The Friars Minor Were Defenders of the Immaculate Conception as Early as the Middle Ages
Source: Google Books
We know of the division that reigned in the Middle Ages between the two schools, the Dominicans and the Franciscans, concerning the Immaculate Conception.
In order to put an end to debates that were sometimes too passionate, Pope Benedict XI ordered, in 1304, a public discussion at the University of Paris. Duns Scotus was entrusted by the General of the Friars Minor, Father Gonzalvo, to represent the Order in this tournament of a new kind, and to uphold there the traditional and pious belief of the Franciscans; and for this purpose he came from Oxford to Paris.
After preparing himself for the discussion through retreat, fasting, and prayer, he went to the University. On his way he encountered a marble statue of the Most Holy Virgin, which adorned the portal of the Sainte-Chapelle, and he greeted her with this verse from the Catholic liturgy:
“Grant that I may praise you, O holy Virgin, and give me the strength to overcome your enemies.”
The statue inclined its head as if to smile upon the champion of Mary and to support his courage; and from that time on it always retained this posture.
Arriving at the Sorbonne, Duns Scotus found himself in the presence of an imposing assembly and adversaries worthy of him. The Friars Preachers developed two hundred arguments tending to demonstrate that the Blessed Virgin was included in the decree of condemnation that envelops the whole human race. The young Franciscan listened, calm and recollected.
When they had finished speaking, he in turn rose, took up the two hundred arguments in the same order in which they had been proposed to him (something difficult to explain without a miraculous assistance from his protectress), and refuted them all with irresistible eloquence.
The University, as well as the Legates of the Supreme Pontiff, overwhelmed him with their applause, conferred upon him the title of Subtle Doctor, and decreed that henceforth it would celebrate every year the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
A century later, the Sorbonne decided that it would no longer confer the degree of Doctor unless the candidate had taken an oath always to defend the eminent prerogative of Mary. But the hour had not yet come for the Holy See to pronounce an irrevocable judgment. It was reserved for more recent times to witness the glorious outcome of this theological struggle.
On December 8, 1854, a day of eternal memory, a pope of the Seraphic Third Order, the immortal Pius IX, placed upon Mary’s brow the most beautiful diamond of her crown, when he proclaimed before the whole world that she had been “by the anticipated application of the merits of her Son, preserved from original stain and conceived without sin.”
How could one forget here a detail that constitutes the glory of the Seraphic Order? At the moment of the promulgation of the dogma, and by a signal favor, the Pope allowed the two Generals of the Friars Minor to present him with a golden rose and a silver lily: this was the finest reward with which he could honor the zeal of the Franciscan family in proclaiming the greatness and the privileges of Mary.