§ 130. THE WORSHIP OF MARY. 841
the church of Lyons, condemned it for having introduced the festival of the immaculate conception, which he said lacked the approval of the Church, of reason and tradition. If Mary was conceived without sin, then why might not sinless conception be affirmed of Mary's parents and grandparents and her ancestors to remotest antiquity. However, Bernard expressed his willingness to yield if the Church should appoint a festival of the immaculate conception.1
Bonaventura gave three reasons against the doctrine ex empting Mary from original sin; namely, from common con sent, from reason, and from prudence.2 According to the first she suffered with the rest of mankind sorrows, which must have been the punishment of her own guilt inherited from Adam. According to the second, the conception of the body precedes its animation, the word " animation " being used by the Schoolmen for the first association of the soul with the body. In the conception of the body there is al ways concupiscence. The third argument relied upon the Fathers who agreed that Christ was the only being on earth exempt from sin. Bonaventura did not fix the time when Mary was made immaculate except to say, that it probably occurred soon after her conception and at that moment pas sion or flame of sin — fames peccati — was extinguished.
Thomas Aquinas emphatically took this position and de clared it was sufficient to confess that the blessed virgin com mitted no actual sin, either mortal or venial. " Thou art all fair, my love, and no spot is in thee," Cant, iv : 7.3
Nowhere else is Duns Scotus more subtle and sophistical than in his argument for Mary's spotless conception whereby she was untainted by hereditary sin, and no doctrine has become more closely attached with his name. This argu ment is a chain of conjectures. Mary's sinless conception, he said, was only a matter of probability, but at the same time seeming and congruous. The threefold argument is as follows: 1. God's grace would be enhanced by releasing
1 Ep., 174, Migne, 332-336.
2 Sententia communior, rationabilior et securior. Peltier's ed., IV. 67. » Summa, III. 27, 4, Migne, IV. 252.
842 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
one individual from all taint of original sin from the very beginning. 2. By conferring this benefit Christ would bind Mary to himself by the strongest ties. 3. The vacancy left in heaven by the fallen angels could be best filled by her, if she were preserved immaculate from the beginning. As the second Adam was preserved immaculate, so it was fitting the second Eve should be. Duns' conclusion was expressed in these words : " If the thing does not contradict the Church and the Scriptures, its reality seems probable, because it is more excellent to affirm of Mary that she was not conceived
in sin." ]
The warm controversy between the Thomists and Scotists over the immaculate conception has been referred to in an other place. Saints also joined in it. St. Brigitta of Sweden learned through a vision that Mary was conceived immacu late. On the other hand the Dominican, St. Catherine of Siena, prophesied Mary had not been sanctified till the third hour after her conception. The synod of Paris, 1387, de cided in favor of the Scotist position, but Sixtus IV., 1483, threatened with excommunication either party denouncing the other. Finally, Duns Scotus triumphed, and in 1854, Pius IX. made it a dogma of the Church that Mary in the very instant of her conception was kept immune from all stain of original sin.2
The festival of the immaculate conception, observed Dec. 8, was taken up by the Franciscans at their general chapter, held in Pisa, 1263, and its celebration made obligatory in their churches.
One more possible glorification of Mary, the humble mother of our Lord, has not yet been turned into dogma by the Roman Church, her assumption into heaven, her body not having seen corruption. This is held as a pious opinion and preachers like St. Bernard, Honorius of Autun, Gottfried of Admont, and Werner of St. Blasius preached sermon after
1 Si auctoritati eccles. vel scripturce non repugnet videtur probabile quod excellentius est attribuere Marice videlicet quod non sit in originali peccato concepta. Sent., III. 3, Paris ed., XIV. 1(55. See Seeberg, p. 247 sq., and Schwane, p. 424 sqq. 2 Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, TI. 211.