,'" meant to speak of her active conception, that is to say, that in which the holy parents of the Virgin, opere maritali, to use the language of the schools, " invicem conveni- entes, proestiterunt ea quae maxime spectabant ad ipsius corporis formationem, organisationem et dis- positionem ad recipiendam animam rationalem a Deo infundendam ;" and that he did not mean to speak of the passim conception, that is to say, the infusion of the soul, and its union with the body already formed and duly organized, the passive conception which takes place precisely " at the mo- ment when the rational soul is united to the body 1 u ' Quod si originalem mactilam a parentibus traxit, sed minus Jeremia sanctificatam in utero credere prohibet pietas Christiana." IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) t 1.0 I.I 1.25 ^ B4 *-« "i 140 u 1 III 2.2 III Mtuu m JA ■ 1.6 11111^^= V] <^ /2 Ay^M. 'c^l ^> 7^ Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 m i\ ^9) .V ^6" ^>. ^^ 86 THE IMMACULATE >? 1 i: composed of all its members and organs,'' * as we have proved from the beginning. Th :)se who main- tain that St. Bernard spoke of the active, instead of the passive conception, found their opinion on the very text of the same letter, where the holy Doctor says : " Whence is the sanctity of the Conception ? Is she said to be holy before she exists ; since she did not exist before she was conceived ? or was there sanctity in the conception itself inter mari- tales amfiplexus, so that she was conceived and sanctified at one and the same time ? Not even this does reasoh admit. For how can there be sanctity without the sanctifying Spirit? .... If then she could not be sanctified before her conception, inas- much as she did not exist ; nor in her conception, on account of the sin by which it was accompa- nied; it follows that she must have been sancti- fied in the womb after her conception, which sanctification, having excluded sin, made her nati- vity holy, though not her conception." " Assuredly, * " lUo ipso instanti, quo rationalis anima corpori omnibus mem- bris ao suis organis constanti unitur." ' " Unde Conceptionie sanctitas ? An dicitur antd sancta esse, qu^m esse ; siquidem non erat antequam conciperetur : an forte inter amplexus maritales sanctitas se ipsi Conceptioni immiscuit, ut simul sancificata fuerit et concepta ? Ne boc quidem admittit ratio. Quomodo enim sanctitas absque Spiritu sanctificante? Aut sancto Spiritui societas cum peccato fuit? Aut certd pecca- tum quomodo non fuit, ubi libido non defuit? Si igitur ante oonceptum sui sanctificari non potuit, quoniam non erat ; sed nee CONCEPTION OF MART. 87 these words seem sufficiently strong vo authorize the conclusion that the holy Doctor meant to speak, riot of the passive conception, but of the ac- tive conception only. If this interpretation were admitted, all difficulty would vanish, and the doc- trine of the Abbot of Olairvaux would be found in perfect accordance with ours. XXXV. Any one who 'refused to admit this intei-pre- tation, which seems to us just and reasonable, arid would, on the contrary, maintain with Mabillon that St. Bernard was unfavorable to us, would still have to admit that the holy Abbot professed a most tender devotion for Mary, that he showed himself a most ardent defender of her privileges, and that it certainly never was his intention to de- tract in any degree from the dignity of the Mother of God. It must also be admitted that, whatever might then have been the opinion of the holy Doc- tor on this subject, if he lived in our days, when the Church has long since established the feast of the Conception, he would not only defend it, but would rejoice beyond measure in that great privi- in ipso quidem conceptu propter peccatum quod inerat; restat ut post conceptum in utero jam existens sanctificationem accepisse credatur, qua5 excluso peccato sanctam fecerit nativitatem, non tamen et conceptionem." 88 THE IMMACULATE lege bestowed by the heavenly Father on tba Blessed Virgin, in having preserved her from ori- ginal sin. And if he formerly treated our opinion as mjperstitim^, he would now term it pious, being instructed and enlightened by the example of the Roman Church ; he would devoutly and spontaneously exclaim with us: "Thou art all fair, O Mary, and there is no spot in Thee." XXXVI. . 8T. THOMAS IS EXONERATED FROM THE CHARGE OF DENYING THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY-PASSAGES FROM HIS WORKS WHICH ARE FAVORABLE TO ,IT. Let lis now isee what was the real opinion, on this subject, of another illustrious Doctor, St. Thomas of Aquinas, a great luminary of the Church of God, and justly deserving of the glorious title, Angel of the School. Much stress is laid on the authority of this holy Doctor, who is made to pass for the head of the opposite party. Even if that were true, his authority would still be inferior to that of the Church, who has instituted the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. But is it, indeed, true that St. Thomas was opposed to this special privilege of Mary ? If we take note of what he has written in his Sixth Opuscule, " On the Love of God and our JSTeighhor,'' we shall be mduced to draw a very different conclusion: CONCEPTION OP MARY 89 "The supreme Artificer," says he, « for the better display Of his art, made one mirror of surpassing brightness, cleaner than the Seraphim, so that nothing purer could be conceived, unless God him- self, namely, the person of the most glorious Vir- gin, concerning whom Anselm wrote; 'It was meet that the conception of that Man should he of the most pure Mary, so pure, that under God, nothing purer could he conceived.^ ' XXXVII. In the first book of Sentences, l).tinct. 44, quest. 1, art. 3, he thus expresses himself: "By purity is meant a departure from the contrary, and, consequently, a creature may be found, than which nothing can be purer amongst created things, if it be infected by no taint of sin ; and such was the purity of the Blessed Virgin, who was exempt from original and actual sin. She was, however, under God, inasmuch as she had the ca- pacity of sinning."" And here it must be observed De dilectione Dei et proximi. . . . "Fecit summus artifex, in ostensionem pleniorem artis suae, speculum unum clarissimo clarius Seraphim tersius, ut purius intelligi non posset, nisi Deus esset,' personam, scilicet, gloriosisahnoe Virginia, de quo Anselmus : Decebat illius conceptio hominis de Marid puriasimd Jieret, ed puritate, quce major sub Deo nequit intelligi." " " Puritas intenditur per recessum k contrario, et ideo potest aliquid creatum reperiri, quo nihil purius esse possit in rebus ere- 90 THE IMMACULATE that the Angelic Doctor, speaking of the Yirgin, does not confine himself to the words, " she was free from all sin, both original and actual," ' which might also be said of Jeremias, and John the Bap- tist, and indeed of all children born in sin, after the reception of baptism, whereby it is effaced in them ; but he says of Her that " she was exempt from all sin, both original and actual.'" Now if Mar;} was, according to St. Thomas, exempt from original sin, it is evident that, according to him, she never contracted it ; because, if she had once contracted it, even for an instant, it could not be said that she was exempt from it {immimis). Hence the holy Doctor establishes a comparison be- tween the purity of God, and that of the Blessed "Virgin, saying that " neither God nor the most Blessed Yirgin ever sinned ;" * with this difference, however, that God is by nature exempt from sin, while the Blessed Yirgin has been preserved from it by a special privilege. XXXVHI. Nevertheless, our adversaries bring forward no atis, si nulla contagione peccati infectum sit, et talis fuit puritas B, Vii'ginis quae kpeccato originali et actuali immunis fuit. Fuit tamen sub Deo, quatenus fuit in potentid ad peccandum." * " Omni peccato originali et actuali caruisse." " " Ab omni peccato originali et actuali iimrms^ fuit." • " Quod ceo Deus, nee Beatiesima Virgo unquam peccaverini" CONCEPTION OF MARY. 91 less than fifteen passages in proof of their assertion that the Angelic Doctor was opposed to the Imma- culate Conception of Mary. These passages are chiefly taken from the Third and Fourth books of Sentences, from his Quodlihet, from the Commen- taries, both on the 3rd Psalm, and on the Apoca- lypse, and finally from the Summa.' In these places it is said that « the Blessed Virgin was con- ceived in original sin." ' XXXIX. THE WBITINaS OF THB HOLV DOCTOR HAVB BEEN AtTERED IN gOHB PLACES. Now, how are we to reconcile St. Thomas with St. Thomas? How explain his having, on the same subject, taught two doctrines wholly opposed one to the other, that is to say, one favorable to the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and the other contrary to it? Did he retract the former, when he came to maintain the latter? Not so. Did he, then, contradict himself? or rather, when he said that Mary had contracted original sin, did he forget that he had before declared her exempt from that sin ? To contradict himself was not the part of a Doctor such as the Angel of the Schools, profoundly philosophical, whose works are all ad- * HI Part. Quest 27, a. 1. seq. Virgo Beata in originaU pecoato fiiit concepta." 92 THE IMMACULATE ii mirably connected with eacli other, and who, mDreover, maintains throughout the most perfect consistency. How then are we to explain this mystery, without wounding the honor of the holy Doctor, and weakening his authority ? The mys- tery will at once disappear, if a comparison be in- stituted between the old and the new editions of the works of this great Doctor, and if it be clearly proved that many of his works, especially those in which he treats of the Conception of Mary, have undergone either suppressions or evident altera- tions. Of this we have ample and imposing testi- mony from some of the most learned and respect- able writers of the illustrious Order of Dominicans. Let us quote some of the most important. Bishop Wielmo, in his book Pro defensione Sancti ThomcB^ speaks thus : " Still more execrable is that which certain wicked men have done, either for the pur- pose of weakening the authority of Thomas, or, as I think, to prop and to prove by the testimony of so great a man, some opinion of theirs, which was a subject of controversy." ^ Giles of Rome, w^ho was the beloved and devoted disciple of the An- gelic Doctor, composed, a few years after the Saint's death, a book, entitled : Castigatorium in Corriip- * " Execrabilius est, quod nequam et scelesti homines quidam, vel ad Thomse auctoritatem enervaudam, vel, ut ego quidem arbi- tror, ad suam aliquam opinionem, quae in controversiam vertebatur, tanti viri testimoniis fulciendam et comprobandam egerunt." CONCEPTION OF MART. 93 lorem Libroi~um Tlwmm Apdnatie Richard Kla- poel, Ilervy Noel, WiUia.n Messelech, John of Pans W,l ,am Bollionio, Nicholas Madense, Dm- andclle and Archbishop H„go, all members of the boly Institute of the Dominicans, have also written sh-ongly agmnst those who had altered the writings of St Thomas And John NicolaV, in his Preface to he edition of the Works of the holy Doctor, pub- hshed in Pans in 1663, attests and declares: "that he had purged the text of the Summa of St. Thomas not on y of typographical errors, but still more of all faet,tK,„s things, deliberately left therein, which perver ed the true sense, or the historical truth and mcenty; that he had also filled up several gaps and vacancies to keep „p the thread of the text, otherwise interrupted, and leaving the reader in doubt for want of the full sense, or leading him into error by a wrong meaning.'" XL. UiMPtM OF THESE I»TE11P0I,ATI0118. In proof Of this truthful assertion of the learned Dominican NicolaJ, we have the testimony of the ancient editions of the Commentary on the third 4f ?'° '" ""' °°''™''" "' '"^ ^'^^^'^^^^^^> ^n^i^Z^T"^ ?" '";'""* "°° * typographiei. tant.'.m «l.aB, qoielegito.™ wnsum, velhUtoricam 8in«riUI*m. 6 94 THE IMMACULATE l! chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, where St. Thomas says : " Amongst all women, I do not find one wholly exempt from sin, at least origmal, or venial, except only the Virgin Mary, most pure and most worthy of all praise, who was entirely ex- empt from sin both original and venial."* This exception, so clear and so positive, made by the holy Doctor, is not to be found in the later editions, that is to say, in those now in circulation, and in the hands of the learned. So, in the present edi- tions of tlio Summa, Hid part, quest. 27, art. 2, St. Thomas is made to say that " neither before, nor in, but after animation she was cleansed from original sin and sanctified;'" whilst, in the Seville manu- script, in that preserved in the Dominican Con- vent in Marseilles, and some others, these words do not occur at all in the passage cited. So true is this, that the Dominican Bromiardo,' quoting the passage just referred to, makes no difliculty in af- firming that " St. Thomas (Hid part, que^t. 27, art. ^^i^emque, pervertcrent; hiatus quoque plures, et lacunaB im- plevisse ad supplendani seriem textvis, qu«5 alioqum nulla erat, ac dubium lectorem relinquebat propter non s. tia plenum sensum, vel in errorem imlucebat propter sensvim iUegitimum." ^ > "Mulierem ex omnibus non inveni, quro 4 peccato omnmo im- munis esBet ad minus originis, vel veniali; excipitur purissima et omni laude dignissima Virgo Maria. qu« omnmo immunis fuit ft peccato originali et veniali." „„:,^-, •^ " Nee ante animationem, nee in ammatione, aed post anima tionem sanctificatam, et h peccato originali mundatam fuisBe. » InSaramft prredicantium, Verbo Maria, art. 2, n. 10. II 95 CONCEPTION OP MART. 2) places the excellence of her sanctification, as to priority of time, in this, that she was sanctified in her animation, that is, in the union of her soul with her body m her mother's womb,'" which signifies that Mary was immaculate in her passive concep- tion, or rather that her soul, prevented by sancti- tying grace, was exempt from original sin. XLI. It is needless to cite all the passages wherein alterations or suppressions have been made in the text of the holy Doctor, but even in the 4th Opus- cule On the Angelical Salutation there is one re- markable instance, where, according to the testi- mony of Salmeron and Peter Canisius, the Saint said that Mary was "most pure in regard to every tault, because she never incurred the guilt of either original or actual sin;'" words which have been suppressed in the recent editions. If then, in the works of the holy Doctor, there are passages, and these beyond the reach of suspi- cion, which favor our doctrine ; and if it can be proved that other passages contrary to that same 8ui antof *«•"P°"^P"«"t'»t«"». in hoc. q«od eanctificata fuitin 96 THK IMMACULATE doctrino diflfer from the ancient and original text of the author, and are consequently mntilated, al- tered and falsified ; the very rules of sound criti- cism require that wo hold by the first rather than the second, and that it is by the former, and not the latter, that we ascertain the real opinion of St. Tho- mas of Aquinas. XLH. And we are the more bound to judge thus, inas- much as St. Thomas has himself established the principles to prove that Mary, in her happy Con- ception, was exempt from original sin. It is true, the Angelic Doctor has taught that " a festival can- not be celebrated, except for something holy :" ' but the Church celebrates the Feast of the Imma- culate Conception of Mary ; her Conception was, therefore, holy. He likewise taught and wrote: " It cannot be doubted that the most Blessed Vir- gin was born without original sin, because the Church celebrates her Nativity." ' Kow, the Church also celebrates and solemnizes, by precept, the Con- ception of Mary ; hence we cannot doubt, accord- ing to St. Thomas, that Mary was conceived with- out original sin. Thus, if we would not suppose (and the supposition would be wholly unjust and * ** Non posse featura celebravi, nisi de Sancto." « " Dubitari non posse Beatissimam Virginem sine poccato ori- ginali natam esse, quia Ecclesia ejus Netivitatem celebrat." OOKOEPTION OP MART. or nnfonndod that the Angolic Doctor wished to act m contradicfon to his own principles, we ml reasonably conclude that, if he lived now when tl whole Church is unanimous in honorinl'and venl ratmg the Conception of the Mother of God JZ- maculate, he would not only embrace the doct. "« uch we maintain, but he would defend it "h a 1 the power of his mighty geaius. This has been rsci: VtT'''^ " ^'^'" ''■*^'" of "'« Thorn- 'to School, John of St. Thomas, who, in the Ct P«rt, d,stmc 2, on the doctrine of St.'Tl .om^, „t' 2, expresses himself as follows : "Speaking accord 011 1 r?' ?fS'- Thomas, sLe thf Za„ Church celebra es the Feast of the Conception, we are bound to think of it as the Church does a^d thus would St. Thomas himself think." ■ A^; ""e iofi:Vo"™ ""f '"'"™''""" - "- t suffices to conclude that the holy Doctor is not ^J^^^hmAsince he teaches doctrines and estab- 1 « tentiia cenaere r^-ln ^•I^'^'"'^' ^P^'-t^' vice verad de his sea- censere, et sio Divua Thomaa eemeret" 98 THE IMMACULATE ^ lishes principles by which it is maintained and de- monstrated. xLni. DOCTRINE OF THK THEOLOQI\I*S ON THIS SUBJECT. Finally, it remains for us to ascertain what was the doctrine of the theologians who succeeded the holy Fathers in defence of the truth, and whose au- thority, on that very account, is certainly worthy of all respect in questions relating either to faith or ecclesiastical discipline. XLIV. 8T. DOMINICK A DEFSNDER OF OUR DOCTRINE. We shall commence this series v/ith the holy founder of the illustrious Order of Preaching Friars, St. Dominick, who was a gieat light of the Church of God. There is in the city of Barcelona a very ancient and valuable table, probably brought from Toulouse, giving an account of the disputes which took place between St. Dominick himself and the Albigensian heretics. There we find this gr-^phic and simple narrative : " St. Dominick, the glorious father of the Order of Preachers, came to Toulouse for the defence of the Oiurch, which he confirmed by miracles. The Albigenses principally asserted three errors : first, that Christ was not He who is now said to have come, and who was to redeem CONCEPTION OF MARY. " ' — »< — ■ 99 mankind ; second^ that the consecrated host did not contain the real body of Christ ; third, that as Adam was formed of pure and undefiled clay in the plain of Damascus, so He who was to redeem mankind should be born of an Immaculate Virgin. But the Virgin who is called the Mother of Christ was defiled by original sin ; therefore, the offspring of such a Virgin was not He who was to redeem the world. Against these errors, St. Dominick composed a little treatise concerning the body of Christ, affirming that Christ did redeem mankind, and with unerring truth confessing that Christ was indeed born of an Immaculate Virgin ; whereupon, the Albigenses rising furiously against the same Blessed Dominick, maintained that that Virgin was conceived in original sin ; and Blessed Domi- nick replied, as is stated in his book, that what they said was untrue, because the Virgin Mary is she of whom the Holy Ghost said by the mouth of Solo- mon : < Thou art all fair, my beloved, and there is no spot in thee.' Finally, the heretics still persist- ing in their erroneous opinion, recourse was had to a miracle, namely, that Blessed Dominick should cast his book into a blazing furnace, and that if it were not burned, they should believe : and Bbssed Dominick threw the book into the furnace, and it was taken out uninjured.'" This miracle is men- I « Dorninicus sanctus et glorioaus Pater Ordinis Pr»dicAtoi-nm 100 THE IMMACULATE •It tioned by Peter Canisivis, in his 1st Book On the Mother of God, cli. YII ; by Salmeron, in his Com- mentary On the Epistle to the Romans ; and by the Cistercian Pierre de Yaiix-Cernai in his His- tory of the AlUgenses, ch. YIIL After these, Go- tescalc, who lived before Sixtus IV, affirms and maintains (in his Sermon on the Conception of the Blessed Virgin) that, in the book against the Albi- genses, of which we have ah-eady spoken, St. Domi- nick defended the opinion that Mary was preserved, that is to say, exempted from original sin. Snarez, yenit Tolosam pro Ecclesite defensione, quam miraculis confirma- vit. Albigenses affirmabant principaliter tres errores: primus, quod Christus non erat ille qui jam dicitur venisse, et qui debebat redimere genus huraanum; «ec«rtrfw.s. quod hostia consecrata non continebat verum corpus Christi; terfms, quod slcut Adam for- matus fnerat in campo Damasceno ex Into mundo, et non macu- lafco ; sic ille„ qui redimere debebat genus humanum, nasci debebat ex Virgine non raaculata. Sed Virg'o quae dicitur Mater Christi fuit maculata per culpam originalum ; ergo natus ex tali Virgine non est ille qui debebat mundum redimere. Contra quoa crrores sanctus Dominions fecit quemdam libellum de Corpore Christi, affirmando quod Christus redemit genus humanum, et firmissima veritate confitendo, Christum nntum do Yirgine Immaculata; et Albigenses furiosi insurgendo contra ipsum B. Dominicum dice- bant'quod ilia Virgo concepta fuit in peccato originali; et B. Domiuicus, prout continctur in suo libello, ruspondebat, quod non erat verum quod dicebant, quoniam Virgo Maria est ilia, de qu& Spiritus Sanctus per Salomonem dicit : Tota pulchra es, arnica mea, et macula non e?t in te. Finaliter existentes hfcretici m eorii'm erronea intentione, veneruut ad miraculi experientiam, vi- delicet, quod B. Dominicus projiccret libellum smun in quodam furno ardente, et si ibi non combureretur, crederent: et B. Do- minicue projecit ilium in furno ardente, et libellus inustua exivit." CONCEPTION OF MART. »« 101 3 p. q. 2r, d, 3, sect. 15 ; Yasquez, dist. 17, and othe^, speak of this book of St. Dominick. In it the baint thus expresses himself: "As the first Adam was formed of virgin earth, still uncursed, It was fitting that it should be the same with re- gard to the second Adam.'" Thus, from the document which we hare iust transcnbed, whose authority cannot be disputed, it seems clear that the glorious St. Dominick professed hke ourselves the doctrine that Mary was exempt from origmal sin, which is equivalent to saying that her Conception was immaculate. XLV. , ST. yaasHT naam dii-inds oue DoorRmii. It is confidently asserted of St. Vincent Fe.rier who flourished in the fifteenth century (1419) that he was opposed to our doctrine. But those who think so have probably never had the opportunity of reading his Second Sermon On the Watinty, where the Saint speaks of Mary's Conception ir^ diesc terms: "Think not that it was as with us, who are conceived in sin ; for, as soon as her soul was created, it was sanctified, and immediately the angels m heaven celebrated the Feast of the Con- «M« ; " Hsec Virgo sola d com- muni ilia regiila excipitur: omn, j . . Adam peccaverunt." ' " Vffi culpae est triplex, scilicet originalis, mortalis et vemalis : porro sins isto triplici vae fuit Beatissima Virgo Maria." 104 THE IMMACULATE XL VII. JOHN OF VITERBO, AN ADVERSARY OF THE PIOUS OPINION, BKCAMK n» DEFENDER — REASON OF THIS CHANGE. Eaynaiid * says of John of Yiterbo, who was also a Dominican : " John of Yiterbo wrote a whole work on the Immaculate Conception, of which I find this abridgment, for the entire work I have not seen. The author proves that because it is the height of infamy to be born in tlie wrath of God, in the darkness of guilt and in iniquity, so the Con- ception of the Yirgin must have been Immaculate. That it is the particular opinion of St. Thomas and of the true Order of Preachers, that the Blessed Yirgin has never been subjected for one instant to the anger of God. That, since Christ chose rather to have his own birth doubted than the character of his Mother, choosing to be born of one who was only espoused, as St. Ambrose observes ; they act against the will of Christ who obstinately and falsely endeavor to establish a defiled Concep- tion." » * Tome VIII in Tractata de Pietate^ Lugduni. ' " Joannes de Viterbio opus integium conscripsit de Immacii- lata Conceptione, cnjus hunc breviculum reperio ; nam opus inte- grum non vidi. Probat auctor, quod Vivginis conceptus fuit im- maculatus, eo quod summa animaj infamia est concipi in ira Dei, in tenebris culpse, et in iniquitatibus. Quod B. Thomse, ac veri Oi'dinis Prajdicatorum propria opinio est, B. Virginem ne pro in- Btanti quidem subjacuisse ir«5 Dei. Quod cum Christus maluerit CONCEPTION Of MARY. 106 The same author informs us, in the passage cited, that John of Yiterbo was at first an ardent oppo- nent of the doctrine favorable to the Immaculate Conception of Mary ; but that, being reduced by a dangerous malady to the point of death, and per- haps repenting of having formerly entertained such an opinion, he addressed himself to Mary, and made the following vow : " O blessed Virgin Mary, if it be true that thou wert conceived without sin, vouch- safe to restore me to health as a sign of thy purity ; and I will henceforward celebrate the feast of thy Conception, and announce thine innocence to the people, retracting what I have hitherto preached on that subject." ' He had no sooner pronounced this vow, than he was immediately cured, and hav- ing assembled the people by the accustomed tolling of the bell, he began at once to preach and to de- fend the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. homines de suo ortu quam de fama Matris dubitare, eligens nasci ex conjuncta, lit notat S. Arabrosius; contra Chriati voluntatem facere, qui pertinaciter, et adhibitis falsiloquiia raaculatam Cou- ceptionem adsti'uere conantur." '"OB. Virgo Maria, si verum est quod sine peccati macula concepta fuisti, rogomihi sanitatem donare digneris in signum tu» puritatis ; et ego voveo toto tempore vitse mere celebrare festum Concentionia, et annuntiare populis innocentiam tuam, et retrao- tare quidquid in contrarium prajdicavi." 106 THE I M M A C U L A T B XLVIII. OON8EQURNOK8 WIUOII PROCKKD FIIOM THIS DOOOMENT. ITrom this precious document result two very im- portant consequences : the first is, that it was the true and undoubted opinion of St. Thomas and the Order of Preachers that the Blessed Virgin ivas never for one moment suhject to the anger of God ; the other is that, John of Viterbo having besought Mary to make known, by the miracle which he asked of her, whether she had been conceived without any shade of sin, she answered by the im- mediate, perfect and lasting cure of the mortal sick- ness from which he had begged her to deliver him. XLIX. OPINION OF THAULERK, MELCIItOR CANO, AND NOEL ALEXANDER. Tliaulere, a religious truly remarkable both for piety and learning, says in his first sermon On the Purification : "The Blessed Virgin was perpetually free from original guilt, from which her Son pre- served her, so that she was never for one moment a child of wrath." ' Such is also the opinion of Louis Bertram, Lanuza, Catalan, and Cassali ; of * " B. Virgo culpas originalis perpetuo expers fuit, k qua illnin priBservavit Filius ejua, ita ut ne momenlo quidem teinporis filia irsB fueiit." OONCKPTION OF MARY, 107 -♦♦• the Blessed James de Yoragine, who was Arch- bishop of Genoa, and who wrote, in favor of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, two works in which he gives an account of the miracles which God has wrought in support of that doctrine ; of the famous Catharin, who wrote a small work in defence of the Immaculate Conception of Mary ; and of Melchior Cano, who, after enumerating those writers who had declared against the Im- maculate Conception, concludes by saying : " Still, the contrary opinion is piously and with much probability, defended in the Church!"* Finally, we must add to this list of theologians the celebrated Noel Alexander, who thus replies to the authority of those Fathers who are usually quoted by the opponents of our doctrine : " The ancient Fathers brought forward by St. Augustine against the Pelagians, together with St. Augustine himself, are easily explained as regards original sin ; for as the Blessed Virgin was a descendant of Adam, she was subject to the common law of con- tracting original sin; and she would inevitably have contracted it, had she not been preserved from it by a special gift of the Redeemer." He then adds : "The opinion of the Immaculate Con- ception we will maintain, not only as probable and " Quill potiiia ccntraria sentontia ct probabiliter et pie in Ee- clesia defenditur," I I 108 THE IMMACtJLATK ♦ « pious, but as the particular doctrine of our Faculty of Paris, should there be an occasion to speak or to write about it." ' L. OPINION OF VINOBNT JOSTINIANI. As it would be too tedious to recite the names of all the Dominican theologians who have pro- fessed and maintained the opinion that Mary was exempt from original sin, we shall pass them over, with the exception of the learned and accurate Justiniani, in his Addition to the Life of the Blessed Louis Bertrand.' Here are his words : " It were little short of madness to attempt now to write, teach, or preach against the pious opinion enter- tained in Spain, in the Indies, in France, and in almost the whole of Europe ; it would be just like one singing a discord, and persisting therein, veri- fying the words of Terence, that they labor in vain, who have only odium for their pains. It * " Antiqui Patres, quos Aligustinus ndversus Pelagianos in aciem educit, et Angustinus ipse de peccati originalis debito, facile exponi possunt ; cum enim ex Adamo B. Virgo propagata fucrit, communi lege peccati originalis contrahendi tenebatur, illuJque reipsa contraxisset, nisi singulari Redemptoris servata fuisset be- neficio. . . . Sententiam do Iramaculata Conceptione non solum ut probabilem et piam, sed ut propriam Facultatis nostrse Parisiensis doetrinam propugnabimus, si de ea dicendi scribendique detur occasio." » Chap. Ill, § 14. CONCEPTION OF MARY. 109 were more prudent to give up their opinion at once, even as men abandon a falling house (which Pliny says is the case with mice) in order to save their lives. They have now neither chairs, pulpits, confessionals nor books on their side. They have with them neither royal crowns, nor episcopal liiitres, nor cardinals' hats, nor pontifical tiara, since the Council of Trent openly declared tliat it had no intention to include the Mother of God in its decree on original sin.' 5J 1 LL FAVORABLE TESTIMONY OF ST. BERNAHDINE OF 6IKNNA, BT. BRUNO, BT. LAURENCE JUSTINIAN, BT. THOMAS OF VILLANOVA, AND BT. AL- PHONSO DE LIGUORI. There are besides several saints, remarkable also for their learning, who openly professed and main- tained by their writings the pious opinion of the Immaculate Conception of our heavenly Queen. Id 'Jam in Hispania, in Indiis, in Gallia, et in tota pene Europa contra piam opinionem aut scribere, aut docere, ant concionari velle, cilra nihil aliud fuerit quAm mal6 canere, et in malo cantu durare, et occasionem dare ne illud Terentii eis occinatur : frustra niti, et laborando nihil aliud qudra odium quserere, extreme de- mentioe est; magnse prudentiaj fuerit earn opinionem omnino dese- rere, quemadmodum ii qui coUabentera jamjam domum vident (quod de muribus Plinius scribit) fugS se eubducunt. Jam iUis desunt cathedrae, suggesta, confessionalia, libri. Jam regiim dia- demata, jam episcoporum mitra, jam cardinalinm galeri, jam pon- tificum tiarse et ipsamet concilia, quando Tridentinum omnino pro- testatum est non esse suae intentionis in decreto de peccato origi- iiali Deiparam comprehendere." 110 THE IMMAOUL ATE St. Bernardino of Sienna says, in his 49th Ser- mon : " It is wholly incredible that the Son of God would himself vouchsafe to be born and as- sume flesh of a virgin who had once been tainted with original sin." ' The entire body of the Franciscans defend and maintain this doctrine with particular ardor. St. Bruno, founder of the contemplative Order of the Carthusians, speaks tlius of Mary in his commentary on the lOlst Psalm : " She is that pure and undefiled earth which the Lord blessed ; she is consequently fre« from every taint of sin.'" In a sermon delivered on the feast of the An- nunciation before the people of Venice, St. Lau- rence Justinian affirmed that the great Virgin "was, from her very conception, prevented in benediction."' The learned St. Thomas of Villanova, Arch- bishop of Valencia in Spain, says : * "It became the Mother of God to be most pure, sinless, and unspotted. Wherefore, she was not only sanctified when she became a maid, but in the womb, and in her very cynception, she was most holy."' . , . . * " Non enim credendum est quod ipse Filiiis Dei voluerit nasci «x virgine,et sumere ejus camera, quae esaet maculata aliqiio origi- nali peccato." * " H'ec est incorrupta terra, ilia cui benedixit Dorainns ; ab oniLi p^'o^ k.roa peccati contagione libera." * *' Ab Vt a '^rnceptione fuit in benedictionibus prfiBventa.** * Jonc. ].3 1 de Nativit. Vircf. Marine. CONCEPTION OF MARY. Ill I ; And he accoiintB for this by adding : " For it he- came not the Sanctuary of God, the House of Wisdom, the Shrine of the Spirit, the Urn of the celestial manna, to have in herself any spot or stain. Hence it was that, before her holy soul was infused into the flesh, that sacred flesh was wholly cleansed from all dregs and stain; and the soul, when it was infused, had no stain of sin from the flesh, neither did it contract any.'" Passing over many others, let us go on to St. Alphonso de Liguori, who vigorously maintains our opinion in several parts of his works, and more especially in his book on the Glories of Mary; and he demonstrates by divers arguments that the Virgin was preserved from the original stain. " In fact," said he, " it became the Eternal Father himself, for Mary was his daughter, and his first-born daughter ; it became the Son of God, for Mary was his mother ; and it became the Holy Ghost, for Mary was his spouse."* * " Decuit matrem Dei esse purissimam, sine labe, sine peccato. Uu Je non solum quando puella sanctissima, et in utero sanctissima, et in concepthne sanctissima." .... " Non enim decebat Sanctua- rium Dei, Domum SapientioP, Reliquiavium Spirittls, Urnam mannie ccelestis, aliquam in se labem habere. Propter quod antequam anima ilia sanctissima infunderetur.plene fuitcaro ilia mundata ab omni fsece, et labe ; et anima cum infusa est nullam habuit ex came, ne- que contraxit labem peccati." Amongst the saints who have solemnly pronounced in favor of our cause, we may also count St Bridget, who was well versed 112 THE IMMACULATE LII. THE THEOLOGIANa OP' TUB TniRTaENTII AND FOURTEENXn OENTDRIKa, Willi FEW EXCEPTIONS, STUENUOUSIiY DEFENDED OUR DOCTRINE. Eesuming now tlie series of theologians, wc can safely affirm that, from the thirtceutli century, in tb.e knowledge of divine things, because she Imd Christ himself for her teacher, and whoso revelations, consequently, according to the learned Cardinal Turrecremata, are deserving of tlie fullest faith. Now, the saint in one of her revelations makes the Blessed Virgin thus speak: " The truth is that I was conceived without original sin, for as neither my Son nor I has ever sinned, so was there no marriage more honorable than tlmt from which I sprang." Being one day questioned by a learned man, whose name is not mentioned, ou the very subject of the Tmmaculute Conception, she immediately answered : " If it please the Mother of Mercy I will interrogate her on this matter, and I will tell you what she says." St Bridget faithfully fulfilled her promise ; for, being soon after in a blissful ecstasy, she asked of Mary Avhat answer she was to give to the person who had put the question to her, and the Vir- gin said : " My daughter, you are to believe that all those who believe and confess that I was conceived without original sin, are in the right, while those who maintain the contrary opinion are wrong, especially.if they hold it with temerity." Tiie Revelations have been declared authentic and approved by three sovereign Pontiffs, Urban V, Gregory XI, and Martin V. The second, that is to say, Gregory XI, after having them carefully examined by some of the most learned cardinals, by several bishops, and by illustrious and competent theologians, hesitated not to say tl'at " all that is contained in them is eminent for truth, full of holi- ness, clear and perfect." The reader may refer, if he hns the op- portunity, to Cardinal Turrecremata in Prologo ckfens. earumlcm Revelationevi, and he will thare find the strongest and most solid defence of these Revelations. Trithemus, in Chron. Hirsaugiensi, an. 1369, treats also of this subject CONCEPTION OP MARY. 113 when the question of the Imma,culate Conception was first discussed in tlie schools, down to the fif- teenth century, our opinion has liad invincible de- fenders, amongst whom were John Duns, Peter Aureolo, Francis de Mayronis, John Bassoli, Wil- liam de Rubione, Peter de Aquila Scotello, Thomas of Strasburg, Francis Martini, Pierre d'Ailly, Jean Charlier, or Gerson, John of Segovia, Alphonse Tostat, Nicholas de Cusa, William Yerilungo, Ni- cholas Orbello, Denis Rickel the Carthusian, James of Valencia, Gabriel Biel, Perbartc de Temeswar, Ambrose Spiera, Marsile d'Inghen, John Tritlie- mus, Henriquez, Comitolo, Yasquez, Pinsanno, Salmeron, and many others. LIII. The contrary opinion had also its advocates ; but they are much inferior to the others, both in num- bers and in authority : they are only five in num- ber, and those may be considered the leaders of the opposition, namely, Giles Colonna, Henri de Gand, Durand de St. Pour^ain, Alvarez Pelagius, and Gregory of Rimini. LIV. From the fifteenth century till our own times, there were but very few theologians of any distinc- tion who did not maintain the opinion of the Im- 114 THE I M M A U L A T E ■•**- maculate Concoption of Mary. With regard to the regular Orders, we liave elsewlicre said that they defended that doctrine with particular fervor. Con- spicuous amongst them is the illustrious and mont meritorious Company of Jesus, of which Father Giorgi asserts' that its members have ever and everywhere {semper et uhique) defended that extra- ordinary privilege of Mary. We shall here cite but three of their number, who were amongst the most renowned, and who express the opinion of all the others. LV. AUTHOMTY OF BUAREZ. The illustrious Father Suarez triumphantly de- monstrates' that Mary, having been predestined to become the Mother of God, must necessarily be exempted from the law of sin: "For God gives grace to every one in such time, measure and per- fection as, according to right and prudent reason, is best adapted to the end, dignity and office, to which he is appointed by God himself : now, to be the Mother of God was the primary dignity of the Virgin, by which title the greatest love and honor are due to her, and to that dignity is joined an- ' Adnot. in Commentarium Mariani Parthenii de vita et studiia Hieronymi Lagomarnni. " %d Part Divi Thomoc, torn. 2, qumt 27, art. 2, disput. 3, sect, 6. OOWOEPTION OP MARY 116 other, namely, that of cooperating in a singular manner in the work of Redemption ; to which end nothing can be more antagonistic than sin. And hence it follows that she is in a singular manner Lady of all, and Queen of Angels. For (as Anselm has well observed), as God by creating all things is Father and Lord of all, so the Blessed Yirgin re- pairing all things by His merits is Mother and Lady of all things : but it did not become the Mistress to be inferior to her servants, the holy Angels, in per- petual holiness, and innocence,and purity of life."* He afterwards strengthens his argument by say- ing : " No gift of grace conferred on any pure crea- ture, has been withheld from the Virgin : now, to be created in grace is a great gift of grace, which was conferred on Adam and Eve, and perfect inno- cence, excluding all guilt, was bestowed on the Angels : both gifts must, therefore, have been given 1 « ' Dat enim Deus, unicuique gratiam eo tempore, modo, et per- fectione, quo secundiim rectani et prudentem rationem inaximd congruit fini, dignitati et officio, in quo ab ipso Deo constituitur- Bed pnma dignitaa Virginia fuit esse Mat.-om Dei, quo titulo illi debetur maximus amor et honor, et cum Iwlc conjuncta est alia, scilicet singulari modo cooperari Redemptioni ; cui fini nihil po- test esse magis contrarium, qudm peccatum. Et ex his sequitur ut singulari modo sit Domina omnium, et Regina Angeloi-um. iNam (ut recte dixit Anselmus), sicut Deus omnia creando Pater est et Dominus omnium, ita Beata Virgo suis mentis cuncta repa- rando Mater est et Domina rerum : non dccebat autem Dominam esse mferiorem servis, scilicet Sanctis Angelis, in perpetua sancti- •^te, et vitffl innocentia ac puritate." 116 THE IMMACULATE in still greater perfection to tlie Virgin."* And the objection which some are wont to draw from the singularity of this privilege, he successfully answers in this way: "Nor does it matter that grace preserving from immediately contracting sin is granted to none ; because, for that very reason the Virgin required that privilege more than any other, and it was, therefore, meet and reasonable that it should be given her ; and because it is no way surprising that He grants something more to his Mother than to any one else." " Thus we see that Suarez (who, moreover, fol- lowed and perfectly interpreted the doctrine of the Angelic Doctor) maintained and defended the Im- maculate Conception of Mary in the sense indicated by us. LVI. ATJTHORITY OF PETAU. Let us now hear Petau. That illustrious and profound theologian, well versed in the writings ^ " Nullum gratise beneficium alicui purse creatarse collatuni, Vir- gin! negatum est : sed creari in gratia est magnum gratisB benefi- cium, quod Ada} et Hevse collatum est, et perfecta innocentia ex- cludens omnem culpam communicata est Angelis : ergo utrumque multo perfectius concessum est Virgini." ^ " Nee refert quod gratia prseservans k peccato statim contra- hendo nuUi concessa sit ; turn quia hinc fit Virginem magis indig- uisse hoc bencficio qakm cajteros, ideoque potior! jure atque ra- tione illi fuisse tribuendum ; tum etiam quia nihil mirum ebt, quod aliquid majus Matri quam cseteris concedai" CONCEPTION OP MARY 117 of the holy Fathers, persuaded of the truth of our doctrine bj the liost of arguments in its favor, prin- cipally drawn from tradition, and strongly influ- enced by the unanimous and universal eagerness of the faithful to embrace it, speaks thus of it in his esteemed work entitled. Dogmata Theologica:^ "Above all, I am induced to be of that mind by reason of the common opinion of all the faithful who have it deeply rooted in their inmost souls, and testify by offices and every other sign, that nothing has been created by God more chaste, more pure, more innocent, more remote, in a word, from all filth and stain of sin than that Virgin ; and, further, more, that she had nothing whatever to do with hell and its ruler the devil, neither with damnatioq or any sort of offence to God.'"' LVII. AUTHORITY OF CORNEILLE DE LA PIERKK. Corneille de la Pierre pronounces no less clearly m favor of our opinion ; f or he hesitates not to as- * Lib. XIV, cap. 2, No. 10. ""Movet autem me ut in earn sim partem propensior, commu- ateque g ^^eyyo?, that is hrilliant as lightning, as if the Blessed Yir- gin in conceiving Christ, received from Him a glo- rious effulgence and splendor of sanctity ; that she in her own conception received the brightness of the same Christ, but that now she should be reful- gent with surpassing splendor, yea, the brilliancy of the lightning, who before was clear and bright.'" 1 ti - •■ Htec omnimoda puritas decebftt Matrem Dei. Quia enim credat Matrem Dei aliquaudo fuisse servam peccati et filiam diaboli?" . ' " " Ipsa ergo in Conccptione integram sanchtatem, m Incarna- tione verd iugeas sanctitatis increraentum a Christi sui majestate accepit. Et hoc significat vox splendebat pro qua vertunt Septu- pginta i^aa/^TTEV (if ^eyyof; id est resplendebat quasi fulgor, quasi Beata Virgo concipiens Christum, ab eo illustrem sanctita- tis splendorem et fulgorem accepit, quje in primo sui conceptu ejusdera nitorem acceperat, ut jam miro splendore fulgeret, imd fulguvaret quae ante pland nitebet et fulgebat." CONCEPTION OF MAEY, 119 LVIII. CARDINAL BE.LARMIXE IS FAVOKABLE TO THE PIOUS OPINION THAT MARY WAS EXEMPT FROM THE ORIGINAL STAIN. With respect to Bellarmine, although h« wrote no particular book in defence of Mary's special privilege the occasion being perhaps wanting, nevertJieless he stated and openly declared in his Controversies : ' " It is the pious belief of the great- er portion of the Church that the Blessed Virgin was conceived without original sin ;" and he adds- " which even our adversaries Luther and Erasmus confess, the former in his sermon on the Feast of the Conception, the latter in his Apology ad- dresssed to Albertum Pium Carpensem.'" And Cardinal Sfondrate specifies that in the year 1617 a Congregation of Cardinals having been held in presence of the Pope Paul Y, to discuss the ques- hon of the Conception of Mary, the most pious Oardmal there gave it as his opinion that Mary was exempt from original sin ; an opinion whose tnith he clearly demonstrated, and even supported It by miracles, citing amongst others this which follows: "Ships which had not the sign of the 'Tom. 2, lib. 3, cap. 16. ' " In majori parte Ecclesifc pi^ credi B. Virginem sine pec ca o„g,„ali conceptam ;" . . . " quod etiam ex adversariis faten-. ur Lutherus et Erasmus, ille in sermone de Festo Conceptioni,, iste m Apologia ad Albertum Plum Carpeasem." \i 120 THE IMMACULATE Immaculate Conception were wrecked and snnk, whilst those which had an image of the Inmiacu- late Virgin did happily reach the shore.'" Thus, wherever it happened that Bellannine had occa- sion to speak of this lofty privilege of Mary, far from being silent, he openly admitted it and took up its defence. LIX. TESTIMONY OF BARRADI. As we have mentioned the name of the ftimous Sebastian Earradi, we must be permitted to bring forward his evidence, which is of great weight. Fathoming' those words of Ecclesiasticus : "My abode is in the full assembly of the Saints," ' which the Church, in her Liturgy, applies to the Blessed Virgin, he thus expresses himself: "The praise of the Blessed Virgin has not its proper plenitude, unless we say that, over and above the merits of all the Saints, immunity from original sin was granted to her. In this consists that plenitude of the Saints w^herein she abides. ' My abode is in the full as- sembly of the Saints.' " * Assuredly, nothing clearer » " Naves quffi signo Immaculatte Conceptionis caruere, naufra- gio sepultffi sunt, illis tantum feliciter appulsis, quibus Immacula- tse Virginis imago pro castoribus fuit." « Ecclesi. xxiv, 16. « In Cant. Moysis, Lect III, sect. 8, adnot. 6. * " Beata; Virginis laus plenitudinem, in qua gradum figat, non habet, nisi dicamus ultra Sanctorum omnium merita concessa illi CONCEPTION OP MART. 121 or more precise could be said, in support of the doctrine that Mary was in her Conception exempt from original sin. LX. FATHER OORIO AN ILLUSTRIOUS DEFENDER OF THE PIOUS OPINION CARDINAL GERDIL ALaO PROFESSES THE SAME DOCTRINE. Amongst the Barnabite theologians who have written and published books in praise of Mary, the learned Father D. Ainion Corio deserves particular notice. This religions, highly esteemed by the sovereign Pontiffs Alexander YII and Clement IX, taught and maintained in his Commentaries on the Pentateuch, as often as the occasion presented itself, the pious opinion of the Immaculate Concep- tion of the Blessed Virgin, so much so that Father Meazza, the Theatine, took from them the sentences which compose the Calendar {diario) of the Im- maculate Conception, referred to by Yezzosi."* Such was also the doctrine of the immortal Car- dinal Gerdil, as we see from the notes and obser- vations which he added to the work of the illustrious Bishop of Arezzo, Monseigneur Albergotti, entitled The Way of Holiness. The learned Cardinal was so zealous for the propagation of this pious opinion, fuisse ah originali peccato immunitatera. est Sanctorum plenitudo in qua detinetur, torum detentio mea." * Writers of the Theatine Order, vol. ii, p. 51. In liac assertione sita In plenitudine Sane- 122 T II K IMMACULATE that, at his request, tliero was added by a decree of tlie Sacred Congregation of Eitcs, to these words of the second lessons of the oftice of St. Maximus : *' and to promote devotion to the Mother of God, whose distinguished servant ho always was, ho boldly maintained her virginity and maternity," ' the well-known passage from that same holy Father which wo have already given elsewhere : " She was, therefore, an abode manifestly lit for Christ, not on account of her body, but because of original grace." LXL ALL TUB UNIVERSITIES HAVE ADOPTED THIS OPINION. The theologians have at all times found an echo in the most famous univei-sities of the Catholic world, namely, those of Paris, Cologne, Mayence, Alcala, Saragossa, Compostella, Grenada, Toledo, as also in the academies of Germany, Italy, Bel- gium, Spain and Portugal ; so that it may be said that there has not been a, single theological institu- tion in any part of the world, which did not pro- fess the laudable purpose of maintaining and de- fending the Immaculate Conception of Mary. * " Atque ad aiigendam erga Jeiparam religioneni, cujus eximius ciiltor semper fuit, ejus virginitatora atque maternitatem luculen- ter aasoruit," " eainque idoneuni plan^ Christo habita- culum, non pro habitu corporis, sed pro gratk originali prsedi- cavit." CONCEPTION OF MAUY 123 LXIL POFKB AND BISHOPS, MON\RCIIS AND NATIONS FAVOBABLJB TO TBI PIOUS OPINION. Not only the theologiana, Catholic academies and universities, but the sovereign Pontiffs, as we have shown in its place, the most learned bishops, monarchs and nations, not to speak of the religious orders, referred to elsewhere, have all declared themselves favorable to the opinion of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. As regards the bishops, it suffices to know that almost the whole episcopal body of the Catholic and, then, flourish- ing kingdom of Spain, addressed their fervent and respectful supplications to Clement XII, beseech- ing the Holy See to define as an article of faith the Immaculate Conception of Mary. This we learn from the erudite Jesuit, Father Giorgi, whose ac- count of this important petition we here give ver- batim. In his Annotations on the Life of Lagomar- sini, written by Father Massolari, he thus speaks : " I cannot help apprising the gentle reader in this place (he here speaks of Father Budrolio, another illustrious defender of the cause of Mary) of a cer- tain auspicious event, which fills me, while I write, with very great pleasure, for that all may apply themselves with greater zeal to venerate and de- fend the most pure Conception of the Blessed Vir- gin. It happened, unexpectedly, that as I was 124 THE IMMACULATE turning over a neglected lieup of pnpei-a, thickly covered with dust, in the houae of a family of the lowest condition, I met with a manuscript volume written by Ludovico Andrutio, who had deserved well of the Catholic faith by other works already published ; in this volume he proposed to defend the most pure Conception of the Mother of God, with the intention of publishing the work, had he lived longer. Two other volumes were afterwards discovered, containing the autograph letters of almost all the Bishops of Spain, of the Academies and of the Eeligious Orders, in which they ear- nestly petitioned the Sovereign Pontiff Clement XII to assert by a solemn decree ex cathedra^ the spotless Conception of the Mother of God, so that no one may hereafter be at liberty to judge as he pleases, by his own private opinion, concerning this singular prerogative of the Virgin, but must deem it unlawful to hold the contrary opinion, the matter being decided by the most solemn decree of the Church. Knowing that these documents furnish- ed a strong support for a cause the most excellent, and also that the unanimous consent of so many bishops furnished a new argument for the Pontiff who can neither deceive nor be deceived when he speaks ' ex cathedra^ I thought I could not do better than inform the most eminent and illustrious Car- dinal Hyacinth Gerdil of the whole matter, and ear- nestly entreat him, tluit, in consideration of his great CONCEPTION OP MARY. 125 piety towards the Mother of God, and his singular kindness to my unworthy self, he might be pleased to lay before the most holy Pontiff of the Church Pius VII, the plan which it seemed to me should be adopted in this affair ; that, as it could not be doubted but these volumes had been formerly taken from the Apostolic Cabinet, he would instantly command them to be sent back, some just remune- ration being given to those who had hitherto owned them ; which, when he had approved, I then be^ffed the assent of the most holy Pontiff, who sent me, according to his usual custom, this most courteous reply : ' ch ,8s.nn cujuadam eventus, qui dum h^c scribo mirifiea me vo- uptate cumulav.t, certiores faciam. quo ad B. Virginia purisai- mum Conceptum tuendum. venerandumque ardentiori studio sem- po. .ncumbant Insperanti enim m.hi contigit. ut dum negleetam quanulam eord.busque obaitam scripto.um molem apud infima, ort.s fam.ham evolverem. in scriptum volumen incidorem exara- tum a Ludov.co Andrutio. aliia editis jam opevibus de catholica ftde egregid mento, quo Deipar» purissimum Conceptum tuori 81b. proposuerat, etatueratque illud in lucem emittere, si diutius vu-ere cont.gisset. Tum duo alia reperta volumina, quibus auto- gmph«e htterre omnium totius fei-e Hispanitc Episcoporum, Aeade- ininrum Rehgiosorum Ordinum continebantur, quibua Clementem All i. M. emxe rogabant, ut solemni ex cathedra judicio Dei. para sine uUa labe Conceptum assereret, ut de singulari hoc Vir- gnus ornamento, non jam privato sensu pro arbitrio suo iudioare q">8 posset, aed ut de re Eccleaia, firmiasimo judicio definita, nefaa esse duceret contrari6 senti-e. Quibus profecto teatimoniis cum non solum validissimum optimae cauase parari pn-esidium agnosce- rem, sed novum pro Pontifice, cum ex cathedra loquitur fallere 126 THE IMMACULATE « 'I have made known that these mteresting au- tographs mght be procured by informing me of the sum to be given in payment, etc. The Holy Father was much pleased to hear that the origmal documents could be recovered. Eome, 21st Au- gust, 1801. H. Cardinal Geedil.' " Here ends Giorgi's text. Lxni. THE COMMON CONSENT OF THE FAITHFUL PROVES THE TRUTH OF THE OPINION THAT MART WAS EXEMPT FROM ORIGINAL SIN. Most assuredly, the unanimous desire of so many eminent prelates and the full consent of the Catho- lic world are quite sufficient not only to justify, but in some measure to canonize our opinion. This way of thinking we have learned from the great St. Augustine, whom we follow as a guide : " The et falli nescio argumentum ex unanirai tot Episcopovura consen- Bione arbitraror. nihil antiquius habui, quam «t de tota re amplis- simum Cardinalem Hyacinthum Gerdiliutn, omni pietat.s et doc- trine laude pvsstautem, certioreni facerem, enixeque lUum roga- rem ut pro sumraa in Deiparam. qua prcestat pietate et pro Bi.>Julari ilia, qua me immerentem benevolentia complectitur, sa^ctissimoEcclesie Pontifici Pio VII consilium, quod mihi hac ,n re capiendum videbatur, exponere non gravaretur, ut quaado ox ApostolicoTabulario hsec olim fuisse deprompta volumina dubitan non poterat, remitti Romam iUico juberet, justa quadam remunera- tione iis, qui ea hactenus retinuerunt, propositi. Quod cum Ule probasaet, turn SS. Pontificis adsensu implorato, sic datis ad me huraanissimis, ut solet, litteris respondit." CONCEPTION OF MARY. 127 authority of the Scriptures is not required to prove tliis true ; does not the general consent," says he in his 143d letter to Marcellinus, "by a palpable reason, proclaim its truth, so that it would be con- sidered absurd to contradict it ?" In his 164th let- ter, addressed to Evodus, the holy Doctor adds : " Almost all the Church is of this opinion (how- ever the tradition may have come), which we know it would not have received on light grounds, al- though no authority of Canonical Scripture can be produced to support it." * That the common consent of the faithful now de- clares Mary's Conception Immaculate, is proved by the custom established in the Church, from time immemorial, of honoring the Yirgin under this glorious title ; it is attested by the scandal given to pious and devout Catholics by those who have dared to preach and defend the contrary opinion ; it is established by the zeal shown by the faithful to see Mary universally hailed as Immacu- late; finally, it is demonstrated by the common practice of honoring and invoking Mary conceived 1 « 'Neque enim ut videaraus. quam hoc sit verum, Scripturarum auctontas necessaria est. ac non sensus ipse communis ita verum esse pevspicua ratione proclamat, ut quisquis contradixerit, demen- tissimushabeatur?" .... " Ecclesia fere tota consentit, quod earn non inaniter credidisse credendum est. undecumque hoc tra- ditiim sit, etiamsi canonicarum Scripturarum hinc expressa non proferatuv auctontas." 128 THE IMM ACUL ATB i without sin by means of triduos and novenas, whenever there is a public calamity to be averted, or a particular grace desired, either public or pri- vate. LXIV. THE UNANIMOUS CONSENT OF TUK FAITHFUL IS FREPABINO A FORMAL DE- FINITION ON THE PRESENT QUESTION. If, then, according to St. Augustine, it should suffice, to make a thing be regarded as true, that it be affirmed and considered true by the general, or almost general consent of the faithful ; surely this condition is not wanting as regards the opinion of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, which is, as we have seen, admitted and professed by all, or nearly all. And such being the case, would it not be rashness or folly to contradict that opinion ? In faict, it is wholly incredible that God would have permitted nearly all the Church, scattered as it is, to be mistaken on a subject of such importance. But if God, the sovereign truth, has caused to spring up amongst the faithful throughout the whole Catholic world, this emulation in propa- gating the belief that Mary did not contract even the shadow of original sin, it must be inferred that the opinion which attributes to Mary a privilege so extraordinary, is the only true one, and that God has, by his heavenly inspirations, everywhere dis- posed the faithful to believe and profess it, in order CONCEPTION OF MART. 1 1 129 to smooth the path of his Vicar on earth towards a solemn definition, after which it shall no longer be held or professed as a simple opinion, but as a firm and substantial article of faith. So also tliought the illustrious Suarez,' who, after having said that "this truth, namely, that the Virgin was conceived without original sin, can be de- fined by the Church whenever she considers it expedient," hastens to add: "It is sufficient for this definition that some supernatural truth be im- plicitly contained in tradition or Scripture, that the general consent of the Church increasing (as by it the Spirit of wisdom often explains tra- ditions, or declares Scripture), she may at length make her definition, which has the force of a certain revelation, through the infallible assistance of the Holy Spirit."" LXV. PEOPHEOT CONTAINED IN THE FORTIETH PSALM, EELATINQ TO THIS PRIVILEGE OF MARY. And since the authority of this univei"sal consent * In 3 part. D. Thomse, quajst. 27, art. 2, sect. VI. Veritatem banc, scilicet Virginem esse conceptam sine pec- cnto origmali, posse definiri ab Ecclesia quaiido id expedire judi- caverit ;" « Ad banc definitionem satis est ut aliqua Bupernaturalis Veritas in traditione vel Scriptiira implicitti con- teiita sit, ut crescente comrauni consensu Ecclesise, per quam sajpe Spiritus sanctus traditiones explicat, vel Scripturam declarat, tan- dem possit definitionem suara adbibere, qute vim habet cujusdam revelationis, propter infallibilem Spiritus sancti assistentiam." 180 THE iMMACtlLATE of the faithful is no wise weakened by the die '• of a small number who think otherwise, who d' not see that the well-known rule of St. Vincent de Lerins may undoubtedly be applied to this par- ticular case ? In fact, it may be truly said that the opinion of the Immaculate Conception of Mary has been and still is professed and admitted always, everywhere^ and hy all. To say the truth, this universal consent of Catholics in believing that the Conception of Mary was exempt from the original stain, presents so strong an argument in favor of this pious belief, that I should be much surprised if, in these days when it has acquired so much splendor and obtained so many victories, theo- logians could still be found who could, with an imprejudiced mind, and a safe conscience, venture even to raise a doubt on the subject. Must not all uncertainty on this point vanish before the text of the royal Prophet (Ps. xl, ver. 13), which the most learned commentators regard as relating to the Blessed Virgin, who speaks to God in these terms : " But me thou hast received for the sake of inno- cence, and thou hast confirmed me in thy sight for ever." ' As though she would have said to God : "Thou lovest me, O my God, because thou, having the power, didst save me from the empire of Satan * " Me autem propter innocentiam suscepisti, et confirmasti me in conspectu tuo in seternura." CONCEPTION OF MARY. 131 thine enemy, permitting rae not to be defiled with original sin ; thou hast endowed me with a multi- tude of other signal graces, and chosen me for thy Mother, because thou didst find me innocent and pure, as became the Mother of a God." " Cer- tainly, a very probable reason," says Lorin, in his Commentaries on this psalm, "that God, since ho could prepare such a Mother for himself, has chosen so to do, and has so reserved her for him- self that the devil had never any claim upon her. To the devil she was obnoxious, because of the preventing grace which saved her from being ever subject to him. Christ was always God, but nei- ther did his humanity exist previous to its union with the divinity, that through innocence it might be taken, since (I repeat) it was not until it was assumed. God made a mother such as I have mentioned, that he might, on that account, choose her to hd his mother; or because he wished to choose her, he made her such a mother." 55 1 ' " Valde profectd probabilis ratio, quum talem sibi Deus ma- trera prreparare potu erit, etiara voluisse, ac ita sibi totam vindi- cnsse, ut ab orani in perpetuum jure dajmonis liberaret. Ciii, nisi pi-seveniendo liberaretur, obnoxia erat, ac subjicienda fnerat. Cliristus semper ftit Deus, nee extitit humanitas priusquam uni- rctur diviuitati, u. propter innocentiam susciperetur, quum, in- quam, non fue.it antequam susciperetur. Deus niatrem talem fecit, qualem dixi, ut ideo sibi matrera elegerit, seu quia volebat eligere, matrera talem fecit. " 132 THE IMMACULATE LXVI. OUR DOCTRINE 18 NONE THE LESS VALID, BECAUSE THE CHURCH HAS NOT YET DEFINED THE QUESTION THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL, AND MIRACLES WROUGHT BY IT. But, some will say, tliis p -s opinion has not yet been formally defined by the Church. That is quite true ; but does this prudent conduct of the Church prejudice our opinion, or does it deprive it of that force which tradition secures to it, and which causes it to be commonly professed and be- lieved by all the faithful? Has the Holy See omitted to favor, to protect and to propagate this belief, although it has hitherto abstained from de- fining it as an article of faith ? And the reigning Pontiff, Gregory XVI, now filling the Apostolic Chair with as much glory to himself as profit to the Church, has he not granted, through the sacred Congregation of Kites, to any of the churches of France, America, England, Germany and Italy, at their own request, an Indult to introduce into the Preface of the 8th December, the words et te in ImmaGulata Conceptione^ just as the Franciscans have it in theirs? And is not the truth of this opinion also proved by the wonderful vision and the rapid propagation of the well-known miracu- lous medal, with the effigy of Mary conceived without sm, revealed at Paris, in the year 1830, to a simple maiden who, from humility, concealed CONCEPTION OF MARY. 133 her name; a medal which pious Christians wear as a permanent source of spiritual and temporal graces, which they everywhere obtain through the intercession of the Mother of God, venerated, re- vered and invoked under this title, which is so dear to her? And the famous conversion effected under our own eyes, at the beginning of this present year (1842), of the Jew Ratisbon, who, for havmg consented to wear the miraculous medal at the earnest request of a friend, was publicly fa- vored, in the Church of St. Andrew delle Fratte with a sudden apparition of Mary, which enlight- ened his mind ; so that, from being an inveterate enemy even of the Christian name, he immediately became a fervent Catholic ; does not that con- version, I repeat, prove at once the certitude and the utility of this precious devotion ? It is only to manifest truth that God employs prodigies ; and 1 consider that He has wrought so many and such extraordinary miracles 'i favor of this renowned medal, in order to authorize the devotion con- nected with it, and to extend the belief throudiout all the Church. Lxvn. We would not end here were we to lay before the reader all the thoughts and reflections which crowd on our mind in support of this doctrine. J^ut as we proposed to ourselves to write on this 134. THE IMMACULATE subject, not a complete work, but merely a short and simple treatise, we think that what we have now said is quite sufficient for our purpose, and that we ought not to say more. It were super- fluous to express the ardent aspirations of our heart. If, during the short space of time that re- mains for us to live, it would seem proper to the Holy Apostolic See, ever guided by the light of the Holy Spirit, to define the important question of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, we would then close our eyes in peace ; and we are quite confident that such an act would be the harbinger of multiplied graces, and blessings, which Mary would obtain for Rome and the entire Church, whose patroness and advocate she ever is. Mean- while, if in this little work we have not treated Mary's cause as it deserved to be treated, we humbly ask Her pardon, beseeching her to accept, with motherly kindness, the homage of our filial devotion, and to attribute the faults which may be found in these pages to the insufficiency of our talents rather than our want of good will ; for it shall ever be our special aim and object to defend and maintain the sublime privilege, exclusively reserved for Mavy, of having been exempt in her blessed Conception from even the shade of origi- nal sin. APPENDIX. DISCOURSE Qir MARY'S IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. TRANSLATED FBOM THE ITALIAN OF ST. ALPHONSUS DE LIGUORI, FODSDBR OF THE CONORBOATION OF THB MOST HOLT REDEBMEH. [New Translation,] HOW BECOMING IT WA8 THAT EACH OF THE THREE DIVINE PERSONa SHOULD PRESERVE MAKY FROM ORIGINAL SIN. Great indeed was the injury entailed on Adam and all his posterity by his accursed sin ; for at the same time that he thereby, for his own great misfortune, lost grace, he also forfeited all the other precious gifts with which he had originally been enriched, and drew down upon himself and all his descendants, the hatred of God, and an accu- mulation of evils. But from this general misfortune, God was pleased to exempt that Blessed Virgin, whom He had destmed to be the Mother of the Second Adam-Jesus Uirist-who was to repair the evil done by the first. ^ow, let us see how becoming it -vas that God, and all the three Divine Persons should thus preserve her from It ; that the Father should preserve her as His Daughter, the Son as His Mother, and the Holy Ghost as His Spouse. 136 THE IMMACULATE First point— Iw the first place it wns becoming that the Eternal Father shoukl preserve INIary from the staiu of original sin, because she was His daughter, and His first-born daughter, as she herself declares : « I came out of the mouth of the Most High, the first-born before all creatures." ' For this text is applied to Mary by sacred interpreters, the holy Fathers, and by the Church, on tiie solemnity of her Conception. For be she the first-boru, inasmuch as she was predestined in the Divine decrees, together with the Son, before all creatures, according to the Scotists ; or be she the first-born of grace as the pre- destined Mother of the Redeemer, after the prevision of sin, according to the Thomists, nevertheless all agree in calling her the first-born of God. This being the case, it was quite becoming that Mary should never have been the slave of Lucifer, but only, and always, possessed by her Creator; and this she in reality was, as we are assured by herself: " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways." " Hence Denis of Alexandria rightly calls Mary ' the one and only daughter of life.' " She is the one and only daughter of life, in contradistinction to others who, being born in sin, are daughters of death. Besides this, it was quite becoming that the Eternal Father should create her in His grace, since He destined her to be the repairer of the lost world and the mediatrix of peace between men and God ; and as such, she is looked upon and spoken of by the holy fathers, and in par- > Ergo ex ore Altissirai prodivi, primogenita ante omnem crea- iwmm.—Eecl xxiv, 5. ... ^ '■» Domiims possedit me in initio viariim marnm.—Prov. viii, -i. > Una . . . et sola virgo, filia yiifR.—Eput. Carnpresbyteri Eccles. Alexand. CONCEPTION OF MARY. 137 nnem crea- ticular by Saint John I)jiinuscene,who thus addresses her: *' O HIessed Virgin, thou wast born timt thou mightest minis- ter to tlie salvation of tlie whole world." ' For this reason Siiint Bernard says, " that Noah'a ark was a type of Mary ; for a.^ by its means, men were preserved from the deluge, so are we all saved by Mary from the shipwreck of sin ; but with the diiierence, tliat in the ark few were saved, and by Mar}- the whole human race was rescued from d(!ath." • Therefore, in a sermon found amongst the works of Saint Athamusius, she is called " the new Eve, and the Mother of life ;" ' and not without reason, for the first was the Mother of death, but the most Blessed Virgin was the Mother of true life. Saint Theophanius of Nice, addressing Mary, says, " Hail, thou who hast taken away Eve's sorrow !" * Saint Basil of Seleucia calls her the peace-maker between men and God : " Hail, thou who art appointed umpire between God and men !" » and Saint Ephrem, the pacificator of the whole world : « Hail, reconciler of the whole world !" " ' desiderabilissiraa femina, ac terque beata I ... in mundum pi'odiisti, ut orbis universi saluti obaequaria. —/Serm. i in Nat. B. V. ' Sicut . . . per illarn omnes evaserunt diluvium, sic per istam peccati naufragium . . . Per illam, paucorum facta est liberatio : per istam humaiii generis salvatio.— ^erm. de B. Maria. ' Nova Heva, Mater vitse nuncupata.— /«<. op. S. Athan. Serm. dc Annunt. Deip. * Ave Domina Virgo, ave purissima, ave receptactilum Dei, ave candelabrum luminia, Ada3 revocatio, Evse redemptio, mons sanc- tum, manifestum sanctuariura, et sponsarium iramortalitatis.— /«, Annunc. B. M. V. Hymn. Ave gratia plena, Dei ac hominura mediatrix, quo medius pa- nes inimicitias tollafcur, ac eoelestibiis, terrena coeant ac uniantur. Oral in 8. M. et ie Inc. D. N. J. O. *Ave totiua terrarum orbis conciliatrix efficacissima. — Serm. de Laud. Virg. 138 THE I M M A U L A T K But now, it certainly would not be, becoming to choose an enemy to treat of peace with the ollendcd person, and still lesH an accomplice in the crime itself. Saint Gregory says, "that an enemy cannot undertake to appease \m judge, who is at the same time the injured party ; for if he did, instead of appeasing him, he would provoke him to greater wrath." And, therefore, as INIary was to be the mediatrix of peace between men and God, it was of the utmost importance that she should not herself appear as a sinner, and as an enemy of God, but that she should appear in all things as a friend, and free from every stain. Still more was it becoming that God should preserve her from original sin, for He destined her to crush the head of that infernal serpent, which, by seducing our first parents, entailed death upon all men ; and this our Lord foretold: "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed ; she shall crush thy head."' But if Mary was to be that valiant woman brought into the world to conquer Lucifer, certainly it was not becoming that he should first conquer her, and make her his slave ; but it was reasonable that she should be preserved from all stain, and even momentary subjection to her opponent. The proud spirit endeavoured to infect the most pure soul of this Virgin with his venom, as he had already infected the whole human race. But praised and ever blessed be God, who, in His infinite goodness, pre-endowed her for this purpose with such great grace, that remaining always free from any guilt of sin, she was ever able to beat down and confound his pride, as Saint Augustine, or whoever may be the author of the commen- * Ininiicitias ponam inter te et inulierem, et semen tuum et se- men illiua; ipsa conteret cap\it tnum.— G'cn. iii, 15. CONCEPTION OF MART. 139 tary on Genesis, snys : "Since the devil is the head of original sin, this head it was that Maiy crushed ; for sin never had any entry into the so.d of tiiis Blessed Virgin, which was consequently free from all stain." ' And Saint lionaventure more expressly says, " It was becoming that tiie Blessed Virgin Mary, by whom our shame was to be blotted out, and by whom the devil was to be conquered, should never even for a moment have been under his dominion." ' But above all, it principally became the Eternal Father to preserve this His daughter unspotted by Adam's sin, as Saint Bernardine of Sienna remarks, because he destined her to be the Mother of His only-begotten Son : ^'Thou wast pre-ordained in the mind of God, before all creatures, that thou mightest beget God himself as man." ' If then for no other end, at least for the honor of his Son, who was God, it was reasonable that the Father should create Mary free from every stain. The angelic Saint Thomas says, that all things that are ordained for God should be holy and free from stain : « Holiness is to be attributed to those things which are ordained for God." * Hence when P^'^^^ was planning the temple of Jerusalem, on a scale ' Cum peccati originalia caput sit diabolus, tale caput Maria contrivit, quia nulla peccati subjectio ingres.sum habult in animam Vn-ginia, et ideo ab omni macula immunisfiiit.— Ci^. loc. Gen. f » Congruum erat ut beata Virgo Maria, por quara aufertur nobis opprobrium, vinceret diabolum, ut nee ei succumberet ad modi- cum.— Lib. iii, Dist. 3, art. 2, q. 1. 'Tu, ante omnem creaturam, in mente Dei prasordinata fuistl, ut omnium foeminarum castissima, Deum ipsum hominem verum' cx^tua carne procreares.— ^Serw. de Concep. B. M.V. art. iii, cap. 3.' Sauctitas illis rebus attribuitur, qu« in Deum ordinantur.— 1 p. q. xxxvi, art 1, concl. ; i 140 THE IMMACULATE of magnificence becoming a God, he said, " For a house is prepared not for man, but for God." ' How r ich more reasonable then is it not, to suppose that the Sovereign Architect, who destined Mary to be the Mother of His own Son, adorned her soul with all most precious gifts, that she might be a dwelling worthy of a God ! Denis the Carthusian says, " that God, the artificer of all things, when constructing a worthy dwelling for his Son, adorned it with all attractive graces.'" And the Holy Church herself, in the following prayer, assures us that God pre- pared the body and soul of the Blessed Virgin, so as to be a worthy dwelling on earth for His only-begotten Son. " Almighty and Eternal God, who, by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, didst prepare the body and soul of the glorious Virgin and Mother Maiy, that she might become a worthy habitation for thy Son, &c." ' We know that a man's highest honor is to be born of noble parents : " And the glory of children are their fathers." * Hence in the world, the reputation of being possessed of only a small fortune, and little learning, is more easily tolerated than that of being of low birth; for whilst a poor man may become rich by his industry, an * Neque enim honiiiii pra-paratur babitatio, sed Deo. — 1 Para- lip, xxix, 1. ^ Omnium artifex Deus, ad ipsius formationem in utero super- naturaliter concurvens, Filio suo dignum babitaculum fabvicatii- nis, earn intrinsecusi, omnium gratificantium charismatum, et dig- nificantium babituum plenitudine, adornavit.— i>e Laud. V. Ub. ii, art. 2. * Omnipotens serapiterne Deus, qui gloriosse Virginia Matris Maria} corpus et animam, ut dignum Filii tui babitaculum eflici mereretur, Spiritu Sancto cooperante prseparasti, Ac. * Gloria filiorum patres eorum. — Prov. xvii, 6. CONCEPTION OF MARY. 141 Ignorant man learned by study, it is very difficult for a person of humble origin to attain the rank of nobility but even should he attain it, his birth can always be made' a subject of reproach to him. How then can we suppose that God, who could cauee His Son to be born of a noble mother, by preserving her from sin, would on the contrary permit Him to be born of one infected by it, and thus enable Lucifer always to reproach Him with the shame of having a mother who had once been his slave, and the enemy of God? No, certainly, the Eternal Father did not permit this, but He well provided for the honor of His Son, by preserving His Mother always Immaculate, that she might be a Mother becoming such a Son. The Greek church bears witness to this, saying, "that God, by a singular providence, caused the most Blessed Virgin to be as perfectly pure from the very first moment of her existence, as it was fitting that she should be, who was to be the worthy Mother of Christ."' It is a common axiom amongst theologians, that no gift was ever bestowed on any creature with which the Blessed Virgin wa^ not also enriched. St. Bernard says on this subject It is certainly not wrong to suppose that that which has evidently been bestowcl, even on onh^ a few wa. not denied to so great a Virgin.- Saint Tlu.mas of Villanova says, "Nothing was ever granted to any Saint which did not shine in a much higher degree in Mary prin! pTo at ^ ^"'^'"*' "' ^^' ^^^^^' '^ 'P- -'^^^ -- thmto digna mater ex,steret.-/« Men. die xxv Ifartii. f certe non" ;'''^ ^- """.'' ^^^^^"""^ ««°«tat fuisse coUatum, faa TclXr''^^'' *^°^«^ ^^^^-^ -- negatum.-^,. dxxiv 142 THE IMMACULATE from the very first moment of her existence."* And as h is true that "there is an infinite difference between the Mother of God, and the servants of God,'" according to the celebrated saying of Saint John Damascene, we must certainly suppose, according to the doctrine of Saint Thomas, that « God conferred privileges of grace in every way greater on His Mother than on His servants."" And now admitting this, Saint Anselm, the great defender of the Immaculate Mary, takes up the question and says, "Was the wisdom of God unable to form a pure dwelling, and to remove every stain of human nature from it?"* Per- haps God could not prepare a clean habitation for His Son, by preserving it from the common contagion ? " God," continues the same Saint, "could preserve angels in heaven spotless, in the midst of the devastation that sur- rounded them, was He then unable to preserve the Mother of His Son, and the Queen of angels, from the common fall of men!"' And I may here add, that as God could grant Eve the grace to come immaculate into the world, could He not then grant the same favor to Mary ! ' Nihil . . . usquara sanctorum, speciali privilegio eoncessum est, quod non a priucipio vitse, accuraulatiua prefulgeat in Maria.— /n fe»t. Assump. R V. cone. i. • Infinitum Dei eevvorum ac Matris discrimen est. — Horn, i, in Dorm. B. V. M. » Rationabiliter . . . creditur quod ilia quse genuit Unigenitum a Patre plenum gratise et veritati3, prse omnibus aliis, majora privilegia gratise acceperit.— 3 p. q. xxvii, art. 1, concl. • Inscia ne fuit et impotens, sapientia Dei et virtus, mundum Bibi habitaculum condere, remota omni labe conditionis humanse? -De Concept. B. M. V. • Angelis aliis peccantibus, bonos a peccatis servavit ; et foemi- nam, matr<^m suam mox futuram, ab aliorum peccatis exortem eei- vare non potuiti — lb. CONCEPTION OF MART. 143 Yes, indeed ! God could do it, and did it ; for on every account " it was becoming," as the same Saint Anselm says, " that that Virgin, on whom the Eternal Father intended to bestow His only-begotten Son, should be adorned with such purity, as not only to exceed that of all men and angels, but exceeding any purity that can be conceived, after that of God." ' And Saint John Damascene speaks in still clearer terms; for he says, "that our Lord had pre- (5erved the soul, together with the body of the Blessed Vir- gin, in that purity which became her who was to receive a God into her womb; for, as He is holy. He only reposes in holy places."" And thus the Eternal Father could well say to His beloved daughter, "As the lily among thorns; so is my love among the daughters."' My daughter, amongst all my other daughters, thou art as a lily in the midst of thorns ; for they are aU stained with sin, but thou wast always Immaculate, and always my beloved. Second point. — In the second place it was becoming that the Son should preserve Mary from sin, as being His Mother. No one can choose his mother; but should such a thing ever be granted to any orxc, who is there who, if able to choose a queen, would wish for a slave ? If able to choose a noble lady, would he wish for a servant ? Or if able to choose a friend of God, would he wish for His enemy? If then the Son of God alone could choose a ' Decens erat, ufc ea puritate qua major sub Deo nequit intelligi, Virgo ilia niteret, cui Deus Pater, umcum Filium suum . . , ita dare disponebat— Z>e Concep. Virg. cap. xviii, .... animum una cum corpore Virginera conservasset, veluti deeebat illam, quae sinu suo conceptura Deum erat, qui, cum Ipse Banctus sit, in Sanctis requiescit.— i?e Fide orth. lib. iv, cap. 14. Sicut lilium inter spinas, sic arnica mea inter filias.— Can«. ii, 2. ) , 144 THE IMMACULATE Mother according to His ov.n heart — His own liking, we must consider, as a matter of course, that He chose one be- coming a God. Saint Bernard says, " that the Creator of men, becoming Man, must have selected Himself a Mother whom He knew became Him." ' And as it was becoming that a most pure God should have a Mother pure from all sin. He created her spotless. Saint Bernardine of Sienna, speaking of the diflferent degrees of sanctification, says, that " the third is that obtained by becoming the Mother of God; and that this sanctification consists in the entire removal of original sin. This is what took place in the Blessed Virgin : truly God created Mary such, both as to the eminence of her nature, and the perfection of grace with which he endowed her, as became Him who was to be born of her."^ Here we may apply the words of the Apostle to the Hebrews : " For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest ; holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners.'" A learned author observes, that, according to Saint Paul, it was fitting that our Blessed Redeemer should not only be separated from sin, but also from sinners; according to the explanation of Saint Thomas, who says, " that it was necessary that He, * Factor hominum, ut homo fieret, nasciturus de homine tnlem sibi ex omnibus debuit deligere, imo condere matrem, qiialem, et se decere sciebat, et sibi noverat placituram.— ^mjo. Miss. Horn. ii. "Tertia fuit sanctificatio maternalis, et hsec removet culpam originalem . . . Hsec fuit in B. Virgine Maria matre Dei. Sane Deus . . . tuiem, tarn nobilitate naturae, quam perfectione gratise, condidit matrem, qualem eam decebat habere suam gloriosissimara majestatem. — Fro. Concep. Tin. V. art. i, cap. i. » Talis enim decebat ut nobis essot pontifex, sanctus, innocens, impoUutus, segregatus a peccatoribus, et excelsior, coelis factus.— Heb. vii, 26. CONCEPTION OF MARY 145 who came to take away sins, should be separated from smners, as to the fault under which Adam lay."^ But how could Jesus Christ be said to be separated from sin- ners, It He had a Mother who was a sinner?' Saint Ambrose says, "that Christ chose this vessel into which He was about to descend, not of earth, but from heaven ; and He consecrated it a temple of purity " » The Samt alludes to the text of Saint Paul: "The first man was of the earth, earthly: the second man from heaven, heavenly.- The Saint calls the Divine Mother " a heav- enly vessel," not because Mary was not earthly by nature as heretics have dreamt, but because she was heavenly bv grace; she was as superior to the angels of heaven in sanctity and purity, as it was becoming that she should be, in whose womb a King of Glory was to dwell. This agrees with that which Saint John the Baptist revealed to Samt Bridget, saying, "It was not becoming that the King of Glory should repose otherwise than in a chosen vessel, exceeding all men and angels in purity."* And to this we may add that which the Eternal Father Himself said to the same Saint: "Mary was a clean and an un- clean vessel: clean, for she was all fair; but unclean, selSfl'f '""1' ^"^ P'"'"'" ^^"^'•"^ ^'^"^^•«' «««« « peccatoribus TtTi"^ " '"^^'"^ '"^ Adamsubjacuit-3 p. q. iv. scenl'l^ ri!'-? ""'7"' "'^ ^' '^^^' "^^ "^' J^- Ver quod de- 7^ 'I, Chnstus elegit, et sacravit templum pudoris Ji). fnsL nuindSl"";' f T'" ^'"'" •"''""■ "^^^ ^" ^^- P""-™-. «t 146 THE IMMACULATE i because she was born of sinners; though she was con- ceived without sin that My Son might be born of her without sin.'" And remark these hist words, "Mary was conceived without sin, that the Divine Son might be born of her without sin." Not that Jesus Christ could have contracted sin, but that He might not be reproached with even having a Mother infected with it, who would conse- quently have been the slave of the devil. The Holy Ghost says that "the glory of a man is from the honor of his ftither, and a father without honor is the disgrace of the son;"" "Therefore it was," says an ancient writer, " that Jesus preserved the body of Mary from corruption after death ; for it would have redounded to His dishonor had that virginal flesh with which He had clothed Himself become the food of worms ;" " For," he adds, " corruption is a disgrace of human nature ; and as Jesus was not subject to it, Mary was also exempted; for the flesh of Jesus is the flesh of Mary."» But since the corruption of her body would have been a disgrace for Jesus Christ, because He was born of her, how much greater would the disgrace have been had He been born of a mother whose soul was once infected with the cor- ruption of sin? JFor not only is it true that the fle'feh of 1 Maria fuit vas mundum, et noa mundum. Miinduiu vero fuit, quia tola pulchra . . . Sed non mundum fuit, quia . . . de pecca- toribus nata est, licet sine peccato concepta, ut Filiua Meus de ea, Bine peccato nasceretur.— Jicv. lib. v, Exp. Rev. xiii. « Gloria enim hominis ex lionore patris sui, et dedecus filii pater sine honoro. — Eccles. iii, 13. » Putredo naraque et vermis, humanse est opprobrium condi- tionis, a quo opprobrio, cum Jesus sit alienus, natura Marise ex- cipitur . . . care euim Jesu, caro est 'i,i&Ym.—De Asmmp. B. M.V- CONCEPTION OF MARY. 147 Jesus is the same as that of Mary ; " but," adds the same author, " the flesh of our Saviour, even after His resurrec- tion, remained the same that He had taken from His Mother:" "The flesh of Christ is the flesh of Mary, and tliough it was glorified by the glory of His resurrection, yet it remains the same that was taken from Mary."' Hence the Abbot Arnold of Chartres says, " The flesh of Mary and that of Christ are one ; and, therefore, I con- sider the glory of the Son as being not so much common to, as one with that of His Mother."' And now if this is true, supposing that the Blessed Virgin was conceived in sin, though the Son could not have contracted its stain, nevertheless His having united flesh to Himself which was once infected with sin, a vessel of uncleanness, and subject to Lucifer, would always have been a blot. Mary was not only the Mother, but the worthy Mother of our Saviour. She is called so by all the holy Fathers. Saint Bernard says, " Thou alone wast found worthy to be chosen as the one in whose Virginal womb the King of kings should have his first abode."' Saint Thomas of Villanova says, " Before she conceived, she was already fit to be the Mother of God."* The holy Church herself attests that Mary merited to be the Mother of Jesus Christ, saying, " the Blessed Virgin, who merited to bear * Caro enim Christi, quamvis gloria resurrectionis fiierit mag- nificata . . . eadem tamen carnis mansit et manet natura, qusB suscepta est de Maria. — lb. ' Una est Marise et Christi cnro . . . Filii gloriam cum matre, non tam commune judico, quam eandem. — De Laud. B. M. ' Tu sola inventa es digna, ut in tua virginali aula. Rex fegum . . . priniam sibi mansionera . . . elegit. — Depr. ad B. V. * Antequam conciperet Filiura Dei, jam idonea erat.ut osset Ma- ter DQl—Serm. ill, de Nat. B. V. 148 THE IMMACULATE I in her womb Christ our Lord ;" * and Saint Thomas Aqui- nas, explaining these words, &v.y% that " the Blessed Vir- gin is said to have merited to bear the Lord of all : not that she merited His Licarnation, but that she merited, by the graces she had received, such a degree of purity and sanctity, that she could becomingly be the Mother of God;"" that is to say, Mary could not merit the incarna- tion of the Eternal Word, but by Divine grace she merited such a degree of perfection as to render her worthy to be the Mother of a God, according to what Saint Peter Damian also writes : " Her singular sanctity, the effect of grace, merited that she alone should be judged worthy to receive a God.'" And now supposing that Mary was worthy to be the Mother of God, "what excellency and what perfection was there that did not become her?"* asks Saint Thomas of Villanova. The angelic Doctor says, "that when God chooses any one for a particular dignity. He renders him fit for it;" whence he adds, "that God, having chosen Mary for His Mother, He also, by His grace, rendered her worthy of this highest of all dignities." " The Blessed Virgin was Divinely chosen to be the Mother of God, > Regina coeli Itetare . . . quia quern meruisti portare . . . Resur- rexit sicut dixit.— Antiph. temp. Pasch. « Beata Virgo dicitur meiuisse portare Dominum omnium: non quia meruit ipsum incarnari, sed quia meruit ex gratia sibi data, ilium puritatis et sanctitatis gradum, ut congrue posset esse Ma- ter Dei. — 3 p. q. 2, art. xi, ad. 3. » Venerabilis Mater Domini, septem Sancti Spiritus donis . . . dotata fuit. Quam utique reterna sapientia . . . talem construxit, qua} digna fieret Ilium suscipere.— 5er;/i.ii, de Nat. B. M V. * Qwe autem excellentia, qute perfectio, qu£e magnitudo decuit eam, ut esset idonea Mater Del— Serm. iii, de Nat. B M. V. CONCEPTION OP MART. 149 and, therefore, we cannot doubt that God had fitted her by His grace for this dignity ; and we are assured of it by the angel : "For thou hast found grace with God; behold, thou Shalt conceive," &c. ' And thence the Saint argues that "the Blessed Virgin never committed any actual sin, not even a venial one." "Otherwise," he says, "she would not have been a Mother worthy of Jesus Christ ; for the ignominy of the Mother would also have been that of the Son, for He would have had a sinner for His Mother."' And now if Mary, on account of a single venial sin, which does not deprive a soul of Divine grace, would not have been a Mother worthy of God, how much more unworthy would she have been had she contracted the guilt of origi- nal sin, which would have made her an enemy of God, and a slave of the devil ? And this reflection it was that made Saint Augustine utter those memorable words, that "when speaking of Mary for the honor of our Lord," whom she merited to have for her Son, he would not entertain even the question of sin in her ; "for we know," he says, "that through Him, who it is evident was without sin, and whom she merited to conceive and bring forth, she received grace to conquer all sin."' ' Beata autem Virgo fuit electa divinitus, ut esset mater Dei ; et ideo lion est dubitaudum quia Dens per siiam gratiam, earn ad hoc idoneam reddidit, secundum quod Angelus ad eam dicit, " In- venisti gratiam apud Deum : ecce concipies, Ac." — 3 P. q. xxvii, art. 4, concl. Non . . . fuisset idonea mater Dei, si peccasset aliquando . . . quia , . , ignominia Matris, ad Filium redundasset. — lb. Excepta itaque sancta Virgine Maria, de qua, propter honorem Domini, nullam prorsug cum de peccatis agitur, haberi volo qusea- tionem : unde enim scimus, quod ei, phis gratite collatum fuerit aa vincendum, omni ex parte peccatum, quse concipere ac parero 160 THE IMMACULATE Therefore, as Saint Peter Damian observes, we must consider it as certain "that the Incarnate Word chose Himself a becoming Mother, and one of whom lie would not have to be ashamed."' Saint Proclus also says, "that He dwelt in a womb which He had created, free from all that might be to Ills dislKmor."" It was no shame to Jesus Christ, when He heard Himself contemptuously called by the Jews the Son of Mary, rneaning that He was the Son of a poor woman : " Is not His Mother called Mary ?" ' for He came into this world to give us an exam- ple of humility and patience. But, on the other hand, it would undoubtedly have been a disgrace, could He have heard the devil say, "Was not His Mother a sinner? was He not born of a wicked Mother, who was once our slave ?" It would even have been unbecoming had Jesus Christ been born of a woman whose body was deformed, or crip- pled^ or possessed by devils; but how much more would it have been so had He been born of a woman whose soul had been once deformed by sin, and in the possession of Lucifer ? Ah I indeed, God, who is Wisdom itself, well knew how to prepare Himself a becoming dwelling, in which to re- side on earth : " Wisdom hath built herself a house." * " The Most High hath sanctified His own tabernacle . . . meruit, quern constat nulhim habuisse poccatfun. — De Nat. et Gratia, contra Pelag. cap. xxvi. ^ Qnam utique oeterna Sapientla . . . talem construxit, qiias digna fieret ilium suscipeve, et de intemerataj carnis sute viscevibus procreare. — Serm. ii, in Nat. B. M. V. " Intra viscera, quse citra omnem dedecoris notam comdiderat, inhabitat.— Zfo/n. de Nat. D. N. J. C. ' Nonne mater ejus dicitur Maria? — Matth. xiii, 56. * Sapientia sedificavit Bibi domum. — Frov. ix, 1. CONCEPTION OF MARY. 161 God will help it in the morning early."' David says, that our Lord sanctified this 111.'* dwelling " in the morn- ing early ;" that is to say, from the beginning of her life, to render her worthy of Himself; for it was not becoming that a Holy God should choose Himself a dwelling that was not holy : " Holiness becomcth thy house.'" And if God declares that He will never enter a malicious soul, or dw^ell in a body subject to sin, "for wisd( n will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins,"* how can we ever think that the Son of God chose to dwell in the soul and body of Mary, without having previously sanctified and preserved it from every stain of sin ? for, according to the doctrine of Saint Thomas, " the Eternal Word dwelt not only in the soul of Mary, but even in her womb." * The holy Church sings, " Thou, O Lord, hast not disdained to dwell in the Virgin's womb."' Yes, for He would have disdained to have taken flesh in the womb of an Agnes, a Gertrude, a Teresa, because these virgins, though holy, were nevertheless for a time stained with original sin ; but He did not disdain to become man in the womb of Mary, because this beloved Virgin Wiw always pure and free from the least shadow of sin, and was never possessed by the infernal serpent. And, therefore. Saint Augustine says, " that the Son of God never made Hira- * Sanctifieavit tabcrnaculnm siuim Altissimua . . . adjuvabit earn Deu3 mane dihiciilo. — Ps. xlv, 5, 6. ' Domum tuam decet sanctitudo. — Ps. xcii, 5. ^ In malevolam animam non introibit sapieutia, nee habitabit ia corpore subdito peccatis. — Sap. i, 4. * Singulavi modo Dei Filius, qui est Dei sapientia, in ipsa liabi- tavit; non sohim in anima, sed etiam in utero. — 3 p. q. xxvii, art. 4, concL ' Non hon'uisti Virginia utcrum. 152 THE IMMACULATK self a more worthy dwelling than Mary, who was never possessed by the enemy, or des[)olled of her ornaments."' On the other hand, Saint Cyril of Alexandria asks, " Who ever heard of an architect who built himself a tem- ple, and yielded up the first possession of it to his greatest enemy ?'" Yes, says Saint Methodius, speaking on the same sub- ject, that Lord who commanded us to honor our parents, would not do otherwise, when he became man, than ob- serve it, by giving His Mother every grace, and honor : — " lie who said, Honor thy father and thy mother, that He might observe His own decree, gave all grace and honor to His Mother." ' Therefore the author of the book already quoted, from the works of Saint Augustine, says, " that we must certainly believe that Jesus Christ preserved the body of Mary from corruption after death ; for if He had not done so, he would not have observed the law," which " at the same time that it commands us to honor our mo- ther it forbids us to show her disrespect." * But how lit- tle would Je'ius have guarded His Mother's honor had He not preserved her from Adam's sin ? " Certainly, that * Nullam digniorem domum sibi Filius Dei ajdificavit qiiam Mariam, qtioe nunquam fuit ab hostibus capta, neque suia orna- mentis spoliata. f ' Quis iinquam de architecto audivit, qui suum ipsius templum construxerit, et in eo habitare prohibitus sit? — Horn. vi. ' Qui dixit, " Honora patrem tuum et matrem," longe potius id ipse pi'fEstare volens, gratiam servaverit ac quod ita statuit, ei, qusB ministravit ut sic sponte nasceretur, Divinisque laudibus decoraverit, quam sine patre, velut innuptam sibi matrera ascivit. — Serm. de Symeone et Anna. * Lex enim, sicut honorem matris prsecipit, ita inhonorotionem damnat. — Lib. de Aasmnp. B. V. int. op. S. Augustini. CONCEPTION OF MART. 158 son would sin," says the Augustinian father Thomas of Strasburg, « who, having it in his power to preserve his mother from original sin, did not do so ;" « but that which would be a sin in us," continues the same author, » must certainly be considered unbecoming in the Son of God, who, whilst He could make His Mother immaculate, did it not." « Ah, no I" exclaims Gerson, « since thou, the supreme Prince, choosest to have a Mother, certainly Thou owest her honor. But now if Thou didst permit her, who was to be the dwelling of all purity, to be in the abomina- tion of original sin, certainly it would appear that thr* law was not well fulfilled." ' " Moreover, we know," says Saint Bernardine of Sienna, "that the Divine Son came into the world more to redeem Mary than all other creatures."" There are two means by which a person may be redeemed, as Saint Augustine teaches us— the one by raising him up after having fallen, and the other by preventing him from falhng;* and this last means is doubtless the most honorable. « He is more honorably redeemed," says the learned Suarez, "who is prevented from falling, than he who after falling is raised up;"* for thus the injury or stain is avoided which the Cum tu Bummus Prineeps, via habere Matrem carnaliter in terra, ilh debebis honorem, ,teroiitm vero liberator et post-liberator. Ipsa sola post Adto lapsum, non indiga, sed plena originali justitia, ut Eva, et multo magis, creata ixxit—ExcitaU lib. viii, Senru Sicut lil. int. sp. CONCEPTION OF MARY. 155 who, becai^se He was her Son preserved her from ever being defiled by it. In fine, to conclude this point in the words of Hugo of Saint Victor, the tree is known by its fruits. If the Lamb was always immaculate, the Mother must also have been always immaculate : " Such the Lamb, such the Mother of the Lamb ; for the tree is known by its fruits." ' Hence this same Doctor salutes Mary, saying, " O worthy Mother of a worthy Son ;" meaning, that no other than Mary was worthy to be the Mother of such a Son, and no other than Jesus was a worthy Son of such a Mo* her: and then he adds these words : " O fair Mother of beauty itself, O high Mother of the most High, O Mother of God."" Let us then address this most Blessed Mother in the words of Saint Ildephonsus, " Suckle, O Mary, thy Creator, give milk to Him who made thee, and who made thee such that He could be made of thee." ' Third point. — Since then it was becoming that the Father should preserve Mary from sin as His daughter, and the Son as His Mother, it was also becoming that the Holy Ghost should preserve her as His spouse. Saint Augustine says that " Mary was that only one who mer- ited to be called the Mother and Spouse of God."* For ' Talis . . . Agnus, quails Mater Agni . . . Quoniam omnis arbor ex fructu suo cognoscitur. — De Verba Inc. Coll. iii. " digna digni, formosa pulchri, munda incorrupti, excelsa altissimi, Mater Dei, Sponsa Regis ffiterni,— /Sfcnn. iii, de Assump. B. M. V. ' Lacta Maria, Creatorem tuum, laeta pan em coeli, lacta praj- rnium mundi . . . Lacta ergo eura qui fecit te, qui talem fecit te ut ipse fieret ex t^.—Serni. de Nat. B. M. V. * Ilrec est qute sola meruit Mater et Sponsa vocari. — Serm, de Aumnpt. B. M. V. f 166 THE IMMAOtlLATK Saint Anselm asserts that " the Divine Spirit, the love itself of the Father and the Son, came coii)orally into Mary, and enriching her with graces above all creatures, reposed in her and made her His Spouse, the Queen of heaven and earth." * He says that he came into her cor- porally ; that is, as to the effect : for He came to form of her immaculate body the immaculate body of Jesus Christ, as the Archangel had already predicted to her : " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee.'" And therefore it is. Bays Saint Thomas, " that Mary is called the temple of the Lord and the sacred resting-place of the Holy Ghost ; for by the operation of the Holy Ghost she became the Mother of the Incarnate "Word." ' And now had an excellent artist the power to make his bride such as he could represent her, what pains would he not take to render her as beautiful as possible ? Who then can say that the Holy Ghost did otherwise with Mary, when He could make her who was to be His spouse, as beautiful as it became Him that she should be ? Ah no ! He acted as it became him to act ; for this same Lord Himself declares : " Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee."* These words, say Saint Ildephonsus and Saint Thomas, are properly to be understood of Mary, as Cornelius a Lapide remarks ; and * Ipse . . . Spirltus Dei, ipse amor Omnipotentis Patris et Filii . . . ipse inquam, corporaliter, ut bene dicam, venit in earn, singu- larique gratia pvaj omnibus quae creata sunt, sive in coelo, sive in terra, requievit in ea, et reginam ac imperatricem coeli et terrte, et omnium qute in eis sunt, fecit earn. — De Excel. Virg. cap. iv. " Spiritus Sanctus superveniet in te. — Luc. i, 35. ' Unde dicitur templum Domini, sacrarium Spiritus Sancti, quia concepit ex Spiritu Sancto. — Opusc. viii. * Tota pulchra es arnica mea, et macula non est in te. — Cant, iv, 1. CONCEPTION OF MARY. 157 Saint Bernardine of Sienna,' and Saint Lawrence Justi- nian," assert that they are to be understood precisely as applying to her Immaculate Conception ; whence Blessed Raymond Jordano addresses her, saying, " Thou art all fair, most glorious Virgin, not in part, but wholly ; and no stain of mortal, venial, or original sin, is in thee." * The Holy Ghost signified the same thing when He called this His spouse an inclosed garden and a sealed fountain : " My sister, my spouse, is a garden inclosed, a fountain sealed up."* "Mary," says Saint Sophronius, " was this inclosed garden and sealed fountain, into which no guile could enter, against which no fraud of the enemy could prevail, and who always Avas holy in mind and body."* Saint Bernard likewise says, addressing the Blessed Virgin, " Thou art an inclosed garden, into which the sinner's hand has never entered to pluck its flowers." ' We know that this Divine Spouse loved Mary more than all the other Saints and Angels put together, as Fa- ther Suarez, with Saint Lawrence Justinian, and others assert, He loved her from the very beginning and exalted ' Serm. de Concep. B. 31. V. art. ii, c. 2. » Serm. de Nat B. M. V. ' Tota . . . pulehra es Virgo gloriosissima, non i\ parte, sed in toto : et macula peccati, sive mortalis, sive venialis, sive origina- lis, non est in te, — Contempl. B. V. cap. ii. * Hortus conclusus soror mea sponsa, hortus conclusus, fons sig- hoXms,.— Cant, iv, 12. ' Htec est bortus conehisus, fons signatus, puteus aquarum viventiura, ad quam nulli potuerunt doli irrumpere : nee prseva- Init fraus inimici, sed permansit sancta, mente et corpore. — Serm. dt Assump. B. M. V. int. op. S. Hieron. ' Hortus conclusus tu es Dei genitrix, ad queiu deflorandum manus peccatoris nunquam introivit. — Depr. ad. B. V. M. 158 THE IMMACULATE her in sanctity above all others, as it is expressed by David in the Psalms : " The foundations thereof are in the holy mountains : the Lord loveth the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob .... a man is born in her, and the Highest Himself hath founded her." ' Words which all signify that Mary was holy from her conception. The same thing is signified by other passages addressed to her by the Holy Ghost. In Frovcrbs Ave read, " Many daughters have gathered together riches : thou hast sur- passed them all."" If Mary has surpassed all others in the riches of grace, she must have had original justice, as Adam and the Angels had it. In the Canticles we read, " There are ... . young maidens without number. One is r>y dove, my perfect one (in the Hebrew it is my entire, my immaculate one), is but one, she is the only one of her Mother."" All just souls are daughters of Divine grace ; but amongst these Mary was the dove without the gall of sin, the perfect one without spot in her origin, the one conceived in grace. Hence it is that the angel, before she became the Mother of God, already found her full of grace, and thus saluted her, " Hail, full of Grace ;" on which words Saint Sophronius writes, that " grace is given partially to other Saints, but to the Blessed Virgin all was given."* So » Fundamenta ejus in montibus sanctia ; Diligit Dominus portas Sion super omnia tabernacula Jacob . . . Homo natus est in ca: et ipse fundavit eam Altissimus. — Ps. Ixxxvi, 1, 5. '^ Multffi filiaj congregaverunt divitias : tu supergressa es uui- versas. — Prov. xxxi, 29. ' Adolescentularura non est numerus. Una est columba mea, perfecta mea, una est matris suse. — Cant, vi, 7, 8. * Gratia plena: et bene plena, quia cseteris per partes prasta- CONCEPTION OF MARY 169 much so, says Saint Thomas, that " grace not only ren- dered the soul, but even the flesh of Mary holy, so that this Blessed Virgin might be able to clothe the Eternal Word with it." ' Now all this leads us to the conclusion that Mary, from the moment of her conception, was en- riched and filled with Divine grace by the Holy Ghost, as Peter of Celles remarks, " the plenitude of grace was in her ; for from the very moment of her conception the whole grace of the Divinity overflowed upon her, by the outpouring of the Holy Ghost."" Hence Saint Peter Damian says, "that the Holy Spirit was about to bear her off entirely to Himself, who was chosen and pre- elected by God."' The Saint says, to bear her off, to denote the holy velocity of the Divine Spirit, in being beforehand, in making this Spouse His own, before Luci- fer should take possession of her. Finally, I wish to conclude this discourse, which I have prolonged beyond the limits of th3 others, because our Congregation has this Blessed Virgin Mary, precisely under the title of her Immaculate Conception, for its principal patroness: I say that I wish to conclude by giving, in as few words as possible, the reasons which make me feel certain, and which, in my opinion, ought to tur: Maria; vero simnl se tota infudit pknitudo gratia). — Serm. de Assump. B. M. V. int. op. S. Hieron. ^ Anima B. Virginis ita fuit plena, quod ex ea refuadit gratia in carnein, iit de ipsa conciperet Deum. — Opusc. viii. ^ Siraul collecta gratia; plenitudo, nullatenus creaturse humanas capacitate potest apprehcndi . . . privilegio , . . Filii sui, supra totius creaturaj mevitum Mater Dei aspersione Spiritus Sancti, tota Deitatis gratia est perfusa. — Lib. de Panib. cap. xii. * A Deo electara et prajelectam, totam earn rapturus erat sibi Spiritus Sanctus. — Serm. de Annunt. B. M. V. l1 160 THE IMMACULATE 1 .1' p '■1 I convince every one of the truth of so pious a belief, and Avhich is so glorious for the Divine Mother : that is, that she was free from original sin. There are many Doctors who maintain that Mary was exempted from contracting even the debt of sin ; for in- stance, Cardinal Galatino,' Cardinal Cusano," De Ponte,* Salazar,* Catharinus,' Novarjno," Viva, De Lugo,^ Egidio, Richelio, and others. And this opinion is also probable ; for if it is true that the wills of all men were included in that of Adam, as being the head of all, and this opinion is maintained as probable by Gonet," Habert,' and others, founded on the doctrine of Saint Paul,, contained in the fifth chapl(.i" to the Romans, — if this opinion, I say, is probable, it is also probable that Mary did not contract the debt of sin ; for, whilst God distinguished her from the common of men by so many graces, it ought to be piously believed that He did not include her will in that of Adam. This opinion is only probable, and I adhere to it as being more glorious for my sovereign Lady. But I con- sider the opinion, that Mary did not contract the sin of Adam, as certain ; and it is considered so, and even as proximately definable, as an article of faith (as they ex- * Be Area, lib. vii, c. 18. f ' Lib. viii, Bxcit. ex Serm. Sicut. lib. int. sp. ' Lib. ii, Cant. ex. 10. f * De Virg. Cone. c. vii, n. 7. f ' De Pecc. orig. c. ult. f * Umbr. Virg. Excursus, xviii ^ P. viii, disp. i, q. 2, urt. 2. * Man. to. iii, Lr. 5, c. 6, No. 2. f * Tom. iii de Pec. c. 7. f CONCEPTION OF MARY 161 press it), by Cardinal Everard/ Duval," Raynauld,* Lossada,* Viva,' and many others. I omit, however, the revelations which confirm this belief, particularly those of Saint Bridget, which were aproved of by Cardinal Torquemada," and by four sovereign Pontiffs, and which are found in various parts of the sixth book of her Reve- lations.^ But on no account can I omit the opinions of the holy Fathers on this subject, whereby to show their unanimity in conceding this privilege to the Divine Mother. Saint Ambrose says, " Receive me not from Sarah, but from Mary, that it may be an uncorrupted Virgin, a Virgin free by grace from every stain of sin." " Origen, spealiing of Mary, asserts that "she was not infected by the venomous breath of the serpent."" Saint Ephrem, that " she was immaculate, and remote from all stain of sin." " An ancient writer (Saint Fulgentius ?), in a ser- mon, found amongst the works of Saint Augustine, on the words « Hail, full of grace," says, " By these words the angel shows that she was altogether [remark the word altogether] excluded from the wrath of the first sentence, and restored to the full grace of blessing."" The author ' Per unum hominerr peccatum in hunc mundiim intravit in quo (Ada) omnes peccaveruiit.— 7?ow. v, 12. ] ^« ^^<^m- Theol. f s 1, 2,'qu" 2 de Pecc. \ Piet. Lugd. No. 29. f » Disc. Th. de Imm. Cone, f ^ Qu. Prod ad Trut. f ^ Lib. vi, cap. 12, 49, .55. Suscipe me non ex Sara, sed ex Maria; ut incorrupta sit Virgo, sed Virgo per gratiam ab onini integra labe peccati.— berm. xxii in Ps. cxviii, No. 30. "^Nec serpentis venenosis afflatibus infecta est~ffom. i. f " Immaculata et intemerata, incorrupta et prorsus pudiea, at- que ab omni sorde ao. labe peccati alienissima. -Ad S.Bei Qen. Oral. Cum dixit " gratia plena," ostendit ex integro, iram exclusam 162 THE IMMACULATE !!■) of an old work, called the Breviary of Saint Jerome, affirms that " that cloud was never in darkness, hut always in light.'" Saint Cyprian, or whoever may he the author of the work on the 77th Psalm, says, " Nor did justice endure that that vessel of election should be open to common injuries ; for being far exalted above others, she partook of their nature, not of their sin."" Saint Am- jphilochius, that " He who fonned the first Virgin without lieformity, also made the second one without spot or sin." ' Saint Sophronius, that "the Virgin is therefore called immaculate, for in nothing was she corrupt."* Saint Ildephonsus argues, that " it is evident that she was free from original sin."' Saint John Damascene says that "the serpent never had any access to this paradise."' primte sententiffi, et plenam benedictionis gratiam restitutam.— Int. op. 8. Augustinh Serm. vii, de Nat. Dom. » Nubem levem debemus sanctam Mariam accipere . . . Et de- duxit eos ia nube diei. Pulchre dixit, diei : Nubes enim ilia non fuit in tenebris, sed semper in luQQ.—Brev. 8. Hieron. in Pa. Ixxvii. « Nee Bustinebat justitia, ut illud vas electionis communibus las8aretur injurlis; quoniam plurimnm a cjeteris diffe-ens, natura communieabat, non culpa.— Xi6. de Card. Op. Christi, de Nativ. 3 Qui antiquam illam virginem sine probro condidit; Ipse, et secundara, sine nota et crimine fabricatus est—Orat. in 8. Deip. et Simeon. * Virgo sancta accipitur, ei aniraa corpusque sanctificatur ; atque ita ministravit in incarnatione Creatoris, ut munda et casta, atque incontaminata ... Ex inviolabili namque et virginali san- guine atque immaculatse Virginis Marias Verbum vere factum est incarnatum.— ^ariwin. torn, iii, Cone. (Ecumen. 6, act 11. » Constat, earn ab omni originali peccato immunein fuisae.— Cont. disp. de Virginit. B. V. M. « In hunc paradisum serpenti aditum non patuit. — Or. u, as Nat. B. M. V. CONCEPTION OP MART. 103 Saint Peter Damian, that " the flesh of the Virgin, taken from Adam, did not admit of the stain of Adam." ' Saint Bruno affirms, "that Mary is that uncorrupted earth which God blessed, and was therefore free from all con- tagion of sin."' Saint Bonaventure, "that our Sovereign Lady was full of preventing grace for her sanctification ; that is, preservative grace against the corruption of original sin."' Saint Bernardine of Sienna argues, that " it is not to be believed that He, the Son of God, would be born of a Virgin, and take her flesh, were she in the slightest degree stained with original sin."* Saint Lawrence Jus- tinian affirms, " that she was prevented in blessings, from her very conception."* And the blessed Raymond Jor- dano, on the words '• Thou hast found grace," says, " thou hast found a singular grace, O most sweet Virgin, that of preservation from original sin. Sec."" And many other Doctors speak in the same sense. But finally, there are two arguments that conclusively prove the truth of this pious belief. The first of these is ' Caro . . . Virginis ex Adam assumpta, maculas AdsB non ad- m'mt.—-Ser7n. de Assump. B. M. V. ' Hsec est . . . incovrupta terra ilia, cni benedixit Dominus, ab omni propterea peccati contagione libera, per quara vitse viam agnovimus, et promissam veritatem aceepimus. — In Pa. ci. Domina nostra fuit plena gratia prajveiiiente in sua sanctifica- llone, gratia scilicet prseservativa contra foeditatem originalis culpse.—^erm. ii, de B. M. V. * Non est credendum, quod ipse Filius Dei voluerit nasci ex vir- gine, efc sumere ejus carnem, quae esset maculata ex aliquo peecato originali. — Serm. in Feria iii, post Pascha. Ab ipsa namque sui conceptione, in benedictionibua est prse- veuta. — Serm. in Annunc. B. M. V. • Invenisti Virgo Maria, gratiam cselestem ; quia fuerunt in te ab originia labe prseservatio, ecr. xxiv, No. 1, c. in sede. -f ' Serm. civ et cxiii. f * JEp. ad Can. Ludg. 8 1 '■' ■4. 166 THE IMMACULATE her mother's womb." ' But if it is certain, as the angelic Doctor says, that Mary was sanctified in her mother's womb, because it is only on that supposition that the Church can celebrate her Nativity, why are we not to consider it as equally certain that Mary was preserved from original sin from the first moment of her Conception, knowing as we do, that it is in this sense that the Church herself celebrates the feast? PRAYER. Ah, my Immaculate Lady ! I rejoice with thee on seeing thee enriched with so great purity. I thank, and resolve always to thank, our common Creator for having preserved thee from every stain of sin, and I firmly believe this doc- trine, and am prepared, and swear even to lay down my life, should thin be necessary, in defence of this thy so great and singular privilege of being conceived immaculate. I would that the whole world knew thee and acknowledged thee as being that beautiful "Dawn" which was always illumined with Divine light ; for that chosen "Ark ot sal- vation, free from the common shipwreck of sin ; for that "perfect and immaculate Dove" which thy Divine Spouse declared thee to be; for that "inclosed Garden" which ,vas the delight of God ; for that "sealed Fountain whose waters were never troubled by an enemy ; and, finally, tor that "white Lily," which thou art, and who, though born in the midst of the thorns of the children of Adam, all ot » Ecclesia celebrat nativitatem Beatas Virginis: non autem cele- bratur festum in Ecclesia nisi pro aliquo sancto. Ergo beata Yirgo in ipsa sua nativitate fuit sancta. Fuit ergo lu utero sauc- tificata.— 3 p. Q. xxvii, art. 1. CONCKPTION OF MARY 107 1 1 whom are conceived in sin, and the enemies of God, wast alone conceived pure and 8f)otles