Was Mary’s conception immaculate?

What is and is not disputed

A Priest Associate of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, I will yield to no-one in my affection for and devotion to Our Lady. Following the Elizabethan Act of Supremacy, I affirm with the Church of England the Third Ecumenical Council’s affirmation at Ephesus in AD 431 that Mary is the Theotokos, Mother of God. I seek Mary’s intercession daily and delight in celebrating the Marian feasts of the Church, last week’s included. But there is one disputed word in that feast day’s title which I have some hesitancy in affirming.

The 1662 Book of Common Prayer, in common with the wider Western Church, marks the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the 8 December. However, in common with the Eastern Church’s celebration of the same Feast on the next day, the Church of England’s Kalendar does not include the word “Immaculate.” Note that the doctrine of the immaculate conception is not about Christ’s conception, which was celebrated almost nine months ago at the Annunciation on 25 March. The 8th (or, in the East 9th) of December marks the conception of Our Lady. But why does the Church of England not commit in her Kalendar to the doctrine that her conception was “immaculate,” that is, free from the stain of original sin, as Rome does?

In the mediaeval period, most agreed that Our Lady was born free from original sin. St Anselm was a notable exception.¹ However, there was no consensus as to whether that freedom from sin began at her conception. There were two broad approaches.

One was that of the Franciscans, who tended to argue that Mary’s sinlessness did begin at her conception, following Duns Scotus’ highly voluntarist approach:

“God was able to bring about that she was never in original sin… if not opposed to the authority of the Church or the authority of Scripture, it seems probably right to assign to Mary that which is more excellent” (Sent., III. iii. 1).

The other was that of the Dominicans, who tended to follow St Thomas Aquinas’ insistence that only Our Lord was conceived without original sin, and that Mary was freed from it only after her conception:

“The Blessed Virgin indeed contracted original sin; but she was cleansed from it before she was born from the womb” (ST III.27 2 ad 2).

St Bernard likewise maintained that only Christ was conceived without sin:

“The prerogative of a holy conception was kept for Him alone who was to make all holy” (Ep. 174.5)

By the sixteenth century, Rome tended towards the Franciscan opinion, but the matter was finally settled only in 1854 by papal decree of Pius IX, who declared it a dogma “to be firmly and steadfastly believed by all the faithful” (ab omnibus fidelibus firmiter constanterque credendam). Applied retroactively as a universally binding truth, we might note that this amounts to accusing St Thomas of Aquinas of a certain heresy, and leaves St Anselm beyond the pale.

Note that this theological dispute all took place within the Western Church. The division was not, as Protestants might suppose, grounded in a conflict between Scripture and tradition. There was never any suggestion that the doctrine enjoyed a strong biblical mandate. Rather, it comes from distinct philosophical traditions at play in the interpretation of the deposit of faith. Scotus’ voluntarism leads to a discussion of the most probable outcome of God’s sovereign will in this disputed question. St Thomas’ rests on the Augustinian doctrine of original sin and the strict metaphysical delineation between the flawed creature and the perfect creator. But these mediaeval speculations diverged so far because they rested on no clear patristic precedent. The Church Fathers did not address the question of whether the conception of the Theotokos was or was not immaculate. Hence it is a doctrine which has never aroused any great interest in the Eastern Church, except to be condemned in certain quarters.

What are we to make of this? First, taking Scripture as our principal authority, we must observe that the Bible makes no definitive claim on the point. There are at best allegorical readings of Old Testament passages which might suggest the doctrine, but these seem flimsy in comparison with St Paul’s clear affirmation that “As through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned” (Rom 5.12). Second, while there is certainly patristic precedent for the sinlessness of Mary as the New Eve, including references in the ancient liturgies, this sinlessness does not extend to her conception. Third, the saints of the Church have historically been divided on this doctrine even in the West, and it has never been affirmed in the East.

There are good reasons why one might accept this doctrine on the ground of possibility, but no reason for insisting on it as a binding doctrine for all Christians other than the infallibility of the Pope, itself an innovation dating to only 1870, and which Anglicans, like the Eastern Church, reject. The more ancient Catholic tradition, for those who do not accept such nineteenth century innovations, retains it as a permissible, venerable and pious theological possibility. But since it cannot be demonstrated by clear appeal to Scripture, for Anglicans, it cannot be binding on the faithful. With our brethren in the East, and with all due respect to Rome, we maintain that this is the true and ancient Catholic tradition on the matter.

Anglicans, at least, are bound to mark the feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and do full honour to the Theotokos, the Mother of God, as marked in the Kalendar of our Church; we should observe the majority theological opinion on Our Lady’s sinlessness; and we may make conclusions on the immaculate status of her conception as our reason, formed by Scripture and the traditional of the Church, suggests, if we are so inclined — though it is surely better to spend time in devotion than speculation on this point.

May Our Lady, Theotokos and Blessed Virgin Mary pray for us and for the unity of Holy Church.

1. Cur Deus Homo 2.16: “The very virgin from whom His manhood was taken was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did her mother conceive her; and with original sin was she born.”