our Lord as Mary, or the Virgin,
without any adjunct, or term of reverence.

CLEMENT of Alexandria speaks of the Virgin, and refers to an opinion
relative to her virgin-state, but without one word of honour. [Stromat.
vii. 16. p. 889.]

TERTULLIAN[101]. The passages in which this ancient writer refers to the
mother of our Lord are very far from countenancing the religious worship
now paid to her by Roman Catholics: "The brothers of the Lord had not
believed on him, as it is contained in the Gospel published {292} before
Marcion. His mother likewise is not shown to have adhered to him;
whereas others, Marys and Marthas, were frequently in his company." (See
Tert. De carne Christi, c. 7. (p. 364. De Sacy, 29. 439.)) And he tells
us that Christ was brought forth by a virgin, who was also about to be
married once after the birth, that the two titles of sanctity might be
united in Christ by a mother who was both a virgin and also once
married[102].

[Footnote 101: Paris, 1675. De carne Christi, vii. p. 315. De
Monogamia, vii. p. 529. N.B. Both these treatises were probably
written after he became a Montanist.]

[Footnote 102: On the works once ascribed to Methodius, but now
pronounced to be spurious, see above, p. 131.]

ORIGEN thus speaks: "Announcing to Zacharias the birth of John, and to
Mary the advent of our Saviour among men." [Comment on John, Sec. 24. vol.
iv. p. 82.] In his eighth homily on Leviticus, he refers to Mary as a
pure Virgin. [Vol. ii. p. 228.] In the forged work of later times, the
writer, speaking of our Saviour, says, "He had on earth an immaculate
and chaste mother, this much blessed Virgin Mary." [Hom. iii. in
Diversos.]

In CYPRIAN we do not find one word expressive of honour or reverence
towards the Virgin Mary. Nor is her name mentioned in the letter of his
correspondent Firmilian, Bishop of Cappadocia.

LACTANTIUS speaks of "a holy virgin" [Vol. i. p. 299.] chosen for the
work of Christ but not one other word of honour, or tending to
adoration; though whilst dwelling on the incarnation of the Son of God,
had he or his fellow-believers paid religious honour to her, he could
scarcely have avoided all allusion to it.

EUSEBIUS speaks of the Virgin Mary, but is altogether silent as to any
religious honour of any kind being due to her. In the Oration of the
Emperor Constantine (as it is recorded by Eusebius), direct mention is
made of the "chaste virginity," and of the m