Summa summae S. Thomae sive compendium theologiae

[I say 1°: Adam did penance for his sin, and obtained pardon.

Proof 1° from Holy Scripture. Sap., X, 1 et 2: She (wisdom) preserved him who was first formed by God, the father of the world, when he was created alone, and brought him out of his transgression. But to bring out from transgression is to free from sin, which cannot take place without penance. Therefore.

Proof 2° from the Holy Fathers. Aug., lib. VI Operis imperf. contra Iulian., c. 30: « Thus we read that the things which God had threatened came to pass, so that we may understand that this pardon was of use for this purpose: lest the man who had committed such great evils should be punished with an everlasting penalty for them. There was, then, also for the first man something for which penance would be of profit, that is, that it might punish him with a lasting, but not an eternal, punishment. » Greg. Magn., lib. VI, epist. 31: « Adam afterward returned to life through penance. »

It is urged from the kindness with which God corrected and punished Adam, and it will be confirmed from the following conclusion. Whence

I say 2°: Adam attained eternal salvation.

Proof 1° from Holy Scripture. Sap., IX, 19, it is said: By wisdom they were healed, whosoever have pleased thee, O Lord, from the beginning. And immediately Adam is designated as the first, ibid., X, 1 et 2, in these words: She, him who was first formed by God, the father of the world... brought out of his transgression. But Holy Scripture is not accustomed to say of the damned that they pleased God, nor that they were brought out from their transgression. Therefore.

Proof 2° from the Holy Fathers, especially from Aug., who in the Opere imperfecto cited above, c. 12, says: « There [in eternal life] Adam himself will also be; since he is rightly believed to have already been loosed from the bonds of hell by the Lord's coming and descent into hell; that he, the first handiwork of God, who had no begetter but God alone as creator, and who according to the flesh was the first father of Christ, might no longer remain in those bonds, and might not perish by eternal punishment. « And elsewhere, Epist. 164¹, ad Evodium, c. 3, n. 6, he asserts that this pertains to the faith of the Church, saying: « And indeed, concerning that first man, the father of the human race, that [Christ] loosed him from thence, almost the whole Church agrees; and it must be believed that she did not believe this in vain, from whatever source this was handed down, even if an express authority of the canonical Scriptures is not adduced for this. » Furthermore, if almost the whole Church believes this, it would be rash, and at the least erroneous, to deny it.

S. Hilary, in Psal. cxix, says: « Adam was reserved for pardon and has been glorified in Christ. » S. Greg. Naz., Orat. xxxi, c. 19 in Matth., speaking of Adam and Eve: « The serpent deceived both; Christ by his passion granted salvation to both. » S. Anselm, lib. Cur Deus homo, c. 16: « It is not to be doubted that Adam and Eve belonged to that redemption. » But that he himself is speaking of redemption as to efficacy, and not only as to sufficiency, is clear from what he adds: « Although divine authority does not openly declare this. » For divine authority has openly declared, concerning redemption as to sufficiency, Rom., V, 18: As by the offense of one, unto all men to condemnation, so also by the justice of one, unto all men to justification. And I Tim., II, 6: Who gave himself a redemption for all. And so also elsewhere.

What we have said about Adam, the Fathers and theologians commonly hold the same about Eve.]