@pat teneyck,
Quote:By a singular gift of God, she was preserved from any stain of original sin, which prepared her to carry Jesus in her womb.
Undoubtedly you would have believed Saint Clement of Alexandria, who was a saint in the Martyrology of the Roman universal church, and who, in support of the great lie, speaks of the time that some imaginary midwife, who was supposed to be at the birth of Jesus, (
Non-biblical) told some woman by the name Salome, that the mother was still a virgin after the birth and that her hymen was still intact, and that this supposed Salome, stuck her finger into the mother’s vagina to check, and her hand immediately withered up, but the baby Jesus reached out and touched her hand and healed it. (
All non biblical).
Down to the 17th century, Clement was venerated as a saint. His name was to be found in the Martyrologies, and his feast fell on December 4. But when the Roman Martyrology was revised by Clement VIII (Pope from 1592 to 1605), his name was dropped from the calendar on the advice of his confessor, Cardinal Baronius. Pope Benedict XIV in 1748 maintained his predecessor's decision on the grounds that Clement’s life was little-known; that he had never obtained public cultus in the Church; and that some of his doctrines were, if not erroneous, at least highly ‘suspect.
"ERRONEOUS? HIGHLY SUSPECT?" they certainly got that right, but by the 15th century the false teaching of the so-called virgin birth had become firmly established in the minds of the gullible multitude.