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 IMMACULATE

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IMMACtJLATE

but it was not received in the oflBcial calendar. As the council at the time was not oecumenical, it coukl not pronounce with authority. The memorandum of the Dominican Torqueraada formed the armoury for all attacks upon the doctrine made by S. Antoninus of Florence (d. 1459), and by the Dominicans Bandelli and Spina (Ronard de Card, " L'Ordre des Freres- Precheurs et I'lmmac. Cone", Brussels, 1864).

By a Decree of 28 Feb., 1476, .Si.xtus IV at last adopted the feast for the entire Latin Church and granted an indulgence to all who would assist at the Divine Offices of the solemnity (Denzinger, 734). The Office adopted by Sixtus IV was composed by Leonard de Nogarolis, whilst the Franciscans, since 1480, used a very beautiful Office from the pen of Bernardine dei Busti (Sicut Lilium), which was granted also to others (e. g. to Spain, 1761), and was chanted by the Fran- ciscans up to the second half of the nineteenth cen- tury. As the public acknowledgment of the feast of Sixtus IV did not prove sufficient to appease the con- flict, he published in 148.3 a constitution in which he punished with excommunication all those of either opinion who charged the opposite opinion with her- esy (Grave nimis, 4 Sept., 1483; Denzinger, 735). In 1546 the Council of Trent, when the question was touched upon, declared that " it was not the intention of this Holy SjTiod to include in the decree which con- cerns original sin the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God" (Sess. V, De peccato originali, v, in Denzinger, 792). Since, however, this decree did not define the doctrine, the theological opponents of the mystery, though more and more reduced in num- bers, did not jdeld. St. Pius V not only condemned proposition l.xxiii of Baius that " no one but Christ was without original sin, and that therefore the Blessed Virgin had died because of the sin contracted in Adam, and had endured afflictions in this life, like the rest of the just, as punishment of actual and origi- nal sin" (Denzinger, 1073), but he also issued a con- stitution in which he forbade all public discussion of the subject. Finally, he inserted a new and simpli- fied Office of the Conception in the liturgical books ("Super speculam", Dec, 1570; "Superni omnipo- tentis", March, 1571; "BuUarium Marianum", pp. 72,75).

Whilst these disputes went on, the great universi- ties and almost all the great orders had become so many bulwarks for the defense of the dogma. In 1497 the University of Paris decreed that hencefor- ward no one should be admitted a meml^er of the university, who did not swear that he would do the utmost to defend and assert the Immaculate Con- ception of Mary. Toulouse followed the example; in Italy, Bologna and Naples; in the German Empire, Cologne, Mainz, and Vienna; in Belgium, Louvain; in England, before the Reformation, Oxford and Cambridge; in Spain, Salamanca, Toledo, Seville, and Valencia; in Portugal, Coimbra and Evora; in .Amer- ica, Mexico and Lima. The Friars Minor confirmed in 1621 the election of the Immaculate Mother as patron of the order, and bound themselves by oath to teach the mystery in public and in private. The Dominicans, however, were under special obligation to follow the doctrines of St. Thomas, and the common conclusion was that St. Thomas was opposed to the Immaculate Conception. Therefore the Dominicans asserted that the doctrine was an error against faith (John of Montesono, 1373); although they adopted the feast, they termed it persistently "Sanctificatio B. M. V." not "Conceptio" (Grotefend, "Zeitrech- nung", II, 237), until in 1622 Gregory V abolished the term "sanctificatio". Paul V (1617) decreed that no one should dare to teach publicly that Mary was con- ceived in original sin, and Gregory V (1622) imposed absolute silence (in scriptis et sermonibus ctiam priva- tis) upon the adversaries of the doctrine until the Holy See should define the question. To put an end

to all further cavilling, Alexander VII promulgated on 8 December, 1661, the famous constitution "Sol- licitudo omnium Ecclesiarum", defining the true sense of the word " conceptio", and forbidding all further discussion against the common and pious sentiment of the Church. He declared that the immunity of Mary from original sin in the first moment of the creation of her soul and its infusion into the body was the object of the feast (Denzinger, 1100).

Explicit Univers.\i, Acceptance. — Since the time of .\lexander VII, long before the final definition, there was no doubt on the part of theologians that the privilege was amongst the truths revealed by God. Wherefore Pius IX, surrounded by a splendid throng of cardinals and bishops, 8 December 1S54, promul- gated the dogma. A new Office was prescribed for the entire Latin Church by Pius IX (25 December, 1863), by which decree all the other Offices in use were abol- ished, including the okl Office Sicut lilium of the Franciscans, and the Office composed by Passaglia (approved 2 Feb., 1849). In 1904 the golden jubilee of the definition of the dogma was celebrated with great splendour (Pius X, Enc, 2 Feb., 1904). Cle- ment IX added to the feast an octave for the dioceses within the temporal possessions of the pope (1667). Innocent XII (1693) raised it to a double of the second class with an octave for the universal Church, which rank had been already given to it in 1664 for Spain, in 1665 for Tuscany and Savoy, in 1667 for the Society of Jesus, the Hermits of St. .-Vugustine, etc. Clement XI decreed on 6 Dec, 1708, that the feast should be a holiday of obligation throughout the entire Church. .4t last Leo XIII, 30 Nov., 1879, raised the feast to a double of the first class with a vigil, a dignity which had long before been granted to Sicily (1739), to Spain (1760), and to the United States (1847). A Votive Office of the Conception of Mary, which is now recited in almost the entire Latin Church on free Saturdays, was granted first to the Benedictine nuns of St. Ajine at Rome in 1603, to the Franciscans in 1609, to the Conventuals in 1612, etc. The Syrian and Chaldean Churches celelirate this feast with the Greeks on 9 December; in Armenia it is one of the few immovable feasts of the year (9 December) ; the schismatic .\byssinians and Copts keep it on 7 August whilst they celebrate the Nativity of Mary on 1 May; the Catholic Copts, however, have transferred the feast to the 10 December (Nativity, 10 September). The Catholic Orientals have since 1854 changed the name of the feast in accordance with the dogma to the " Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary" (cf. the various calendars in Nilles, " Cal. man. utr. eccl.").

The Archdiocese of Palermo solemnizes a Commem- oration of the Immaculate Conception on 1 September to give thanks for the preservation of the city on occasion of the earthquake, 1 September, 1726. A similar commemoration is held on 14 January at Catania (earthquake, 11 Jan., 1693); and by the Oblate Fathers on 17 Feb., because their rule was approved 17 Feb., 1826. Between 20 September, 1839, and 7 May, 1847, the privilege of adding to the Litany of Loretto the invocation, "Queen conceived without original sin", had been granted to 300 dioceses and religious communities. The Immacu- late Conception was declared on 8 November, 1760, principal patron of all the possessions of the crown of Spain, including those in America. The decree of the first Council of Baltimore (1846), electing Mary in her Immaculate Conception principal Patron of the United States, was confirmed on 7 February, 1847.

PAasAGLlA, De Immac. Conceptu. B.M.V. (3 vols., Rome, 1855): Ballerini, Sylloge monumentorum ad myster. Immac. Cone, spulanlium (Rome. 1854-6); .Schf.eben. Dogmatik III. 279 sq. ; Idem in Kirchenleiicon, s.v. Empjnngnis unhe- flcckte: RoSKOVANT, De b. Virgine Maria in sito conceptu im- maculal'i (1.3 vols.. Budapest. 1873-1892): Le Bachelet, L' Immac. Cone. (Paris. 1903): J. and P. Hobeika, Trmoignagc de VEglise Syro-maronite en fareur de I'Imm. Cone. (Bazconta, Lebanon, 1904); Les^tre, L'Imm. Cone, et VEglise de Paris