Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Loss of Grace · Book IV: On Original Sin
Chapter 18: That not all the sins of parents pass to posterity by generation, but only the first fall of the first man
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).
There remains the last question of those three which we proposed in chapter 13. The question, then, is: what sin is carried over to posterity through generation — that one only which Adam first committed, or all the rest as well, both of Adam himself and of the other parents?
And indeed St. Augustine, in the Enchiridion, chapter 46, says thus: “That little ones are bound also by the sins of their parents — not only of the first men, but even of their own, of whom they themselves were born — is said not improbably.” The same he repeats in book 6 against Julian, chapter 2 [al. 12]; and his opinion St. Leo handed down in the same words, in epistle 86 [al. 35] to Nicetas; St. Gregory also, book 15 of the Morals, chapter 22, seems to have come over to the same opinion. But those holy Fathers spoke perhaps not of the contagion of the fault, but of the communication of the punishment. For God (as we said above, and as is evidently gathered from the divine Scriptures) visits the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation, of them that hate him.
For as to the fault, it ought to be beyond controversy that one sin only — that is, the first sin of the first parent — is transmitted to posterity by carnal generation. For so speaks the blessed Apostle in the epistle to the Romans, chapter 5: And the judgment indeed was by one (offence) unto all men to condemnation; but grace is of many offences, unto justification. In which place the Apostle sets a difference between the sin by which the mass of the human race was condemned, and the grace by which it is freed; and says that the sin was one which destroyed all men, but that grace frees not from that one only, but also from all the others. Hence in the same place the same Apostle says: By the offence of one, many died; and: By the offence of one, death reigned; and: By the offence of one, unto all men to condemnation; and: By the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners. Hence also in the same place he calls Adam the form of him who was to come — that is, of Christ; and in the first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 15, the Apostle compares Adam with Christ, and calls the one the first man, the other the second man — because, namely, the one alone destroyed all his posterity, the other alone repaired all his posterity. But if we drew through generation the sins not only of the first parent, but of the others also, neither would Adam alone rightly be called the form of him who was to come, nor would Christ rightly be called the second man. Which St. Augustine diligently noted, and from Augustine St. Prosper, in the book of the sentences of Augustine, sentence 299.
Then the holy Fathers testify this same thing with the highest agreement. For St. Ignatius, in the epistle to the Trallians, calls the sin which we draw by being born “the ancient impiety.” St. Irenaeus, book 5 against heresies, calls it the handwriting which Adam wrote. St. Cyprian, book 3, epistle 8, calls it the contagion of the ancient death. St. John Chrysostom, on the first epistle to the Corinthians, homily 40, calls it the radical sin. St. Jerome, book 3 against the Pelagians, at the end, acknowledges in little ones no sin besides the first transgression of the first parent, and confirms this by the testimony of Cyprian. St. Augustine, book 1 On the Merits and Remission of Sins, chapter 10, says that the sin is one in which all sinned. And more openly, in the Enchiridion, chapter 43, he writes that little ones, when they are baptized, die to original sin alone, but adults die to all those sins which by living ill they added to that one which they drew by being born. Then he adds, chapter 44, that when adults are said to die to sin through baptism, and little ones are said to be baptized for the remission of sins, each sentence is tropical: for in the former, from the singular number is understood the plural; in the latter, contrariwise, from the plural number is understood the singular. Finally, chapter 45, he adjoins that original sin is one only, but is sometimes signified by the plural number, because it contains many parts and as it were members — since in that one sin pride, sacrilege, spiritual fornication, and certain other things could be discerned. St. Anselm, in the book On the Virginal Conception and Original Sin, chapter 23, proposes the question whether the sin which we draw from the parents is one or many, and answers that it is one. Which opinion was also of Peter Lombard, and of the scholastic theologians, book 2 of the Sentences, distinction 33.
To these come reasons. For if Adam had not sinned, he would indeed have transmitted to posterity original justice, which had been given not so much to himself as to the whole nature in him; but he would not have transmitted his personal gifts — prudence, acquired virtues, and others of that kind. Therefore reason demands that neither should he transmit his personal sins, but that one only on account of which he was deprived of original justice — which by the theologians is named the sin of the nature. Next, experience teaches that often very wicked men have begotten very good men — that is, men prone from their earliest age to virtues and excellent works. For Achaz and Amon, most wicked kings, begot sons Ezechias and Josias, who are related to have been both the best of men and the most excellent of kings from almost their very infancy. But if the vices of all the parents passed to the offspring, certainly Ezechias and Josias would have labored under the vices of their parents, at least at the beginning of their age; for so many vices could not have been utterly rooted out in one day.
Nor indeed do St. Augustine, St. Leo, and St. Gregory, in the places adduced at the beginning, think the contrary. For they spoke not of the contagion of the fault, but of the communication of the punishment. Which can be plain even from this, that they allege those words of Exodus 20: Who renderest the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation. And that this is to be understood of those sons who imitate the sins of their parents, the same Gregory teaches in the place cited, according to the word of the Lord, Ezechiel 18: The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father. But of this matter we discoursed above, in chapters 7 and 8 of this book.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XVIII. Mon transire ad posferns per generationem omnia peccata parentum, sed primam tantum primi hominis lapsum. Postrema restat qiuestio ex tribus illis, quas cap. 13. proposuimus. Est igitur qusestio, quod non peccatum per generationem trajiciatur ad posteros, illud ne unum, quod Adam primo commisit, an esetera omnia tum ipsius Ad<c, tum aliorum parentum ? Et quidem S. Augustinus in Enchiridio cap. 16. sic ait : « Parentum quoque pecca¬ tis parvulos obligari non solum primorum hominum, sed etiam suorum de quibus ipsi nati sunt, non improbabiliter dicitur. » Idem repetit in lib. vi. adversus Julianum cap. 2. ejusque sententiam iisdem verbis tradidit S. Leo in epistol. 86. ad Nicetam ; san¬ ctus etiam Gregorius lib. xv. Moralium, cap. 22. ad eamdem sentcnliam. ut videtur, ac¬ cessit. Caeterum sancti isti Patres, fortasse non de contagione culpa;, sed de communicatio¬ ne poena; locuti sunt. Deus enim (ut supra diximus) et ex Scripturis divinis evidenter colligitur : Visitat peccata Patrum in filios in tertiam et quartam generationem bis, qui oderunt eum. Nam quod attinet ad culpam, extra con¬ troversiam esse debet, unum tantum, hoc est, primum primi parentis peccatum, ad poste¬ ros carnali generatione transmitti. Sic enim B. Apostolus loquitur in epist. ad llom. v : Judicium quidem ex uno (delicto) in omnes homines in condemnationem , gratia vero ex multis delictis in justificationem (1). Quo loco differentiam ponit Apostolus inter peccatum quo damnata est massa generis humani, et gratiam, qua liberatur, ac dicit, peccatum unum fuisse, qoud omnes homines perdidit, gratiam vero non ab illo uno solum, sed etiam ab omnibus aliis liberare. Hinc in eodem loco ipse idem Apostolus ait : Unius delicto multi mortui sunt ; ct : Unius delicto mors regnavit ; ct): Unius deli¬ cto in omnes homines in condemnationem ; ct : Per inobedientiam unius hominis peccatores constituti sunt multi. Hinc etiam in eodem (1) Rom V. 16. CAPUT XVI II. loco vocat Adamum fonnam futuri, id est, Christi, ct in epist I ad Corinth. cap. xv, Apostolus comparat Adamum cum Christo, ct illum vocat primum hominem, hunc secun¬ dum hominem, quia nimirum ille solus om¬ nem suam posteritatem perdidit, hic solus omnem suam posteritatem reparavit. Quod si peccata non solum primi parentis, sed aliorum etiam per generationem traheremus neque solus Adam recte diceretur forma fu¬ turi, neque Christus recte diceretur secundus homo. Id quod diligenter notavit S. Augu¬ stinus et ex Augustino S. Prosper in libro sententiarum Augustini, sententia 299. Deinde sancti Patres hoc idem summa consensione testantur, Nam S. Ignatius in epist. ad Trallianos, peccatum quod nascen¬ do trahimus, vocat antiquam impietatem S. Iraeneus lib. v. «adversus hacreses vocat chiro¬ graphum, quod scripsit Adam. S. Cyprianus lib. m. epist. 8. voc.at contagium mortis anti¬ qua; S. Joannes Chrysostomus in priorem epi- stol. ad Corinth. hornil. 40. vocat radicalepeo- catum.S. Hieronymus lib. m. adversus Pel«a- gianos extremo, non agnoscit in parvulis ullum peccatum, praeter primam primi parentis prae¬ varicationem, idque testimonio Cypriani con¬ firmat. S. Augustinus lib. i. de peccatorum meritis et remiss. cap. 40. unum esse dicit peccatum, in quo omnes peccaverunt. Et apertius in Enchiridio cap. 43. scribit, par¬ vulos soli peccato originali mori cum bapti¬ zantur, adultos autem illis omnibus peccatis mori, qua; male vivendo addiderunt ad illud unum, quod nascendo traxerunt. Deinde ad¬ dit c. -44. cum adulti dicuntur mori pecc.ato per baptismum, etp.arvuli dicuntur baptizari in remissionem peccatorum, utramque sen¬ tentiam esse tropicam, in illis enim ex nu¬ mero singulari intelligi numerum multitudi¬ nis, in istis contra ex numero multitudinis intelligi numerum singularem. Denique cap. 4. 'i. adjungit, peccatum originale unum tan¬ tum esse, sed interdum significari numero multitudinis, quia multas partes et quasi membra continet, cum in illo uno peccato 383 superbia, sacrilegium, fornicatio spiritualis, et alia quaedam cerni potuerint. S. Anselmus in lib. de conceptu virginali et peccato ori- ginali, cap. 23. quaestionem proponit, an pec¬ catum, quod a parentibus trahimus, sit unum vel multa, et respondet esse unum. Quae sententia fuit etiam Petri Lombardi, et scho¬ lasticorum Theologorum lib. n . sentent. dist. 33. His accedunt rationes, nam si Adam non peccasset, transmisisset quidem ad posteros justitiam originalem, quae non tam ipsi, quam toti naturae in ipso data fuerat : non autem transmisisset dona sua personalia, pruden¬ tiam, acquisitas virtutes, et alia id genus : igitur ratio postulat, ut non transmittat etiam peccata sua personalia, sed illud unum dum¬ taxat, propter quod justitia originali privatius fuit, quod naturae peccatum a Theologis no¬ minatur. Deinde experientia docet, saepe viros ad¬ modum malos genuisse viros admodum bo¬ nos, hoc est, ab ineunto aetate pronos ad virtutes, et opera egregia. Achaz enim et Amon reges deterrimi filios genuerunt Eze- chiam et Josiam, qui et viri optimi et reges praestantissimi «ab ipsa pene infantia fuisse narrantur. At si vitia parentum omnium transirent ad proles, baborassent certe pa¬ rentum vitiis Ezechi«as ct Josias, saltem ini¬ tio aetaitis; neque enim uno die tot vitia fun¬ ditus eradicari potuissent. Neque vero S. Augustinus, S. Leo et S. Gregorius in locis initio adductis contrarium sentiunt. Non enim de contagione culpae, sed de communicatione po;n;e locuti sunt. Quod vel ex eo perspicuum esse potest, quod alle¬ gant verba illa Exodi xx : Qui reddis peccata patrum in filios in tertiam et quartam genera¬ tionem (1). Quod esse intelligendum de filiis illis, qui peccata parentum imitantur, idem Gregorius loco cit. docet, juxta verbum Do¬ mini Ezechielis cap. xvm : Filius non porta¬ bit , iniquitatem patris (2). Sed de hac re su¬ pra disseruimus cap. 7. et 8. hujus libri. (l)Exod, XX. 5. -(2) Ezech. XVIII, 20. CONTROVERSIARUM DE AMISSIONE GRATI /E SIVE DE STATU PECCATI