Matteo d’Acquasparta’s refusal of the belief in Mary’s Immaculate Conception

The important problem of the publication is expressed by two questions: what method was used by German Dominican theologians who were supporters of the Immaculate Conception? How did the change in method change the view of the Immaculate Conception? The path to solving the problem has three stages. The first of them is a reconstruction of the views on the Immaculate Conception of German Dominican theologians. The next stage examines these views in terms of the method used. The final stage is a critical look at the methods used by Dominican supporters of the Immaculate Conception. The method used in the article consists of: systematization of the views of German Dominicans, analysis of the methods used by them and a discourse on the methods of the supporters of the Immaculate Conception with the opponent of this opinion, St. Thomas Aquinas. The change of method, from the scholastic method to the liturgical method (lex orandi – lex credendi), the argument from congruity (ex convenientia), and typological exegesis, has led a few Dominican theologians to the opinion that Mary was preserved or purified from original sin, or that she was conceived without original sin. The methods used by Dominican supporters of the Immaculate Conception have weaknesses. They resemble a circumstantial trial, which provides a high degree of probability, but not proof. This weakness of the methods is exposed by the discourse of these methods with the scholastic method of St. Thomas. This discourse results in the postulate of reinterpreting the Immaculate Conception. We should return to the biblical term “sanctification” and explain that Mary was saved by a more sublime sanctification. This would prevent the immaculate conception of Jesus from being equated with the immaculate conception of Mary. Only Jesus is Immaculate because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and His Mother, conceived by Joachim and Anna, was saved by a more sublime sanctification.

The Immaculate Conception of the Mother of Christ is a truth of the Catholic faith that was only dogmatised by Pius IX in 1854. Until then, there had been debate among theologians regarding this Marian privilege. By means of selected examples the article shows the attitude of English Dominicans to the Immaculate Conception of Mary between the 13th and 16th centuries. It transpires that the members of the Order of Preachers in the British Isles presented an extremely diverse positions. One can find both strongly dissenting positions and those manifestly in favour of the Immaculate Conception. It is extremely interesting to note that in their arguments for the Immaculate Conception, some Dominicans distanced themselves from the continental theology represented by Aquinas. The way the Dominicans conceptualised the Immaculate Conception was closer to that represented by the twelfth-century theologian and historian Eadmer.

This article presents the cognitive error made by Helena P. Blavatsky concerning the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Blavatsky’s error consisted in ascribing the term “Immaculate Conception” to the content of one of the basic tenets of the Christian faith, which is the Incarnation of the Lord. An additional mistake in connection with this error was the observation that it was only in the middle of the 19th century that the Church elevated this truth to the rank of dogma. The confusion of the conception of the Mother with the Incarnation of the Son, and the association of the latter with the term “Immaculate Conception” gave rise to further difficulties, when the new verse of the Litany of Loretto pointed to Mary as “immaculately conceived.” The doubled cognitive problem that H. P. Blavatsky had to face because of this led her to announce further fantastic theories about the Immaculate Conception, which were not challenged by anyone for the next 150 years. Her grave cognitive error is now widespread and responsible for the functioning in contemporary Western culture of popular expressions such as the “Immaculate Conception of Christ,” where the “immaculateness” of the conception means the absence of sexual intercourse leading to the conception of a child. As a result of the widespread use of expressions of this type the authentic content of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary remains unknown to many people. In the article, this issue is presented based on the sources, which testify to the agency of H. P. Blavatsky as regards the spread of this cognitive error in the Western culture.

This paper analyzes the Islamic presence in the paintings of Marian iconography between the 16th and the 18th centuries on both sides of the Adriatic coast, or more precisely the iconography of Disputation over the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of the Rosary, two themes equally and frequently represented in the above mentioned territory. In the first part of the paper we discuss the presence and the role of the famous Arab astrologist Albumasar, active in the 9th century, and the Prophet Muhammad in the context of the iconographic theme of Disputation over the Immaculate Conception, as well as the origin and the meaning of the inscriptions on their scrolls which serve as the interpretative key to understanding the role of the two Arab figures in the context of this particular Marian iconography. In the second part of this essay we analyze the iconography of Our Lady of the Rosary which, after the Battle of Lepanto, acquires a clear political value (when representatives of the Holy League are inserted into the paintings) to become explicitly anti-Ottoman in the 18th century.

In general, Christian art is based on the Bible, but is also related to liturgy and dogma. An example the Virgin Mary appear as a subject in art. There are four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. The Immaculate Conception is one of the four Marian dogmas. It was defined as a dogma until 1854 by Pope Pius IX in the papal bull “Ineffabilis Deus”. According to the dogma, the Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. However, Church Fathers and theologians continued to dispute with the dogma of the Immaculate Conception until the 19th century. In the disputation of the Immaculate Conception the painters expressed Virgin Mary in stylistic variations by an interplay between history and theology. Therefore, this paper looks at the history and theological meanings and analyze iconography of the Immaculate Conception in Renaissance art.

ON ICONOGRAPHY OF THE ORDER OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY IN 17TH-20TH CENTURIES. OUR LADY The presence of St. Mary in the Trinitarian iconography is significant but not dominant. The image of Our Lady del Remedio is the most popular which relates to the help that St. John de Matha got from St. Mary in two cases of redemption. Although Our Lady del Remedio was worshipped especially by the non-reformed Trinitarians and French Discalced Trinitarians, depictions of this kind can be found in all the branches of the Trinitarian Order. They usually show St. Mary handing John de Matha a purse with money; sometimes Our Lady with a purse and the Trinitarian scapular carrying the Child Jesus. The image of Our Lady del Remedio accompanied by the two Patriarchs was relatively rare. A similar type of Our Lady del Rescate was somewhat popular among the Calced Trinitarians. Both the Calced and Discalced Trinitarians worshipped the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady. This image was especially favoured by the reformed branch, but it was also popular among the Calced Trinitarians, particularly after the argument with the Mercedarians which the Trinitarians lost. The way of illustrating the Immaculate Conception is fairly traditional. The Discalced Trinitarians favoured the image of Our Lady de Gracia, which did not spread outside Spain whereas the type of Dolorosa, based on the spanish sculpture by Pedro de Mena y Medrano from the Trinitarian convent in Vienna, was exceptionally popular in the imperial province of the Order dedicated to St. Joseph. This latter image was often imitated in many paintings, graphics and sculptures. The most frequent scene was Our Lady appearing in the choir in Cerfroid at night of 7/8 September 1212. St. Felix de Valois is often pictured as pleading with St. Mary for the release of Christian slaves. This scene, after Giacinto Calandrucci’s drawing, was very popular in the 2nd half of 17th century. The iconography of St. Simon de Rojas shows reference to St. Mary, most often handing the Saint the cingulum of chastity and rosaries of Immaculate Conception.

The image referred to as Virgen de Quito, an art work by Bernardo de Legarda, sculptor and painter belonging to the Baroque Quito School of Art, is an artistic and religious referent for said city. It has been discussed whether the image is inspired in the Virgin of the Apocalypse, in the Immaculate Conception or in the Virgin of the Assumption. According to the author, complete identification between the Virgin of the Apocalypse and the Immaculate Conception is an iconographic synthesis originated in Spain by the end of the 16th Century. The same occurred later on with the advocation of the Virgin of the Assumption, which accepts the statement that Virgin Mary rose up to Heaven. Such dogma is very close to that of the Immaculate Conception. Therefore, it can be affirmed that any of the three aforementioned denominations applied to the Virgen de Quito may be correct. This paper also synthesizes which images are considered to be forerunners to this emblematic work of art, whose hybridization between the European and the Indigenous appears as a feature of our Baroque.

The current article aims to shed light on the reasoning used by the 13th century English Franciscan master William of Ware to defend the belief in the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. To do so, this English theologian begins by dismantling the alleged reasons of those who opposed such belief. He then examines the numerous proofs that, in his opinion, confirm the truth of the thesis under study. As a methodological strategy, the author of this article sets out step by step and in detail the interrelated arguments of William of Ware to rationally support his defense of the immaculate conception thesis. The results of this research highlight the courageous and innovative pro-immaculate stance of William of Ware in the face of the then dominant current of deniers of the belief in the immaculate conception of Mary.

The doctrine of Thomas Aquinas was formally adopted as the official teaching of the entire Dominican Order. Throughout the 13th and 14th centuries, general chapters placed significant emphasis on the importance of adhering to Aquinas’ views. They were deemed essential not only to maintain continuity within the orthodox tradition of the Church but also to foster unity within the entire order. Among the topics that sparked debate among medieval theologians was the conception of Mary. While Bernard of Clairvaux and the Dominicans rejected the idea of Mary’s immaculate conception, the Franciscans, led by figures like John Duns Scotus, advocated for it. This article highlights the stance taken by the Dominican general chapters in defence of Thomas’ views. Initially, in the 14th century, there were general indications supporting the maculistic understanding of Mary’s conception, but this stance shifted over time. By the 15th century, the Dominicans were compelled to embrace the immaculistic concept. The delayed promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary in the mid-19th century underscores the complexity and unresolved nature of theological discussions throughout the medieval period.

The controversy over the Immaculate Conception appeared in the Occident from the moment the feast was introduced in the 12th century. The theological debates became more and more bitter at the end of the 14th century and the Council of Basel in 1439, considered schismatic, did not succeed in resolving the polemic. In the last third of the 15th century the Italian Dominican, Vincent Bandelli of Castro Novo, relaunched the theological battle by publishing two maculist tracts. His violent attack against the Marian privilege of an unblemished conception provoked ripostes from two generations of Northern European humanists. Humanist clerics in the circles of Arnold Bostius and Robert Gaguin in the 1480s and Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples and Josse Clichtove in the 1510s wrote theological poems and tracts in favour of the Immaculata. These humanists reconsidered the fundaments of the Christian doctrine and the possibility of progress of the Revelation. The immaculist doctrine they proposed was a purified doctrine that went back to the source of the controversy in the 12th century and claimed to ignore the scholastic debates. The doctrinal line that these humanists defended led them to promote the cult of Joachim and Anna, whose saintliness and virtue justified the unblemished conception of their daughter. The defence of the Immaculate Conception also tended to centre the cult of saints on the family of Jesus, in a movement of Christocentrique fervour.

In 1750 the new church of the Society of Jesus was consecrated and dedicated to the Immaculate Conception in the mining town of Zacatecas, north of New Spain. The new building was decorated inside with eleven retablos according to a well-organized iconographic program, developed by the Father Ignacio Calderon, director of the Jesuit School in Zacatecas. Four of these retablos were directly dedicated to the cult of the Virgin Mary, who is also represented, under other different advocations, in two more altarpieces of the church. These exuberant retablos were erected to expose the main Marian devotions promoted by the Society of Jesus in New Spain in the 18th century. The poem attributed to the Father Diego Jose Abad Garcia and the anonymous description of the church, both composed in 1750, contributed to propagate the glory of the Jesuits and their new artistic creation. With them we can understand and reconstruct the devotional message of the Society and the original program of images that decorated the new Jesuit church in Zacatecas.

„After Trident Council art” term refers to the sacral artistic realizations which originated after the Trident Council (1545-1563). Generally, the foundations of this art were formulated during the last (XXVth) session of the Council (3-4 December 1563) in the decree entitled De invocatione, veneratione el reliqvis sanctorum, et sacris imaginibus. Because the decree did not give answer to many very important questions for artists, which were born during the artistic practice, detailed solutions were found by the Catholic art theoreticians, such as Johannes Molanus, Andrea Possevino, Gabriele Paleotti or Carlo Borromeo. The Church of St. Stanislas and Vaclav in Świdnica proves that decisions of the Trident Council with reference to the sacral art were strictly realized. The formal and ideological analysis of this structure confirms that within the space of the parochial church in Świdnica were realized all topics recommended by the Council: The Christology, The St. Mary’s Cult and The Hagiography. In representations of Jesus Christ was marked the role of The Eucharist in redeem, in the scenes in which St. Mary was presented, according to the instructions of the Catholic Church, were heightened the elements such as her Immaculate Conception and Advocacy which distinguished St. Mary from other women. Finally, in the representations of the Saints, the personages of the church patrons and the founders of the Society of Jesus were marked. Other motifs visible in the church decoration (The Trinity, The Salomon Temple, The Triumph of the Church) were repercussions of the local religious and political situation in Silesia in 17th and 18th century.

In the last years of the 16th century and then in the 17th century, the Republic of Genoa became an advanced laboratory for the dissemination of Marian images, in some cases reinforced by the association with the biblical heroines who were considered to be the Virgin’s prefigurations in the Old Testament. The richness and complexity of the typological parallels between such crucial iconographies as Mary’s Assumption and her Immaculate Conception on the one hand, and the figures of Eve (a negative typus), Judith and Esther on the other hand, developed in post-Tridentine literature and homiletics, found a persuasive visual translation in frescoes by prominent Genoese painters such as Andrea Ansaldo, Giulio Benso, Giovanni Battista Carlone and Domenico Piola, often commissioned by religious orders, as militant art aimed at asserting Catholic doctrines.

The Immaculate Conception and Biblical Hermeneutics in the 17th Century

Musical iconography of Annunciation: personal experience