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, § 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