ABSTRACT
The association between the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, supporters of which considered that the Virgin Mary was untainted by original sin from the very moment of her conception, and religious fervour makes an article on it indispensable in any book dedicated to fervour and fanaticism. In the fifteenth century itself, the doctrine was by no means universally accepted: impassioned debate and violent reprisals against opponents were the norm. The Conception doctrine is no less promoted in poetry amid such a chmate of immaculist devotion in the kingdom of Aragon. In fifteenth-century Valencia, in particular, certaamens, or poetry competitions, modelled on the Toulouse troubadour puys, were held in honour of the Virgin Mary and even, on two occasions, specifically in honour of her Immaculate Conception. The main purpose of the immaculist poets when they refer to opposition to the Conception doctrine in the certarnen poems is to establish the folly of the opinions of those who dispute the doctrine.
