(1740-1758) declared it "a probable opinion, which to deny were impious and blasphemous".

Between 1849 and 1950, numerous petitions for the assumption to be declared as dogma arrived in Rome. On 1 May 1946 the Pope sent to the bishops of the world the encyclical Deiparae Virginis Mariae, putting this questions to them: "Do you, venerable brethren, in your outstanding wisdom and prudence, judge that the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma of faith?