On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §208

Man. Post. Cap. III: Minus commode — culpa unius / poena omnibus; imputation absurdities

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You had put the same point less happily in chapter 1: this guilt belonged to one man, but the penalty is common to all. You mark a split between Adam's guilt and the penalty—guilt of one, penalty of all. Do you not see what follows? The penalty then fails to match the guilt: a guilt that is not common is avenged by a common penalty, and punishment falls on people who have no guilt.

If the penalty is everyone's and the guilt only one man's, then all but one are guiltless—how are they justly punished? If the guilt is one man's and not common, why impute it to all? Say that though it is one man's, imputation makes it common to all, and you still do not escape. What is not my guilt ought not to be imputed to me. Imputation does not make it mine so that it can then be charged; rather, because it is mine, it is charged. Otherwise the charge is false and unjust.

And if Adam's guilt is mine only by imputation, then God the Judge—I shudder to think it—made me a sinner by His act of imputing; He did not find me one. Imputation is the judge's act, not mine. Strip away imputation and I am free of that guilt; it is not mine, but was Adam's alone. So the judge—that is, God—made me sinner and guilty (see where this imputation leads, and shudder with me), and becomes the cause of my first sin and first reatus. In law Adam's penalty belongs to me no more than his guilt. If his guilt is not mine in the thing itself, but only by imputation, the same must be said of the penalty.

Latin

Minus commode idem dixeras Cap. 1. haec culpa unius hominis fuit, sed poena omnibus hominibus est communis &c. Hoc discrimen observas inter culpam Adami & poenam, quod culpa unius hominis fuit, poena vero communis omnibus. Nonne vides quid sequatur, nimirum poenam non respondere culpae; quippe, culpam enim non communem vindicari poena communi: poenam iis irrogari, quorum non sit culpa. Certe si poena est omnium, culpa tantum unius, omnes, uno excepto, culpa vacant, quomodo igitur puniuntur juste? Si culpa unius hominis est, nec est communis omnibus, cur omnibus imputatur? Si eam dicas, cum unius sit, imputatione fieri communem omnibus, non evades, primum enim quae mea culpa non est, ea mihi imputari non debet. Non enim ideo mihi imputatur ut sit mea, sed contra quia mea est, idcirco mihi imputatur: alioqui mihi imputatur falso & injuste. Deinde si culpa Adami mea non est nisi imputatione, fecit me Deus Judex (cogitans horresco) sua imputatione peccatorem, non invenit: est enim imputatio judicis actus, non meus. Tolle imputationem, culpa illa vaco; mea enim non est, sed fuit unius hominis Adami: me igitur (vide quo ducat ista imputatio & mecum cohorresce) judex, hoc est, Deus fecit peccatorem ac reum, & causa est primi mei peccati, primi mei reatus. Denique de jure non magis ad me poena Adami pertinet quam culpa. Si igitur culpa ejus mea non est reipsa, sed tantum imputatione, idem etiam de poena dicendum est.

About this text

Josue de la Place (Placeus) — Capita I–XIV partial of De imputatione primi peccati Adami from the 1661 Saumur Latin, through Man. Post. Caput X (GAR.1–3 Rom. 5.13 tip) / before PLAC on reatus-only. Honest partial; Cap. X Rom. 5:14+ / ~494 pp Disputatio remain.

English follows the locked 1661 Saumur Latin of Capita I–XIV partial through Man. Post. Caput IX (eph-ho / eph-ho pantes) before eph-ho / eph-ho pantes, reconstructed from IA PDF page images with Vision OCR and pdftotext as check. No modern English was copied. Cap. IX deepen+ remain.

Catalogue & scope

IA deimputationepri00lapl. Densify: Capita I–XII + Caput XIV + Man. Post. Cap. II–VI through Cap. X Rom. 5:14 tip. Not whole Disputatio; Cap. X Rom. 5:14+ / ~494 pp Disputatio remain.

Witnesses

This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.