Against Perpetual Virginity
Helvidius, a tract on Mary’s perpetual virginity — lost, preserved only in quotation
Helvidius
A Roman layman who read "until" and "brothers" the plain way, and would not be talked out of it.
- Catch rate
- 125 / 255
- Base research
- 115
- Stat total
- 216
Base stats
Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
Why these numbers
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
Helvidius’s own tract does not survive at all — it is known only from the one reply it provoked, and from that reply’s temper.
Cited for this book
Helvidius’s own tract does not survive; his argument is preserved only in quotation, in Jerome, Against Helvidius (NPNF2 vol. 6, public domain). Jerome’s answer — that the brothers were cousins — became the standard reading for a thousand years, and is still the majority one worldwide.
Moves learned
By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.
| Lv | Move | Type | Cat. | Pwr | Acc | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Siblings | Exegesis | Argument | 50 | 100% | 15 |
| 1 | Scribal Craft | History | Argument | 55 | 100% | 20 |
| 12 | Ad Hominem | Lie | Argument | 35 | 55% | 15 |
| 20 | Red Herring | Lie | Status | — | 50% | 15 |