Chapter 22 [XV.]—A Summary Recapitulation of the Errors of Victor.

What these particular errors are, I have, to the best of my ability, already explained. But I will run over them again with a brief recapitulation. One is, “That God did not make the soul out of nothing, but out of His own self.” A second is, that “just as God who gives is Himself ever existent, so is He ever giving souls through infinite time.” The third is, that “the soul lost some merit by the flesh, which it had had previous to the flesh.” The fourth is, that “the soul by means of the flesh recovers its ancient condition, and is born again through the very same flesh by which it had deserved to be polluted.” The fifth is, that “the soul deserved to be sinful, previous to any sin.” The sixth is, that “infants which are forestalled by death before they are baptized, may yet attain to forgiveness of their original sins.” The seventh is, that “they whom the Lord has predestinated to be baptized may be taken away from his predestination, or die before that has been accomplished in them which the Almighty has predestined.” The eighth is, that “it is of infants who are fore-stalled by death, before they are born again in Christ, that the Scripture says, ‘Speedily was he taken away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding,’” with the remainder of the passage to the same effect in the Book of Wisdom. The ninth is, that “there are outside the kingdom of God some of those mansions which the Lord said were in His Father’s house.” The tenth is, that “the sacrifice of Christians ought to be offered in behalf of those who have departed out of the body without being baptized.” The eleventh is, that “some of those persons who have departed this life without the baptism of Christ do not in the meanwhile go into the kingdom, but into paradise; afterwards, however, in the resurrection of the dead, they attain even to the blessedness of the kingdom of heaven.”

CAPUT XV.

22. Sunt autem ista, de quibus, ut potui, jam disserui: sed breviter ea repetendo percurram. Unum est, «Quod animam non ex nihilo, sed de se ipso Deum fecisse» dixisti. Alterum, «Per infinitum tempus, atque ita semper Deum animas dare, sicut semper est ipse qui dat.» Tertium, «Animam meritum aliquod perdidisse per carnem, quod habuerit ante carnem.» Quartum, «Animam per carnem reparare habitudinem priscam, et per eamdem carnem renasci, per quam meruerat inquinari.» Quintum, «Quod anima meruerit esse peccatrix ante omne peccatum.» Sextum, «Infantes antequam baptizentur, morte praeventos, pervenire posse ad originalium indulgentiam peccatorum.» Septimum, «Quos Dominus praedestinavit ad Baptismum, praedestinationi ejus eripi posse, et ante defungi, quam in eis fuerit quod Omnipotens praedestinavit impletum.» Octavum, «De infantibus qui priusquam renascantur in Christo, praeveniuntur occiduo, scriptum esse, Raptus est ne malitia mutaret intellectum illius:» et caeterea quae in eam sententiam in Sapientiae libro leguntur. Nonum, «Aliquas mansiones esse extra regnum Dei, earum quas Dominus esse dixit in domo Patris sui.» Decimum est, «Sacrificium Christianorum pro eis qui non baptizati de corpore exierint offerendum.» Undecimum, «Aliquos eorum qui sine Baptismo Christi ex hac vita emigraverint, interim non ire in regnum, sed in paradisum; postea vero, in resurrectione mortuorum, etiam ad regni coelorum beatitudinem pervenire.»