Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/625

 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 609 and scandals continued and threatened to grow more dangerous. He therefore added to the existing penalties perpetual disability for preaching or teaching, and ordered the bishops and inquisitors everywhere to punish severely all contraventions of these regula- tions. Yet the scale continued to incline against the Dominicans. A twelvemonth later, in August, 1017, Paul, in a general congre- gation of the Koman Inquisition, issued another constitution, in which he extended these penalties to all who in public should assert the Virgin to have been conceived in original sin. He did not reprove the opinion, but left it as before, and ordered those who asserted publicly the Immaculate Conception to do so simply, without assailing the other side, and, as before, bishops and in- quisitors were instructed to punish all infractions. In 1622 Greg- ory XV. went a step further in suppressing the perpetual discord by a further extension of the penalties to all who in private as- serted the Virgin's conception in sin ; but at the same time he forbade the use of the word " immaculate " in the office of the Feast of the Conception. The Dominicans grew restive under this gagging, and in a couple of months procured a relaxation of the prohibition in so far as to allow them privately with each other to maintain and defend their opinion. These bulls brought considerable business to the Inquisition, for disputatious ardor could not be restrained. A contemporary manual informs us that in spite of the prohibition of discussion it still continued, and that offenders on both sides were sent to Rome for judgment by the supreme tribunal, care being taken, as far as possible, not to have Dominican witnesses when the offender was Franciscan, and vice versa. In spite of this the Dominican, Thomas Gage, who wan- dered through the Spanish colonies about 1630, speaks of holding public discussions on the subject in Guatemala, in which he main- tained the Thomist doctrine against the Franciscan, Scotist, and Jesuit opinions.*. tuta, et tenenda Sententia (sine nota, sed c. 1500).— Concil. Trident. Sess. v. Deer, de Orig. Peccat. § 5.— Pauli PP. IV. Bull. Super speculum (Mag. Bull. Rom. II. 343).— Panli PP. V. Bull. Regis pacifici (Ibid. p. 392).— Ejusd. Constit. Snnctis- simus (lb. p. 400).— Gregor. PP. XV. Constit. Sanctissimus (lb. p. 477).— Ejusd. Bull. Eximii (lb. p. 478).— Prattica del Modo da procedersi nelle Cause del S. Offitio, cap. xix. (MSS. Bib. Reg. Monachens. Cod. Ital. 598. — MSS. Bib. Nat., fonds italien, 139).— Gage, New Survey of the West Indies, London, 1677, p. 266. III.— 39
 * De Beatse Virginis Conceptione Ducentorum et sexdecim Doctorum vera,