TABOO AND GENETICS 169 



late Conception a logical necessity. The doc- 

 trine of the virgin birth disposed of sin through 

 the paternal line. But if Mary was conceived 

 in sin or was not purified from sin, even that of 

 the first parent, how could she conceive in her 

 body him who was without sin ? The contro- 

 versy over the Immaculate Conception which 

 began as early as the seventh century lasted 

 until Pius IX declared it to be an article of 

 Catholic belief in 1854. Thus not only Christ, 

 but also his mother became purged of the sin 

 of conception by natural biological processes, 

 and the same immaculacy and freedom from 

 contamination was accorded to both. In this 

 way the final step in the differentiation between 

 earthly motherhood and divine motherhood was 

 completed. 



The worship of the virgin by men and women 

 who looked upon the celibate Hfe as the perfect 

 life, and upon the relationship of earthly 

 fatherhood and motherhood as contaminating, 

 gave the world an ideal of woman as " super- 

 human, immaculate, bowing in frightened awe 

 before the angel with the lily, standing mute 

 and with downcast eyes before her Divine 

 Son." (41.) With all its admitted beauty, this 

 ideal represented not the institution of the 

 family, but the institution of the church. 

 Chivalry carried over from the church to the 

 castle this concept of womanhood and set it to 



