Chapter 9 [VIII.]—Even They Who Were Not Able to Be Justified are Condemned.

See what he has said. I, however, affirm that an infant born in a place where it was not possible for him to be admitted to the baptism of Christ, and being overtaken by death, was placed in such circumstances, that is to say, died without the bath of regeneration, because it was not possible for him to be otherwise. He would therefore absolve him, and, in spite of the Lord’s sentence, open to him the kingdom of heaven. The apostle, however, does not absolve him, when he says: “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; by which death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”26    Rom. v. 12. Rightly, therefore, by virtue of that condemnation which runs throughout the mass, is he not admitted into the kingdom of heaven, although he was not only not a Christian, but was unable to become one.

CAPUT VIII.

9. Damnantur et ii qui justificari non potuerunt. Videte quid dixerit. Ego autem dico, parvulum natum in eo loco ubi ei non potuit per Christi Baptismum subveniri, morte praeventum, idcirco talem fuisse, id est, sine lavacro regenerationis exisse, quia esse aliud non potuit. Absolvat ergo eum, et aperiat ei contra sententiam Domini regnum coelorum (Joan. III, 5). Sed non eum absolvit Apostolus, qui ait: Per unum hominem peccatum intravit in mundum, et per peccatum mors; et ita in omnes homines pertransiit, in quo omnes peccaverunt (Rom. V, 12). Recte ergo ea damnatione, quae per universam massam currit, non admittitur in regnum coelorum, quamvis christianus non solum non fuerit, sed nec esse potuerit.