From the middle of the twelfth century onward, theological sentiment in the academic circles of the medieval schools ranged itself solidly on the side of the denial of the privilege of the Immaculate Conception. It was influenced in this by the example of St. Bernard and by the unsolved difficulty of reconciling this prerogative of Mary with the Pauline doctrine of the universal guilt of mankind, and the consequent need of a Redeemer for all men. What is truly amazing is that St. Bernard, the fervent client of Mary, should have permitted himself the vehement stand against this privilege of Mary, as revealed in his letter of 1138 to the Canons of Lyon who had begun to celebrate the festival of Our Lady’s Conception, which was just then making its way into Gaul. He chides the Canons on the ground that the Feast of the Conception of Mary is a novelty entirely unjustified. "It is above all in liturgical matters," he writes, "that one has never seen the Church of Lyon give in to the lure of novelties, and that this Church, so full of judgment, has never dishonored itself by puerile absurdity.” He is astonished that there should be found among the Canons those who would tarnish this splendid record by the introduction of a feast which the Church ignores, which reason disavows, and of which tradition does not approve. He asks: "Are we more learned and more pious than the Fathers?" 5 While St. Bernard raised no objection to the Feast of Our Lady’s Nativity, because of the common belief that the Mother of God was sanctified before her birth, he protested against celebrating her Immaculate Conception.
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