Chapter 15.—Man, by Birth, is Placed Under the Dominion of the Devil Through Sin; We Were All One in Adam When He Sinned.

He then proceeds to ask: “Why, then, are they in the devil’s power whom God created?” And he finds an answer to his own question apparently from a phrase of mine. “Because of sin,” says he, “not because of nature.” Then framing his answer in reference to mine, he says: “But as there cannot be offspring without the sexes, so there cannot be sin without the will.” Yes, indeed, such is the truth. For even as “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so also has death passed through to all men, for in him all have sinned.”173    Rom. v. 12. By the evil will of that one man all sinned in him, since all were that one man, from whom, therefore, they individually derived original sin. “For you allege,” says he, “that the reason why they are in the devil’s power is because they are born of the union of the two sexes.” I plainly aver that it is by reason of transgression that they are in the devil’s power, and that their participation, moreover, of this transgression is due to the circumstance that they are born of the said union of the sexes, which cannot even accomplish its own honourable function without the incident of shameful lust. This has also, in fact, been said by Ambrose, of most blessed memory, bishop of the church in Milan, when he gives as the reason why Christ’s birth in the flesh was free from all sinful fault, that His conception was not the result of a union of the two sexes; whereas there is not one among human beings conceived in such union who is without sin. These are his precise words: “On that account, and being man, He was tried by every sort of temptation, and in the likeness of man He bore them all; inasmuch, however, as He was born of the Spirit, He abstained from all sin. For every man is a liar, and none is without sin, but God only. It has accordingly,” adds he, “been constantly observed, that clearly no one who is born of a man and a woman, that is to say, through the union of their bodies, is free from sin; for whoever is free from sin is free also from conception of this kind.”174    Ambrose On Isaiah; see also his Epistle (81) to Siricius. Well now, will you dare, ye disciples of Pelagius and Cœlestius, to call this man a Manichean? as the heretic Jovinian did, when the holy bishop maintained the permanent virginity of the blessed Mary even after child-bearing, in opposition to this man’s impiety. If, however, you do not dare to call him a Manichean, why do you call us Manicheans when we defend the catholic faith in the self-same cause and with the self same opinions? But if you will taunt that most faithful man with having entertained Manichean error in this matter, there is no help for it, you must enjoy your taunts as best you may, and so fill up Jovinian’s measure more fully; as for ourselves, we can patiently endure along with such a man of God your taunts and jibes. And yet your heresiarch Pelagius commends Ambrose’s faith and extreme purity in the knowledge of the Scriptures so greatly, as to declare that not even an enemy could venture to find fault with him. Observe, then, to what length you have gone, and refrain from following any further in the audacious steps of Jovinian. And yet that man, although by his excessive commendation of marriage he put it on a par with holy virginity, never denied the necessity of Christ to save those who are born of marriage even fresh from their mother’s womb, and to redeem them from the power of the devil. This, however, you deny; and because we oppose you in defence of those who cannot yet speak for themselves, and in defence of the very foundations of the catholic faith, you taunt us, with being Manicheans. But let us now see what comes next.

15. Sed adjungit, et dicit: «Per quid igitur sub diabolo sunt, quos Deus fecit?» Sibique veluti ex nostra voce respondet: «Per peccatum,» inquit, «non per naturam.» Deinde nostrae responsioni suam referens: «Sed ut non potest,» inquit, «sine sexibus esse fetus, ita nec sine voluntate delictum.» Ita vero, ita est. Sic enim per unum hominem peccatum intravit in mundum, et per peccatum mors; et ita in omnes homines pertransiit, in quo omnes peccaverunt (Rom. V, 12). Per unius illius voluntatem malam omnes in eo peccaverunt, quando omnes ille unus fuerunt, de quo propterea singuli peccatum originale traxerunt. «Dicis enim,» inquit, «ideo illos esse sub diabolo, quia de sexus utriusque commixtione nascuntur.» Dico plane, propter delictum eos esse sub diabolo: ideo autem expertes non esse delicti, quia de illa commixtione sunt nati, quae sine pudenda libidine non potest etiam quod honestum est operari. Dixit hoc etiam beatissimae memoriae Ambrosius Ecclesiae Mediolanensis episcopus, cum Christi carnalem nativitatem ideo diceret expertem esse delicti, quia conceptus ejus utriusque sexus commixtionis est expers; nullum autem hominum esse sine delicto, qui de illa commixtione conceptus sit. Nam ejus verba ista sunt: «Ideo,» inquit, «et quasi homo per universa tentatus est, et 0445 in similitudine hominum cuncta sustinuit: sed quasi de spiritu natus, abstinuit a peccato (Hebr. IV, 15). Omnis enim homo mendax (Psal. CXV, 2), et nemo sine peccato, nisi unus Deus. Servatum est igitur,» inquit, «ut ex viro et muliere, id est, per illam corporum commixtionem nemo videatur expers esse delicti. Qui autem expers est delicti, expers est etiam hujusmodi conceptionis .» Numquid etiam istum, o Pelagiani et Coelestiani, audebitis dicere Manichaeum? quod eum dicebat esse Jovinianus haereticus, contra cujus impietatem vir ille sanctus etiam post partum permanentem virginitatem sanctae Mariae defendebat. Si ergo illum Manichaeum dicere non audetis; nos cum in eadem causa, eadem sententia fidem catholicam defendamus, cur dicitis Manichaeos? Aut si et illum fidelissimum virum hoc secundum Manichaeos sapuisse jactatis, jactate, jactate, ut mensuram Joviniani perfectius impleatis: nos cum illo homine Dei patienter vestra maledicta et convicia sustinemus. Et tamen haeresiarches vester Pelagius fidem et purissimum in Scripturis sensum sic laudat Ambrosii, ut dicat, ne inimicum quidem ausum esse reprehendere. Quo ergo progressi fueritis attendite, et vos ab ausibus Joviniani tandem aliquando cohibete. Quamvis ille nimis laudando nuptias, sanctae illas virginitati adaequavit; et tamen nuptiarum fructibus ab utero etiam recentibus Christum salvatorem et de potestate diaboli redemptorem necessarium non negavit: quod vos negatis; et quia vobis pro eorum salute, qui nondum pro se loqui possunt, et pro fidei catholicae fundamentis resistimus, Manichaeos nos esse jactatis. Sed jam sequentia videamus.