596 INTELLECT AND FAITH. An even more instructive instance of the development of theo- logical doctrine is to be found in the history of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin. Up to the twelfth century it was not questioned that the Virgin was conceived and born in sin, and doctors like St. Anselm found their only difficulty in ex- plaining how Christ could be born sinless from a sinner. With the growth, of Mariolatry, however, there came a popular ten- dency to regard the Virgin as free from all human corruption, and towards the middle of the twelfth century the church of Lyons ventured to place on the calendar a new feast in honor of the Conception of the Virgin, arguing that as the Xativity was feasted as holy, the Conception, which was a condition precedent to the Xativity, was likewise holy and to be celebrated. St. Ber- nard, the great conservative of his day, at once set himself to sup- press the new doctrine. He wrote earnestly to the canons of Lyons, showing them that their argument applied equally to the nativity and conception of all the ancestors of the Virgin by the male and female lines ; he begged them to introduce no novelties in the Church, but to hold with the Fathers ; he argued that the only immaculate conception was that of Christ, who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and proved that Mary, who was sprung of the union between man and woman, must necessarily have been con- ceived in original sin. He admitted that she was born sanctified, whence the Church properly celebrated the Xativity, but this sanc- tification was operated in the womb of St. Anne, even as the Lord had said to Jeremiah, " Before thou earnest out of the womb I sanctified thee " (Jer. i. 5). It illustrates the recklessness of theo- logical controversy to find St. Bernard subsequently quoted as sustaining the Immaculate Conception. Peter Lombard, the great Master of Sentences, was not willing to concede even as much as St. Bernard, and quotes John of Damascus to show that the Vir- gin was not cleansed of original sin until she accepted the duty of bearing Christ. To this view of the question Innocent III. lent the authority of his great name by asserting it in the most posi- tive manner.* . thoritative definitions, the old belief still lingered that the glory of the saints was postponed till the Day of Judgment (Opp. inedd,— Atti della Accad. dei Lincei, 1883, p. 567).
- S. Anselmi Cur Deus Homo Lib. n. c. xvi. ; Ejusd. Lib. de Conceptu yirginali.
