OK, Icemoon. I will quote from Martin Luther to prove to you
that the Reformers believe in Perpetual Viginity.
Well some Protestants today hold many doctrines which contradict
luther's belief that the Catholic Church was founded by Christ, the
Real Presence etc etc.
In his sermon of August 15, 1522, the last time Martin Luther
preached on the Feast of the Assumption, he stated:
There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in
heaven. How it happened we do not know. And since the Holy
Spirit has told us nothing about it, we can make of it no article
of faith . . . It is enough to know that she lives in Christ.
The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very
depths of the human heart. (Sermon, September 1, 1522).
[She is the] highest woman and the noblest gem in
Christianity after Christ . . . She is nobility, wisdom,
and holiness personified. We can never honor her
enough. Still honor and praise must be given to her in
such a way as to injure neither Christ nor the Scriptures. (Sermon,
Christmas, 1531).
No woman is like you. You are more than Eve or Sarah, blessed above
all nobility, wisdom, and sanctity. (Sermon, Feast of the
Visitation, 1537).
One should honor Mary as she herself wished and as she expressed it
in the Magnificat. She praised God for his deeds. How then can we
praise her? The true honor of Mary is the honor of God, the
praise of God's grace . . . Mary is nothing for the sake
of herself, but for the sake of Christ . . . Mary does not wish
that we come to her, but through her to God.
(Explanation of the Magnificat, 1521).
Luther gives the Blessed Virgin the exalted position of "Spiritual
Mother" for Christians:
It is the consolation and the superabundant goodness of God, that
man is able to exult in such a treasure. Mary is his true
Mother .. (Sermon, Christmas, 1522)
Mary is the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us
even though it was Christ alone who reposed on her knees .
. . If he is ours, we ought to be in his situation; there where he
is, we ought also to be and all that he has ought to be ours, and
his mother is also our mother. (Sermon, Christmas,
1529).
Martin Luther had the belief of Mary's Immaculate Conception,
Luther's words follow:
It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary's
soul was effected without original sin; so that in the
very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin
and adorned with God's gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God;
thus from the first moment she began to live she was free
from all sin" (Sermon: "On the Day of the Conception of
the Mother of God," 1527).
She is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin-
something exceedingly great. For God's grace fills her with
everything good and makes her devoid of all evil.
(Personal {"Little"} Prayer Book, 1522).
Martin Luther on Mary's Perpetual Virginity
Here are some of the founders of refom commenting on Mary:
Christ, our Savior, was the real and natural fruit of Mary's
virginal womb . . . This was without the cooperation of a man, and
she remained a virgin after that.
{Luther's Works, eds. Jaroslav Pelikan (vols. 1-30) & Helmut T.
Lehmann (vols. 31-55), St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House (vols.
1-30); Philadelphia: Fortress Press (vols. 31-55), 1955, v.22:23 /
Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539) }
Christ . . . was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no
children besides Him . . . I am inclined to agree with
those who declare that 'brothers' really mean 'cousins' here, for
Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers.
{Pelikan, ibid., v.22:214-15 / Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539)
}
A new lie about me is being circulated. I am supposed to have
preached and written that Mary, the mother of God, was not a virgin
either before or after the birth of Christ . . .
{Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:199 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523)
}
Scripture does not say or indicate that she later lost her
virginity . . .
When Matthew [1:25] says that Joseph did not know Mary carnally
until she had brought forth her son, it does not follow that he
knew her subsequently; on the contrary, it means that he never did
know her . . . This babble . . . is without justification . . .
he has neither noticed nor paid any attention to either
Scripture or the common idiom.
{Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:206,212-3 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew
(1523) }
". . . she is rightly called not only the mother of the man, but
also the Mother of God. . . . it is certain that Mary is
the Mother of the real and true God."
Ref: Sermon on John 14. 16: Luther's Works (St. Louis, ed.
Jaroslav, Pelican, Concordia. vol. 24. p. 107)
"Christ our Savior was the real and natural fruit of Mary's
virginal womb. . . . This was without the cooperation of a man, and
she remained a virgin after that."
(REf: On the Gospel of St. John: Luther's Works, vol. 22. p. 23,
ed. Jaroslav Pelican, Concordia, 1957)
"Men have crowded all her glory into a single phrase: The
Mother of God. No one can say anything greater of her,
though he had as many tongues as there are leaves on the trees."
(From the Commentary on the Magnificat.)
Commentaries on Luther
". . . in the resolutions of the 95 theses Luther rejects every
blasphemy against the Virgin, and thinks that one should
ask for pardon for any evil said or thought against
her."
(Ref: Wm. J. Cole, "Was Luther a Devotee of Mary?" in Marian
Studies 1970, p. 116
"In Luther's Explanation of the Magnificat in 1521, he begins and
ends with an invocation to Mary, which Wright feels compelled to
call 'surprising'".
(David F. Wright, Chosen by God: Mary in Evangelical Perspecive,
London: Marshall Pickering, 1989, p. 178, Cited from Faith &
Reason, Spring 1994, p. 6.)
Other Reformers on Mary's Perpetual Virginity
John Calvin
Helvidius displayed excessive ignorance in concluding that
Mary must have had many sons, because Christ's 'brothers' are
sometimes mentioned.
{Harmony of Matthew, Mark & Luke, sec. 39 (Geneva, 1562), vol.
2 / From Calvin's Commentaries, tr. William Pringle, Grand Rapids,
MI: Eerdmans, 1949, p.215; on Matthew 13:55}
[On Matt 1:25:] The inference he [Helvidius] drew from it was, that
Mary remained a virgin no longer than till her first birth, and
that afterwards she had other children by her husband . . . No just
and well-grounded inference can be drawn from these words . . . as
to what took place after the birth of Christ. He is called
'first-born'; but it is for the sole purpose of informing us that
he was born of a virgin . . . What took place afterwards the
historian does not inform us . . . No man will obstinately
keep up the argument, except from an extreme fondness for
disputation.
{Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 107}
Under the word 'brethren' the Hebrews include all cousins
and other relations, whatever may be the degree of
affinity.
{Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 283 / Commentary on John, (7:3) }
Huldreich Zwingli
Zwingli had printed in 1524 a sermon on 'Mary, ever virgin, mother
of God.'
{Thurian, ibid., p.76}
I have never thought, still less taught, or declared
publicly, anything concerning the subject of the ever Virgin Mary,
Mother of our salvation, which could be considered dishonourable,
impious, unworthy or evil . . . I believe with all my
heart according to the word of holy gospel that this pure virgin
bore for us the Son of God and that she remained, in the birth and
after it, a pure and unsullied virgin, for eternity.
{Thurian, ibid., p.76 / same sermon}
Heinrich Bullinger
Bullinger (d. 1575) . . . defends Mary's perpetual virginity . . .
and inveighs against the false Christians who defraud her of her
rightful praise: 'In Mary everything is extraordinary and all the
more glorious as it has sprung from pure faith and burning love of
God.' She is 'the most unique and the noblest member' of the
Christian community . . .
'The Virgin Mary . . . completely sanctified by the grace and blood
of her only Son and abundantly endowed by the gift of the Holy
Spirit and preferred to all . . . now lives happily with
Christ in heaven and is called and remains ever-Virgin and Mother
of God.'
{In Hilda Graef, Mary: A history of Doctrine and Devotion, combined
ed. of vols. 1 & 2, London: Sheed & Ward, 1965, vol.2,
pp.14-5}
John Wesley (Founder of Methodism)
The Blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as when she brought him
forth, continued a pure and unspotted
virgin.
{"Letter to a Roman Catholic" / In This Rock, Nov. 1990, p.25}
