# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1855_S15
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Newest Papist Council, etc.                    15

That in the first centuries, in which people in Christendom had not yet knowingly departed from the apostolic doctrine, the dear mother of our highly praised Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was not yet declared to be a sinless being, is self-evident and needs proof all the less, since many papists themselves grant us this, and even more. Thus, for example, the famous papal theologian Melchior Canus (died at Toledo, 1560) writes, in the 7th book of his Loci Theologici, chapter 1, section 1: "From this passage (Rom. 5:12, 'for that all have sinned') all the saints who have come to make mention of the matter have with one voice affirmed that the blessed Virgin was conceived in original sin. This, namely, Ambrose asserted; this Augustine, Chrysostom, Eusebius Emissenus, Remigius, Maximus defended. The same is confirmed also by Bede, Anselm, Bernard, Erardus, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Bernardine, the blessed Bonaventure, Thomas, Vincent, Antoninus, Damascene, Hugh of St. Victor. Nor can it be said that this (dogma) came down to the Church through the tradition of the Apostles, since such traditions have come down to us through none other than those ancient bishops and holy writers who followed the Apostles. But it is known that those ancient writers did not receive this from their forefathers. For otherwise they would themselves also, in good faith, have handed it down to their descendants. That, therefore, cannot pertain to the faith, since it is found neither in Holy Scripture nor in the apostolic traditions, nor can it be established from any certain connection with other doctrines." (p. 217.) — Who must not be astonished to read here how an esteemed Roman theologian, already 300 years ago, cut off the path and broke the staff for the present Roman Church in its undertaking nonetheless to raise the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary to an article of faith? In what follows, Canus further adds that also "no saint has contradicted this affirmation." And Canus is entirely right in this claim, for in fact "all the saints," up to the rise of the papacy with its idolatrous abominations, taught and confessed the following with one voice: 1. That Christ alone was conceived without sin and alone was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners" (Heb. 7:26), and could therefore alone say to His enemies: "Which of you convicteth me of sin?" (John 8:46). 2. That all who by natural descent stem from Adam are born burdened with original sin (according to Rom. 5:12 and John 3:6). 3. That the little drops of blood in the body of Mary, out of which Christ's humanity was formed by the Holy Spirit, were first sanctified, and that accordingly all impurity of sin was first removed from them. 4. That the holy Virgin herself was not free from all actual sins,