iginali
concepta. _Spa._ Nuestra Senora sin peccado concepida. La Concepcion.
_Fr._ La Conception de la Vierge Marie. _Ger._ Das Geheimniss der
unbefleckten Empfaengniss Mariae. Dec. 8.

The last and the latest subject in which the Virgin appears alone
without the Child, is that entitled the "Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin;" and sometimes merely "THE CONCEPTION." There is no
instance of its treatment in the earlier schools of art; but as one of
the most popular subjects of the Italian and Spanish painters of the
seventeenth century, and one very frequently misunderstood, it is
necessary to go into the history of its origin.

In the early ages of Christianity, it was usual to celebrate, as
festivals of the Church, the Conception of Jesus Christ, and the
Conception of his kinsman and precursor John the Baptist; the latter
as miraculous, the former as being at once divine and miraculous. In
the eleventh century it was proposed to celebrate the Conception of
the Virgin Mother of the Redeemer.

From the time that the heresy of Nestorius had been condemned, and
that the dignity of the Virgin as mother of the _Divinity_ had become
a point of doctrine, it was not enough to advocate her excelling
virtue and stainless purity as a mere human being. It was contended,
that having been predestined from the beginning as the Woman, through
whom the divine nature was made manifest on earth, she must be
presumed to be exempt from all sin, even from that original taint
inherited from Adam. Through the first Eve, we had all died; through
the second Eve, we had all been "made alive." It was argued that
God had never suffered his earthly temple to be profaned; had even
promulgated in person severe ordinances to preserve its sanctuary
inviolate. How much more to him was that temple, that _tabernacle_
built by no human hands, in which he had condescended to dwell.
Nothing was impossible to God; it lay, therefore, in his power to
cause his Mother to come absolutely pure and immaculate into the
world: being in his power, could any earnest worshipper of the Virgin
doubt for a moment that for one so favoured it would not be done? Such
was the reasoning of our forefathers; and the premises granted, who
shall call it illogical or irreverent?

For three or four centuries, from the seventh to the eleventh, these
ideas had been gaining ground. St. Ildefonso of Seville distinguished
himself by his writings on this subject; and how the