Grave nimis
The constitution in which Sixtus IV forbade preachers to call either opinion about Mary’s conception heretical, because the Roman church had not decided the question. Read here in the extract printed in Denzinger’s collection.
Denzinger prints two texts of Sixtus IV on the subject. The first, Cum praeexcelsa, which the collection dates 28 February 1476, calls on the faithful to give thanks for the conception of the “immaculate Virgin” and to attend the Masses and offices instituted for it. The second, Grave nimis, dated 4 September 1483, is the one cited: it condemns the assertion that those who hold Mary to have been conceived without original sin are heretics or sin mortally, and reproves likewise those who say this of the contrary opinion, since the Roman church and the apostolic see had not yet decided.
The extract is abridged, with omissions marked. The Council of Trent renewed “the constitutions of Pope Sixtus IV” in its decree on original sin. See the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
Cited in
- 8 December 1854, firm date