IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. The dogma of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, as held by the Church of Rome, is to the effect that “the most blessed Virgin was, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the human race, by the singular grace and favour of Almighty God, from the first moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, preserved free from all taint of original sin.” The “pious opinion” that the mother of Christ had during her life been preserved from sin in a way in which no other human being ever had been may be traced back to a comparatively early period: indeed, without it her cultus (for some account of the growth of which see Mary) as it hud developed itself long before the 9th century, would have been impossible. The actual history of an explicit doctrine of her immaculate conception, however, so far as has hitherto been discovered, may be said to begin, in the year 1140, with the letter of remonstrance which Bernard of Clairvaux wrote to the canons of the cathedral at Lyons (Ep. 174), who, without consulting the Roman see, had recently introduced into their church a festival in celebration of that doctrine. Bernard argued vigorously against this on the ground of its novelty, its unscripturalness (Ps. li. 5), and its absurdity :—“On the same principle,” said he, “you would be obliged to hold that the conception of her ancestors, in an ascending line, was also a holy one, since otherwise she could not have descended from them worthily, and there would then be festivals without number.” How the recipients, who, it is stated, claimed to have learned their peculiar rite from a document communicated by the Virgin herself, were affected by this letter, is not recorded. Among controversial treatises which appeared shortly ...