334 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



to faith — that is, to the decrees of the infallible Pope. 

 The great excitement which followed this sublime 

 piece of effrontery in educated and independent circles 

 was in proportion with the stupendous contents of 

 the encyclica. Draper has given us an excellent dis- 

 cussion of its educational and political significance 

 in his History of the Conflict between Science and 

 Religion. 



The dogma of the immaculate conception seems, 

 perhaps, to be less audacious and significant than the 

 encyclica and the dogma of the infallibility of the 

 Pope. Yet not only the Roman hierarchy, but even 

 some of the orthodox Protestants (the Evangelical 

 Alliance of Germany, for instance), attach great 

 importance to this thesis. What is known as the 

 " immaculate oath " — that is, the confirmation of faith 

 by an oath taken on the immaculate conception of 

 Mary — is still regarded by millions of Christians as a 

 sacred obligation. Many believers take the dogma in 

 a twofold application ; they think that the mother of 

 Mary was impregnated by the Holy Ghost as well as 

 Mary herself. Comparative and critical theology has 

 recently shown that this myth has no greater claim to 

 originality than most of the other stories in the 

 Christian mythology ; it has been borrowed from 

 older religions, especially Buddhism. Similar myths 

 were widely circulated in India, Persia, Asia Minor, 

 and Greece several centuries before the birth of 

 Christ. Whenever a king's un wedded daughter, or 

 some other maid of high degree, gave birth to a child, 

 the father was always pronounced to be a god, or a 

 demi-god ; in the Christian case it was the Holy 

 Ghost. 



The special endowments of mind or body which 



