I M E I M M 715 about 14 miles from the mouth of the Dardanelles. To the north-west, at a distance of 17 miles, lies the island of Samothraki ; and about the same distance to the south east is Lemnos. The area of Imbros is estimated at 105 square miles, and its population, which is mainly of Greek origin, is about 10,000. With its bare mountain ridges and sides it has no small similarity to Attica. Hagios Ilias, or St Elias, is the highest summit, 1859 feet above the sea-level. According to Franz von Loher about a third of the island could be turned into a very garden by an industrious and skilful race; but at present not more than one-tenth is under cultivation. Wheat, barley, and oats are grown, as well as a dye-plant locally called bouia. A German company is working lignite in the island. The only stream of importance has surrendered its ancient name of Ilissus for the simple appellation of jneyaAos 7rora//,os or Big River. The valley through which it flows is the only considerable tract of arable land in the island, and contains the four villages of Theodore, Kastro, Gliki, and Panagia. Kastro, which lies on the coast, is the site of the ancient town which bore the same name with the island ; but the only remains of antiquity are part of the mole, portions of the town-wall, and a number of tombstones. A hill above the town presents with its summit so great a likeness to a mediaeval castle that it has frequently been described as such. The archaeological investigations of Conze have brought to light a few inscrip tions of secondary interest, which mainly serve to confirm the Attic character of Imbrian civilization. Attic and Trojan coins are not unfrequent ; and traces are found of the worship of the Cabin, Cybele, and Zeus Hypsiotes. Imbros plays no great part in history ; though the name occurs as early as the Iliad and the Homeric Hymns. Herodotus mentions its subjugation to the Persians by Otnnes. In later times it was distinctly recognized as an Athenian colony. The numerous watch-towers and diminu tive strongholds observed throughout the island would indicate that it had its share in the busy warlike existence of the Middle Ages. Along with Samothraki, Lemnos, and Hagiostrati, Imbros belongs administratively to the Vilayet of the Islands, or Jesair bahr i Safid of Asiatic Turkey. It is the seat of a metropolitan of the Greek Church, with the title of exarch of the ^Egean. See Richter, JVallfahrten nach clem Morgcnlandc, Berlin, 1822 ; Mustoxides, TVojucTj/zaTa icrropiKa Trepi TTJS viaoi l/j./3pov, Constanti nople, 1845; Louis Lacroix, Les lies de la Grece, 1853 ; Blau and Schlottmann, in Berichten der Konigl. preuss. Akad. dcr IVisscnsch., 1855 ; Conze, Reise auf den Inscln dcs Thrakisclien Mcercs, Han over, 1860 ; Von Loher, Griechische Kusteufahrtcn, Bielefeld, 1876. IMERITIA, a district in Transcaucasia, extends from the left bank of the Tzhenys-tzkalys to the range of hills that separate it from Georgia on the east, and is bounded on the south by Akhalzikh. Anciently a part of Colchis, and included in Lazia during the Roman empire, Imeritia was nominally under the dominion of the Greek emperors. In the early part of the 6th century it became the theatre of wars between Justinian and Chosroes, and was devast ated by subsequent hostile incursions, reviving only on becoming united to Georgia. It flourished until the reign of Queen Thamar, but after her death (1212) the country became impoverished through strifeand internal dissensions. Reunited to Georgia, it became known in 1259 as Imier, whence Imeritia (1469). In 1621 was made the earliest appeal to Russia for aid ; in 1650 the first Russian envoys were received at Koutais, the capital ; and in 1769 a Russian force expelled the Turks. In 1804 the monarch declared himself a vassal of Russia, and in 1810 the little kingdom was definitively annexed to that empire. Imeritia, Mingrelia, and Gouria, provinces not officially recognized as distinct, are now included in the Russian government of Koutais. See GEORGIA. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. The dogma of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, as held by the Church of Rome, is to the effect that "the most blessed Virgin was, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the human race, by the singular grace and favour of Almighty God, from the first moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, preserved free from all taint of original sin." The " pious opinion " that the mother of Christ had during her life been preserved from sin in a way in which no other human being ever had been may be traced back to a comparatively early period : indeed, without it her cultus (for some account of the growth of which see MARY) as it had developed itself long before the 9th century, would have been impossible. The actual history of an explicit doctrine of her immaculate conception, however, so far as has hitherto been discovered, may be said to begin, in the year 1140, 1 with the letter of remonstrance which Bernard of Clairvaux wrote to the canons of the cathedral at Lyons (Ep. 174), who, without consulting the Roman see, had recently intro duced into their church a festival in celebration of that doc trine. Bernard argued vigorously against this on the ground of its novelty, its unscripturalness (Ps. li. 5), and its ab surdity : " On the same principle," said he, " you would be obliged to hold that the conception of her ancestors, in an ascending line, was also a holy one, since otherwise she could not have descended from them worthily, and there would then be festivals without number." How the recipi ents, who, it is stated, claimed to have learned their pecu liar rite from a document communicated by the Virgin her self, were affected by this letter, is not recorded. Among controversial treatises which appeared shortly afterwards are mentioned those of Potho of Prlim and the Abbot de la Celle against the doctrine, and that of the English monk Nicolas in its favour. In the 13th century all the leading theologians, such as Alexander Halensis (p. iii., qu. 10, membr. 2), Albertus Magnus (Ctmm. in Sent., iii. 3), Bona- ventura (Comm. in Sent., iii. 3. 1, 2), and Thomas Aquinas (Summa, p. iii., qu. 27, art. 1-3), took the view of St Bernard, their contribution to the theology of the subject consisting in an accurate definition of the moment at which the Virgin s sanctification in the womb must be held to have taken place. During the same century the feast of the Conception became very popular, and in 1263 it was ac cepted by a general chapter of the Franciscans at Pisa, without reference, however, to the question of immaculacy. Of great importance to the subsequent history of the dognu. was the appearance in the theological world, towards the beginning of the 14th century, of Duns Scotus, the " subtle doctor " of the Franciscans, who, as in so many other points, so also in this, came into conflict with the still more illus trious " Doctor Angelicus," the Dominican Aquinas. In one part of his Commentary on the Sentences of Peter of Loin- bardy (lib. iii., dist. 3, qu. 1, sec. 9) he declares for the think- ableness and even probability of Mary s having been pie- served intact from original sin ; in a later passage (dist. 18, qu. 1, sec. 13) the doctrine is categorically stated. It was upon this disputed point that the long and bitter contro versy between the two great mendicant orders chiefly turned. In 1389, the Spanish Dominican Joannes de Montesono having maintained in a disputation at Paris that the view of the Scotists was unscriptural and heretical, the university, without committing itself on the main point, condemned his violent theses, and this condemnation was concurred in by the Avignon pope, Clement VII. The members of the entire 1 The allegation that it was taught by Anselm of Canterbury is- based partly upon a spurious tract attributed to him and partly on un- authentic legend. His actual opinion is explicitly enough stated in the treatise Cur Deus Homo, c. 18: " Virgo tamen ipsa, unde as- sumptus est, est in iniquitatibus concepta, et in peccatis concepit earn
mater ejus."
