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Dear Peter, As it happens, I've started compiling a bibliography on early celebrations of the Feast of the Conception, esp. in England, because I've noticed that this feast turns up in some English calendars and service books written long before 1328 (in fact, the earliest ones predate the Norman Conquest). My impression is that the introduction and early spread of the feast in England had less to do with doctrine than with piety and in particular the popularity of a legend about a vision in which Helsin, abbot of Ramsey, was saved from shipwreck by promising God to celebrate this feast every year in his monastery. So it may be that Bromyard's audience (if not Bromyard himself) was quite accustomed to celebrating this feast--and not thinking much about its theological implications. But I admit that the theological distinctions haven't been uppermost in my own mind, either--so you shouldn't take my word for it! Here (in no particular order) are the articles that have struck me as most useful. Edmund Bishop, "On the Origins of the Feast of the Conception of the Virgin Mary," *Liturgica Historia: papers on the liturgy and religious life of the western church* (Oxford, 1918). Francis Mildner, "The Immaculate Conception in England up to the time of John Duns Scotus," *Marianum; ephemerides mariologiae* 1 (Rome, 1939), 86-99 and 220-221. [actually, the second part only gets to Aelred; p. 221 says "to be continued," but I don't know if it actually was]. S. J. P. Van Dijk, "The Origin of the Latin Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary," *Dublin Review* 228 (1954), 251-267 and 428-442. E. Vacandard, "Les Origines de la fete et du dogme de l'Immaculee Conception," in his *Etudes de critique et d'histoire religieuse,* 3e ser. (Paris, 1912) A. W. Burridge, "L'Immaculee Conception dans la theologie de l'Angleterre medievale," *Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique* 32 (1936), 570-597. Sherry Reames (English Dept., Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%