Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Loss of Grace · Book II: That God Is Not the Author of Sin
Chapter 7: That from the doctrine of Zwingli, Calvin, and Beza it is not ill gathered that sin is nothing but a false opinion, as the Libertines will have it
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. V, De Amissione Gratiae et Statu Peccati, Book II. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
But if it seem blasphemous, and intolerable to Christian ears — as assuredly it ought to seem — that God is both the author of sin and himself alone truly sins, nothing else remains but that the adversaries say that there is no sin, nor ever was. For neither do men sin, since whatever they do, they do with God commanding and impelling, and even bringing necessity; nor does God sin either, since he, who is the highest good, can do nothing evil. And this very thing is what the Libertines will have — whom Calvin, begotten by himself, undeservedly refuses to acknowledge.
And so great is the absurdity of this Libertine dogma that even from it Calvin could have been sufficiently admonished to consider how pestilent and pernicious a doctrine he has brought into the world. For if once the difference of good and evil be taken away, as the Libertines strive to take it away, straightway both the faith and religion by which we are Christians will be taken out of the way, and all political government, through which men are joined in society with men, will utterly perish. For if there can be no sin in the world, the whole divine Scripture, which everywhere reprehends sins, will be false; there will also be no gehenna, which the Lord so often threatens to sinners; there will be no judgment to come at the end of the age, which the same Lord foretold more than once; Christ himself also will have come into this world in vain to save sinners; in vain will he have borne the cross and death, that by his obedience he might expiate the disobedience of Adam; in vain will he have instituted the Sacraments, which should be both remedies of past sins and defenses for guarding against future ones. And if the divine Scripture is false, if the Sacraments are empty, if the incarnation, passion, resurrection of Christ profit nothing, if there is no fear of judgment or of gehenna, to what purpose are we Christians? And, to pass over religion: if parricides, adulteries, thefts, betrayals are not sins, certainly they cannot justly be punished; but if such things be perpetrated with impunity, how will any society of men be able to stand for long? But there is no need to confute with words or reasons this error, which fights most openly with the very light of reason. For Aristotle rightly admonished, book 1 of the Topics, chapter 9, that they who doubt about the clearest things are to be restrained not with words, but with stripes.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT VII. Ex doctrina Zwinglii, Calvini et Bezx, non male colligi nihil esse peccatum, nisi fal¬ sam opinionem, ut volunt Libertini. Quod si blasphemum, et Christianis auri¬ bus intolerandum videtur, ut sane videri debet, Deum et peccati esse auctorem, et solum ipsum vere peccare : nihil restat aliud, nisi ut adversarii dicant, nullum esse, neque unquam fuisse peccatum. Nam neque homi¬ nes peccant, cum quicquid agunt, Deo ju¬ bente, et impellente, atque adeo necessita¬ tem adferente faciant : neque Deus etiam peccat, cum ipse, qui summum est bonum, nihil facere possit mali. Atque hoc ipsum, est, quod Libertini volunt, quos Calvinus a se genitos immerito recusat agnoscere. Tanta est autem Libertini hujus dogmatis absurditas, ut vel ex ipsa satis admoneri Calvinus potuerit, ut cogitaret quam pesti¬ lentem, ac perniciosam doctrinam in orbem terrarum invexerit. Nam si semel tollatur discrimen boni, et mali, quemadmodum il¬ lud tollere conantur Libertini, continuo et fides, ac religio, qua Christiani sumus, tolle¬ tur e medio, et omnis politica gubernatio, per quam homines cum hominibus socian¬ tur, penitus interibit. Nam si nullum esse potest in mundo peccatum, tota Scriptura divina, quse passim peccata reprehendit, falsat erit: nulla quoque erit gehenna, quam tam saepe Dominus peccatoribus commina¬ tur : nullum erit futurum judicium in fine saeculi, quod idem Dominus non semel prae¬ dixit : ipse etiam Christus frustra venerit in hunc mundum peccatores salvos facere ; frustra crucem, et mortem pertulerit, ut sua obedientia Adami inobedientiam expiaret; frustra instituerit Sacramenta, quae essent et remedia peccatorum praeteritorum , et praesidia ad cavenda futura. Quod si Scriptura divina falsa est, si ina¬ nia Sacramenta, si Christi incarnatio, pas¬ sio, resurrectio nihil prosunt, si nullus est judicii, aut gehennae metus, quorsum Chri¬ stiani sumus? Ac ut omittamus religionem, si parricidia, adulteria, furta, proditiones, peccata non sunt , certe juste puniri ne¬ queunt; si vero impune talia perpetrentur, quo pacto ulla societas hominum diu stare poterit? Sed non est opus hunc errorem verbis, aut rationibus confutare, qui cum ipso lumine rationis apertissime pugnat. Re¬ cte enim admonuit Aristoteles lib. i. Topic. cap. 9. eos, qui de rebus clarissimis dubi¬ tant, non esse verbis, sed verberibus coer¬ cendos.