The doctrine of the (im)maculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the University of Cracow in the 15th century

Among the various topics discussed at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Cracow, founded in 1397, was the question of the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Based on anonymous commentaries on Peter Lombard’s “Sentences” Communis Lecutra Pragensis, in 1428–1430, Benedict Hesse taught the truth about the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the womb and her sanctification at the moment of the annunciation, not her immaculate conception. The situation changed radically from the decree of the Council of Basel dogmatizing the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1439. After this event, in 1439–1441, John Dabrowka spoke in a perfunctory manner about the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary declared by the Magisterium of the Church, without dissecting the arguments for and against it. Finally, in 1442–1444, Paul of Pyskowice is the first 15th-century Cracow theologian to present the first full exposition of the immaculatist doctrine. It appears that at the University of Cracow in the 15th century, within less than 20 years, there was a radical change in attitude toward the doctrine of the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, caused by the settlement of the Council of Basel. The teaching of the maculist concept is replaced by the Church-approved apologia of the immaculist doctrine.