THE

SOWER AND THE VIRGIN.

Lord Robert Montagu PC (the Privy Council) (24 January 1825 – 6 May 1902) was a British Conservative politician. He served as Vice-President of the Committee on Education between 1867 and 1868.

Preface.

Roman Catholics probably take no interest in the dogma of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, because Pope Pius IX. made it an article of their faith, and they are compelled either to profess their belief in it, or to renounce the name of Roman Catholic. They feel, naturally enough, that it is not safe for them to inquire into the grounds of the dogma, or even to ask themselves the meaning of it, because it is heresy, according to their notions, to entertain the faintest doubt of any article of their faith, Dubius in fide hereticus est. The slightest doubt brings them ipso facto under the ban of excommunication, in accordance with the bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio. They clearly may not venture to inquire into the dogma of 1854; and therefore put it aside, and keep it from their thoughts.

Neither has that dogma, in itself, any interest for Protestants. They laugh at the gross absurdity of it, or scoff at the notion of it, in the strain of the young ladies of Mayence; and think no more about it. Yet it is of vital importance to investigate the truth or falsehood of the dogma; because it has been declared by the authority of the pope, who claims to be infallible: and if it can be disproved, infallibility is shown to be fallible, the organ of truth is manifested as the mouthpiece of error, the faith of Romanists is evidently not certain but dubious, and the whole catena of the Roman doctrines becomes discredited. If the fundamental principle, namely infallibility, is undermined, the whole edifice of the Roman Church comes tumbling to the ground in a dreadful cataclysm, the work of centuries is dashed into ruins, and “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”

On December 8th, 1854, Pope Pius IX. went in great state to St. Peter’s, followed by a procession consisting of fifty-four cardinals, forty-four archbishops, ninety-four bishops, and a very great number of priests; and crowning with a diadem the image of the Virgin Mary which is on the altar in the Cardinals’ Chapel, he read an abstract of the bull of the immaculate conception, declaring “that the doctrine which holds that the blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception in the womb of her mother, by a singular privilege and grace of the omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful. Whoever shall presume to think otherwise has suffered shipwreck of the faith, and has revolted from the unity of the Church; and if he gives utterance to his thoughts, he incurs, by his own act, the penalties justly established against heresy.”

Those few words contain much meaning. We must observe—

1. What the doctrine is? It is that, at the first instant when Mary was conceived by Anna, Mary was preserved immaculate, or free from all taint and stain of original sin.

2. That doctrine announced what the pope regarded as a fact, which occurred about a score of years before the birth of our Lord.

3. The pope did not pretend to make that true which was not a true opinion before December 8th, 1854; he merely announced what he supposed to be a truth nearly twenty centuries old.

4. Pope Pius declared that whosoever thought otherwise (not whosoever will in future think otherwise) had already suffered shipwreck of the faith, and revolted from the unity of the Church. He intimated that a doubt or denial of the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary must have proceeded, as effect from cause, from previous heresy. So that all, in all ages, who thought otherwise were heretics.

5. He who at any time expressed any divergence from that doctrine incurred all the penalties due to heresy.

6. That doctrine, Pope Pius averred, was revealed by God. To whom was it revealed? When was it revealed? Was it revealed by our Lord to His apostles? Then they kept back and concealed a part of the Christian faith, and did not declare the whole counsel of God, as Paul affirmed that they did. But if the apostles did not know the doctrine, then our Lord kept back some of the faith from them (if it be a true doctrine); which is equally contrary to Scripture.

Was it revealed some centuries after the apostolic age? To say that is to contradict what S. Dionysius asserted; namely, that the Holy Scriptures express all that is necessary to be believed. It contradicts what Pope S. Gregory the Great affirmed, to the same effect; namely, that all the faith has been declared in the Scriptures.

It had not been revealed in the time of Pope Sixtus IV., because he anathematized by bull every one who should say either that to affirm or to deny the doctrine is heretical.

It had not been revealed at the time of the Council of Basle, because that council merely declared that the doctrine was “consistent with Scripture,” but did not say it had been revealed; nor did it condemn the contradictory.

It had not been revealed at the Council of Trent, because that council, when treating of original sin, merely renewed the bull of Pope Sixtus IV.

It had not been revealed up to the time of Pope Pius IX., in 1849, because that pope addressed to all the bishops an encyclical, inviting them to state how far the definition of the dogma of the immaculate conception would meet their wishes and the wishes of the people under their charge. To whom then was it revealed? And when was it revealed? And what proof is there that it was a revelation, and not a brain-born dream of some stertorous monk or hysterical female?

As a procession followed the pope when he declared the dogma to be necessary to be believed, under pain of damnation, so I shall draw up in procession, in the following book, a long line of witnesses against the pope’s doctrine; a procession headed by the Holy Scriptures, and consisting of the Fathers of the Church, reputed saints, popes, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, doctors, and theologians. Having reviewed the two processions, we may be in a position to judge of the infallibility, nay, the simple veracity, of the Roman Catholic Church.

Continued in The Virgin