"There are things which, in your extreme ignorance, you Elvidius had never read, and therefore you neglected the whole range of Scripture and employed your madness in outraging the Virgin, like the man in the story who being unknown to everybody and finding that he could devise no good deed by which to gain renown, burned the temple of Diana: and when no one revealed the sacrilegious act, it is said that he himself went up and down proclaiming that he was the man who had applied the fire. The rulers of Ephesus were curious to know what made him do this thing, whereupon he replied that if he could not have fame for good deeds, all men should give him credits for bad ones. Grecian history relates the incident. But you do worse. You have set on fire the temple of the Lord's body, you have defiled the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit from which you are determined to make a team of four brethren and a heap of sisters come forth. In a word, joyning in the chorus of the Jews you say, "Is not this the carpenter's son?is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? and his sisters, are they not all with us? The word all would not be used if they were not a crowd of them." Pray tell me, who before you appeared, was acquainted with this blasphemy? Who thought the theory worth two-pence? You have gained your desire and have become notorious by crime..."

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Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Perpetual_virginity_of_Mary