ix. p. 160.]
"Many of our people doubt whether Mary was taken up together with her
body, or went away, leaving the body. But how, or at what time, or by
what persons her most holy body was taken hence, or whither removed, or
whether it rose again, is not known; although some will maintain that
she is already revived, and is clothed with a blessed immortality with
Christ in heavenly places, which very many affirm also of the blessed
{306} John, the Evangelist, his servant, to whom being a virgin, the
virgin was intrusted by Christ, because in his sepulchre, as it is
reported, nothing is found but manna, which also is seen to flow forth.
Nevertheless which of these opinions should be thought the more true we
doubt. Yet it is better to commit all to God, to whom nothing is
impossible, than to wish to define rashly[113] by our own authority any
thing, which we do not approve of.... Because nothing is impossible with
God, we do not deny that something of the kind was done with regard to
the blessed Virgin Mary; although for caution's sake (salva fide)
preserving our faith, we ought rather with pious desire to think, than
inconsiderately to define, what without danger may remain unknown." This
letter, at the earliest, was not written until the beginning of the
fifth century.
[Footnote 113: These last words, stamping the author's own
opinion, "Which we do not approve of," are left out in the
quotation of Coccius.
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