Chapter 6.—Not Death Alone, But Sin Also Has Passed into Us by Means of Adam.

In that particular, indeed, wherein they say “that death passed to us by Adam, not sins,” they have not the Manicheans as their adversaries: since they, too, deny that original sin from the first man, at first of pure and upright body and spirit, and afterwards depraved by free will, subsequently passed and passes as sin into all with death; but they say that the flesh was evil from the beginning, and was created by an evil spirit and along with an evil spirit; but that a good soul—a portion, to wit, of God—for the deserts of its defilement by food and drink, in which it was before bound up, came into man, and thus by means of copulation was bound in the chain of the flesh. And thus the Manicheans agree with the Pelagians that it was not the guilt of the first man that passed into the human race—neither by the flesh, which they say was never good; nor by the soul, which they assert comes into the flesh of man with the merits of its own defilements with which it was polluted before the flesh. But how do the Pelagians say “that only death passed upon us by Adam’s means”? For if we die because he died, but he died because be sinned, they say that the punishment passed without the guilt, and that innocent infants are punished with an unjust penalty by deriving death without the deserts of death. This, the catholic faith has known of the one and only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who condescended to undergo death—that is, the penalty of sin—without sin, for us. As He alone became the Son of man, in order that we might become through Him sons of God, so He alone, on our behalf, undertook punishment without ill deservings, that we through Him might obtain grace without good deservings. Because as to us nothing good was due so to Him nothing bad was due. Therefore, commending His love to them to whom He was about to give undeserved life, He was willing to suffer for them an undeserved death. This special prerogative of the Mediator the Pelagians endeavour to make void, so that this should no longer be special in the Lord, if Adam in such wise suffered a death due to him on account of his guilt, as that infants, drawing from him no guilt, should suffer undeserved death. For although very much good is conferred on the good by means of death, whence some have fitly argued even “of the benefit of death;” yet from this what can be declared except the mercy of God, since the punishment of sin is converted into beneficent uses?

6. In eo sane quod dicunt, «Per Adam mortem ad nos transisse, non crimina,» non habent adversarios Manichaeos: quia nec ipsi astruunt originale peccatum ex homine primo prius puro et recto corpore ac spiritu, et postea per arbitrium liberum depravato, deinceps in omnes cum morte transisse et transire peccatum: sed carnem dicunt ab initio malam de malo corpore, et a malo spiritu et cum malo spiritu creatam; animam vero bonam, partem scilicet Dei, pro meritis inquinationis suae per cibos et potum, in quibus antea colligata est, venire in hominem, atque ita per concubitum carnis vinculo colligari. Ac per hoc Manichaei consentiunt Pelagianis, non crimen primi hominis transisse in genus humanum, neque per carnem, quam nunquam fuisse dicunt bonam, neque per animam, quam perhibent cum meritis inquinamentorum suorum, quibus polluta est ante carnem, venire in hominis carnem. Sed Pelagiani quomodo dicunt, «solam mortem ad nos transisse per Adam?» Si enim propterea morimur, quia ille mortuus est; ille autem mortuus est, quia peccavit: poenam dicunt transire sine culpa, et innocentes parvuvulos injusto supplicio puniri, trahendo mortem sine meritis mortis. Quod de uno solo mediatore Dei et hominum homine Christo Jesu catholica fides novit, qui pro nobis mortem, hoc est, peccati poenam sine peccato subire dignatus est. Sicut enim solus ideo factus est hominis filius, ut nos per illum Dei filii fieremus: ita solus pro nobis suscepit sine malis meritis poenam, ut nos per illum sine bonis meritis consequeremur gratiam. Quia sicut nobis non debebatur aliquid boni, ita nec illi aliquid mali. Commendans ergo dilectionem suam in eos quibus erat daturus indebitam vitam, pati pro eis voluit indebitam mortem. Hanc singularem Mediatoris praerogativam Pelagiani evacuare conantur, ut hoc jam non sit in Domino singulare, si Adam ita propter culpam mortem passus est debitam, ut parvuli ex illo nullam trahentes culpam, mortem patiantur indebitam. Quamvis enim bonis conferatur per mortem plurimum boni, unde nonnulli congruenter etiam de bono mortis disputaverunt; tamen et hinc quae praedicanda est nisi misericordia 0614 Dei, quod in bonos usus convertitur poena peccati?