Edition Masquer
De Virginitate B. Mariae

15.

Innumerabilia sunt istiusmodi, libris inserta divinis. Sed ne longum faciam, ad extremam divisionis partem revertar, id est, et affectu fratres dici, qui in duo scinditur, in spiritale et in commune. In spiritale, quia omnes Christiani fratres vocamur, ut ibi: Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum habitare fratres in unum (Ps. CXXXIII, 1). Et in alio psalmo Salvator: Narrabo, inquit, nomen tuum fratribus meis (Ps. XI, 23). Et alibi: Vade dic fratribus meis (Joan. XX, 17). Porro in commune, quia omnes ex uno patre nati, pari inter nos germanitate conjungimur. Dicite, ait, his qui oderunt vos, fratres nostri estis (Isa. ult. cap. sec. LXX). Et Apostolus ad Corinthios: Si quis frater nominatur fornicator, aut avarus, aut idolis serviens, aut maledicus, aut ebriosus, aut rapax, cum ejusmodi nec cibum sumere (I Cor. V, 11), et caetera his similia. Interrogo nunc, juxta quem modum fratres Domini in Evangelio intelligas appellari. Juxta naturam? Sed Scriptura non dicit, nec Mariae eos vocans filios, nec Joseph. Juxta gentem? Sed absurdum est, ut pauci ex Judaeis vocati sint fratres, quum omnes qui ibi erant hac lege Judaei, fratres potuerint appellari. Juxta affectum humani juris ac spiritus? Verum si sic, qui magis fratres quam Apostoli, quos docebat intrinsecus, quos matres vocabat et fratres? Aut si omnes quia homines, fratres, stultum fuit nuntiari quasi proprium Ecce fratres tui quaerentes [Al. quaerunt] te; cum generaliter omnes homines hoc jure sint fratres. Restat igitur, ut juxta superiorem expositionem fratres eos intelligas appellatos, cognatione, non affectu; non gentis privilegio, non natura. Quomodo Lot Abrahae, quomodo Jacob Laban est appellatus frater, quomodo et filiae Salphaad accipiunt Clerum inter fratres suos, quomodo et Abraham ipse Saram sororem suam habuit uxorem. Etenim ait, Vere soror mea est de patre, sed non de matre (Genes. XX, 11), id est, fratris est filia, non sororis. Alioqui quale est, ut Abraham vir justus, patris sui filiam conjugem sumpserit, cum in primis hominibus propter aurium sanctitatem idipsum Scriptura non nominet, malens intelligi, quam proferri; et Deus lege postea sanciat, ac minetur: Qui acceperit sororem suam de patre suo, vel de matre sua, et viderit turpitudinem ejus, et ipsa viderit turpitudinem illius, opprobrium est: et exterminabuntur coram filiis generis sui. Turpitudinem sororis suae detexit, peccatum suum recipiet (Levit. XVIII, 9).

Traduction Masquer
The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary

17.

Innumerable instances of the same kind are to be found in the sacred books. But, to be brief, I will return to the last of the four classes of brethren, those, namely, who are brethren by affection, and these again fall into two divisions, those of the spiritual and those of the general relationship. I say spiritual because all of us Christians are called brethren, as in the verse, ¹“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” And in another psalm the Saviour says, ²“I will declare thy name unto my brethren.” And elsewhere, ³“Go unto my brethren and say to them.” I say also general , because we are all children of one Father, there is a like bond of brotherhood between us all. ⁴“Tell these who hate you,” says the prophet, “ye are our brethren.” And the Apostle writing to the Corinthians: ⁵“If any man that is named brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one no, not to eat.” I now ask to which class you consider the Lord’s brethren in the Gospel must be assigned. They are brethren by nature, you say. But Scripture does not say so; it calls them neither sons of Mary, nor of Joseph. Shall we say they are brethren by race? But it is absurd to suppose that a few Jews were called His brethren when all Jews of the time might upon this principle have borne the title. Were they brethren by virtue of close intimacy and the union of heart and mind? If that were so, who were more truly His brethren than the apostles who received His private instruction and were called by Him His mother and His brethren? Again, if all men, as such, were His brethren, it would have been foolish to deliver a special message, “Behold, thy brethren seek thee,” for all men alike were entitled to the name. The only alternative is to adopt the previous explanation and understand them to be called brethren in virtue of the bond of kindred, not of love and sympathy, nor by prerogative of race, nor yet by nature. Just as Lot was called Abraham’s brother, and Jacob Laban’s, just as the daughters of Zelophehad received a lot among their brethren, just as Abraham himself had to wife Sarah his sister, for he says, ⁶“She is in P. 343 deed my sister, on the father’s side, not on the mother’s,” that is to say, she was the daughter of his brother, not of his sister. Otherwise, what are we to say of Abraham, a just man, taking to wife the daughter of his own father? Scripture, in relating the history of the men of early times, does not outrage our ears by speaking of the enormity in express terms, but prefers to leave it to be inferred by the reader: and God afterwards gives to the prohibition the sanction of the law, and threatens, ⁷“He who takes his sister, born of his father, or of his mother, and beholds her nakedness, hath commited abomination, he shall be utterly destroyed. He hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness, he shall bear his sin.”