Chapter LIII.
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
The 8th December, 1854, Pope Pius IX. was sitting on his throne; a triple crown of gold and diamonds was on his head; silk and damask—red and white vestments on his shoulders; five hundred mitred prelates were surrounding him; and more than fifty thousand people were at his feet, in the incomparable St. Peter’s Church of Rome.
After a few minutes of most solemn silence, a Cardinal, dressed with his purpled robe, left his seat, and gravely walked towards the Pope, kneeled before him, and humbly prostrating himself, at his feet said:
“Holy Father: tell us if we can believe and teach that the Mother of God, the Holy Virgin Mary, was immaculate in her conception?”
The Supreme Pontiff answered. “I do not know; let us ask the light of the Holy Ghost.”
The Cardinal withdrew; the Pope and the numberless multitude fell on their knees; and the harmonious choir sang the “Veni Creator Spiritus.”
The last note of the sacred hymn had hardly rolled under the vaults of the Temple, when the same Cardinal left his place, and again advanced towards the throne of the Pontiff, prostrated himself at his feet, and said:
“Holy Father, tell us if the Holy Mother of God, the blessed Virgin Mary, was immaculate in her conception.”
The Pope again answered: “I do not know; let us ask the light of the Holy Ghost.”