Whether the preceding doctrine abolishes the propagation of original sin
Article VI. Whether the preceding doctrine abolishes the propagation of original sin.
1. Those who deny that God immediately creates the human soul and hold instead that it is educed from the seed's potency commonly object that our doctrine abolishes original sin's propagation and leaves no way to explain how that sin passes from parents to children. To dissolve the cavil by the fact itself, I will name the quasi-integral parts of that sin and show how each is propagated.
2. Original sin has three parts. First: participation in the first parents' sin — the common sin of the whole human race. Second: lack of original justice, the defect of the gifts of intellect and will with which Adam and Eve were adorned before the fall. Third: propensity or inclination to evil. We not only lack the original justice that inclined us to good; when it was removed a contrary quality opposed to the law took its place and makes us prone to every baseness.
3. The first part is propagated neither through soul nor through body as such, but through natural generation — as lineage, nobility, and hereditary right are. Charles is heir because he is the king's son, and the king's son because the king begot him; he is noble because he descends by natural generation from noble parents. So Adam's sin is ours because we are his sons and heirs by natural generation from him. This coincides with those who say a God-created soul becomes corrupt and guilty through hypostatic union with the body: from that union comes the whole human who is Adam's successor and so guilty of Adam's disobedience.
4. Note three points carefully. First: this concerns only a successor begotten by natural generation — by the ordinary concurrence of male and female. Otherwise our Lord Jesus Christ would be guilty of Adam's sin, which is absurd and impious. Second: the blessed Virgin is necessarily guilty of Adam's sin. What makes us guilty of it is found in her; she descends from Adam as we do; therefore she is no less guilty than we.
5. Third: only the first human's sins pass to children, not later parents' sins. The first human received justice not for himself alone but for all his posterity: if he remained in it he would transmit it with nature; if he forsook it by sinning he would pour the stain with nature into all posterity. Later parents were not instituted under that law, so their sins — like their justice — are not propagated but remain singular and personal.
6. Parents transmit the second part — lack of original justice — negatively, as poor and ignoble parents transmit want and obscure lineage: children lack goods their parents cannot confer. So a newborn lacks original justice because the parents lack it and cannot communicate it. Why then do not faithful parents, somewhat restored by grace, transfuse those gifts? Because transmitting this gift to descendants was granted only to the first parents before the fall — not to later parents, nor even to Adam after he once sinned.
7. The third part is commonly said to be transmitted as leprosy is — through seed. Infection in a leper's seed is not leprosy formally and actually but only virtually, a hidden disposition toward leprosy. So spiritual infection in the seed is not sin actually and formally but a hidden disposition toward sin; thus a soul God creates in the body contracts vice from the body from the first, as in a foul place. The solid ground is the natural mutual sympathy — communication of passions and affections — between body and soul as substantial parts of one natural composite. When the body is badly affected, the soul is badly affected.
Latin
ART. VI. An precedens doctrina tollat peccati originalis propagationem. 1. Qui putant humanam animam a DEO immediate non creari, sed ex potentia seminis educi, objicere solent, nostram sententiam plane tollere peccati originalis propagationem, & nullum modum relinquere quo explicari possit istius peccati derivatio a parentibus ad liberos: ut igitur hoc cavillum ipso facto diluam, partes quasi integrantes illius peccati enumerabo, & quomodo singulae propagentur docebo. 2. Partes peccati originalis sunt tres: Primo, participatio peccati primorum parentum; illud enim fuit commune peccatum totius generis humani. Secundo, carentia originalis justitiae, id est, defectus donorum, tum intellectus tum voluntatis, quibus Adamus & Eva ante lapsum ornati sunt. Tertio, propensio vel inclinatio ad malum; non enim solum caremus originali justitia, quae nos ad bonum propensos faciebat, sed etiam a sublata successit contraria qualitas legi adversa, quae nos ad omnem turpitudinem pronos reddit. 3. Prima pars peccati originalis eodem modo propagatur a parentibus ad liberos, quo coloris vel generis splendor, item jus haereditarium: nimirum neque per animam, neque per corpus, sed per naturalem generationem. Sicut enim Carolus, v.g., ideo haeres regni est, quia Regis filius est, & ideo filius Regis, quia a Rege genitus est; sicut etiam Carolus ideo nobilis est, quia nobilium parentum proles est, & ideo proles, quia a nobilibus parentibus per naturalem generationem descendit: ita etiam Adae peccatum ideo est nostrum, quia nos ejus filii & haeredes sumus; i.e. quia per naturalem generationem descendimus ab Adamo. Haec sententia de propagatione primae hujus partis peccati originalis coincidit cum eorum sententia, qui dicunt animam a DEO creatam evadere corruptam & ream per hypostaticam suam unionem cum corpore, quia ex illa unione animae & corporis resultat totus homo, qui est successor Adami, atque adeo reus inobedientiae Adami. 4. Hic tria diligenter notanda sunt: Primo, ea quae jam dicta sunt non esse de quolibet successore Adami, sed de successore per naturalem generationem genito, i.e. de eo, qui per ordinarium modum generandi, videlicet per concursum maris & feminae, ab Adamo descendit; alioqui enim sequeretur Dominum nostrum IESUM CHRISTUM esse reum peccati Adami, quod absurdum & impium dictu est. Secundo notetur, beatam Virginem necessario esse ream peccati Adami; si enim illud ipsum propter quod nos rei sumus peccati Adami, inveniatur in beata Virgine, ipsa non minus est rea quam nos: at verum est prius; illa enim eodem modo descendit ab Adamo quo nos: Ergo etiam verum est posterius. 5. Tertio notetur, solius primi hominis, non vero posteriorum parentum peccata transire in eorum filios: cujus rei ratio praecipue est haec: primus homo justitiam accepit non sibi tantum, sed toti etiam ejus posteritati; ut si permaneret in justitia, eam simul cum natura in posteros transmitteret; sin eam peccando desereret, cum eadem natura labem quoque in omnem posteritatem transfunderet. Cum igitur nemo posteriorum parentum simili lege sit institutus, patet istorum peccata non magis quam justitiam propagari in posteros, sed singularia & (ut loquuntur) personalia tantum esse. 6. Secundam partem peccati originalis, viz. carentiam originalis justitiae, parentes in posteros transmittunt eo modo quo parentes egeni, inglorii, & ignobiles suam egestatem & generis obscuritatem in liberos transfundunt, viz. modo aliquo negativo, non positivo: sicut enim ignobilium & pauperum filii ideo ignobiles sunt & pauperes, quia eorum parentes istis bonis carent, & proinde ea liberis suis conferre nequeunt: ita etiam infans recens natus originali justitia caret, quia parentes ipsius justitia destituti sunt, & proinde eam proli suae communicare nequeunt. Dicet aliquis: parentes fideles, per gratiam restitutionis aliquatenus sibi restituta, cur non ergo ea dona in posteros transfundunt? Resp. quia nulli proximorum parentum, imo ne ipsi Adae, postquam semel peccavit, concessum est ut donum hoc in posteros transmittat; hoc enim concessum est solis primis parentibus ante eorum lapsum. 7. Quod ad tertiam partem peccati originalis attinet, communis sententia est, eam eodem modo propagari & transmitti in liberos, quo lepra transmittitur a parentibus leprosis in eorum liberos, mediante semine ab eis emisso: hoc autem sic declaratur; infectio, quae est in semine leprosi, non est lepra vel esse formaliter & actu, sed solum virtualiter; nam est occulta quaedam dispositio ad lepram: ita etiam infectio spiritualis, quae est in semine, non est peccatum actu & formaliter, sed occulta quaedam dispositio ad peccatum; ex quo fit ut anima in corpore a DEO creata, veluti in loco faedo, a prima sua origine ex corpore vitium contrahat. Hujus rei solidissimum fundamentum est, mutua eaque naturalis sympathia, i.e. passionum & affectionum communicatio, inter corpus & animam, tanquam inter duas partes substantiales idem compositum naturale constituentes. Unde fieri videmus, ut corpore male affecto anima male afficiatur.
About this text
Robert Baron — Philosophia theologiae ancillans from the 1658 Oxford Latin. Exercitatio Prima Art. I-XII On Being and Essence; Exercitatio Secunda Art. I-XV On the origin of the soul and the propagation of sin. Later Exercitationes / remainder of 213 pp remain.
English follows locked 1658 Oxford Latin. Prima Art. I-XII from IA PDF leaves ~15-53. Secunda Art. I-XV from PDF leaves 56-107 / printed pp.54-105 (tess+pdftotext+DjVu). No modern English copied. Exercitatio Tertia+ remain.
Catalogue & scope
Wing B887. IA bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_philosophia-theologi-an_baron-robert_1658. Exercitatio Prima Art. I-XII; Exercitatio Secunda Art. I-XV (De origine animae & propagatione peccati). Not whole Philosophia (213 pp). Exercitatio Tertia+ remain.
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