Chapter II: The Saints’ Days (2)

The chief authority, however, for the event is St John Damascene. Relying on the history of an otherwise unknown Euthymius, he describes the circumstances in detail. According to this informant, Pulcheria, wife of the Emperor Marcian (450-457), had erected a Church in honour of the Holy Virgin in the suburb of Constantinople called Blachernæ, to which she wished to translate the earthly remains of our Lady. With this end in view, she addressed herself to Bishop Juvenal of Jerusalem during the sitting of the Council of Chalcedon, but he informed the Emperor and Empress that the body of the Mother of God was not to be found in Jerusalem. She had indeed been buried there in the Garden of Gethsemani in the presence of all the Apostles; Thomas alone was absent, and only arrived on the third day after the burial; in order that he too might venerate the body of the Mother of God, the tomb was opened, but nothing was found save the linen grave-clothes, which gave forth a fragrant perfume. Whereupon the Apostles concluded that our Lord had taken up into heaven the body which had borne Him. In his panegyric on the Holy Virgin, Modestus, Patriarch of Jerusalem († 634), states that already in the seventh century there was a special festival in Jerusalem to celebrate her decease (κοίμησις). In addition, we have sermons dealing with this event by Andrew of Crete († 720 _circ._) and Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople († 733).[514] The bodily assumption of Mary into heaven was already known in the West in the sixth century, and is alluded to in Gregory of Tours.[515]

The Emperor Maurice is said to have appointed the festival of our Lady’s death (κοίμησις τῆς παναγίου καί θεομητέρος), and fixed it on the 15th August. Although this information is given by an historian of a much later date,[516] it must not be altogether set aside. Maurice may well have given official recognition to the festival, and by so doing settled the question of the day on which it was to be kept. The festival itself was, however, much older, for not only the heretical sects, which separated from the Church in the fifth century, such as the Monophysites and Nestorians, preserved this festival at the time of their separation, but most ancient national Churches, such as the Armenian and Ethiopian, have it in their Calendars. Accordingly the 15th August must have already been generally regarded in the Church as the day of our Lady’s death before the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, although not mentioned by historians of that time.

We have unfortunately no information concerning the introduction of this festival in Rome. All we know is that it was celebrated there along with our Lady’s Nativity and Annunciation under Sergius I., at the end of the seventh century. About 847 Leo IV. ordained that it should be celebrated with a vigil and octave in the basilica of St Lawrence without the Walls. In the Gothico-Gallican missal of the seventh or eighth century, edited by Mabillon,[517] the festival is placed on the 18th January,[518] and not on the 15th August, as is also the case in the Lectionary of Luxeuil of the seventh century. This circumstance points to the conclusion that, independently of Byzantine influence, it was observed already at an earlier date in other parts of the Church as well, and came into existence spontaneously, so to speak.

It is also noteworthy that the feast appears already with the title _Assumptio_ in the canons of Bishop Sonnatius of Rheims, composed sometime about the year 630.[519] In the canons ascribed to St Boniface some amount of vacillation is observable. By the thirty-sixth canon of the Council of Mainz, in 813, it is appointed as a feast for the whole Frankish Empire, while the earlier Council of 809 had decided nothing concerning its adoption.

Among the Latins the festival did not at first bear the name _Assumptio_, but was called _Domitio_ or _Pausatio_, corresponding to the Greek title. This name left the particular object of the feast uncertain—whether it commemorated merely the decease or the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven. It was probably due to this that in the ninth century doubts as to the latter were here and there expressed.[520]

Unlike both Easterns and Westerns, the Copts have placed the death and bodily resurrection of the Mother of God on the 16th January (21st Tybi). We find it so in the _Synaxarium_ of the ninth century in Mai, and in that of Michael of Atriba; while the older Calendar of saints belonging to the seventh century given by Seldenius has a “_Planctus Dominæ Mariæ_” on this day, which may well mean the same thing.[521]

In not a few German and Sclavonic dioceses a blessing of the fruits of the field takes place on the 15th August. This is of ancient Germanic origin, but has been adopted into the Roman ritual. It seems to have arisen from some popular custom connected with harvest.[522]

5. _Institution and Spread of the Festival of the Immaculate Conception_

The two dogmatic definitions formulated during the pontificate of Pius IX. had this in common that they came as a surprise to many, although they only set at rest questions which had been ventilated for centuries. This is especially the case with regard to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, for the discussion of the question had been prolonged during a thousand years. Bound up with the discussion was the contention whether the festival in question ought or ought not to be celebrated; and these two things, the theoretical treatment of the doctrine, and the fortunes of the festival, were most intimately connected with one another, and found at one and the same moment their final solution. Indeed, the festival has a longer history than the doctrinal controversy. For the observation that Church festivals required a long time from their inception—which is for the most part to be looked for in monasteries—until they obtained general approbation and acceptance from the ecclesiastical authorities, applies to many festivals; but none has had so long and changeful a history as the festival of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. It has now, for the last fifty years, been celebrated as a festival of obligation throughout the Catholic Church, and has even been adopted in those countries which formerly set themselves most strongly against the increase of ecclesiastical holy days.

Our object is to give a comprehensive and detailed history of the vicissitudes of this festival, while leaving aside the history of the doctrine. Naturally they cannot be kept entirely distinct, still the latter shall only be touched upon in so far as is necessary for the elucidation of the history of the feast.[523] Passaglia and his collaborator Clemens Schrader, S.J., in their well known work, “_De Immaculato Deiparæ Conceptu_” (Rome, 1854 and 1855, 3 vols. 4to.), have given us a rich and noteworthy collection of materials for this purpose. We must do justice to the immense learning expended upon this work both in its dogmatic and historical sections, but the historical explanations can no longer be regarded as satisfactory. On the one hand, subsequent investigations have brought fresh facts to light which give a new turn to the history; and, on the other, Passaglia was deficient in the critical faculty, and merely in order to marshal as many proofs as possible, he made use of several which cannot stand close investigation, and must be set aside if the whole question is not to be misrepresented.

For the correct understanding and examination of the sources of evidence, it must first be observed that anciently both among the Greeks and the Latins the term _conceptio_ (σύλληψις) was taken in the active sense, while we are accustomed to take it in the passive sense. _Conceptio Mariæ Virg._ signified then the conception of Christ by Mary, while the (passive) conception of Mary was called the _Conceptio S. Annæ_.

Thus it follows that the festival of “the Conception of Mary” and the festival of “the Immaculate Conception” are not the same thing. Originally only a _festum Conceptionis B.M.V._ was celebrated, and only in course of centuries has a _festum Immaculatæ Conceptionis_ been evolved therefrom. This must not be regarded as a mere question of terms which might be employed interchangeably. Passaglia has not sufficiently emphasised this distinction, and consequently his presentation of the facts creates the impression that there was already in the fifth century a festival of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, which is altogether erroneous. The simple statement of the facts will make this clear, and show that in the course of centuries the feast originally celebrated as the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was changed into a feast of the Immaculate Conception. This change came about in proportion as the matter was made clearer by dogmatic discussion, and as the doctrine of Mary’s exemption from original sin gained adherents in the schools. Even when this doctrine had found general acceptance in the West, and had authoritatively received the support both of conciliar decrees and of papal dogmatic decisions, the ancient title of the feast still remained in use for a long time. If we consult the service-books printed before 1854, we find in them indeed on the 8th December the _festum conceptionis_, but the word _immaculata_ is nowhere found in the office for the feast. An orderly representation of the historical facts concerned will show how this was brought about.

Evidence shows that the feast of our Lady’s Conception arose in the Eastern Church, and had gained civil recognition in the Byzantine Empire at a time, when in the West, ecclesiastical circles were still debating whether or not its celebration ought to be permitted. In a constitution entitled, “Concerning the days of the year which are whole holidays and half holidays,” the Emperor Manuel Comnenus in 1166 recognised it as a public festival on which servile work was forbidden. Now it is a known fact that the civil authorities are slow to give recognition to ecclesiastical festivals, and accordingly festivals have often been celebrated by the Church for a long period before they received the recognition of the State. So it was in this case. The Calendar of the Church of Constantinople in which the feast of the 9th December is marked as the “festival of the Conception of St Anne, the mother of the Theotocos,” is a century and a half older than this constitution. It bears the name of the Emperor Basil, meaning the second of this name surnamed Porphyriogenitus (976-1025), and, accordingly, it follows that even then the festival had received some lesser degree of recognition from the State.[524]

Concerning the date of the introduction of this feast, we have detailed information in a sermon of John of Eubœa, who lived in the middle of the eighth century. He was first a monk and then Bishop of the island, and was contemporary with St John Damascene, whom he occasionally visited. John declares that there are ten points in the life of the Holy Virgin which must be commemorated, and these he enumerates in the tenth section of his sermon. The most of them are at the same time feasts of our Lord, the only ones entirely relating to our Lady being her Nativity, Annunciation, and Assumption. With regard to the feast of our Lady’s Conception, John hesitates. First of all, in the passage referred to above, he enumerates it among the feasts, but at the end of his sermon he states that it is not acknowledged by all,[525] but he speaks highly in its favour, and considers in conclusion that it ought to be celebrated. From this it is plain that in his time the feast was not yet generally accepted, and that he exerted himself to spread it. If Passaglia, who quotes this sermon as evidence for the feast, had noticed this passage, he would have learnt that in the eighth century the festival had not yet become generally popular in purely ecclesiastical circles, such as among the specially devout and the religious, and he would have avoided the mistake of throwing back the inception of the feast to the fifth century in reliance on an interpolated and much later _Typicum S. Sabæ_.[526] John mentions the 9th December as the day of the feast. The contents of this sermon of his are in other respects of no importance.

George of Nicomedia, who lived about a century later, is the second Greek preacher of whom we possess a sermon for this festival.[527] It bears the title, “Concerning the Conception of St Anne,” and was delivered upon a festal occasion (πανήγυρις), and the day is already distinctly called a feast (ἑορτή). George considered it no longer necessary to merely commend the acceptance of the feast, but regarded its adoption as a matter of course. He reveals, however, the comparatively late date of its institution, by saying that the day was not to be kept “as one only recently added to the Calendar, but as one adopted on the best grounds, since it naturally belonged to the course of the year and is prescribed by the nature of things. In doing so we become partakers of the joy it promises.”

As far as the East is concerned these two witnesses are sufficient, especially as they throw light on the date of the institution of the feast. As in other cases, so here the origin of the feast is doubtless to be sought in religious communities. They were the first to think of honouring this act of redemption. It was certainly the monks, to whom is due the development of the Church’s psalmody, who in their canonical hours celebrated Mary’s Conception, and appointed a special day for this purpose, the 9th December, which was always kept as such in the Greek menologies. In course of time the feast issued forth from the limits of the monasteries, and from the inner circles of the devout, and attained publicity. Preachers glorified it. It met with a sympathetic reception in ever widening circles, until it gradually attained the rank, if not of a feast of obligation, at any rate, of a simple feast of devotion, and, finally, it obtained both ecclesiastical and civil authorisation.

The Byzantine Empire comprised during the whole of the period of which we have been speaking, Lower Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia. In the eighth century Byzantium was no longer able to retain its hold over the duchy of Rome and the Exarchate of Ravenna; at a still later date it lost Apulia, Calabria and Sicily, especially when the Normans settled in those parts. It retained its hold over the city of Naples longest of all; it was only in 1127 that Naples was taken by Roger II., who had himself crowned king of the Two Sicilies in 1130.

The constitution of Manuel Comnenus of 1166 mentioned above was never promulgated in Naples, and had no force there, but the connection with Byzantium had lasted sufficiently long for the feast of Mary’s Conception to obtain an entrance into Naples. That it actually did make its way there is proved by the Calendar of the Neapolitan Church of the ninth century, engraved on marble, and showing traces of Byzantine influence, which was discovered in 1742 in the Church of San Giovanni Maggiore. Apart from the historical facts which we have mentioned, the name and date of the feast—_Conceptio S. Annæ_, and the ninth December—show a Byzantine origin. And so in respect of the history of this feast, Naples, along with Lower Italy and Sicily, must be classed with the Eastern half of the Catholic Church as celebrating a feast, of which at Rome no one had as yet thought.

From all this it follows that the feast of Mary’s Conception was known in the Byzantine Empire as early as the beginning of the eighth century, although under a different name from that which it now bears. Was the feast, in its essential idea, the same as ours? This question the reader may answer for himself. There is much doubtless in favour of an affirmative answer. Greek writers refer to our Lady in the highest conceivable terms, as can be amply proved from the lections of the office for the 8th December now in use. They exalt her not merely above all men, but absolutely above every creature. Moreover, the feast of the Conception has a meaning only when the conception is regarded as sinless, just as the Greeks celebrate a commemoration of the conception of St John the Baptist solely On the ground that John was sanctified in his mother’s womb. In all other cases, it is not the birthday of the saints which is kept, but the day of their death. All this tells in favour of the affirmative. But on the other hand, the fathers of the Eastern Church have never either used or even discovered the specific terms to designate the Immaculate Conception, nor have they ever proposed the question if our Lady was free from original sin.

It is indeed very difficult to maintain the former view in the face of the fact that the Greeks, at the present day, do not regard their feast of Mary’s Conception as implying this meaning, but among them it is a feast of little importance. Their Breviary contains the following notice of the feast: “God sent His angel to the pious couple Joachim and Anna, and announced to them that the barren would give birth, and so to prepare the way for the conception of the Virgin. Thus the holy Virgin Mary was conceived in consequence of an announcement, but by means of man and from his seed. For our Lord Jesus Christ alone was born in an ineffable manner of the holy Virgin Mary without the co-operation of man and his seed.”

This announcement by an angel is based on an apocryphal legend, which appears in Byzantine sermons on our Lady, belonging to the eighth and ninth centuries. Joachim, according to Jewish custom, desired to present an offering in the Temple, but was driven back and insulted by members of the tribe of Reuben because he was childless. This caused him so much pain that instead of returning to his home, he sadly betook himself into solitude. Anna, in her anxiety, prayed earnestly to God, and was informed by an angel she should give birth to a daughter richly endowed with gifts of grace. This legend derived from the _Proto-evangelium_ of James, and propagated chiefly in the sermons of John of Eubœa and of Peter Siculus, was also known in the West, and figures largely in works of art; as, for example, in the beautiful picture in the cathedral at Augsburg, by Hans Holbein the Elder.

The Greek Breviary, however, shows that there was current among the people a still stranger idea, which it strongly opposes, _i.e._ that Mary was born on the seventh month after her conception, and so was what is called a seven months’ child. The reason why it is worth while to allude here to this will be plain later on. We may merely point out how all this shows the unimportant character of the festival among the Greeks.

It was otherwise in the West.[528] Here the festival in question makes its appearance on the scene just as its development in the East came to an end. To the tentative attempts at the introduction of this festival in monasteries, and among the inner circles of the devout, there followed its acceptance by several dioceses, not however without opposition. The theoretical discussion over the warrant and significance of the festival accompanied the early instances of its official introduction. These discussions lasted through centuries, and were only brought to a conclusion in our own times.

In attempting to trace out its introduction in detail, it must be borne in mind that we are treating of what was in the first instance a festival of the Conception only, not of the Immaculate Conception; that it was not a public holy day of obligation, but only a religious commemoration confined to the four walls of the churches; and, finally, that when it was adopted by some religious order or celebrated in some monastery, it does not follow that it was at the same time adopted by the diocese or country wherein such a monastery was situated.

Clear and detailed evidence for its introduction comes to us first of all from England. The individuals who more or less exerted themselves in this connection were a certain Elsinus or Helsinus, a monk of St Augustine’s, Canterbury, and later Abbot of Ramsay in the diocese of Winchester (1080-1087), St Anselm of Canterbury and his nephew of the same name, Osbert de Clare, Prior of Westminster, Warinus, Dean of Worcester, Abbot Hugh of Reading, and finally, the historian Eadmer.[529] Further particulars concerning these persons will be found in the appendix.[530]

We begin with the history of Elsinus, or Helsinus. He is not an imaginary personage, but one whose story is historically true. He was monk at St Augustine’s, and then Abbot of Ramsay under William the Conqueror. A legend, current in the middle ages in various forms as either a sermon or a letter of Anselm the Elder, states that he was sent by William with presents to the King of Denmark, in order to discover if he contemplated an invasion of England. Having fulfilled his embassy, he was overtaken on his return voyage by so severe a storm that the ship seemed about to be dashed in pieces. As all were invoking our Blessed Lady in this moment of peril, a form arrayed in episcopal vestments appeared, which was supposed to be St Nicholas, the patron of sailors. He addressed Elsinus by name, and promised him he would be saved, if he in his turn promised to celebrate the feast of our Lady’s Conception annually on the 8th December, and to exhort others to celebrate it also. Elsinus promised, and all were saved.[531]

This legendary narrative was adopted formerly for the lections in the Breviary,[532] but more recently it has been altogether discredited. The learned Maurist Gerberon, editor of St Anselm’s works, in particular has objected to this narrative on the grounds that after the battle of Hastings in 1066, William returned to Normandy, and the landing of the Danes followed immediately. Gerberon has overlooked the fact that since Elsinus undertook this journey as Abbot, not as a simple monk—which in itself would have been highly improbable—it must be placed between 1080 and 1087, not in 1066. However, although the story be a legend, yet this much is true, that Elsinus did introduce the feast of the 8th December into his monastery.[533]

That Anselm the Younger introduced it into his monastery at Bury St Edmonds is proved by two letters, dating from 1128-29, of Osbert de Clare, a zealous defender of the doctrine. He laments that two bishops, Roger of Salisbury and Bernard of St Davids, have opposed the introduction of the feast. They had even held a Synod, and forbidden the feast as an absurd novelty. This fact, and also the circumstance that Osbert himself in a sermon on the 8th December made no mention of the Immaculate Conception of Mary from fear of the opponents, as he himself says, show how strong the opposition to both feast and doctrine must have been among the Anglo-Saxon secular clergy of that period.[534]

From what has been said it can be regarded as historically certain that the feast of Mary’s Conception was observed in many Benedictine monasteries in England, about the year 1128—in Ramsay, Bury St Edmonds, Reading, Worcester and Westminster.[535]

Possibly also in some others, but in no case was the feast celebrated outside the walls of the monasteries.[536] It must have encountered opposition, for important personages, both ecclesiastical and secular, looked upon it with disfavour, and it was still very far from gaining the support of the secular clergy, of bishops and synods. Indeed one synod of the period forbade the feast altogether. Its adoption followed only in the fourteenth century. When we bear in mind the ecclesiastical and civil circumstances of the times, we are astonished to find how such a novelty—for so the feast is called in the writings already quoted—could have made its way to England first of all. For, in the eleventh century, that country was torn by internal strife, and invaded by foreign foes; while the national clergy, according to the statement of a contemporary English historian, were sunk in simony and worldliness.[537] That is scarcely the atmosphere suitable for the inception of a feast so intimately connected with the inner religious life of the community. For this some impulse from without was required. Such an impulse came indirectly from the East through intercourse with Normandy, whence so many learned and zealous monks and clergy came to England after the conquest. The political, or rather dynastic, connection of the country with Normandy dates not only from the battle of Hastings in 1066, but goes back to the times of King Edward the Confessor, whose wife Emma was a Norman princess.

The official introduction of the feast of our Lady’s Conception in England only commenced in the thirteenth century, and only spread slowly. The provincial Synod of Oxford in 1222, Canon VIII., refused to recognise it as a feast of obligation, although it established its private observance. The diocesan Synod of Worcester does not mention it in its list of festivals. On the other hand it was celebrated at St Albans in 1228,[538] and the diocesan Synod of Exeter in 1287 formally adopted it by a decree which naturally affected that diocese alone.

In Normandy the feast, whose celebration found in England precarious toleration in the retirement of the cloister, was already introduced by the secular clergy without encountering any opposition. This is stated by Osbert himself when he remarks in his letter to Anselm how, on the other side of the channel, the feast had been solemnly kept by some bishops.[539] If these words do not apply to Normandy, we should like to know of some other country on the Continent where the feast was then observed. It is certain that it was kept at Rouen under Bishop Rotricus (1165-1183), and placed on a level with the feast of the Annunciation.[540] Owing to the law that, in the province of Rouen, consisting of six dioceses, the daughter churches must follow in their ritual and Breviary the use of the metropolitan Church, this feast would soon be celebrated all over Normandy.[541] When the Corporation of Norman students at the Paris University chose it as their particular festival, it was not a mere fancy on their part, but must have had its origin in the ecclesiastical observances of their home. Still less must this fact have been the cause why the feast in the middle ages went by the name of the “Norman’s feast” (_festum nationis Normannicæ_). This name can only have come into existence because the feast had been zealously celebrated in Normandy for a long time, by all the people, before it was kept in any other country of the West. Henry of Ghent, a member of the Sorbonne, distinctly declares this to have been the case.[542] The Normans, however, could not have been the originators of the feast. Doubtless they got their knowledge of it in Lower Italy, where it had been observed for a long time, after they had begun to settle there. Those who are unwilling to adopt so rationalistic an explanation of the matter, draw attention to the fact that the two Anselms, the earliest known propagators of the feast in England, were not uninfluenced by other Eastern forms of showing honour to our Blessed Lady. This is shown not only by Anselm’s hymns on the Mother of God, in which the refrain, _Ave sponsa insponsata_, has been adopted from the so-called _hymnus acathistus_, but also by an entry in an Irish Calendar (upon which too much stress has recently been laid), in which Mary’s conception is put down on the 3rd May, in accordance with the ridiculous Greek legend,[543] that Mary was born seven months after her conception. Granting that this entry really belongs to the ninth century, it is only evidence of monastic learning, but affords no proof for the existence of the feast in Ireland. It only shows that the writer knew of the Greek fable in question, and made use of it for his Calendar.

It may be asked if the feast made its appearance in the West first of all in Normandy, and in England, which since 1066 had been politically united with Normandy, or had been observed earlier elsewhere? Could we believe Passaglia, it had been celebrated already in Spain in the seventh century.[544] If so, it is impossible to think it could have disappeared later on without leaving a trace behind. The genuine Mozarabic liturgy does not contain it, and in the oldest Spanish Calendars, _e.g._ that of Toledo of the tenth century, published by Morinus, it does not appear. The Jesuit Leslæus, who wrote the introduction to the Mozarabic liturgy, admits candidly that the feast came into Spain through France.[545] The two reasons which Passaglia gives for his opinion are worthless. He relies upon a spurious life of St Isidore of Seville, which contains later interpolations, while the genuine life written by Ildefons makes no mention of it, and upon a passage in the laws of the West Goths. But this latter passage has to be taken as referring to the Conception of Christ by Mary in accordance with the terminology then in use. When the same author wishes to make his readers believe that the feast existed in Cremona already in the tenth century,[546] it has to be borne in mind that Bishop Sicardus of Cremona,[547] in the thirteenth century, strongly opposed its introduction there.

It may be regarded as certain that the feast of our Lady’s conception was introduced into the Benedictine monasteries of England by the two Anselms at the end of the eleventh century. We must not, however, regard England as especially the home of the feast in the Latin Church, for both St Anselm and his nephew had received their training in Normandy, which was their second home. From thence they passed in later middle life to England, for William liked to fill the chief spiritual posts in England with foreigners.

When the author of the tract _De Conceptione B.M.V._ laments that the feast met with much opposition both from clergy and laity, his complaints were well grounded, for the names of a number of famous men are known to us at the present day as having strongly opposed both the feast and the doctrine which underlay it. For the most part they were men of importance. We can name Roger of St Albans, Bishop of Salisbury, and Bernard, Bishop of St Davids († 1147). The former was minister and adviser of King Henry II., the latter chaplain to Queen Matilda. In France the most famous opponent of the feast was St Bernard, the celebrated preacher Maurice de Sully († 1196), Bishop of Paris, and Peter of Celle, Abbot of Moutier-la-Celle, from 1181 Bishop of Chartres.[548] It is especially remarkable that the greatest liturgists of the middle ages, Beleth, Sicardus of Cremona, and Durandus of Mende, all opposed the feast.[549] In Germany, the monk Potho of Prüm may be named, although his views are obscure.

The conduct of St Bernard must be more closely examined. The opportunity of expressing his views was furnished by the circumstance that the Canons of Lyons commenced, about 1140, to celebrate the feast of our Lady’s conception, without having obtained the authority of the Holy See for this “novelty.” According to the then existing state of canon law, the bishops had the right of arranging by themselves the festivals to be celebrated within their respective dioceses. But St Bernard in his letter to the Canons makes no mention of the bishop. This is explained by the fact that the letter was written at a time when the Church of Lyons was without any recognised head, and when St Bernard was exerting himself with the Pope to obtain the confirmation of Fulco, the bishop elect.[550] It may well have been that in this matter the canons acted despotically. St Bernard, however, does not bring this charge formally against them in his letter, but lays all the stress upon objections to the inner significance of the feast. It was customary, he says,[551] to celebrate the day of our Lady’s birth, because she, like Jeremias and John the Baptist, had been sanctified before birth (fuit ante sancta quam nata). Mary could not be holy before she existed, but her existence began at her conception and that was not free from concupiscence. If her conception was to be regarded as holy, one must logically hold that her parents were already holy also. Christ our Lord was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and consequently His conception was holy and a feast of the Church (Annuntiatio). Before taking any steps in the matter, St Bernard concludes, the Apostolic See ought to have been consulted, to whose authority he commits the matter. The Roman Church, to which he appealed, was, however, in no hurry. More than three hundred years had to pass before she in any degree broke through her reserve on this question.

The effect of this letter is not known, but there is no doubt that during the twelfth century the feast made steady progress in France. Unfortunately we possess only a few data to illustrate its development, for the investigation into the ecclesiastical history of special localities requires to be more extensively taken in hand. In Rouen, the capital of Normandy, it was certainly observed at that period, as we have already seen. Next, its observance is prescribed by the statutes of Le Mans, in the Province of Tours, in 1247.[552] In Rheims it appears between 1261-1271. A more important fact is that the General Chapter of the Franciscans, held at Pisa in 1263, decreed that the feast should be celebrated throughout the entire order.[553] Although it did not attain to the rank of a feast of obligation for clergy and people, yet it became known throughout the world, and especially at the papal Court at Avignon, where Franciscan influence was strong. Finally the standpoint of the thirteenth century with regard to this feast is best summed up in the words of St Thomas Aquinas, “Although the Roman Church does not celebrate it, she allows other Churches to do so,”[554] and in those of St Bonaventure who justifies the keeping of a festival on the day of our Lady’s conception.[555] Accordingly the number of dioceses and provinces within which it was celebrated was constantly on the increase; for the fourteenth century we have Canterbury 1328; Treves between 1338 and 1343;[556] Paderborn 1343; Münster 1350;[557] Utrecht 1350; Brixen 1399, while other diocesan synods, _e.g._ Prague in 1355, did not yet adopt it. When it is asserted that the feast had been introduced at Liège under Bishop Albero II. († 1145), it must be urged on the other side that the list of feasts drawn up by the diocesan synod of Liège in 1287 makes no mention of it.[558] The synod of Cologne of 1308 does not mention it either, although it is contained in the Cologne Calendar of the same century. For Mainz we have the fact that this feast is employed for dating a decree of the year 1318.[559] In the province of Canterbury, the feast obtained official recognition only in 1328, _i.e._ two hundred and nineteen years after the death of those who had first exerted themselves in its favour.[560]

As far as Canon law and the liturgy are concerned, the feast of the _Conceptio B.M.V._ remained in the fourteenth century as incomplete as it had been in the twelfth and thirteenth. Generally speaking, however, each bishop had then the right of appointing the festivals for his own diocese, but this right was always restricted to the appointment of those festivals already recognised and permitted by the Church universal which he desired should be observed within his own diocese—as, for example, whether St Mary Magdalene should be kept as a holiday or not. But in this case it was not a question of a feast already recognised by ecclesiastical authority, and its opponents could always object with reason: _Non est authenticum_.

Important if not decisive steps were at length taken by ecclesiastical authorities in the fifteenth century. In the meantime, the doctrine, which had been defined and formulated by Duns Scotus was so widely accepted, except among the Dominicans, and enjoyed so much popularity among the people, who violently took sides on the question, that it was possible for the Council of Basel (which began by being ecumenical, but became schismatical after its quarrel with the pope), to state in its thirty-sixth session, on the 17th September 1439, in answer to the petition of the theological faculty of Paris, that the doctrine that Mary by a special gift of grace had never been subject to original sin was “pious and agreeable to the worship of the Church, the Catholic Faith, and the teaching of Holy Scripture.” The Council forbade the contrary doctrine to be taught. At the same time it renewed the decree in regard to the feast of “her Holy conception, which was kept on the 8th December both by the Roman Church and by others.”[561] Granting that the Council was ecumenical, all circumstances connected with the feast, with regard to both doctrine and ritual, were now formally settled. This decree was not without effect, as soon appeared from the fact that in the Mainz Breviary of 1507 the lections for the second nocturn of the feast are drawn from it. It also certainly influenced the further spread of the feast, as soon appeared from its being expressly authorized and received by a provincial synod at Avignon, held under the presidency of a papal legate in 1457.[562]

Although the fathers of the Council of Basel were of opinion that the feast was celebrated by the Roman Church on the 8th December, this was only partially correct. The fact is that at Avignon, with the full knowledge of the Papal Court, it had been already celebrated without meeting with any opposition from the authorities. So, too, in Rome it had been celebrated by religious in the churches of their monasteries. It can well have been that Alvarus Pelagius († 1340), as we are informed, preached on this day in Rome; this, however, does not prove that the diocese of Rome, or the Papal Court, had adopted the feast at that date, for that, it would have been necessary to include the day in question in the Calendar and treat it as a festival in the Missal and Breviary. And so it would appear that it was kept as a purely ecclesiastical holy day, and not as yet as a public official holiday with rest from servile work. Nevertheless there were those at Basel who maintained it was a festival of the Roman Church.

The Franciscan order, as has been already said, added our Lady’s conception to the number of the feasts observed by themselves. They celebrated it everywhere where they had a church of their own, and also in Avignon and Rome during the residence of the popes. Other orders followed their example—namely, the Benedictines, Cistercians, Carmelites, all of which had houses in Rome,[563] and so, since there were many churches belonging to these orders in Rome, it might well seem as if the Roman Church herself kept the festival, all the more since the popes knew of it and tolerated the practice. In Sixtus IV. (1471-1484), a Franciscan ascended the Papal throne, and he it was who finally took the decisive step in the direction of recognition instead of toleration. On the 27th February 1477[564] he published the Constitution “_Cum præ excelsa_,” in which he granted indulgences on the feast. In particular he granted to all those who on this day recited the office composed by the Papal notary, Leonardo Nogaroli of Verona, and assisted at Mass and the canonical hours, the same indulgences which his predecessors granted for Corpus Christi. In this way the feast was adopted into the diocese of Rome, and made its way into the Calendar, Breviary and Missal, but only as a purely ecclesiastical feast. It must also be observed that no advance was made in the doctrine concerned, for the pope in his decree speaks of a _Conceptio immaculatæ_, or, as he expresses himself in another place, _prælibatæ virginis_, not of an _immaculata conceptio_.

This was not the only official act of Sixtus IV. in favour of the feast. In 1479 he built a chapel in old St Peter’s, which he dedicated and endowed in honour of our Lady’s conception and in honour of the Franciscan saints, Francis of Assisi and Anthony of Padua. In 1483, however, he was compelled to forbid, by a special constitution, the supporters and opponents of the doctrine of Mary’s exemption from original sin to call each other heretics. This proves that the strife between the two parties had then waxed warm. Even in Germany there were bitter contentions concerning the point in question in Frankfurt, Marburg, Heidelberg, and at Bern in Switzerland.

By the decree of Sixtus IV., in 1477, the office for the feast was finally prescribed for the diocese of Rome as a _duplex_, but not for other dioceses; these were free as before to adopt it or not. Clement VIII. raised it to a _duplex majus_. Clement IX., added an octave, and Clement XI., by a decree of 6th December 1708, prescribed it for the whole Church.[565] It had already been observed in Spain as a regular holy day of obligation, for Philip IV. petitioned Innocent X. for it and the pope had granted his request in a constitution of 10th November 1644.[566] It was only in 1854 that it became, through the zeal of Pius IX., a holy day of obligation for the whole Catholic world.

The steps in regard to this feast taken by Rome were, as we have seen, separated from one another by considerable periods of time. With regard to the significance of the feast, however, in spite of the declaration of the Council of Trent, a policy of delay and _laissez-faire_ was maintained. The feast remained a simple _festum conceptionis_, and the idea of the _immaculata conceptio_ did not receive outward expression, except that Paul V. permitted the recitation on all free Saturdays of an _officium conceptionis B.M.V._, in which the _invitatorium_ is, “Immaculatam conceptionem Mariæ virginis celebremus.”

Pius IX. had a new office drawn up which he prescribed for use on the 25th September 1863, in which the idea contained in the _invitatorium_ is expressed beyond all doubt. Hymns expressing the same idea were inserted, and the bull “Ineffabilis” was drawn upon for some of the lections, while for others the preference was given to the homilies of the later Greek writers. The pope’s letter elevating the feast to the rank of a holy day of obligation for all Christendom received an enthusiastic reception everywhere. The rank of the feast was not increased. It was only by Leo XIII. that it was placed on an equality with the three chief festivals of the year.

In tracing out the long process of development by which this feast passed from Byzantium by Lower Italy to Normandy and England, and from thence throughout the entire West, our attention has been drawn especially to the conduct of the Roman See. Passaglia endeavours by every means to magnify the part it played, and to date its intervention as far back as possible. Still he is finally obliged to own that the Roman Church was not the first to pay a special cultus to the Mother of God as conceived without original sin. But, he adds, she has done everything during the space of five hundred years[567] for the glorification of this feast and for the spread of the doctrine which forms its basis. It is difficult to see what is gained by magnifying the part of the Roman See at the cost of historical truth. Others regard with satisfaction the fact that Rome in no way pressed matters forwards. In a question so much debated, Rome could not have adopted a better course than to wait until the conviction of all Christendom, in so far as it was interested in the question, had arrived at maturity. The Immaculate Conception had been the dominant doctrine for a long period, and wanted nothing but the formal approbation of the teaching church.

6. _The Lesser Feasts of Our Lady_

While the number of lesser feasts of our Lady according to the existing Roman rite is very considerable, yet only a few of them come much before the public, and the history of the most of them affords no points of general interest. We shall therefore confine ourselves to the following:—

1. The Feast of the Name of Mary owes its origin to the devotion of the faithful, and was first authorised by the Apostolic See for the diocese of Cuença, in Spain, in 1513. It was abolished by Pius V., but re-established by Sixtus V., and finally prescribed by Innocent XI. to be observed by the whole Church on the Sunday after the Nativity of our Lady. This was done in 1683, on the occasion of the deliverance of Vienna from the Turks.[568]

Maria, or Miriam, is the Greek form of Miryam, a name over the etymology of which many opinions were held in antiquity. Eusebius explains it to mean “illuminatrix una vel illuminans eos, aut smyrna maris vel stella maris.”[569] St Peter Chrysologus and St John Damascene derive it from the Syrian _mar_ (feminine _martha_), lady, which appears also in the Roman breviary along with the other explanation, “stella maris.” In the Middle Ages this was the usual, and even yet is the favourite, explanation. O. Bardenhewer maintains that the only derivation permissible is from מָרָא, fat or stout, in the sense of the imposing or stately one. Those to whom Bardenhewer’s derivation does not commend itself will be glad to hear that Professor Macke has had the happy thought to refer back to the first bearer of the name, Miryam, the sister of Moses, and to derive the names of both brother and sister from the Egyptian. In Egyptian it would be: _Meri jom_, which would be equivalent to Friend of Water, or Bride of the Sea, and so approaches more to the meaning of _Stella Maris_.

2. The Presentation of our Lady in the Temple[570] (Præsentatio B.M.V., 21st November). The story that Mary at the age of three years was brought by her parents to the temple in fulfilment of their vow, there to be educated, appears only in apocryphal writings,[571] but it fell in so completely with the ideas of religious, both in ancient and modern times in East and West, that it was not long before it asserted its influence on the cycle of our Lady’s Feasts. The commemoration appears officially for the first time in the constitution of Manuel Comnenus, published in 1166, as a fully recognised festival on which the law courts did not sit. The date is the same as at the present day.[572] The feast was introduced into the West by a French nobleman, Philip de Maizières, who spent some time at the Court of Gregory XI. at Avignon in 1371 as representative of the King of Cyprus. He represented the manner in which the day was celebrated in the East in such a way as to move Gregory to ordain it as one of the festivals of the Papal Court. It soon made its way in other places also—in Navarre in 1374, in Treves in 1381, in Metz in 1420, in Cologne and elsewhere. In Rome it was introduced by Sixtus IV., and an office for it was added to the Roman breviary without its recitation being imposed (_inter festa ad libitum_ and _pro quibusdam locis_). It was only Sixtus V. who, in 1585, ordained it for the whole Church after it had been for a time suppressed by Pius V. The original office was altered under Clement VIII. Although the feast at first was regarded as unimportant, it attained in Prussia to the rank of a feast _in foro_, and this in an unexpected way, in 1893. It falls in Prussia on the third Wednesday in November, and occupies a position midway between the movable and immovable feasts.

3. The Visitation (_Visitatio B.M.V._) was formerly included among the lesser feasts of our Lady, although the most prominent and popular of them. At the present day it has a higher rank (_duplex II. cl._), and, in certain localities, it has an octave. It used to be kept as an entire holiday. It is not only grounded upon Scripture, but the event it commemorates is one of the most important related in the New Testament, both on account of the sanctification of St John the Baptist in his mother’s womb, and because of its being the occasion on which the Magnificat was first uttered. Nevertheless this feast does not exist among the Greeks, but, on the 2nd July, they celebrate the translation of the Holy Virgin’s garment in the church of the suburb of Constantinople called Blachernæ, which took place under the Emperor Leo I. in 469.[573]

The earliest traces of the feast are found in the thirteenth century. They appear in different localities at about the same date, which may be due to the fact that the newly founded order of the Franciscans had adopted the feast and promoted its celebration. It appears among the Franciscans as early as 1263, and received official recognition during the great schism from Urban VI., and Boniface IX. in 1389. After the schism was healed, the Council of Basel was compelled in its forty-third session, on 1st July 1441, to issue a decree authorising the feast, and granting indulgences to those who assisted at divine service on the day. They felt obliged to adopt this measure, the feast not having been adopted within the obedience of the anti-pope.

There is nothing to show why the 2nd July was chosen for this feast, and one must needs have recourse to surmise. There seem to be indications that it is connected with the date of the Annunciation on the one hand, and, on the other, with the Nativity of St John the Baptist, the octave of which it immediately follows. It was regarded as probable that Mary had chosen the time of Elizabeth’s confinement for her visit, and had remained some time with her afterwards.[574] Perhaps, however, the real reason was that the Greek Church had already for some time kept this festival of our Lady on the 2nd July. The feast was, moreover, kept on different days in different countries. In Paris, for example, it was kept on the 27th June; Archbishop John II. of Prague, who introduced it into his province in 1385, placed it on the 28th April. Its proper place, if the main idea of the ecclesiastical year were carried out, would be in Advent.

4. The Feast of the Holy Rosary (_Sollemnitas SS. Rosarii B.M.V._). Towards the end of the twelfth century we find it had become usual to use the angelic salutation (St Luke i. 28), along with the salutation of Elizabeth (St Luke i. 41), as a prayer. This prayer was authorised and imposed by many councils. We have evidence to this effect from a synod of Paris under Bishop Odo de Sully (1196-1208),[575] and, in the period immediately following, from the synods of Orleans, Durham (1217), Treves (1237), and elsewhere.[576] The new prayer was joined to the “Our Father” in such a way that ten “Hail Marys” were recited after one “Our Father” fifteen times, each prayer being counted on a string of beads. The originator of this form of prayer, called the Rosary, is generally, but without foundation, considered to have been St Dominic. The custom of using a string of beads on which to count a stated number of prayers had already been in existence for a long time, and only became general when the custom grew up of reciting one hundred and fifty “Hail Marys” to correspond to the number of the psalms. This was called the “Mary Psalter,” the Rosary, or the “Psalter of the Laity.”[577] When this form of prayer took shape is not exactly known, but it has quite recently been maintained that St Dominic did not originate it, as is often affirmed. His biographer and other contemporaries do not ascribe the invention of the rosary to him. It is only at the end of the fifteenth century that a Dominican, Alanus de Rupe (de la Roche), produced this story,[578] which unfortunately has found its way into the breviary. A notable improvement was made in this devotion in the fifteenth century, by adding after the name Jesus in each Hail Mary the mention of some event in the lives of Jesus and Mary bearing on the work of salvation, beginning with the message of the angel and concluding with the descent of the Holy Ghost and the Assumption. Among these, the five points taken from the Passion of Christ—the so-called “sorrowful Mysteries”—form the centre, and thus the entire rosary now falls into three parts, each complete in itself.[579]