Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Loss of Grace · Book VI: The Punishments of Original Sin
Chapter 13: On the miseries of human nature which come from without
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. V, De Amissione Gratiae et Statu Peccati, Book VI. 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).
We have briefly explained those miseries which arise in man from man himself; now we must speak of those which come from without.
The first and greatest is that men, after the sin of the first parent, have God angry and an enemy: For we are all born, as the Apostle says in Ephesians 2, children of wrath. But if God is against us, who will dare to be for us? And what wonder if the globe of the earth is armed against man, when he who made heaven and earth is an enemy to man?
The second is that we have been delivered into the power of the prince of darkness, who indeed invades the bodies even of many little ones, and miserably vexes and torments them; and he solicits the minds of all to sin, and, having a thousand arts of hurting, day and night, like a roaring lion, he goes about seeking whom he may devour. “Against the thousand-formed incursions of the demons,” says Augustine, book 22 On the City of God, chapter 22, “who trusts in his own innocence? — seeing that, lest anyone should so trust, they sometimes so vex even baptized little ones, than whom certainly nothing is more innocent, that in them above all, God permitting, this lamentable calamity of this life is displayed.”
The third is that man lies in wait for man, a most cruel and most savage enemy, in every place and time. For who could explain how great things men suffer from enemies, from pirates, from robbers? Do there not often befall from them plundering, and captivity, and chains, and prison, and exile, and torture, and amputation of limbs, and privation of the senses, and the oppression of the body to satisfy the obscene lust of the oppressor, and many other horrible things?
The fourth is the disobedience of the animals devoid of reason. For in the beginning God set man over the beasts of the earth, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, as Scripture speaks in Genesis 1; and certainly, if the first man had not departed from the command of God, all the animals would easily have obeyed the command of man. Now indeed man retains a certain primacy over the beasts, and can by his own right use them for his own conveniences; but he has lost, on account of sin, the free execution of it. For they refuse his command, often even rise up against their very master, and are not subjected except with great industry and labor — even as princes sometimes rule rebellious peoples, and masters fugitive slaves. God signified this in Genesis 9, in those words to Noe: Let the fear and dread of you be upon all the beasts of the earth, and upon all the fowls of the air, and all that move upon the earth. In which place those words, fear and dread, indicate that in the state of innocence the dominion was peaceful, but after sin it was to be violent and terrible. And St. Augustine, in the place cited, observes that men suffer many things not only from the bites, whether merely troublesome or even deadly, of wild beasts and savage creatures, but also sometimes from tame and domestic animals: for on account of the madness which comes from a rabid dog, it happens that a beast gentle and friendly to its own master is sometimes feared more vehemently and more bitterly than lions and dragons.
The fifth is the calamity which is wont, not rarely, to befall from heaven, earth, and sea. For it can scarcely be told how great are the losses which befall the race of men — to use the words of the same Augustine — from heats and colds, tempests, rains, floods, lightning-flashes, thunder, hail, thunderbolts, movements and gapings of the earth, crushings of falling buildings, eruptions of fires, and from so many poisons of shrubs, waters, airs. What evils do they suffer who sail the sea? What, they who journey by land? What, the tillers of gardens and fields? How many and how great mishaps to the fruits of the fields are feared from heaven and earth, or from destructive animals? Yet men are wont at last to be secure about their grain once gathered and stored. But from some, as we have known, an unforeseen river cast out and carried away from their barns a most excellent harvest of grain.
The sixth is the hardship — which can by no reasoning be foreseen — of fortuitous accidents; which, as it would have had no place in the state of innocence, so after sin it meets us on every side: “Who walks anywhere,” says Augustine, “not lying open to unexpected accidents? A certain man, returning home from the forum on his own sound feet, fell, broke his foot, and from that wound ended this life. What seems safer than one sitting? From the seat on which he was sitting Heli the priest fell, and died.” Thus Augustine. To which could be added many like things which are read in Valerius, book 9, chapter 12, and Pliny, book 7, chapters 7 and 53.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XIII. De miseriis natur x humanae, quae exttinsecus accedunt. Explicuimus breviter eas miserias, quae in homine ex ipso homine oriuntur : nunc de illis dicendum est, quae extrinsecus accedunt. Prima et summa est, quod homines post peccatum primi parentis, Deum iratum et inimicum habent : Nascimur enim omnes (ut Apostolus ait ad Ephes. n.) filii irae (4). Si autem Deus contra nos est, quis pro nobis esse audebit? Et quid mirum, si armatur or¬ bis terrae contra hominem, cum inimicus ho¬ mini sit, qui fecit coelum et terram ? Secunda est, quod traditi sumus in potestate princi¬ pis tenebrarum, qui quidem multorum etiam parvulorum corpora invadit, eosquc misera¬ biliter vexat et cruciat. Omnium autem men¬ tes sollicitat ad peccatum, et mille nocendi artes habens , die noctuque tanquam leo rugiens circuit quaerens quem devoret. Con¬ tra milleformes (inquit Augustinus lib. xxn. de Civit. Dei cap. 22.) daemonum incursus quis innocentia sua fidit? quandoquidem ne quis fideret, etiam parvulos baptizatos, qui¬ bus certe nihil est innocentius, aliquando sic vexant, ut in eis maxime, Deo sinente, ista monstretur hujus vitae flenda calamitas. Tertia est, quod homo homini hostis crude¬ lissimus et immanissimus, omni loco et tem¬ pore insidiatur. Quis enim explicet, quanta patiantur homines ab hostibus, a pyratis, a latronibus? nonne ab eis et depredatio, et captivitas, et vincula, et carcer, et exilium, et cruciatus, et amputatio membrorum, et privatio sensuum, et oppressio corporis ad obscoenam libidinem opprimentis explen¬ dam, et alia multa horrenda sa3pe contin¬ gunt? Quarta est inobedientia animantium ra¬ tionis expertium ; praeposuit enim initio Deus hominem bestiis terrae, volatilibus coeli, et pi¬ scibus maris (5), ut Scriptura loquitur Gen. i. et certe si primus homo ab imperio Dei non recessisset, omnia animantia hominis impe¬ rio facile paruissent. Nunc vero retinet qui¬ dam homo principatum in bestias, eisque jure suo ad sua commoda uti potest : sed liberam exeeutionem propter peccatum ami- (1) Job. XIV, 1 . - (2) Reg. XV, 32. - (3) II Corin. V, 4. - (4) Eph. II, 3. - (5) Gen. I, 26. 1.1 HER M. 4« sit. Detrectant enim imperium, siepe etiam in ipsum Dominum suum insurgunt, neque nisi magna industria ct labore subjiciuntur ; quemadmodum principes regunt aliquando populos rebelles, et domini mancipia fugi¬ tiva. Significavit hoc Deus Genes, ix illis verbis ad Noe : Terror vester ac tremor sit super omnia animantia terne, et super omnes volu¬ cres cceli, et cuncta quie moventur in terra (I). Quo loco verba illa, terror ac tremor, indi¬ cant, in statu innocentiae fuisse pacificum imperium; post peccatum autem, futurum violentum atque terribile. Observat autem S. August. loco citato, non solum multa ho¬ mines pati ab agrestium bestiarum et fera¬ rum, vel tantummodo molestis, vel etiam mortiferis morsibus : verum etiam interdum a mansuetis et domesticis animalibus : pro¬ pter rabiem enim, qua; contingit ex rabido cane, fit, ut. blanda et amica suo Domino bestia nonnunquam vehementius et ama¬ rius, quam leones draconesque metuatur. Quinta est calamitas, qme e cmlo, terra, mari, non raro accidere solet. Nam vix dici potest, quanta ea detrimenta sint, qua; con¬ tingunt hominum generi, ut ejusdem Augu¬ stini verbis utar, ab sestibus et frigoribus, tempestatibus, imbribus, alluvionibus, coru¬ scatione, tonitru, grandine, fulmine, motibus hiatibusque terrarum, oppressionibus ruina¬ rum, eruptionibus ignium, a tot venenis fru¬ ticum, aquarum, aurarum. Qua; mala pa¬ tiuntur navigantes? qua; terrena itinera gra- dientes? qure hortorum agrorumque culto¬ res? quot et quanti a coelo et terra, vel per¬ niciosis animalibus casus timentur agrorum fructibus? solent tamen de frumentis tandem collectis et reconditis esse securi. Sed qui¬ busdam, quod novimus, proventum optimum frumentorum, fluvius improvisus, de horreis ejecit atque abstulit. Sexta est, qua; nulla ratione praevideri po¬ test aerumna casuum fortuitorum, quae sicut in statu innocentiae locum nullum habuisset, ita post peccatum undique occurrit : « Quis ambulat, inquit Augustinus, ubicumque non inopinatis subjacens casibus? de foro quidam rediens domum sanis pedibus suis, cecidit, pedem fregit, et ex illo vulnere finivit hanc vitam. Quid videtur sedente securius? de sella, in qua sedebat, cecidit Heli sacerdos et mortuus est. » Haec Augustinus. Quibus uddi possent multa similia, quae leguntur »pud Valerium lib. ix. cap. 12. et Plinium lib. vn. cap. 7 et 53.