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Protestant Confessions & “Ever-Virgin” Mary
Last updated on: September 6, 2026 at 2:13 pm by Dave Armstrong
Protestant Confessions & “Ever-Virgin” Mary 2026-09-06T14:13:44-04:00 Dave Armstrong
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
Photo credit: copyright 2026 by Catholic Bible Highlights.
As I have noted in many articles on my Blessed Virgin Mary web page (sections VI-VIII), early Protestantism virtually universally accepted the perpetual virginity of Mary, which traditionally had been understood as her virginity before Jesus’ birth (the virgin birth), during the birth (meaning that the birth process itself was miraculous: Jesus “going through walls” so to speak) and after Jesus’ birth. This was the understood meaning of ever-virgin (semper virgine or semper virgo in Latin, aeiparthenos in Greek).
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Lutheran Confessions (Book of Concord)
The Smalcald Articles, written by Martin Luther in 1537, states:
The Son . . . was conceived, without the cooperation of man, by the Holy Ghost, and was born of the pure, holy [ and always] Virgin Mary [ex Maria pura, sancta, semper virgine]. . . . Concerning these articles there is no contention or dispute, since we on both sides confess them. (Part I, Article 4)
Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration (1577):
Mary, the most blessed Virgin, bore not a mere man, but, as the angel [Gabriel] testifies, such a man as is truly the Son of the most high God, who showed His divine majesty even in His mother’s womb, inasmuch as He was born of a virgin, with her virginity inviolate. Therefore she is truly the mother of God, and nevertheless remained a virgin. (VIII, 24)
Latin (with one Greek word, Theotokos): de virgine, inviolata ipsius virginitate, natus est. Unde et vere Θεοτοκος, Dei genitrix, est, et tamen virgo mansit.
Prominent Lutheran theologians such as Martin Chemnitz (1522-1586), Johann Gerhard (1582-1637), C. F. W. Walther (1811-1887) [first president of the Missouri Synod Lutheran denomination], and Franz Pieper (1852-1931), all believed that Mary was ever-virgin (perpetual virginity). Note the “late date” of the last two men. The belief was not confined merely to the 16th-17th centuries. It’s part of orthodox, confessional Lutheranism.
The Reverent Lutheran article, “FAQ: Perpetual Virginity of Mary” affirms:
Mary’s perpetual virginity is historic catholic teaching, received in both the East and the West as part of the Church’s confession of Christ’s incarnation. It is not a later Roman invention or something the Lutheran Reformation rejected.
The Lutheran Confessions speak of Mary as ever Virgin and expressly confess that she remained a virgin after Christ’s birth. . . .
The doctrine directs attention to the unique incarnation of the Son of God. . . .
The historic Church received Mary as ever Virgin in its confession of Christ.
The Book of Concord explicitly preserves that confession.
The principal Lutheran witnesses did not discard it at the Reformation.
Modern Protestant denial is not the historic Lutheran baseline.
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In Loci Theologici I.387, Gerhard reports the church’s belief that Mary remained always Virgin, repeats Jerome’s limit that later intercourse is not believed because Scripture does not state it, and records the traditional Ezekiel 44 and John 19 arguments. . . .
In the 1867 Milwaukee colloquy, C.F.W. Walther publicly affirmed that he knew the Lutheran Confessions taught Mary’s permanent virginity and considered it true doctrine. (Ibid.)
One of the six contributors to the From Geneva to Wittenberg blog, Andrew, observed about present-day Lutherans:
The Book of Concord doesn’t say a whole lot about Mary, the Mother of God. But what it does say, I assert, says quite a bit in itself.
Most Lutheran parishioners in the 21st century deny the historic Christian position of the Semper Virgo, or the perpetual virginity of Mary. A recent poll in a facebook group in which I am administrator bears this out. It seems that at the very least, 75% of Lutherans reject this position. I am estimating here, but this estimate is pretty conservative in my mind.
I am not one of these people. Perhaps even some of my blog mates disagree with me here. I am not certain where they all stand on this particular topic.
I contend that it is most likely that our Lutheran forbears were absolutely referring to the ever-virginity of Mary in the final clause of the quoted Solid Declaration . . .
The biggest reason I believe this to be so is that all of the early Reformers held to the Semper Virgo. Martin Luther certainly did. . . .
If the Semper Virgo is indeed the stance our Confessions take, should we not be believing it? (“Semper Virgo: A Confessional Position”, 1-1-16)
Rev. Travis Heide of the Lutheran Church-Canada, states:
The Lutheran Confessions take for granted Mary’s perpetual virginity. Notwithstanding an explicit reference to “the holy ever-virgin Mary” (semper virgo) in the Smalcald Articles (1537), Part I, par. 4, though, many Lutheran bodies do not treat this clause as doctrinally binding (a regrettable number of modern Lutheran theologians would rather not even consider it tenable). . . .
This pastor, with no violence whatsoever to my reason or conscience, firmly believes in the perpetual virginity of Mary. (“The Case for Mary’s Perpetual Virginity”, 2-2-25)
He proceeds to make a very extensive scriptural case (not unlike many of my own articles) for what he contends is the orthodox Lutheran position on the matter.
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Reformed Confessions
[I will draw heavily — and mostly — in this section from the article, “Mary in the Reformed Confessions” (Ad Fontes, Spring 2023), by Tim Perry, Professor of Theology and Church Ministries at Providence Theological Seminary. He himself holds that “perpetual virginity . . . is unwarranted by the evidence examined”: so there is no “pro-Catholic” bias here; only attention to ascertainable historical facts]
Dr. Perry summed up early Protestantism’s view:
In my book Mary for Evangelicals, . . . I observed . . . that early Protestant antipathy toward the Virgin Mary emerged gradually and was directed against abuses of piety rather than dogmatic, specifically Christological, assertions. No questions of significance were raised against Mary’s perpetual virginity; her status as theotokos (even if the word was deemed suspect by some) was regarded as necessary; there was even some acknowledgement of her unique calling, and (most surprisingly of all to modern Reformed Christians) her consequent preservation from sin is sometimes acknowledged until the Reformation is well into its third generation. . . .
Specifically because of their brevity and consistency, the confessions allow us to press deeper into the assumptions held by the Reformers regarding Mary—assumptions which, as noted, surprise many of those who purport to stand in the confessional tradition of these Reformers, and should perhaps serve to curtail the tone (if not the substance) with which they criticize Roman Catholics on the topic of Mary.
Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) contributed to the Diet of Augsburg a treatise called A Reckoning of the Faith (1530), where he wrote: “I believe and understand that the Son assumed flesh, because he truly assumed of the immaculate and perpetual Virgin Mary the human nature, yea, the entire man, who consists of body and soul.”
Dr. Perry adds:
“Immaculate” and “perpetual” are words most contemporary Protestants are not used to seeing, but there they are—the former affirming, in whatever fashion, Mary’s preservation from original and actual sin and the latter her perpetual virginity until the end of her life on earth. Modern Reformed Christians may read references to Mary as “Virgin” in the confessions as referring purely to her virginity at the time of Christ’s conception, and not necessarily implying that she retained perpetual virginity. Yet that is clearly not the case for Zwingli here. Nor was it for Luther. It would be anachronistic to assume that the early Reformers did not understand references to “the Virgin Mary” to refer to a perpetual virginity. . . .
While later confessions are more muted, none deny what the earlier ones seem to affirm, namely that “Virgin” means “Ever-Virgin,” . . . Though I venture to guess that very few Dutch, German, or Swiss Reformed Christians would affirm perpetual virginity or sinlessness today . . . departure from these in any explicit way is simply not found in the Reformed Confessions surveyed thus far. . . .
“Virgin,” in the later confessions is best read as a contraction of the earlier “Ever-Virgin,” rather than a rejection thereof.
Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575), in his Second Helvetic Confession of 1566 refers to Mary as “Ever-Virgin” in chapter 11.
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Other Reformed confessions noted by Dr. Perry in his article, used “virgin” to describe Mary, but it had a more expansive meaning than simply a reference to the virgin birth, as he explained above. Presumably, this would also include John Calvin‘s (1509-1564) use of “virgin” in his Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; rev. 1559) which, although not a confessional document, was historically extremely influential:
II, 10:4 . . . the blessed Virgin . . . [footnote: “Beata Virgo.” French, “la Vierge Marie;”—the Virgin Mary]
II, 13:3 . . . being descended of the Virgin; . . . nourished to maturity in the Virgin’s womb. . . . Matthew does not here describe the Virgin . . .
II, 13:4 . . . conceived miraculously in the Virgin’s womb . . .
II, 14:1 . . . he made choice of the Virgin’s womb as a temple in which he might dwell.
II, 14:4 . . . the name of the Son of God is given to him who is born of a Virgin, and the Virgin herself is called the mother of our Lord (Luke 1:32, 43).
II, 14:5 . . . he was begotten in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit. . . . We indeed acknowledge that the Mediator who was born of the Virgin is properly the Son of God.
II, 14:6 . . . He who was born of a Virgin, . . .
II, 14:8 . . . he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit . .
We see the same in Calvin’s Harmony of the Gospels (1555; see vol. 1 / vol. 2 / vol/ 3):
Matthew 1:18 . . . the virgin . . .
Matthew 1:19 . . . the virgin . . .
Matthew 1:22 . . . the virgin . . . [twice]
Matthew 1:23 . . . the virgin . . .
Matthew 2:16 . . . the virgin . . .
Matthew 5:6 . . . the Virgin . . .
Luke 1:26 . . . the virgin . . .
Luke 1:28 . . . the virgin . . .
Luke 1:30 The holy virgin . . .
Luke 1:31 . . . the virgin . . . [twice]
Luke 1:32 . . . the holy virgin . . .
Luke 1:34 The holy virgin appears to confine the power of God . . . the mind of the virgin,. . . the holy virgin . . . the virgin . . . the virgin . . .
[Calvin in the same section denies that this passage suggests a vow of perpetual virginity made by Mary]
Luke 1:35 He only leads the virgin . . .
Luke 1:36 . . . the mother of the holy virgin . . .
Luke 1:38 . . . the holy virgin . . . [three times]
Luke 1:39 . . . the Virgin . . .
Luke 1:46 . . . the holy virgin . . . [twice]
Luke 1:48 . . . the holy virgin . . .
Luke 1:49 . . . the holy virgin . . .
Luke 2:34 The holy virgin . . .
Luke 2:35. . . the holy virgin . . .
Luke 2:48 . . . the holy virgin . . . [twice]
We know for sure that Calvin believed in Mary’s perpetual virginity; this was especially evident in a sermon of his in 1562 on the topic.
*
Confession of the Christian Faith (1558), by Theodore Beza (1519-1605), Calvin’s friend and successor in Geneva:
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Article 23. That the virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, God and man.
And so Jesus Christ, true God and true man (that is, consisting of a truly human soul and a human body, formed from the substance of the virgin Mary and of David, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit), was truly conceived and born of that same virgin, a virgin, I say, both before and after the birth [footnote]; and all these things had to be fulfilled for the sake of our salvation.
Footnote: Latin: “virgine, inquam, ante et post partum.” Beza here affirms Mary’s virginity both before and after the birth of Christ, the perpetual-virginity view held by many of the magisterial Reformers. The point is rendered exactly as it stands; I have not softened it. The phrase “mother of Jesus Christ, God and man” is Beza’s guarded equivalent of the ancient title Theotokos, framed to confess that the one born of Mary is the one person who is true God and true man.
Dr. Perry adds a pointed criticism:
The evidence above simply suggests that Reformed believers should check themselves when delivering apologetics against Roman Marian dogma, and be ready to dismantle Luther, Zwingli, Bullinger and others on this point.
One of the great causes of the now widespread Protestant denial of Mary’s perpetual virginity is the work of the German reformed theologian, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834). His Wikipedia entry states:
Schleiermacher . . . was . . . known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant Christianity. He also became influential in the evolution of higher criticism, . . . Because of his profound effect on subsequent Christian thought, he is often called the “Father of Modern Liberal Theology” and is considered an early leader in liberal Christianity.
He flatly denied the historicity of the infancy narratives in the Bible, and thought they were irrelevant, which of course includes denying the virgin birth, before we even get to the question of Mary’s perpetual virginity. In case anyone is wondering what other Christian doctrines Schleiermacher denied, I did an AI search for the question, “what traditional Protestant doctrines did Schleiermacher deny?”. It turned out to be quite a list:
The two natures of Christ
The deity of Christ
Jesus’ resurrection
Jesus’ ascension
substitutionary atonement
original sin
the authority of Scripture
the inerrancy of Scripture
The Holy Trinity
hell
In other words, pretty much all of orthodox Christianity was ditched by this radical and self-important fool. This is what we get with liberal theology. So if we understand the historical pedigree of the denial of Mary’s perpetual virginity, it comes from this wicked unbelief and rejection of God altogether, rather than Protestantism’s own origins and beliefs. It’s not an inherently Protestant notion. Later Protestants sadly latched on to this theological skepticism as regards Mary’s perpetual virginity, erroneously thinking that it was from the Bible and/or the Protestant reformers themselves.
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So here I am as a Catholic, explaining to Protestants their own doctrinal history regarding this doctrine, which the vast majority are blissfully unaware of. Ironies never cease.
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Photo credit: copyright 2026 by Catholic Bible Highlights.
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Summary: Survey of confessions and creed-like statements of early Lutherans and Reformed Protestants, on the topic of Mary’s perpetual virginity, which they all strongly held.
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