e Christ appeared in sinless flesh, His
Virgin Mother's or anyone else's flesh should be without the fomes,
which is called "the law of the flesh" or "of the members" (Rom.
7:23, 25).

Therefore it seems better to say that by the sanctification in the
womb, the Virgin was not freed from the fomes in its essence, but
that it remained fettered: not indeed by an act of her reason, as in
holy men, since she had not the use of reason from the very first
moment of her existence in her mother's womb, for this was the
singular privilege of Christ: but by reason of the abundant grace
bestowed on her in her sanctification, and still more perfectly by
Divine Providence preserving her sensitive soul, in a singular
manner, from any inordinate movement. Afterwards, however, at the
conception of Christ's flesh, in which for the first time immunity
from sin was to be conspicuous, it is to be believed that entire
freedom from the fomes redounded from the Child to the Mother. This
indeed is signified (Ezech. 43:2): "Behold the glory of the God of
Israel came in by the way of the east," i.e. by the Blessed Virgin,
"and the earth," i.e. her flesh, "shone with His," i.e. Christ's,
"majesty."

Reply Obj. 1: Death and such like penalties do not of themselves
incline us to sin. Wherefore though Christ assumed them, He did not
assume the fomes. Consequently in order that the Blessed Virgin might
be conformed to her Son, from "whose fulness" her grace was derived,
the fomes was at first fettered and afterwards taken away: while she
was not freed from death and other such penalties.

Reply Obj. 2: The "infirmity" of the flesh, that pertains to the
fomes, is indeed to holy men an occasional cause of perfect virtue:
but not the "sine qua non" of perfection: and it is quite enough to
ascribe to the Blessed Virgin perfect virtue and abundant grace: nor
is there any need to attribute to her every occasional cause of
perfection.

Reply Obj. 3: The Holy Ghost effected a twofold purification
in the Blessed Virgin. The first was, as it were, preparatory to
Christ's conception: which did not cleanse her from the stain of sin
or fomes, but rather gave her mind a unity of purpose and disengaged
it from a multiplicity of things (Cf. Dionysius, Div. Nom. iv), since
even the angels are said to be purified, in whom there is no stain, as
Dionysius says (Eccl. Hier. vi). The second purification effected in
her by the Holy Ghost was by means of the conception