The title " Mother Church" was not then assumed. Hitherto the title, Vicar of Christ, was a common appellation, as applied to bishops generally. The Council of Florence decreed that the title should be given to the bishop of Rome, "reserving the rights of the bishop of Constantinople." The title, however, is now assumed by the pope of Rome exclusively. A.D. 1470.—Alane de la Roche, of the order of Jacobins, inspired, as he said, by certain visions, invented the Rosary of the Virgin Mary, subsequently authoritatively approved by Sixtus IV. Mosheim, however, places the invention of this ecclesiastical toy at an earlier date, namely, the tenth century.1 It is a string of beads used in prayers. The same prayer is repeated a prescribed number of times, and this number is checked by the beads, every tenth bead being a large one. The word rosary means remembrancer. It appears to be derived from the Chaldee Ro, "thought," and Shareb, "director." The idea, as well as the thing itself, is of pagan origin. A certain number of prayers, it is supposed, must be gone through, and the beads bring the number in remembrance. A string of beads for the same purpose was used by the ancient Mexicans. It is common among the Brahmins and Hindoos. In Thibet it has been used in religious worship from time immemorial. Among the Tartars, the rosary of 108 beads has become a part of ceremonial dress, and there is "a small rosary of eighteen beads of inferior size, with which the Bonzes count their prayers and ejaculations, exactly as in the 1 Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. cent. x. part ii. c. iv. s. iii. See Mabillon, Acta sanctor. Ord. Bened. Præf ad sæcul. x. p. lviii. etc. 2 See Humboldt's "Mexican Researches," v. ii. p. 20. London, 1814. 3 See Kennedy's "Ancient and Hindoo Mythology," p. 332. London, 1831. 1 Romish ritual." So that this Romish custom, though a novelty among Christians, is an old heathen or pagan custom. A.D. 1476.-Pope Sixtus IV. was the first who ordained by decree the solemnization of the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary by an office or service, though it was not then a doctrine of the church. The festival of the conception of the Virgin Mary was, as we have said, introduced at Lyons about the year 1140, but was opposed by Bernard (now a canonized saint of the Roman church) as a novelty, without the sanction of Scripture or reason. Bernard said that it was a "false, new, vain, and superstitious" idea. According to Fleury, it was John Scott, commonly called Duns Scotus, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, who seriously broached the doctrine of the immaculate conception.3 At the thirty-sixth session of the Council of Basle, a.d. 1439-a council condemned and rejected by the church of Rome-it was declared that the doctrine which asserts that the Virgin Mary was actually subject to original sin, should be condemned; but that the doctrine that she was always free from all original and actual sin, and both holy and immaculate, should be approved, and should be held and embraced by all Catholics as being pious and agreeable to ecclesiastical worship, to the Catholic faith, to right reason, and the Scriptures, and that it should not be lawful for any one to teach or preach to the contrary.* 1 Sir John F. Davis, "China," vol. i. p. 391. London, 1857. 2 Fleury's Eccl. Hist. tom. xiv. lib. lxviii. p. 527. Paris, 1769, and 560, tom. xiv. Paris, 1727. "Nullâ ei ratione placebit contra ecclesiæ ritum præsumpta novitas, mater temeritatis, soror superstitionis, filia levitatis." S. Bernard, Ep. 174, tom. i. col. 393. Paris, 1839, and see ante, p. 231. 3 Eccl. Hist. tom. xix. p. 150. Paris, 1769. 4 Lab. et Coss. Concl. tom. xii. cols. 622, 623. Paris, 1671. The festival was directed to be celebrated on the 17th December. The Council of Avignon, A.D. 1457, confirmed this act of the Council of Basle, and forbade, under pain of excommunication, any one to preach anything contrary to the doctrine.1 The doctrine created a sore division in the church of Rome. The Dominicans following their leader, St. Thomas Aquinas, combated the new dogma most vehemently, as contrary to the Scriptures, tradition, and the faith of the church; while it was as vehemently supported by the Franciscans. The scandal became so great at each returning festival day, that Sixtus IV. (A.D. 1483) issued a bull, wherein he, of his own accord, and unsolicited, condemned those who called the doctrine a heresy, the celebration of the festival a sin, or declared that those who held the doctrine were guilty of mortal sin, and subjected those to excommunication who acted contrary to this decree. By the same bull he enacted the like penalty against those who maintained the opponents of the doctrine to be in heresy or mortal sin, declaring as a reason that "this doctrine had not yet been decided by the Roman church and the apostolic see. ."2 Despite this pope's bull, the discord continued, to the great scandal of religion; and when the doctrine of original sin" came to be argued at the Council of Trent, the Dominicans and Franciscans ranged themselves on opposite sides and re-fought the battle. The debate became so warm, that the pope ordered, through his legates, that the council should "not meddle in this matter, which might cause a schism among Catholics, but endeavour to 66 1 Lab. et Coss. tom. xiii. col. 1403. Paris, 1671. 2 This decree is found in the appendix of every authorized edition of the Decrees of the Council of Trent. maintain peace between the contending parties, and to seek some means of giving them equal satisfaction; but, above all, to observe the brief of Pope Sixtus IV., which prohibited preachers from taxing the doctrine [of the immaculate conception] with heresy.1 The Council of Trent (A.D. 1546) expressly excluded from its decree on original sin the Virgin Mary; but declared "that the constitutions of Pope Sixtus IV., which it revives, are to be observed under the penalties contained in those constitutions." Thus, both parties claimed the victory. The theological contest raged as violently as ever. In the seventeenth century, Spain was thrown into the utmost confusion by these miserable disputes; and it was sought to bring them to a close by an appeal to the supposed infallible head of the church, who was asked to issue his bull to determine the question. "But (observes Mosheim) after the most earnest entreaties and importunities, all that could be obtained from the pontiff by the court of Spain was a declaration intimating that the opinion of the Franciscans had a high degree of probability on its side, and forbidding the Dominicans to oppose it in a public manner; but this declaration was accompanied by another, by which the Franciscans were prohibited in turn from treating as erroneous the doctrine of the Dominicans.” 2 Alexander VII., A.D. 1661, while reviving the constitution of Sixtus IV., vainly endeavoured to allay the feud; but admitted that the church had not decided the vexed question, and that he by no means desired or intended to decide it.3 1 F. Paul Sarpi. Hist. Concl. 2 Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. cent. 3 Alex. Sept. An. Dom. 1661. Edit. Luxumburghi, 1727. Trid. lib. ii. c. 68. Geneva, 1629. Clement XI. appointed a festival in honour of the immaculate conception, to be annually celebrated by the church of Rome; but the Dominicans refused to obey this law. Eventually Pope Pius IX. undertook to decide, as he thought, for ever, the much vexed question. On the 2nd February, 1849, he issued an "Encyclical Letter," addressed to all "patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops of the whole Catholic world," exhorting each one to offer up prayers in his diocese, beseeching" of the merciful Father of light to illuminate him (the pope) with the superior brightness of his Divine Spirit, and inspire him with a breath from on high, and that, in an affair of such great importance, he might be able to take such a resolution as should most contribute as well to the glory of His holy name as to the praise of the blessed Virgin and the profit of the church militant," and desired to know their opinions on the subject. On the 24th March following, the Tablet, a Romish journal, announced that the pope was about to give a definitive decision on the subject, and "determine a question which for 500 years had been open, and for a portion of that time hotly debated to and fro. The Franciscans and Dominicans are now agreed, and the whole [Roman] Catholic world calls for a definite sentence from the infallible judge." In December, 1854, the pope, in an assembly of bishops, from which all non-contents were excluded, issued his bull, declaring the doctrine as a matter of faith. "Let no man (says the decree) interfere with this our declaration, pronunciation, and definition, or oppose or contradict it with presumptuous rashness. If any should presume to assail 1 The "Univers," Paris, 20th January, 1855; the "Tablet," London, 27th January, 1855. S |