Breviloquium

Having thus briefly established certain points concerning the Trinity of God and the creation of the world, it remains now to touch briefly upon certain matters concerning the corruption of sin. Concerning it, one must hold in summary that sin is not any essence, but a defect and corruption, by which mode, species, and order are corrupted in the created will¹; and hence the corruption of sin is contrary to the good itself, yet it has being only in the good and derives its origin only from the good, which is the free choice of the will; and this is neither supremely evil, since it can will the good, nor supremely good, since it can turn aside into evil.

The reason for understanding the foregoing is this: since the first principle is being from itself, not from another, it must be being on account of itself, and hence supremely good, having absolutely no defect. There is therefore nothing, nor can there be anything, that is first and supremely evil, because “first principle” signifies supreme completion, whereas “supreme evil” signifies the greatest defect. Therefore, since the first principle, as supremely being and complete², can fail neither in being nor in operating, it is neither supremely evil nor any evil, nor can it in any way originate evil. — Yet since it is omnipotent, it can lead the good from non-being into being, even without the aid of any matter. And this it did when it fashioned the creature, to which it gave being, life, understanding, and willing; and since this creature came from the highest good according to the relation of a threefold cause³, it had to possess in its substance and will mode, species, and order. It was therefore born to perform its works from God, according to God, and for God, and this according to the mode, species, and order implanted in it.

But because it was from nothing and defective, it could fail from acting for God, so that it might do something for itself, not for God, and hence neither from God nor according to God nor for God; and this is sin, which corrupts mode, species, and order; and because it is a defect, it has not an efficient cause but a deficient one, namely, the defect of the created will⁴.

Since corruption exists, and only of the good, and every corruption is in a corruptible thing, it is therefore only in the good; and hence, since free will corrupts mode, species, and order in itself by falling away from the true good, every sin as such both comes from the will, as from its first origin, and is in the will, as in its proper subject. The will does this when, through its defectibility, mutability, and capacity to turn, scorning the indeficient and immutable good, it cleaves to mutable good⁵.

From these things it is gathered that «sin is not the appetite of evil things, but the desertion of better things»; and therefore in the appetite of the will it corrupts mode, species, and order, and hence is «so voluntary that, if it is not voluntary, it is no longer sin». — With these things understood beforehand, the impiety of the Manichaeans⁶ who posit a supremely evil first principle of all evils manifestly falls. It also appears what the origin of evil is, and what the subject of evil is.