Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Loss of Grace · Book IV: On Original Sin
Chapter 14: That the sin of origin pertains to the children of the faithful, just as to the children of unbelievers
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. V, De Amissione Gratiae et Statu Peccati, Book IV. 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).
The second question was: to whom original sin is carried over. And indeed it ought not to be called back into controversy whether it is carried over to those who by no means descend from Adam through carnal generation. For it cannot be doubted that the Lord Jesus Christ, who was conceived in the womb of the Virgin not from the seed of man, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, lacked original sin. And the same reasoning would hold if anyone else, through the divine power, drew his origin from elsewhere than from Adam. And so the question is only whether all who are born of Adam through carnal generation draw original sin. For not a few of the heretics will have all the children of the faithful conceived and born without the sin of origin; and many of the Catholics contend that the Virgin Mother of God was free of absolutely all sin, even original. Of each opinion we shall briefly discourse.
Huldrych Zwingli, then, in the book On Baptism, and in the Declaration on the Sin of Origin, teaches as a thing certain and established that there is nothing in the children of the faithful, even before baptism, which can properly be called sin — although he judges that the same can probably be said of the children of unbelievers; nay, he absolutely denies the sin of origin, as we demonstrated above. John Calvin, in the Antidote to the Council of Trent, on chapter 5 of session 6 [al. session 5], and in book 4 of the Institutes, chapter 16, §§24 and 25 [al. 23], teaches that the sin of origin is not imputed to the children of the faithful, and that even before baptism they are holy, and members of the Church. Like things teach Martin Bucer, on chapter 3 of Matthew, and Peter Martyr and Henry Bullinger, on chapter 7 of the first to the Corinthians.
But this their opinion — or rather heresy — is openly repugnant to the word of God, to the tradition of the Fathers, to the decrees of Councils and Pontiffs, and to the custom of the universal Church.
For first, the testimonies which we brought above from the Scriptures to prove original sin are universal, and comprehend all men, whether children of the faithful or of unbelievers. Next, that place, Psalm 50 — For behold I was conceived in iniquities, etc. — teaches that not any man whatever, but David himself, was conceived in sin; and that David was the son of a faithful and just man cannot be doubted. Rufinus, on this place (as we also cited above): “David was born of Jesse, a just man, and his wife. What is it, then, that he says of himself that he was conceived in iniquities, unless that iniquity is drawn down from Adam? No one is born without drawing the fault and the punishment of the fault.” Likewise that of the Apostle, Ephesians 2 — We also were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest — is most openly said of children of the faithful, such as the Apostle was, who writes to the Philippians, chapter 3, that he was of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; and to the Galatians, chapter 2, he says that he was by nature — that is, from birth — a Jew, and not of the gentiles a sinner. Finally, circumcision was, by the command of God (Genesis 17), to be applied to the children of the faithful; and yet it either took away the sin of origin, or signified the taking of it away, as all the ancients concede.
To these comes the tradition of the Fathers. For St. Cyprian, book 3, epistle 8, to Fidus, had been asked concerning the children of the faithful, whether they could be baptized before the eighth day (for unbelievers neither procured nor suffered their children to be baptized); and Cyprian answered that such little ones are to be baptized even before the eighth day, if need be, on account of the contagion of the ancient death which each of them contracted by his first nativity. St. Ambrose was without doubt speaking of the children of the faithful when he said, in the Apology of David, chapter 11: “Before we are born, we are stained with contagion”; for he sets himself also in that number, and the others who are born of Christian parents. St. Jerome, in the epistle to Laeta on the education of her daughter: “Christians,” says he, “are not born, but made” — which Tertullian also had written before, in the Apologetic, chapter 18 [al. 17]. The children of the faithful, then, are not born holy and members of the Church, as the adversaries teach. St. Augustine, book 2 On Original Sin, chapter 40: “The regenerated man,” says he, “does not regenerate the sons of his flesh, but generates them; and thereby he carries over into them not that whereby he is regenerated, but that whereby he was generated. Thus, then, whether the guilty unbeliever or the absolved believer — neither of the two generates absolved sons, but guilty ones. As not only the seeds of the wild olive, but even of the olive, generate not olives, but wild olives.” The same he teaches, book 1 On Marriage and Concupiscence, chapters 18, 19, and 20; book 6 against Julian, chapters 2 and 3; and book 2 On the Merits and Remission of Sins, chapter 25 and the two following. Many like testimonies of the Fathers could be added; but there is no need, since not even one of the Fathers can be adduced who thought the contrary.
Now as to the decrees of Councils and Pontiffs: the Council of Milevis, canon 2, when it says anathema to those who deny that little ones fresh from their mothers' wombs are to be baptized for the remission of sins; and blessed Siricius, in epistle 1 to Himerius, chapter 2, when he commands that succor be brought to infants through baptism with all speed — without doubt speak chiefly of the children of the faithful. For (as we said above) unbelievers, for the most part, either did not suffer or did not procure that their children be regenerated through baptism.
Finally, the custom of the universal Church ought to have great force in matters of this kind. Now there has always been in the Church this solicitude of the faithful: to take the greatest care lest their children, at whatever age, depart without baptism. “Whoever” (says Augustine, epistle 28 to Jerome) “shall say that even those little ones are quickened in Christ who depart from life without the participation of his Sacrament, this man assuredly both goes against the Apostolic preaching, and condemns the whole Church — where for this reason there is hastening and running with little ones to be baptized: because without doubt it is believed that in no other way can they be quickened in Christ. But he who is not quickened in Christ — it remains that he abide in that condemnation of which the Apostle says: By the offence of one, unto all men to condemnation.” Certainly, if in the Church there is hastening and running with little ones to be baptized, it is the faithful, who are in the Church, that hasten and run — lest, namely, the children of the faithful, departing without baptism, be not in the kingdom of heaven with their faithful parents, but in the lower world with the other children of unbelievers. Certainly too Zwingli and Calvin and the rest, who say that the little ones of the faithful are quickened in Christ even if they depart without the participation of his Sacrament, go against the Apostolic preaching and condemn the whole Church. There comes last that custom which has always been most celebrated in the Church, of exorcising and exsufflating the children of the faithful who are to be baptized. For it most openly testifies that even the children of the faithful are subject to the unclean spirit, until, the Holy Spirit coming upon them, they be cleansed: “It is true,” says St. Augustine, book 6 against Julian, chapter 2 [al. 5], “what of old, with true Catholic faith, is preached and believed throughout the whole Church — which would neither exorcise nor exsufflate the children of the faithful, if she did not pluck them out from the power of darkness and from the prince of death.”
Further, the arguments by which the adversaries seem to have been moved to assert this novelty — against the consent of the whole Church, nay even (as we have shown) against the very word of God — are most light, and refuted by us in the book On Baptism, chapter 4. Their chief foundation is those words: I will be thy God, and of thy seed after thee, Genesis 17. For although this was said to Abraham alone, yet it is understood to have been said to all his posterity, because the promise is eternal. For thus God speaks: I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and between thy seed after thee in their generations, by a perpetual covenant: to be thy God, and of thy seed after thee. And so what God said to Abraham, the same is understood to have been said to his son, and his grandson, and the rest even forever. And we through Christ have been made sons of Abraham also, and joined to the people of God. Wherefore it is to be judged that to each of us it was said: I will be thy God, and of thy seed; and thereby the children of the faithful, by this very thing that they are children of the faithful, pertain to that covenant, and are reckoned as gathered to the people of God. I answer that that promise, insofar as it was spiritual and pertained to eternal life, was made to the seed of Abraham not according to the flesh, but according to faith, as the Apostle expounds, Romans 4 and 9, and Galatians 3 and 4. Hence the children of the faithful do not, by this very thing that they are children of the faithful according to the flesh, pertain to the covenant and to the people of God; but they then first begin to be reckoned into the seed, and to be contained in the covenant, when they begin to imitate the faith of their parents — which they do either by believing, or by receiving the Sacrament of faith; although to receive the Sacrament of faith is itself also a certain believing, as Augustine teaches, book 1 On the Merits and Remission of Sins, chapter 27 [al. 25] — where also in express words he refutes what the Calvinists say, that the children of the faithful before baptism pertain to the sheep of Christ: “Since little ones do not begin to be of his sheep except through baptism, assuredly, if they receive not this, they will perish.”
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XIV. Ad filios fidelium peccatum originis pertinere , quemadmodum ad filios infidelium. Altera quaestio erat, ad quos peccatum originale trajiciatur. Et quidem in contro¬ versiam revocari non debet, an trajiciatur ad eos, qui ex Adamo per carnalem genera¬ tionem minime descendunt. Neque enim du¬ bitari potest, quin Dominus Jesus Christus, qui non ex semine viri, sed Spiritus sancti virtute in utero Virginis conceptus fuit, origi¬ nali peccato caruerit. Et eadem ratio esset, si aliquis alius per divinam potentiam aliunde, quam ex Adam originem duceret. Itaque so¬ lum quaestio est utrum omnes, qui per carna¬ lem generationem ex Adamo nascuntur, tra¬ hant originale peccatum. Siquidem non pauci ex haereticis sine peccato originis concipi, ac nasci volunt omnes filios fidelium : multi au¬ tem ex Catholicis, Virginem Deiparam omnis omnino peccati, etiam originalis expertem fuisse contendunt. De utraque sententia bre¬ viter disseremus. Igitur Huldricus Zwinglius in lib. de Ba¬ ptismo, et in declaratione de peccato origi¬ nis, tamquam rem certam et exploratam do¬ cet, nihil esse in filiis fidelium, etiam ante baptismum, quod proprie peccatum dici pos¬ sit : quamquam probabiliter idem dici posse censeat de filiis infidelium ; quin etiam abso¬ lute peccatum originis negat, ut supra de¬ monstravimus. Joannes Calvinus in Antidoto Concilii Trident. ad cap. 5. sess. 6. et lib. iv. Instit. cap. 16. § 24, et 23. docet, filiis fidelium non imputari Teccatum originis, et etiam ante baptismum esse sanctos, et membra Ecclesiae. Similia docent Martinus Bucerus in cap. iii Matth. Petrus Martyr et Henricus Bulingerus in cap. 7. prioris ad Corinth. Sed haec eorum sententia, vel haeresis po¬ tius, aperte repugnat verbo Dei, traditioni Patrum, decretis Conciliorum, atque Ponti¬ ficum, et Ecclesiae universae consuetudini. Primum enim testimonia, quae supra attu¬ limus ex Scripturis ad probandum originale peccatum, universalia sunt, et homines om¬ nes, sive fidelium, sive infidelium filios com¬ prehendunt. Deinde locus ille Psalm. l : Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum, etc. (1), non quemcumque hominem, sed Davidem ipsum in peccato conceptum fuisse docet ; porro Davidem filium fuisse hominis fidelis et justi dubitari non potest. Ruffinusin hunc locum (ut etiam supra citavimus) : cDavid, inquit, natus erat de Jesse viro justo, et con- juge ejus. Quid est ergo quod de se dicit, in iniquitatibus conceptum esse, nisi quia de¬ trahitur iniquitas ex Adam, nemo nascitur, nisi trahens culpam et culpae poenam. » Item illud Apostoli ad Ephes. ii : Eramus et nos natura filii irse, sicut et exteri (2), aper¬ tissime dicitur de fideliis fidelium, qualis erat Apostolus, qui ad Philip, iii. scribit, se fuisse degenere Israel, ex tribu Benjamin, Hebraeum ex Hebraeis. Et ad Galat. ii. dicit, se natura, hoc est, a nativitate, Judaeum, non ex genti¬ bus peccatorem. Denique circumcisio Dei mandato (Genes, xvn. ) filiis fidelium adhi- (l) I Rom. VI, 23. — (2) I Cor. XX, 22. _ (3) Psal. L, 7. - (4) Eph. II, 3. LIBER IV. benda erat, et tamen ea peccatum originis vel tollebat, vel tollentium significabat, ut veteres omnes concedunt. Adhtec accedit traditio Patrum. NamS. Cy¬ prianus lib. iii. epist. 8. ad Fidum de filiis fidelium interrogatus fuerat, utrum ante octa¬ vum diem baptizari possent. Neque enim in¬ fideles filios suos baptizari procurabant, aut sinebant. Respondit autem Cyprianus bapti¬ zandos esse ejusmodi parvulos etiam ante octavum diem, si opus sit, propter contagium mortis antiqua; quod unusquisque eorum prima nativitate contraxit. S. Ambrosius de filiis fidelium sine dubio loquebatur, cum diceret in Apologia David cap. 11 : « Antequam nascamur, contagio». Nam se quoque in eo numero ponit, et alios qui de Christianis parentibus nascuntur. Sanctus Hieronymus in epistol. ad Laetam de institutione filia; : « Christiani, inquit, non nascuntur, sed fiunt. » Quod antea scri¬ pserat etiam Tertulianus in Apologetico cap. 17. non igitur filii fidelium nascuntur sancti, et Ecclesia; membra, ut adversarii docent. S. Augustinus lib. ii. de peccato originali, cap. 40 : « Regeneratus, inquit, non regene¬ rat filios carnis, sed generat, ac per hoc in eos non quod regeneratus, sed quod genera¬ tus est, trajicit. Sic igitur sive reus infidelis sive absolutus fidelis non generat absolutos uterque, sed reos. Quomodo non solum ole¬ astri, sed etiam olea; semina non oleas ge¬ nerant, sed oleastros ». Idem docet lib. i. de nuptiis et concupiscentia, c. 18. 19. et 20. lib. vi. adversus Julianum cap. 2. et 3. et lib. ii. de peccatorum meritis et remissione, cap. 25. et duobus sequentibus. Addi possent multa similia Patrum testi¬ monia, sed non est opus, cum ne unus qui¬ dem ex Patribus adduci possit, qui contra senserit. Jam vero quod attinet ad Conciliorum at¬ que Pontificum decreta, Concilium Milevi- tanum canon. 2. cum dicit anathema iis, qui negant parvulos recenter ab uteris matrum baptizandos esse in remissionem peccatorum, et B. Siricius in epistol. 1. ad Ilimerium, cap. 2. cum infantibus jubet per baptismum omni celeritate succurri, sine dubio de filius fidelium pra;cipue loquuntur. Nam (ut supra diximus) infideles, ut plurimum, aut non si¬ nebant, aut non procurabant, ut filii ipsorum per baptismum regenerarentur. Denique Ecclesiae universae consuetudo, magnam vim in ejusmodi rebus habere de¬ bet. Semper autem in Ecclesia fuit haec sol¬ licitudo fidelium, ut summopere caverent, ne filii ipsorum in quavis aetate sine bapti¬ smo decederent : « Quisquis,» inquit Augu¬ stinus epistol. 28. ad Hieronymum « dixerit, quod in Christo vivificabnntur etiam parvuli, qui sine Sacramenti ejus participatione de vita exeunt, hic profecto et contra Aposto- licam praedicationem venit, et totam con¬ demnat Ecclesiam, ubi propterea cum ba¬ ptizandis parvulis festinatur et curritur, quia sine dubio creditur, aliter eos in Chrito vivificari non posse. Qui autem non vivifica¬ tur in Christo, restat ut in eadem damnatione maneat, de qua dicit Apostolus, Per unius delictum in omnes homines in condemna¬ tionem. » Certe si in Ecclesia cum baptizandis par¬ vulis festinatur et curritur, a fidelibus, qui in Ecclesia sunt, festinatur et curritur ; ne videlicet filii fidelium sine baptismo dece¬ dentes non sint in regno coelorum cum pa¬ rentibus fidelibus, sed apud inferos cum alii filiis infidelium. Certe etiam Zwinglius et Calvinus et ca;teri, qui parvulos fidelium in Christo vivificari dicunt, etiamsi absque Sacramenti ipsius participatione decedant, contra praidicationem Apostolicam veniunt, et totam condamnant Ecclesiam. Accedit postremo illa consuetudo, qua; semper in Ecclesia celeberrima fuit, exorci¬ zandi et exsufflandi filios fidelium baptizan¬ dos. Illa enim apertissime testatur, filios etiam fidelium immundo spiritui subditos esse, donec Spiritu sancto in eos superve¬ niente mundentur : « Verum est, inquit S. Augustinus in lib. vi contra Julian. cap. ii, quod antiquitus veraci fide Catholica prffidi- catur et creditur per Ecclesiam totam, qua; filios fidelium, nec exorcizaret, nec exsuffla¬ ret, si non cos de potestate tenebrarum, et a principe mortis erueret. » Porrit argumenta, quibus adversarii ad hanc novitatem, contra totius Ecclesia; con¬ sensum, imo etiam (ut ostendimus) contra ipsum Dei verbum asserandam permoti vi¬ dentur, levissima sunt, et a nobis refutata in lib. de Baptismo cap. iv. Prsecipuum fundamentum eorum, sunt illa verba : Ero Deus tuus, et seminis tui post te, Gen. xvii (I). Quamvis enim hoc dictum sit (1) Gen. XVIII, 7. CAPUT XV. 373 soli Abrahae, tamen intelligitur dictum esse omnibus ejus posteris, quia promissio aeterna est. Sic enim loquitur Deus : Statuam pactum meum inter me, et te, et inter semen tuum post te in generationibus suis foedere sempiterno , ut sim Deus tuus, et seminis tui post te. Itaque quod dixit Deus Abrahae, idem intelligitur dictum filio ejus, et nepoti, et caeteris usque in sempiternum. Nos autem per Christum facti sumus etiam Abrahae filii, et conjuncti populo Dei. Quare unicuique nostrum dictum esse existimandum est : Ero Deus tuus, et seminis tui : ac per hoc filii fidelium, hoc ipso quod filii sunt fidelium, ad foedus illud per¬ tinent, et populo Dei aggregati esse cen¬ sentur. Respondeo, promissionem illam, quatenus spiritualis erat, et ad vitam aeternam perti¬ nebat, factam esse semini Abraham, non se¬ cundum carnem, sed secundum fidem, ut exponit Apostolus ad Rom. iv et ix et ad Gal. iii et iv. Proinde filii fidelium non hoc ipso, quod sunt filii fidelium secundum car¬ nem, pertinent ad foedus, et ad populum Dei, sed tunc primum incipiunt deputari in semen, et in foedere contineri, cum incipiunt imitari fidem parentum suorum, quod faciunt vel credendo, vel Sacramentum fidei pien- do, quamvis ipsum Sacramentum fidei susci¬ pere sit etiam quoddam credere, ut Augu¬ stinos docet lib i. de peccatorum meritis et remissione cap. 27 ; ubi etiam disertis ver¬ bis refellit quod Calvinistffi dicunt, filios fi¬ delium ante baptismum pertinere ad oves Christi : « Quoniam, inquit, de ovibus ejus esse non incipiunt parvuli, nisi per bapti¬ smum, profecto, si hoc non accipiunt, peri¬ bunt. » «