Let me help with what the early Christians believed regarding Our Blessed Mother
Mary’s Immaculate Conception
“This Virgin Mother of the Only-begotten of God, is called Mary, worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate, one of the one.” Origen, Homily 1(A.D. 244).
“Let woman praise Her, the pure Mary.” Ephraim, Hymns on the Nativity, 15:23 (A.D. 370).
“Thou alone and thy Mother are in all things fair, there is no flaw in thee and no stain in thy Mother.” Ephraem, Nisibene Hymns, 27:8 (A.D. 370).
“O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides.” Athanasius, Homily of the Papyrus of Turin, 71:216 (ante AD 373).
“Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin.” Ambrose, Sermon 22:30 (A.D. 388).
“We must except the Holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin.” Augustine, Nature and Grace,4 2[36] (A.D.415).
This is was belived by even Martin Luther
“It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary's soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God's gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin.”
Martin Luther, (Sermon: “On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God,” 1527).
The heretical belief that Mary sinned did not gain much ground until after the reformation,over 1500 years later.It really started to gain ground in the 1800’s
This is why the Church declared it Dogma in order to stop the gaining heretical belief from effecting its members.
This is often the case regarding Dogma's,it is NOT that the majority of Christians historically never believed certain things overwhelmingly,it is to make them concrete
Take for example the Dogma of Christ's Divinity
When did the Church declare that Jesus was God as dogma? At the council of Nicea in 325 AD. Nearly 300 years after Christ's death, correct? Does that mean that the Church DID NOT already believe this? Of course it did! Jesus was worshiped during the liturgy. People prayed to Him during their daily prayers and through their actions. The Church already KNEW that Jesus was God , the Church DEFINES that He was God infallibly based on the guidance of the Spirit already at work in the Church.
The Church also needed to act to put an end to the Arian heresies that denied the Divinity of Christ,much like it did in declaring the Immaculate Conception with the protestant heresies
>>“This Virgin Mother of the Only-begotten of God, is called Mary, worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate, one of the one.” Origen, Homily 1(A.D. 244).<<
We are ALL one of the one. We are all individual and individually responsible for our own relationship with Him.
Other than that I see the words of a man about his beliefs about Mary. I am puzzled about his strong focus on the issue, but maybe it was his focus at the time.
Regarding the phrase “immaculate of the immaculate”, it sounds like a politician.
Regarding all the other hynm quotes etc. You are merely building a case for goofy lyrics in “Christian” songs. Heck, it’s all over the place today as well. There are a lot of songs I would not do (I played for many years in a worship service band and orchestra) because they were not scripturally sound.
But they sound swell so a lot of people still use them.
And to make this real clear. My beliefs are not based on what other people believe. They are based on what the Bible says. Some authors may help me to see it in a way I hadn’t before (My favorite is C. S. Lewis) but I test their words against the scripture.
Many of the things I have read are strongly and obviously supported by scripture. This “Mary” was a virgin her whole life” goofyness is not. In fact it is CLEARLY contradicted by scripture both in word and spirit.
Heck, you can go even further back. Try the Gospel of Luke. The Magnificat wasn’t just thought up by Luke. It was most likeley a song of praise that the earliest of Christians composed on behalf of Mary, based on its proximity to other “songs” in Scripture of similar thrust, and Luke’s reliance on eyewitnesses in writing the Gospel.
What it boils down to is this: Christians were venerating Mary while she was still alive, and for Luke, one who was so close to St. Paul, to include it in his Gospel says a lot about her esteem among them. To deny that the early Church honored Mary does injury to the Holy Spirit, her Spouse, who inspired Luke to include this fact in his Gospel.