[DallasMike]

In a different thread I mentioned this to somebody and actually found the treatise on the internet.

Thanks. I'm already very familiar with the treatise but I appreciate people who actually go to the trouble to look for them. Not many do.

My point stands though -- Jerome's position didn't become popular until around 300 AD while Helvidius's position was the position of the early church. If I recall correctly, Jerome's defense was written around 380 AD.

[Campion]

Helvidius's position was the position of the early church.

Then why did nobody come to his defense and everyone agree that his view was a novelty? Wasn't it the Holy Spirit's job to keep things on the right track? Had everyone forgotten the truth in 150 years, not to rediscover it until the 17th Century?

[TotusTuus]

while Helvidius's position was the position of the early church.

I don't know that there is any evidence of this. His position was treated as "new" by St. Jerome. It really wasn't heard from again in both the East and West until after the Protestant Reformation in the West. Even the original Protestant Reformers, i.e. Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli taught and believed in the Perpetual Virginity of Mary the Mother of Jesus, and therefore, the Mother of God. It is precisely in being 'set apart' for this singular mission in the Divine Plan of Redemption that her Perpetual Virginity is important.