De natura et gratia libri III, cum Apologia contra Catharinum

After we have narrated man as established on the summit of happiness, such as he could have it on earth, it follows that we speak of sin, into which, having fallen thence by his own will, he also cast down his posterity. For this is the third state of man which we have undertaken to describe; and in it the remaining part of this book must be placed. Concerning original sin, therefore, there are roughly six things, partly worthy of consideration, partly of disputation, which were brought before us for disputation by the sacred synod. Namely, whether it exists, that is, whether it passed from Adam into all posterity; what its cause is; what it is, and how it is transmitted; what are its effects, and finally its punishment. For concerning remission, although in ch. 11 we shall say certain things against the Lutherans, nevertheless we must treat of it in book 2 as in its proper place. Further, the first member is not one that is now to be brought into discussion, since there is no one who calls it into doubt, unless one who strives to revive the heresy of the Pelagians. But the Lutherans, with whom we have to do at this time, flee so far from the Pelagians that they strike into the opposite extreme.¹ Let it therefore be settled for us, as the Catholic faith, that all, as many as descend from Adam by natural generation, contract original sin.² Since we have pronounced these and universal statements of this kind, I would not wish anyone to call me into suspicion concerning the conception of the most holy Virgin. For even if the present Council, defining nothing on this matter, but most wisely renewing the decree of Sixtus, has left it free for each to dispute on either side, nothing nevertheless is less dear to me. But although the Church permits either understanding, and the authors of this or that opinion have explained it by glossing, nevertheless the words of Scripture and of the sacred canons without addition are to be brought forward universally, as they stand, lest their purity be adulterated. Especially because, as is most manifest, the opinion concerning the conception is new; and therefore it is no wonder if among the holy Fathers no one was excepted from the general sentence of the sons of Adam, except Christ alone. Him they exempt for this reason only, that he was not sown from Adam through a man. In order, therefore, that we may return without disputation concerning the most holy Mother of God to our digression, of this Catholic truth concerning original sin there are most certain testimonies in the treasury of Scripture, both new and old. For behold (says David) I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother conceived me.³ And Ecclesiasticus: From a woman the beginning of sin was made, and through her all die.⁴ To which that man from the Gentiles, simple and upright, also alluded, when he called down so many evils on the day on which man was born. For Job opened his mouth, says Scripture, and cursed his day, and spoke: Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night in which it was said, A man is conceived.⁵ Surely recognizing that that vitiated conception is the cause of all the evils which mortals suffer. And ch. 14: Who can make clean from unclean seed one conceived? And ch. 25 according to the seventy interpreters: No one is clean without filth, not even an infant whose life is one day upon earth. But what was under the cloud in the prophecies of the Fathers has been openly brought forth in the evangelical noon. For to this nearly belongs Paul's argument to the Romans, that he might show that Jews⁶ all and Greeks, namely the whole human race, are under sin; and that there is no distinction, but all have sinned and need the glory of God. Explaining this much more clearly a little below, he says: Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death: and so death passed into all men, in whom all sinned.⁷ And he adds that death passed into those also who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression, that is, actually by their own will. Namely, that he might explain more clearly how all sinned by Adam's sin, since on account of it they die. And Gal. 3: Scripture (he says) concluded all things under sin, that the promise from faith of Jesus Christ might be given to believers.⁸ And Eph. 2: We were by nature children of wrath. Nevertheless, these and very many similar places of Scripture notwithstanding, there was Pelagius with his disciples Celestius and Julian, who strove⁹ to deny that Adam's sin harmed any others besides himself: twisting Paul's words in the other direction, [saying] that all sinned in Adam by imitation alone, but not that they contracted any fault thence by generation. The other holy Fathers, and most especially Augustine, made [them] guilty of this deadly heresy with most firm testimonies, and indeed in his very numerous little works. First, Hypog. art. 2,¹⁰ where from that form of Paul's speaking, "In whom all sinned," he presses that we sinned in him not only by imitation, but that when he sinned, the whole nature in him sinned. Whence alone, he says, the Lord Jesus Christ was made man without seed from a virgin, and was born God and man, free from transgression. And a little after, on that [text] "all sinned and need the glory of God," By saying, he says, "all," he excepts no one: nay rather he declared the whole human race. And in the book On the Merits of Sins and the Baptism of Little Ones, among many other things he especially proves it by that comparison of Paul: Judgment from one unto condemnation, but grace from many offenses unto justification.¹¹ To which the imitation of sinning in no way fits; rather it is expressed that just as in Adam, before we were, we sinned, by which fault moreover we are infected by natural generation, so in the passion of Christ, before we were born, we were freed from all offenses, if that [passion] is applied to us through gratuitous regeneration. Whence book 2, ch. 10, having asked the question in form, whether there is anyone of those born of men, and whether he could ever have been or can be, who has altogether never had or will have any sin, he answers thus: That this one, beyond the one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, no one either is, or was, or will be, is most certain.¹² And against Julian he pursues the same matter by the votes of all the holy Fathers. Among whom he cites Ambrose on Luke:¹³ where he says: He alone through all things born of a woman is the holy Lord Jesus, who did not experience earthly contagions of corruption by the newness of an immaculate birth. Where he places this precisely in the cause of vindicating Christ from original sin, that he was not conceived by virile seed. And in the book On Noah's Ark, concerning the same our Savior, He alone, he says, could be just, when every generation was erring, unless, being born of a virgin, he were held by no privilege of a generation subject to [sin]. And lest we recount the catalogue of all individually, thus book 2 near the end Augustine concludes against Julian: On account of which Catholic truth, the holy and blessed priests, and most renowned in the treatment of the divine utterances, Irenaeus, Cyprian, Reticius, Olympius, Hilary, Ambrose, Gregory, Innocent, John, Basil, to whom I add, whether you will or not, the priest Jerome, not to mention those who have not yet fallen asleep, bring forward against you concerning the original sin of all men, by a succession subject [to it], a sentence from which they except no one except him whom a virgin conceived without the law of sin fighting against the law of the mind.¹⁴ This is Augustine. And book 6 he presses the same heretics more urgently by the weight of that passage which is 1 Cor. 5: If one died for all, therefore all are dead, for whom Christ died.¹⁵ Which collection of Paul he observes most keenly in these words: Paul therefore wished it to follow that all are understood to be dead, if Christ died for all. Since therefore not in the body (namely, it is necessary that all die) — it remains, he says, that all those for whom Christ died are dead in sin; let no one deny, let no one doubt, unless he denies or doubts that he is a Christian. Thus far Augustine himself. For Julian, conceding that Christ died even for little ones, denied that the same were conceived in sin. Augustine argues: If in truth they were not conceived in sin, they never were dead spiritually. But if they were not dead, neither did Christ die for them: Paul attesting that Christ died only for those who were truly dead. As in Rom. 5¹⁶ he says: In this God commends his charity in us, that when we were sinners, Christ died for us. Therefore he died only for those who were truly sinners. Whence the same Apostle in Rom. 8¹⁷ asserts that only Christ the redeemer came in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that all, as many as were redeemed, are understood to have come not in the likeness but truly into the flesh of sin. Which passage Augustine,¹⁸ book 1 On Marriage and Concupiscence ch. 12, where he has a discourse on the marriage of Joseph and Mary, thus expounds: Alone there was no nuptial intercourse, because in the flesh of sin it could not take place without that concupiscence of the flesh which came from sin; without which he wished to be conceived, who was to be without sin: not in the flesh of sin, but in the likeness of the flesh of sin. That from this also he might teach that every flesh which is born from intercourse is flesh of sin: since only she who was not born from it was not flesh of sin. Thus far Augustine. From these universal statements therefore so often resumed, St. Thomas¹⁹ 1.2 q.81 art.3, where he asks whether Adam's sin passes into all men, answers without doubt in these words: I answer that according to the Catholic faith it must be firmly held that all men, except Christ alone, derived from Adam, contract original sin from Adam. For so Paul answers: Death passed into all, in whom all sinned. Finally Pelagius and Celestius were condemned for this heresy in the council of Milevis and Africa,²⁰ by the authority also of Innocent and Zosimus, supreme pontiffs. The words are of the Council of Milevis ch. 2: It likewise pleased that whoever denies that little children, newly come from the wombs of their mothers, are to be baptized, or says that they are indeed baptized for the remission of sins, but that they draw nothing from Adam of original sin which is expiated by the laver of regeneration — whence it follows that in them the form of baptism for the remission of sins is understood as not true but false — let him be anathema. Which words are related among the decrees On Consecration dist. 4.²¹ Where also Augustine's sentence is transferred from On Faith to Peter. It reads thus: Hold most firmly and in no way doubt that every man who is conceived by the intercourse of a man and a woman is born with original sin, subjected to impiety and subject to death: and on this account is born a child of wrath by nature. Which was also renewed in our time by the holy synod of Trent, Sess. 5 can. 4. And these things concerning the first point, whether it exists.