this error is an insult to the Holy Ghost, whose "shrine"
was the virginal womb [*"Sacrarium Spiritus Sancti" (Office of B. M.
V., Ant. ad Benedictus, T. P.)], wherein He had formed the flesh of
Christ: wherefore it was unbecoming that it should be desecrated by
intercourse with man.

Thirdly, this is derogatory to the dignity and holiness of God's
Mother: for thus she would seem to be most ungrateful, were she not
content with such a Son; and were she, of her own accord, by carnal
intercourse to forfeit that virginity which had been miraculously
preserved in her.

Fourthly, it would be tantamount to an imputation of extreme
presumption in Joseph, to assume that he attempted to violate her
whom by the angel's revelation he knew to have conceived by the Holy
Ghost.

We must therefore simply assert that the Mother of God, as she was a
virgin in conceiving Him and a virgin in giving Him birth, did she
remain a virgin ever afterwards.

Reply Obj. 1: As Jerome says (Contra Helvid. i): "Although this
particle 'before' often indicates a subsequent event, yet we must
observe that it not infrequently points merely to some thing
previously in the mind: nor is there need that what was in the mind
take place eventually, since something may occur to prevent its
happening. Thus if a man say: 'Before I dined in the port, I set
sail,' we do not understand him to have dined in port after he set
sail: but that his mind was set on dining in port." In like manner
the evangelist says: "Before they came together" Mary "was found with
child, of the Holy Ghost," not that they came together afterwards:
but that, when it seemed that they would come together, this was
forestalled through her conceiving by the Holy Ghost, the result
being that afterwards they did not come together.

Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says (De Nup. et Concup. i): "The Mother
of God is called (Joseph's) wife from the first promise of her
espousals, whom he had not known nor ever was to know by carnal
intercourse." For, as Ambrose says on Luke 1:27: "The fact of her
marriage is declared, not to insinuate the loss of virginity, but to
witness to the reality of the union."

Reply Obj. 3: Some have said that this is not to be understood of
carnal knowledge, but of acquaintance. Thus Chrysostom says [*Opus
Imperf. in Matth., Hom. 1: among the spurious works ascribed to
Chrysostom] that "Joseph did not know her, until she gave birth,
being unaware of her dignity: but aft