St. Athanasius (fourth century) had written: "What God did to Mary is
the glory of all virgins; for they are attached as virginal saplings to
her who is the root." At the close of the fourth century a long and
bitter controversy arose over the question as to whether Mary had
remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus. St. Ambrose, St. Jerome and
St. Augustine were in favour of this new doctrine. St. Ambrose, the
founder of Western music, was the first to praise her perfection in the
Latin tongue, and St. Augustine in his treatise _De Natura et Gratia_,
maintained that she was the only human being born without original sin.
This was the first important step towards the stripping of the Saviour's
mother of her humanity, and establishing her as a divine being. St.
Irenaeus contrasted Eve, the bringer of sin, with Mary, the second Eve,
the bringer of salvation, and St. Ambrose said: "From Eve we inherited
damnation through the fruit of the tree; but Mary has brought us
salvation through the gift of the tree, for Christ too, hung on the tree
like a fruit.
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