or Imerethi, a province of Russian Transcaucasia, forming part of the ancient Colchis; bounded N. by the main range of the Caucasus, E. by Georgia, W. by Mingrelia, and S. by Akhalzik. It is 90 miles in length from N. to S., by 75 in breadth. Area about 5000 square miles. The surface is generally uneven and rugged, being traversed by offshoots from the Caucasus, but the soil is of great fertility. The climate is very mild and favourable to the cultivation of the products of warm countries, being protected from the north winds by the lofty range of the Caucasus. In many parts the trees produce fruit twice a year. The loftier mountain slopes are covered with immense forests; lower down are extensive tracts of luxuriant pasture; while the valleys and plains produce abundant crops of wheat, barley, maize, tobacco, hemp, &c. The Rion and its tributaries are the only streams in the province. Game is abundant. There are no manufactures of importance. The chief exports are the productions of the coun- try, including wine, silk, honey, wax, skins, wool, and fruits; chief imports—woollen, linen, and silk goods, iron and copper wares, jewellery, salt, and colonial produce. The slave trade, formerly considerable, has been abated by the Russians. Kootais, the capital, and only town in the province, is situated on the Rion, and contains about 3000 inhabitants.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Imeritia formed part of the kingdom of Georgia. It subsequently became independent and was governed by its own kings. Afterwards it was subdued by the Turks, who in 1770 were expelled by the Russians. It continued to be governed by its own kings till 1804, when one of them, in order to secure himself in the government against a rival, acknowledged the supremacy of Russia; and he and his successors were declared the lawful princes of Imeritia. Pop. about 100,000.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION is the name given in the Church of Rome to the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was conceived in the womb sinlessly as Christ himself was. The first public controversy on this question arose A.D. 1140, at which time various churches, both in England and France, had begun to hold festal days in honour of the immaculate conception. Of the more important churches, that of Lyons was the first to celebrate this festival, and it was the opposition raised to it by Bernard that brought on the discussion. In the fourteenth century this doctrine was one of the points of controversy between the Dominicans and Franciscans, the two most powerful religious orders of the time.

On the side of the Franciscans great renown was acquired by the celebrated Scotus in defending the dogma, for he set himself specially to oppose Thomas Aquinas, the great oracle of the Dominicans, and hence arose the division of sects known as Thomists and Scotists. In the seventeenth century the old dispute between the Dominicans and Franciscans raged with greater fury than ever. Two kings of Spain, Philip III. and IV., sent to Rome for the express purpose of having the dispute authoritatively settled by the sovereign pontiff. These embassies were sent to three different pontiffs, Paul V., Gregory XV., and Alexander VII., but they all shrank from the task. It was obviously dangerous to decide against either of such powerful parties, and the pontiffs evaded the difficulty by declaring that the arguments of the Franciscans were of some weight, and by forbidding the Dominicans to attack the Franciscan doctrines publicly. Notwithstanding this vacillation on the part of the above-named pontiffs, the question seems to have been virtually settled in the fifth session of the Council of Trent, where it is said that the "Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary" is excepted from the decree concerning original sin. However, as the controversy continued from time to time to disturb the Church, it was finally decreed by the bull of Pio Nono, 8th December 1854, that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is an article of faith of the Church of Rome.