Chapter 27 [XXIV.]—Through Lust Original Sin is Transmitted; Venial Sins in Married Persons; Concupiscence of the Flesh, the Daughter and Mother of Sin.

Wherefore the devil holds infants guilty who are born, not of the good by which marriage is good, but of the evil of concupiscence, which, indeed, marriage uses aright, but at which even marriage has occasion to feel shame. Marriage is itself “honourable in all”97    Heb. xiii. 4. the goods which properly appertain to it; but even when it has its “bed undefiled” (not only by fornication and adultery, which are damnable disgraces, but also by any of those excesses of cohabitation such as do not arise from any prevailing desire of children, but from an overbearing lust of pleasure, which are venial sins in man and wife), yet, whenever it comes to the actual process of generation, the very embrace which is lawful and honourable cannot be effected without the ardour of lust, so as to be able to accomplish that which appertains to the use of reason and not of lust. Now, this ardour, whether following or preceding the will, does somehow, by a power of its own, move the members which cannot be moved simply by the will, and in this manner it shows itself not to be the servant of a will which commands it, but rather to be the punishment of a will which disobeys it. It shows, moreover, that it must be excited, not by a free choice, but by a certain seductive stimulus, and that on this very account it produces shame. This is the carnal concupiscence, which, while it is no longer accounted sin in the regenerate, yet in no case happens to nature except from sin. It is the daughter of sin, as it were; and whenever it yields assent to the commission of shameful deeds, it becomes also the mother of many sins. Now from this concupiscence whatever comes into being by natural birth is bound by original sin, unless, indeed, it be born again in Him whom the Virgin conceived without this concupiscence. Wherefore, when He vouchsafed to be born in the flesh, He alone was born without sin.

CAPUT XXIV.

27. Per libidinem traducitur peccatum originale. Peccata venialia in conjugibus. Concupiscentia carnis, peccati filia et mater. Quapropter natos non ex bono quo bonae sunt nuptiae, sed ex malo concupiscentiae, quo bene quidem utuntur nuptiae, de quo tamen erubescunt et nuptiae, reos diabolus parvulos tenet. Quia cum sint ipsae honorabiles in omnibus ad eas proprie pertinentibus bonis, etiamsi thorum habeant immaculatum (Hebr. XIII, 4), non solum a fornicationibus et adulteriis, quae sunt flagitia damnabilia, verum etiam ab illis excessibus concumbendi, qui non fiunt causa prolis voluntate dominante, sed causa voluptatis vincente libidine, quae sunt in conjugibus peccata venialia: tamen cum venturum fuerit ad opus generandi, ipse ille licitus honestusque concubitus, non potest esse sine ardore libidinis, ut peragi possit quod rationis est, non libidinis. Qui certe ardor, sive sequatur, sive praeveniat voluntatem, non tamen nisi ipse quodam quasi suo imperio movet membra, quae moveri voluntate non possunt: atque ita se indicat non imperantis famulum, sed inobedientis supplicium voluntatis, nec libero arbitrio, sed illecebroso aliquo stimulo commovendum, et ideo pudendum. Ex hac carnis concupiscentia, quae licet in regeneratis jam non deputetur in peccatum, tamen naturae non accidit nisi de peccato: ex hac, inquam, concupiscentia carnis, tanquam filia peccati, et quando illi ad turpia consentitur, etiam peccatorum matre multorum, quaecumque nascitur proles, originali est obligata peccato, nisi in illo renascatur, quem sine ista concupiscentia Virgo concepit: propterea quando nasci est in carne dignatus, sine peccato solus est natus.