While he
affirmed the personal sinlessness of Mary, Augustine of Hippo (354-430), according to
most scholars (including Roman Catholic) did not affirm Mary’s exemption from original sin, contra the 1854
dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception. As one commentator on his
Mariology noted:
Augustine understands Mary’s holiness in
terms of her faith and radical obedience to the Word of God. She first
conceived Christ in her mind and heart before conceiving him in her womb:
“Fides in mente, Christus in ventre” (s.
196.1; also see s. 215; 245.4). She
is a model of faith for all Christian believers. The bishop never questions
Mary’s holiness and immunity from sin, even though he is unable to explain how
it is so. His position must be understood in the context of the Pelagian
controversy. Pelagius himself had already admitted that Mary, like the other
just women of the Old Testament, was spared from any sin. Augustine never
concedes that Mary was sinless but prefers to dismiss the question: “Let us
then leave aside the holy Virgin Mary; on account of the honor due to the Lord,
I do not want to raise any questions here about her when we are dealing with
sins” (nat. et gr. 36.42). Since
medieval times this passage has sometimes been invoked to ground Augustine’s
presumed acceptance of the doctrine of the immaculate conception. It is clear nonetheless that, given the
various theories regarding the transmission of original sin current in his
time, Augustine in that passage would not have meant to imply Mary’s immunity from
it. Julian of Eclanum had accused him of being worse than Jovinian in
consigning Mary to the devil by the condition of her birth (conditio nascendi). Augustine, in Contra Julianum opus imperfectum 4.1.22, replies that Mary was
spared this by the grace of her rebirth (“ipsa condition solvitur gratia
renascendi”), implying her baptism. His understanding of concupiscence as an
integral part of all marital relations made it difficult, if not impossible, to
accept that she herself was conceived immaculately. He further specifies in the
following chapter (5.15.52) that the body of Mary, “although it came from this
[concupiscence], nevertheless did not transmit it for she did not conceive in
this way.” Lastly, De Genesi ad litteram 10.18.32 asserts: “And
what more undefiled than the womb of the Virgin, whose flesh, although it came
from procreation tainted by sin, nevertheless did not conceive from that
source.” (Daniel E. Doyle, "Mary, Mother of
God," in Allan D. Fitzgerald, ed. Augustine
Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1999],
544)
Note the
following, on the topic of the Assumption, from the same source:
Augustine is silent on the question of Mary’s
death and, specifically, on the assumption. (Ibid., 545)
And yet,
this doctrine would be elevated to the position of a de fide dogma in 1950. So much for Rome's defenders claiming it is the two thousand-year-old church when it proclaims, as dogma, beliefs that were unknown and/or explicitly contradicted by the patristics they tend to put on an artificial pedestal!
