Original sin and concupiscence in the early church

Sin inherited from Adam, guilt or corruption passed on by birth, and concupiscence. Part of Sin.

Miscellanies 3.16.100Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Jeremiah's curse on his birthday laments the people's sins, not birth; Ezra and Job lament too; a newborn has committed no sin; David's “in sin my mother conceived me” refers to Eve, mother of the living, not to his own sinfulness.
On the Soul 40Tertullian · ca. 210 · Every soul is unclean in Adam until it is born anew in Christ; the flesh is only the soul's instrument, so sin belongs chiefly to the soul.
On the Soul 41Tertullian · ca. 210 · The soul's inherited corruption overshadows but cannot extinguish the good God gave it; in the new birth of baptism it recovers its light and is wedded to the Holy Spirit.
Commentary on John 20.217Origen · ca. 230–248 · Paul's “by nature children of wrath” refutes Heracleon's distinction.
Commentary on John 20.291Origen · ca. 230–248 · If even Paul was by nature a child of wrath, so was everyone.
Homily on Luke 14Origen · ca. 233–250 · Christ’s circumcision and presentation were for our sake; “their purification” leads Origen to distinguish the “defilement” of bodily birth from sin, to explain the baptism of infants by it, and to speak of Mary’s womb as opened only at Christ’s birth.
Homilies on Leviticus 8.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen sees a hidden mystery in the impurity of childbirth: the saints never celebrated birthdays, Jeremiah and Job cursed theirs, David was conceived in iniquity, and the church baptizes infants for the remission of sins; the circumcision that matters is of the spirit.
Homilies on Leviticus 12.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ alone was 'not defiled for father and mother', being born of an undefiled body without human father and never sinning against God the Father or the heavenly mother; he never leaves the holy place, which is found in holy deeds, not locations.
Against Celsus 7.50Origen · ca. 248 · Scripture teaches more clearly than Celsus that becoming involves error: newborns need a sin offering, creation is subject to vanity, and the soul's life here is lowly compared with life with the Lord.
Commentary on Matthew 15.23Origen · ca. 246–248 · Baptism, the washing of regeneration, is the prelude to the final regeneration, the baptism of Spirit and fire, when the Son of Man sits on his throne, death is abolished, and the saints share his glory.
Commentary on Romans 5.1Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains Romans 5:12–14: the unfinished comparison, sin and death entering through Adam, sin “dead” before the natural law, death’s reign until Moses as a tyranny, and Adam as a type of the one to come.
Commentary on Romans 5.2Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains how Adam is a type of Christ, similar in kind but contrary in effect, why Paul writes “many” rather than “all,” and how death reigns through upbringing as well as birth.
Commentary on Romans 5.4Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains the condemnation that came to all through Adam, as bodily death or as expulsion from paradise into this valley of weeping.
Commentary on Romans 5.5Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen distinguishes sinning from being a sinner and explains why Paul says “many,” not “all,” are made sinners through Adam and righteous through Christ.
Commentary on Romans 5.9Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains being “planted together” in the likeness of Christ’s death and resurrection, answers Docetists, and discusses two meanings of “the body of sin,” including infant baptism as an apostolic tradition.
Letter 64.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · If even grave sinners are baptized when they believe, much more should an infant, who has no sins of his own but has contracted from Adam the contagion of the ancient death.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 1.7Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The seven churches addressed stand for the one catholic church, as do Paul's letters to seven churches and the seven women of Isaiah.
Tractates on the Psalms 58.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · David, who confessed his sin and his birth in sin in Psalm 50 (51), cannot be the sinless speaker here.
Sermon on Baptism 2Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian explains how Adam’s sin brought death on all, hidden before the law and exposed but not cured by it, until grace came through Christ.
Sermon on Baptism 5Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian argues that as Adam’s sin passed to his whole race, so Christ’s righteousness passes to his.
Commentary on Ephesians 2:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The 'desires of the flesh' mean unbelief and idolatry; nature becomes 'of wrath' by an evil will, not by its substance, and is restored by returning to God.
Commentary on Romans 5:12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster reads Rom 5:12 “in whom” as “in Adam”: all sinned in Adam as in a lump and are born under sin and bodily death, while the second death comes only by one’s own sins; Christ, one with God, undoes what Adam began.
Commentary on Romans 7:14Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The law is spiritual, but man, descended from Adam and enslaved by his own sins, is carnal and too weak to keep it without God’s help, since since the fall the devil has access to his mind.
Commentary on Romans 7:18Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The flesh is not evil, but sin dwells in it as the corruption left by Adam’s sin, which the devil uses; so a person wills the good but lacks the strength to do it.
Question 47, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Isaiah’s cleansing of the sons and daughters is the forgiveness revealed in Christ, which all need: sinners for their own sins, the righteous for Adam’s.
Question 112, section 8Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · David pleads human weakness, inherited from Adam, whose transgression made all his descendants liable to sin.
Question 112, section 27Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · “Zion” is the church, and David prays for the fulfillment in Christ of full forgiveness, including freedom from Adam’s inherited sin.
Letter 131.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine asks Jerome where an infant's soul contracts the guilt from which baptism frees it, noting that Jerome affirms original sin.
Letter 131.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine sets out the difficulty: if each soul is newly created, how can infants dying unbaptized justly be condemned for Adam's sin?
Letter 131.21Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine argues from 1 Cor 15:22 that no one is made alive except in Christ, so unbaptized infants remain under Adam's condemnation.
Letter 131.27Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine shows that the same difficulty besets the view that souls pre-exist, and rejects the idea that souls are imprisoned in bodies for sins of a former life.
Letter 144.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine says he has not yet found how the soul inherits Adam's sin without itself being derived from Adam, and prefers to inquire rather than assert rashly.
Letter 144.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine turns the question back on Optatus: how can a soul inherit Adam's sin if it is not itself derived from Adam?
On Cain and Abel 1.10Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · As Abel followed Cain, so in every person the self-seeking comes first and reverence for God later; only Christ, born of a virgin, was free from this from the start.
On Noah 7Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · The Spirit does not remain in fleshly men but remained on Christ, who alone, born of a virgin, was free of the bonds of sin common to all since Adam.
On Noah 81Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · The human heart is eagerly set on evil from youth, though even infants are not without sin; God therefore punishes only in part.
On the Lord's Prayer 1183Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Even the saints must pray for forgiveness, as sharers in Adam’s nature and fall; praying toward the east recalls the lost paradise, and like the prodigal we confess our condition, clothed in garments of skin and fig leaves instead of the divine robe.
On the Lord's Prayer 1185Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · All die in Adam and so share his need of forgiveness; but each person’s own conscience suffices, for no one is sinless in sight, hearing, taste, or touch, the “windows” through which death enters the soul.
Book of Heresies 120.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · David spoke of the transgression of Adam and Eve.
Book of Heresies 120.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The psalm refers to the first parents' sin.
Book of Heresies 120.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · All inherit the first parents' transgression.
Second Apology of David 69Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · David confesses to God, who alone sees the heart and can blot out what is written there; he sinned in himself and in Adam.
Second Apology of David 71Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · All sinned in Adam, who broke the command entrusted to him; we owe a debt, and must recognize who the lender is.
Apology of the Prophet David 56Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · David’s penitence acknowledges sin from conception; we are conceived and born amid the parents’ sin and the impurities of birth, though marriage is good.
Apology of the Prophet David 57Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Only Christ, conceived and born of the Virgin, was free from the contagion of human origin; David lamented that stain in himself.
Exposition of Psalm 118 4.22.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Inherited iniquity clings to us, and only God’s grace in Christ removes it; it is a worn path, not our nature.
Exposition of Psalm 118 6.23.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Born of a virgin, Christ is free of inherited sin; he breaks down the dividing wall and calls the soul to see him face to face.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.8.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On verse 51: pride is the greatest sin; by it Adam fell and passed guilt to us.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.25.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God justly condemned Adam but justly pardons us, his heirs, bound by inherited weakness.
Letter 98.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine answers Boniface that parents who offer baptized infants to demons cannot bind them with their sin, since inherited guilt comes only from Adam, in whom all were one.
Letter 98.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The infant is made faithful by the sacrament of faith, which protects him and, if he dies before reason, frees him from Adam's condemnation.
Letter 143.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whatever the origin of souls, the soul now rules its body imperfectly 'after sin,' whether its own or Adam's; even infants are born in the flesh of sin and need baptism.
Letter 157.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Against the claim that unbaptized infants cannot perish, Augustine cites Romans 5 on sin entering through Adam, and defends infant baptism as freeing them from inherited condemnation.
Letter 157.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paul's contrast between condemnation from one offense and justification from many shows that original sin is inherited by generation, not merely imitated.
Letter 157.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The law, whether natural, given in paradise, or Mosaic, could not give life but increased transgression; Christ's grace saves infants and adults alike, even the gravely fallen.
Letter 157.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Infants share Adam's sin and need baptism; before the law sin existed but was not imputed, since there was no law to expose it.
Letter 157.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Death reigned even over those who had not personally sinned because of Adam's transgression; Augustine discusses two interpretations and a textual variant in Rom 5:14.
Letter 157.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If sin passed only by imitation, Paul would have named the devil, and Abel as the model of righteousness; instead he contrasts Adam and Christ.
Letter 157.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns Hilary about Caelestius, condemned at Carthage, who admitted infants need redemption, and hopes the Pelagians may be healed within the church.
Letter 166.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Jerome where an infant's soul contracts the guilt that makes baptism necessary, noting that Jerome himself affirmed original sin against Jovinian and in his Commentary on Jonah.
Letter 166.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · In On Free Will Augustine left open four views on the soul's origin, leaving out the Manichaean view that it is part of God; now he asks Jerome which of the four is true, consistent with infants' need of Christ.
Letter 166.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If each soul is newly created, Augustine cannot see how unbaptized infants can justly be condemned, and he asks Jerome how this view can be defended.
Letter 166.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Since all die in Adam and are made alive only in Christ, unbaptized infants are condemned, as the church's practice and Jerome himself affirm; but Augustine cannot see why, if their souls are sinless.
Letter 166.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whatever one thinks of Cyprian on other points, no one may oppose the apostolic faith in original sin or the church's custom of infant baptism, which is not for the body.
Letter 166.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The same difficulty faces the view that pre-existing souls are sent into bodies; Augustine rejects the Origenist view of souls imprisoned for earlier sins and of endless cycles.
Letter 167.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains, with the parable of a man in a well, why the question about James matters more for life than the question of the soul's origin.
Letter 179.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Pelagius should be asked plainly whether we must pray not to sin and whether infants are freed from original sin by Christ's grace.
Letter 179.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Pelagius must either admit original sin in Abel or retract his claim, since his defense implies everyone's early life is sinful.
Letter 186.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Infants are born under the punishment owed to Adam's sin; God's distinguishing among them by grace is inscrutable but never unjust.
Letter 186.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paul's image of the potter shows that since the whole human lump fell into condemnation through Adam's free choice, honour is from mercy and dishonour from just judgment.
Letter 186.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Esau and Jacob had no works of their own, but both were born guilty in Adam, so the one freed should praise mercy and the one punished not blame judgment.
Letter 186.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those who deny original sin must say what becomes of infants who die unbaptized; Pelagius himself anathematized the view that such infants have eternal life.
Letter 186.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Since unbaptized infants lack life and a just God would not condemn the innocent, their condemnation must come from original sin in Adam.
Letter 186.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whoever accepts Pelagius's anathemas must positively confess the Catholic counterparts: original sin, the need of baptism, grace for every act, and grace not given according to merit.
Letter 186.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine quotes Paulinus's own lament over the corruption inherited from Adam as a confession of original sin.
Letter 187.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Birth belongs to Adam and rebirth to Christ; Christ, who had no sin, needed only to be born, but by his baptism commended our regeneration.
Letter 187.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Every child of a lawful marriage is born through concupiscence and must be reborn; Christ alone, conceived of the Virgin without concupiscence, needed no rebirth.
Letter 190.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whatever the soul's origin, one must hold firmly that all are born guilty in Adam and freed only by rebirth in Christ.
Letter 190.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whether souls are new or propagated, the faith must stand that no one, adult or infant, is freed from original sin except through Christ the mediator.
Letter 190.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God creates even those destined to damnation because the whole lump from Adam is condemned; birth makes vessels of wrath by just punishment, rebirth vessels of mercy by grace.
Letter 190.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If Optatus holds that new souls are created for each person, he must explain how they incur original condemnation without making God the author of sin or of injustice.
Letter 190.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Even a spiritual traducianism, which preserves original sin, faces insoluble questions about how a soul could be transmitted from parent to child.
Letter 190.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine keeps his book to Jerome private until he receives an answer showing how new souls could incur original sin without God being its author.
Letter 190.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns Optatus against the Pelagian heresy condemned by Innocent and Zosimus, which uses the creation of new souls to deny original sin, quoting Pelagius's argument.
Letter 190.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If Optatus cannot reconcile the creation of new souls with original sin, he must drop the theory, since infant baptism truly remits sins, as Zosimus's letter affirms.
Letter 193.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Pelagians concede that infants believe through their sponsors; then, by John 3:36, unbaptized infants are unbelievers on whom God's wrath remains, which can only be from original sin.
Letter 194.44Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Children of baptized parents still inherit sin through concupiscence, as the seed of a cultivated olive yields a wild olive; the Church must baptize all infants, as farmers graft all shoots.
Letter 194.45Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Pelagian claim that infants profess belief in the remission of sins only for others is a laughable evasion.
Letter 217.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sets out twelve propositions of Catholic faith on original sin, grace, judgment, infant baptism, free will, and prayer for unbelievers.
Letter 250.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says he has never dared to excommunicate a whole household, since innocents would be punished and some might die unbaptized, and asks Auxilius for his reasons.
On the Mysteries 6Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · After the font come the anointing of the head, signifying a priestly people, and the washing of the feet, which Ambrose links to the removal of hereditary sin and to humility.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.77.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Adam’s fault passed to us; the corruptible body weighs down the soul and the wisdom of the flesh will not submit to God.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.8.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The “iniquity of the heel” is Adam’s wound from the serpent, from which all his descendants limp.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.9.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The iniquity of the heel is the inherited slipperiness toward sin from Adam’s transgression, which Christ washes away.
On Free Choice of the Will 3.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–395 · Sins done in ignorance or under the necessity of the flesh are a just penalty inherited from man's condemnation; ignorance and difficulty are not human nature as created but the punishment of sin.
On Free Choice of the Will 3.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–395 · To those who complain that they inherit ignorance and difficulty from Adam, Augustine answers that God everywhere helps those who seek; inherited weakness is called sin because it comes from the first free sin, and nature is spoken of both as created and as fallen.
On Free Choice of the Will 3.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–395 · Augustine shows that, whichever account of the soul's origin is true (derived from the first soul, newly created, sent by God, or coming of its own accord), inherited ignorance and difficulty can be overcome with God's help, and God is not to blame.
Sermon 51.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The patriarchs were allowed several wives only to multiply offspring; Christians should love their wives chastely and seek intercourse only for children, for the need of it is a punishment inherited from Adam.
Sermon 57.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God tempts no one to evil, though he tests; but by hidden judgment he abandons some to the tempter; after baptism concupiscence remains, and we must fight it within, asking God not to abandon us.
Sermon 69.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one can flee from God, so we must flee to him; Christ, born of a virgin without lust, saw us under the fig tree of Adam’s sin and calls us to humility.
Sermon 115.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Infants brought to Christ need the Savior because they inherited Adam’s sin, though they committed none themselves; adults must plead for them and bring them to the grace that wipes out both inherited and added sin.
Sermon 136.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ left the man’s eyes unformed so as to heal them as a miracle; the man, like everyone, had original sin, though that was not the cause of his blindness; all are born blind in heart.
Sermon 143.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Faith in Christ is the only cleansing from original and personal sin, since it joins us to the sinless one; therefore unbelief is the sin of which the Spirit convicts the world.
Sermon 151.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Concupiscence, with which we are born and because of which infants are baptized, arose when Adam and Eve broke the first law and felt the shameful motion of their bodies; Christ, conceived without it, frees us from it.
Sermon 152.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Baptism removes the guilt of original sin and of all past sins, so there is no condemnation for those in Christ even though desire remains; they must fight it as free men.
Sermon 153.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sin and death passed from Adam to all, so that even infants are guilty; Christ, conceived by the Spirit and not from sexual desire, frees us from inherited and added sin, for where sin abounded grace abounded more.
Sermon 165.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the claim that God creates everyone immortal and each dies for his own sins, Augustine points to dying infants, who have no personal sin and so must die from Adam's sin and need Christ's grace.
Sermon 165.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Infants dying in the womb have done no good or evil, so death comes from Adam's sin; Christ's grace alone saves young and old, and why one rather than another is unsearchable, so we should simply trust God's mercy.
Sermon 170.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul's words must not be taken in the Manichaean sense that the Law came from an evil god; the Law is good, given to reveal the sickness of those who thought themselves healthy, while all inherit Adam's sin, even day-old infants.
Sermon 170.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “The world” means those who love the world, whose prince is the devil; in Christ alone the devil found nothing, while David, though lawfully born, confesses that he was conceived in iniquity, the inheritance of all born of man and woman.
Sermon 174.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To deny that infants have anything for Jesus to save is to deny that he is Jesus, Savior, to baptized infants, who become his members, receive his sacraments, and share his table.
Sermon 174.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine pleads for infants, who cannot speak for themselves: all inherit Adam's sin and pass to Christ only by baptism; baptized parents beget by the flesh, so their children too must be reborn, as the ancient rule of faith holds.
Sermon 176.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one descended from Adam is healthy without Christ's grace, including infants, whom the Church brings to baptism on others' feet, hearts, and tongues; to deny their need is to keep them from the Physician.
Sermon 216.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In baptism God the Father and mother Church give a new birth free of punishment and guilt; its spiritual ages do not succeed one another but endure together and lead to the seventh age of rest.
Sermon 246.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ says “my Father and your Father” because he is Son by nature and we by grace, and “my God and your God” because he was born of a virgin without sin, while we are born with the sin drawn from Adam, which is why infants are brought to baptism.
Sermon 255.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The psalm distinguishes “men,” who belong to Adam and receive health in common with beasts, from “sons of men,” who belong to the Son of man, through whom comes righteousness.
Sermon 293.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Through the mediator the whole mass of humanity estranged in Adam is reconciled to God; not merits but grace distinguishes the saved, and all, infants included, are saved only through Christ.
Sermon 293.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · ‘All die in Adam, all are made alive in Christ’ means that no one comes to death except through Adam and no one to life except through Christ.
Sermon 293.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Jesus means Savior, and he saves his people from their sins; if infants had nothing to be saved from, they should not be brought to baptism, but they are, because in Adam they died and only through Christ can they live.
Sermon 293.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even John the Baptist was born with original sin, since he was born of a man and a woman; his own words ‘I ought to be baptized by you’ show he needed the Savior who freed him.
Sermon 294.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If infants have no original sin, the Pelagians cannot justly exclude them from the kingdom, since even exile from it would be a punishment inflicted on the innocent; denying original sin leaves them no answer.
Sermon 294.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine confesses he cannot fully fathom why the unbaptized infant goes into condemnation and takes refuge in God’s unsearchable judgments; the Pelagian too, unable to answer by reason, must flee to the Lord’s authority.
Sermon 294.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ alone is without sin, conceived without lust; sinners become his members as the bitten Israelites were healed by looking at the bronze serpent, by believing in the crucified.
Sermon 294.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If infants are told to look in faith to Christ, their inherited guilt must be confessed; they are healed by the words of those who answer for them in baptism, since they were wounded by another’s deed.
Sermon 294.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The bronze serpent prefigures Christ sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, who took the punishment of sin without its guilt and so healed both; if infants are brought to him, they are confessed to be poisoned and in need of healing.
Sermon 294.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · ‘Whoever does not believe is already condemned’ and ‘the wrath of God remains upon him’ leave no eternal life outside faith; baptized infants are counted among believers, while original fault, become nature in Adam’s descendants, is healed only by Christ.
Sermon 294.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Pelagian reading that Paul meant only that others imitated Adam, Augustine replies that the devil, not Adam, sinned first; Paul names Adam as our origin, in whom we all sinned, and Christ as our regeneration.
Sermon 294.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To the objection that baptized parents should bear sinless children, Augustine answers that parents beget by carnal generation, not by their regeneration, as cleaned grain still produces chaff and the circumcised beget uncircumcised children.
Sermon 294.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To the claim that if Adam harms non-sinners Christ should profit non-believers, Augustine replies that Christ does profit baptized infants, who are counted as believers by their parents’ faith; so they were also defiled by their first parents’ sin.
Sermon 294.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine reads Cyprian’s ruling that infants may be baptized before the eighth day: they have contracted the contagion of Adam’s death and receive forgiveness of another’s sins, which shows the Church’s ancient belief in original sin.
Sermon 294.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine asks that those who deny original sin be borne with patience and corrected as brothers, since error may be tolerated on unsettled questions but not when it shakes the Church’s foundation.
Sermon 299.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Both Peter and Paul were unwilling by nature and willing by devotion: death, a punishment from Adam’s sin, cannot be loved but only endured, and the martyrs are great because they endured it for love of what lies beyond.
Sermon 314.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The day after the Lord's birthday the Church keeps the birthday of Stephen, who saw heaven opened and Christ standing, and died praying for his enemies; his name means “crown”, and that crown still hangs from heaven for all who follow him.
Sermon 318.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs overcame not only the world's delights but its torments, fighting against the sin of denying Christ to the point of blood, as Susanna and Joseph resisted adultery; denying the truth is adultery of the heart, the corruption that began with Eve, and the martyrs turned her punishment, death, into victory.
Acts of the Debate with Fortunatus the Manichaean 22Augustine of Hippo · 28–29 August 392 · Augustine explains how Adam's free sin and the habits we form bind the will, reads the two trees as two wills, and again asks how sin can be imputed to souls sent by God.
On Continence 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Continence fights evil desire now; the good will be perfected only when concupiscence itself ends, as Paul's words in Romans 7 show.
Confessions 1.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine describes, from observing other infants, how he began to smile, to try to express his wishes, and to rage and cry when he was not obeyed.
Confessions 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine argues from the greed, rage, and jealousy of infants that even infancy is not free of sin, though its weakness makes it seem innocent.
Confessions 1.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine praises God for the formation of the infant's body and asks, in light of Psalm 51, when he was ever innocent.
Confessions 5.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · At Rome Augustine fell dangerously ill, unbaptized and still believing that Christ's death was only apparent, and recovered in answer to his absent mother's prayers.
On the Trinity 13.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Through the sin of the first man God justly permitted the human race to fall under the devil's power, yet without letting it go from his own power and goodness.
On the Trinity 13.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · God took the Mediator's humanity from Adam's race, yet from a virgin conceiving by faith without concupiscence, so that the devil was conquered by the race he had conquered.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 6.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · God knew Jeremiah before forming him, but no one acts well or badly before birth; Adam, existing only causally in the first creation, had no merit or sin until he lived in his own time.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Before sin, bodies were animal but not doomed to die, and the first couple could have begotten children by will without lust; through sin death and the law in the members entered, which marriage orders and continence restrains.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The woman was a real woman made from the man, mother of all; she was made for offspring, procreated without the law of sin had there been no fall; Augustine leaves open whether souls come from parents or otherwise.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Traducianists argue from Rom 5:12–19 and from the church's practice of baptizing infants that the soul too must come from Adam, otherwise an infant's soul would be innocent and need no grace.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Carnal desire arises from soul and flesh together; the flesh “desires” as the soul desires through it, a result of the first sin, which the faithful under grace must keep from reigning.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Those who hold that God gives new souls answer that souls joined to the flesh of sin are weighed down and need grace; infants need the sacrament of baptism, by which the penalty of original sin is loosed.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The creationist answer that God provides baptism for infants whose future piety he foresees would make salvation depend on unlived lives; the traducianists' appeal to Rom 5 and infant baptism stands unless refuted by clear reason or Scripture.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Traducianists may answer that Levi was in Abraham by seminal reason through concupiscence, Christ only by bodily substance; Augustine, still undecided, holds that both sides agree Christ's soul is not transmitted from Adam.
Canon 109 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Anathema on whoever says that Adam would have died even without sin.
Canon 110 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Anathema on whoever denies infant baptism or denies that infants are baptized for the remission of an original sin inherited from Adam.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · All born of Adam inherit sin and the lust of the flesh by necessity, while those reborn through Christ, who came without inherited sin, are righteous in him by grace.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ, who had no sin, died as a gift of mercy; believers still pay the debt of death from Adam, but Christ's death has destroyed their eternal death.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 4.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ alone is the Lamb who takes away sin, because, born of a virgin, he took flesh from Adam without inheriting sin; no minister may claim to take away sin himself.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 14.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · All are born under the wrath of God through Adam's sin and mortality; Christ shared our mortality so that those who believe in him might share his life and grace.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 38.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · All are born with sin and add to it; what Christians flee, by hastening to baptism even for infants, is to die in sin, as the unbelievers were told they would.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 41.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Only Christ, sinless, frees from sin's slavery, which even infants inherit from Adam; as mediator he removed the sin that separated us from God by becoming a sacrifice for sin.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 44.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The man born blind signifies the human race, blind in mind from birth through Adam's sin.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 44.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's answer that neither the man nor his parents sinned refers only to the cause of the blindness, not to sinlessness.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The four days of Lazarus' death signify original sin, transgression of the natural law, of the law of Moses, and of the gospel; Christ comes to raise even such.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 4.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · All are born sinners from Adam, as infant baptism shows; Christ, the man who is God, came to loose the works of the devil.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.8Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · 1 Corinthians 15:21–22 speaks of bodily death coming through Adam, which confirms the sense of Romans 5:12.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.9Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine reports the view that sin passed from Adam by imitation, not propagation, and argues that Paul would then have named the devil, not Adam, as its source.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.10Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Adam is not only an example of sin but its origin, passing it to his descendants through carnal concupiscence, just as Christ gives inward grace even to infants who cannot imitate him.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.13Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Death reigned even over those who had not sinned personally as Adam did, because they drew original sin from him; Augustine notes a Latin variant of Romans 5:14 and prefers the Greek reading.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.15Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Paul's contrast between judgment “from one offense” and grace “from many offenses” shows that original sin alone suffices for condemnation, excluding unbaptized infants from the kingdom and from eternal life.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.16Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · From Adam we inherit only original sin, but through Christ we receive forgiveness of both original and personal sins.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.17Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Death reigned through Adam's one offense because all were bound in him; if imitation were meant, the devil, not Adam, would be named; those who pass to Christ receive grace for all their sins and will reign forever.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.19Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · If imitation were Paul's point, Abel or Judas would be paired with Adam; rather, Adam gives sin by carnal generation to all men, as Christ gives righteousness by spiritual regeneration to all the righteous.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.21Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Unbaptized infants will suffer the mildest condemnation of all; Adam's disobedience brought shameful desire and mortality, so all generated in the flesh need spiritual regeneration in baptism.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.23Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Against those who say infants are baptized only to enter the kingdom, Augustine argues that without regeneration no one has eternal salvation, since Christ died for the ungodly and came as physician to the sick.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.24Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Infants cannot be baptized as neither sinners nor righteous, since Christ came to call sinners; baptism heals in them the sickness of original sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.28Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Since the church counts baptized infants among believers, unbaptized infants fall among those who do not believe the Son, on whom God's wrath remains, which implies original sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.30Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine turns the charge of injustice back on his opponents: on their own view, too, God's differing treatment of equal infants can only be met with Paul's cry at the depth of his judgments.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.33Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine sums up: Scripture teaches that all are under sin and that only Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of infants too, frees from it, so no salvation is to be promised to infants apart from baptism.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.34Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The African custom of calling baptism “salvation” and the Eucharist “life” reflects apostolic tradition that neither can be had without these sacraments, which in infants loose only original guilt.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.39Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Christ came to give life, salvation, freedom, redemption, and light to sinners; since the church baptizes infants, they too need these benefits, which can only be because of original sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.55Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · There is no middle place: an unbaptized infant is not with Christ and so is against him, which can only be because of original sin; Christ saves all who are saved, as Adam condemns all who are born.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.57Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The good of marriage is the lawful use of concupiscence for procreation, while concupiscence itself is the evil with which all are born; only Christ, conceived without it, was born without sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.58Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Against the claim that John 3:5 excludes unbaptized infants only from the kingdom but not from eternal life, Augustine argues that rebirth implies renewal from the oldness of sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.64Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Those who say infants have no sin and those who say they sin after birth are each partly right; combining their true claims leaves only original sin to be forgiven in infant baptism.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.65Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The obvious weakness and ignorance of infants proves without argument that they have committed no sin by their own will.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.67Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The deep ignorance of the newborn rational soul cannot come from sins committed after birth, and Adam was not created so; ignorance is itself an evil needing cleansing.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.68Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Adam was created with mature reason, we are born weak because of his sin, and Christ took our weakness in the likeness of sinful flesh; infants' bodily helplessness itself may be penal.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.70Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Baptism removes the guilt of concupiscence, not concupiscence itself, which remains for the baptized to fight; the question whether anyone lives without sin is left for the next book.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.11Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · A righteous parent does not beget a righteous child, since he begets by the flesh, not by the Spirit; every child needs spiritual rebirth.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.15Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Job's words show that man is born under wrath through original sin, is unclean even if he lives one day, and is accountable even for sins done under pressure or unwillingly.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.34Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · To the fourth question Augustine answers that no one but Christ has ever been, or will be, wholly without sin from birth, as the case of infants shows.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.37Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The law of concupiscence passed from Adam and Eve to their descendants like toil and the pains of childbirth; those reborn in Christ are given power to resist it and crucify the flesh.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.41Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Those who cite 1 Corinthians 7:14 to argue against baptizing believers' children fall into contradiction: if holiness is inherited, so is sin, and on their own view holy and unclean children fare alike.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.45Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · After baptism concupiscence remains, forgiven and defeated unless revived by consent; believing spouses use it well in marriage, but their children, born from it, still need rebirth.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.46Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · As the guilt of past sins remains until forgiven, so the guilt of concupiscence, which itself remains, is removed by baptism.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.49Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Adam's sin brought bodily death to all, but Christ's redemption brings resurrection to eternal life, so his benefit outweighs Adam's harm even though believers still die.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.58Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Opponents who admit infants need redemption have in effect granted that they need forgiveness, since all flesh descends from Adam's flesh of sin except Christ's likeness of it.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.59Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine leaves open whether the soul is inherited with its guilt or created and burdened by union with sinful flesh, saying that where Scripture is unclear, inquiry should be cautious, and closes the book.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.1Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine explains that after finishing two books he read Pelagius's brief expositions of Paul and found an argument against original sin that he answers in this letter.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.2Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine turns the argument around: if Christ's righteousness benefits only believers and it benefits baptized infants, they must be counted believers through others, just as they are sinners through others' flesh.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.9Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · In Romans 5 only “Adam, a type of the one to come” admits various readings; the rest can only mean what the church has always held, that baptized infants receive forgiveness of original sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.10Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine cites Cyprian's letter to Fidus, where a council decided infants may be baptized before the eighth day, and Cyprian says that infants, though innocent of personal sin, contract Adam's contagion and receive forgiveness of another's sins.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.12Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Jerome, in his commentary on Jonah, takes original sin as certain, and Augustine knows of no earlier Christian, catholic or not, who denied it; the new view he first heard casually at Carthage is now defended in writing.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.13Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Even Jovinian, who denied the superior merit of virginity, never denied original sin, and Jerome, refuting him, used original sin as a certain premise.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.14Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The church has always held original sin, and Scripture teaches it plainly; the sin is called “another's” only because all were contained in Adam before living their own lives.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.17Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Since the opponents admit that Christians beget children who must be made Christians, they should admit that the cleansed beget children who must be cleansed; it is rebirth, not birth, that makes Christians and removes sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.18Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · If souls are newly created, it is as hard to explain why innocent infant souls suffer pain and demonic assaults as why they incur original sin; Augustine leaves the question of the soul's origin open.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.19Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Romans 5:12 must be read in agreement with the many texts requiring union with Christ for salvation, and in the same sense as 1 Corinthians 15:21–22 on bodily death.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.21Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Original sin is inherited as death is; whatever holiness Paul means in 1 Corinthians 7:14, it does not replace baptism for unbelieving spouses or for the children of believers.
City of God 13.3Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Death is the penalty of the first sin, passed to all Adam's descendants because human nature was changed in him; he did not become infantile, but suffered rebellious concupiscence and mortality, from which grace frees infants as to the second death.
City of God 13.13Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The first penalty of sin was shame at the new, disobedient motion of the flesh: having deserted God, the soul lost its command over the body, and the flesh began to lust against the spirit.
City of God 13.14Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · God made man upright, but Adam's free sin corrupted the seminal nature in which all were present, so that all are born depraved and bound for the second death unless freed by grace.
City of God 16.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · An uncircumcised infant 'perishes' not for his own fault but because all broke God's first covenant in Adam; circumcision signified the regeneration that frees from original sin.
City of God 21.12Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Eternal punishment seems unjust only because we cannot perceive how great the first sin was; the whole human race is a condemned mass, from which some are freed by undeserved grace to show both mercy and justice.
City of God 22.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The countless evils of this life, from ignorance and vice to accidents, diseases, demons, and famine, show that the human race is condemned through the first sin, and only the grace of Christ frees from it.
On Nature and Grace 3Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine teaches that human nature was created good but is now weakened by original sin and needs Christ as its physician.
On Nature and Grace 10Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine rejects the Pelagian view that Adam's sin passes by imitation, and presses the case of an adult who never heard of Christ.
On Nature and Grace 23Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine objects that Pelagius, by declaring infants healthy and Adam's descendants stronger than Adam, denies them the physician Christ.
On Nature and Grace 28Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine urges prayer rather than disputation with the Pelagians, and explains that Adam's easily avoidable sin was justly punished by the loss of the body's obedience, which we inherit.
On Nature and Grace 46Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine answers Pelagius' rule “believe what we read” by urging him to believe what Scripture says of original sin and of salvation in Christ's name alone.
On Nature and Grace 60Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine seizes on Pelagius' admission that the flesh is not contrary to the baptized, implying that it is contrary to the unbaptized, whose nature therefore needs the Savior.
On Nature and Grace 75Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine cites more of Ambrose's commentary on Luke to show that he taught that the will is prepared by God and that no one is spotless from birth, but only by the grace of Christ.
On Nature and Grace 81Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine quotes further from his On Free Choice to show that he taught that ignorance and difficulty are penalties of Adam's condemnation and that God's help must be sought, so that his words do not support Pelagius.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 44Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Augustine concludes: no one but Christ has lived without needing forgiveness; he will not fight those who think some saints never consented to sin, but whoever denies the need to pray for grace against temptation is to be anathematized.
Apologetic Book 26.5Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The fall and original sin.
Apologetic Book 27.1Orosius · ca. 415–416 · One man's sin brought death to all.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 23Augustine of Hippo · 417 · The next charges were the propositions of Caelestius condemned at Carthage and the Sicilian propositions Augustine had answered in his letter to Hilary.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 24Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Pelagius anathematized the propositions of Caelestius and the Sicilian propositions, and the synod declared his answer sufficient; so these errors stand condemned.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 57Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Pelagius's own summary of his defense, sent to Augustine, omitted his anathema of Caelestius's propositions, leaving room to think they could still be defended.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 65Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Recapitulation of all the propositions Pelagius anathematized, which the synod thus condemned as contrary to the church's faith.
Memorandum against Caelestius 3Paulinus of Milan · 417/418 · Caelestius's denial of original sin and of infants' need of baptism is opposed by Pelagius's own disavowal at Diospolis, by Cyprian, Ambrose, Gregory, Innocent and Zosimus.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.35Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius's statement that infants are baptized with the same words, or even for the forgiveness of sins, still leaves him denying they have any sin to be forgiven.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.36Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Caelestius's statement at Rome shows that confessing infant baptism for forgiveness can go with denying original sin; Pelagius's 'we always need God's help' remains ambiguous.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.1Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Augustine opens book 2, on original sin, by warning that the Pelagians grant infant baptism for forgiveness of sins while denying that infants inherit any sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.2Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Caelestius refused at Carthage to condemn the denial of inherited sin and at Rome openly asserted that infants have no original sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.3Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Augustine quotes the minutes of the Carthaginian hearing of 411, where Caelestius, questioned by Aurelius and the deacon Paulinus, called the transmission of sin an open question while affirming that infants must be baptized.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.4Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Caelestius granted infant baptism but would not confess that Adam's sin passes to infants.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.12Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Augustine quotes the minutes of the Synod of Diospolis, where Pelagius anathematized the propositions of Caelestius, including that Adam's sin harmed only himself and that newborns are as Adam was before his sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.14Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius's own words in On Free Choice ('we are begotten without vice') show that he holds the very propositions he condemned at Diospolis.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.15Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Augustine had at first thought Pelagius's anathema at Diospolis confessed original sin, until his four books showed him still denying it while boasting of his acquittal.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.17Augustine of Hippo · 418 · The judges acquitted Pelagius because they took his anathemas in the Catholic sense; what they acquitted was not what he actually held.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.19Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius misstated the charge against him: the issue is not whether infants are baptized but whether unbaptized infants are under Adam's condemnation and need cleansing from original sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.24Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius's 'same sacramental words' implied only verbal forgiveness for infants; Zosimus's circular letter later condemned passages from his Expositions of Romans denying inherited sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.26Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Caelestius claimed that the transmission of sin was an open question outside the faith, so that error on it would not be heresy.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.34Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Denying that nature was corrupted in Adam attacks the rule of faith itself; far from being purer before the law, humanity was then so sinful that the flood destroyed all but Noah's family.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.35Augustine of Hippo · 418 · God's threat that an uncircumcised infant would perish from his people cannot be just unless infants inherit guilt, since they have committed no sin of their own.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.36Augustine of Hippo · 418 · The penalty cannot be for sins in a previous life, as Platonists suggest, since the unborn have done nothing; it is for Adam's debt, and circumcision on the eighth day with a stone knife prefigured Christ.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.38Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Original sin does not make marriage evil or children not God's work; nature and its fault are propagated together, the one from the Creator, the other from Adam's sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.42Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Marriage's goods (offspring, chastity, sacrament) are distinct from the evil of lust at which even marriage blushes; infants receive their nature from God and the contagion of sin from that inherited fault.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.44Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Concupiscence remains in the baptized but no longer harms them, while it makes their offspring guilty until they too are reborn; its full removal awaits the resurrection, to which baptism leads.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.46Augustine of Hippo · 418 · God still creates human beings out of goodness even though they are born under the devil's power because of their inherited fault; the fault dishonors their nature without destroying it, and Christ in weakness overcomes the proud angel.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.47Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Augustine quotes Ambrose on original sin: all fell and died in Adam, all are born under sin, and only Christ, conceived without intercourse, was free of it.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor’s claim that the soul “deserved to be defiled through the flesh” cannot say what the soul deserved before it had flesh.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor explains how the infant’s soul is freed from sin but not how it deserved to become sinful.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · If the soul’s desert was good, grace is not grace; if bad, there was evil desert before sin; Victor must retract.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Even granting offerings for the unbaptized, Victor cannot account for the countless infants of unbelievers who die unbaptized with no one to offer for them.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor must choose between saying unbaptized infants are freed from original sin or that a just God damns wholly innocent souls.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Augustine rejects four explanations, including pre-existent sin and condemnation for sins God foresaw but that were never committed.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Excluding four false answers leaves Victor only Pelagianism; better to share Augustine’s hesitation about the soul’s origin.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · “From one blood” (Acts 17:26) may stand for the whole man by synecdoche, just as “in whom all sinned” may; neither text decides the question.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Defenders of new souls must avoid the four errors and find certain Scripture, or else confess ignorance rather than fall into Pelagianism.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor, though admitting original sin, goes beyond the condemned Pelagians by promising unbaptized infants paradise and the kingdom, against John 3:5, Rom 5:18 and Mark 16:16.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Unable to reconcile God’s justice with infants’ damnation on his view, Victor scorned Augustine’s caution and was “shipwrecked” by promising them paradise and the kingdom.
On the Soul and Its Origin 4.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Augustine prefers to leave the soul’s origin hidden rather than aid heretics, holding only that all born of Adam are condemned unless reborn in Christ, according to God’s predestination.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Against the Pelagians, Augustine sets out to distinguish the evil of concupiscence, through which original sin is passed on, from the goodness of marriage.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Like a limp on the way to a good goal, lust is an evil that marriage uses without being made evil by it.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Even regenerate parents beget children of this world, because they beget through the concupiscence that belongs to the old man, which a believer must not love.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · As the olive's seed produces a wild olive, so regenerated parents beget children who contract original sin and need regeneration.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · None of the three goods of marriage—offspring, faithfulness, sacrament—is the source through which sin passes to children.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Concupiscence began after sin and is the law of sin, as the universal shame of intercourse shows, which only the Cynics shamelessly denied.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · In the baptized, concupiscence is no longer sin unless it is consented to; it is called sin because it comes from sin and leads to sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Human nature is from God, but through the fault inflicted by the devil those born through concupiscence are subject to him, the unclean to the unclean.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Even lawful marital intercourse involves the heat of lust, the daughter of sin, so every child born of it is bound by original sin except Christ, born of a virgin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · In baptism concupiscence is forgiven as to its guilt but remains, like a languor after illness, until the body is fully healed.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · As past sins remain in guilt until forgiven, so concupiscence can remain in act after baptism while its guilt is taken away.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Concupiscence stirs evil desires even without consent; we must not obey them and should wish them gone, as Paul shows in Romans 7.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The law in the members that takes Paul captive is concupiscence; it takes him captive in the flesh, as Mary spoke of the Lord's body as 'my Lord'.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The flesh is held captive by concupiscence until the redemption of the body, but sin does not reign where its desires are not obeyed.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Like the olive whose seed yields a wild olive, the forgiven parent passes on to the child the guilt he no longer bears, until the child is reborn.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine cites Ambrose, whom Pelagius praised, as teaching that everyone conceived through intercourse is bound by sin, and closes the book to Valerius.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine complains that his opponent quoted him while leaving out his citation of Rom 5:12.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine notes that his opponent omitted the words that charge the Pelagians with denying that infants need baptism for the forgiveness of sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · His opponent also omitted the words applying Col 1:13 to infants, because he denies that they need rescue from the power of darkness.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · His opponent cut off Augustine's reference to 'the body of this death', which recalls Paul's cry in Rom 7:24.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · All sinned in Adam's will; Ambrose taught the same about conception, and the Pelagians who call this Manichaean must say the same of Ambrose, as Jovinian did.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian's 'power of the members' unwittingly names the members' disobedience to the will, which would not have existed without sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Scripture speaks of seed cursed from the beginning and of children of wrath by nature, which shows a fault in human nature inherited from Adam.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian admits that Scripture's 'one flesh' approaches shame, which proves that the shame comes from the penalty of sin, not from God's work.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The penalty for an uncircumcised infant shows original sin; circumcision, like baptism later, signified cleansing from it through faith in the coming Mediator.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian praises intercourse 'with heat, pleasure, and seed' but will not say 'with lust'; original sin is the ancient faith, not Augustine's invention.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian cites 1 Cor 15 and the story of Abimelech to argue that God gives the power of generation and that no one is born guilty.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Marriage is good and lust is evil; married people use an evil well, and human nature is both God's good work and in need of a Savior.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · There is no marriage without union, but in paradise the union would have been without shame; marriage and its fruit are good, the sin they are born with is evil.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Every human being, whether born of marriage or of sexual immorality, is good as God's work and guilty through original sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Marriage is not the cause of sin; the lust that marriage cannot now avoid comes not from its blessed institution but from Adam's sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Christ's saying about the tree and its fruit concerns good and evil wills, not marriage; the cause of original sin is Adam's voluntary sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine expounds Rom 5:13–19: one sin brought condemnation to all, and grace in Christ abounds to forgive both it and all other sins.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Original sin comes from the will of the first man; evil wills arose in good creatures because they were made from nothing, and God works good even from evil.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.49Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · An infant has both a nature from God and a fault from Adam, and so is rightly under the devil until rescued by grace.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Infant exorcism and many Scriptures teaching that all are born under sin are older than Manichaeism and belong to the catholic faith.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.51Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Ambrose and Cyprian, who wrote before Manichaeism reached the Roman world, taught original sin and infant baptism for its forgiveness.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.52Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine spoke only of shameful concupiscence, which appeared after sin, as the fig-leaf girdles of Adam and Eve show.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.55Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian admits that Christ died for infants; lust is a disease because it moves against the will and causes shame, as 1 Thess 4:5 implies.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.56Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Since Julian admits that Christ died for infants, and Christ died for sins, infants must have original sin for Christ to forgive.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.57Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The devil created nothing in human nature but wounded it by persuading sin, so that fallen nature begets sinners, as sick parents pass on illness.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.58Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Original sin, forgiven in baptized parents, is still passed to their children, as the olive's seed yields a wild olive.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.59Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine ridicules the idea of unrestrained lust in paradise and argues that, even on Julian's view, concupiscence must have been corrupted by the first sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that Catholics do not call marital union devilish, but hold that infants inherit original sin and need Christ's redemption.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine interprets 'sin revived' in Romans 7 as original sin, hidden since birth, becoming apparent through the commandment.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine concludes from Romans 7:24–8:2 that the one condemned is he who consents to the flesh's concupiscence, not the believer who resists it.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine concludes that in Romans 7 Paul speaks for himself and all believers under grace, and that the apostles resisted concupiscence without consenting to it.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that concupiscence remaining after baptism is called sin only because it came from sin and inclines to sin, and that its guilt is forgiven in baptism.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers that God made the sexual organs without shame, and that their disobedience came as a punishment for the first sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that Adam and Eve made loincloths, not tunics, because after their disobedience they felt the disobedience of their sexual members.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the universal shame about intercourse shows an evil resulting from sin, which chaste marriage uses well for procreation.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that even on the Pelagians' preferred view, present concupiscence, which resists the will, differs from paradise and shows the punishment of the first sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the Pelagian view of infant baptism denies original sin, since Scripture ties salvation and life to baptism and the Eucharist.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine agrees that baptism removes all sins but insists that the Pelagians deny that it frees infants from inherited guilt.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine quotes Innocent's letter to the Numidian bishops denying eternal life to unbaptized infants and presses Caelestius with the dilemma it raises.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that the Pelagians hide their three errors behind praise of creation, marriage, law, free choice, and the saints, and answers each briefly.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine refuses to let the obscure question of the soul's origin undermine the clear doctrine of original sin and infant baptism.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine summarizes the Pelagian bishops' statements under his five heads and shows the three errors they are meant to support.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine pictures the infant, silently rebuking both Manichees, who condemn its body, and Pelagians, who deny it needs redemption, and answers each from Scripture.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the Pelagians' correct statements against the Manichees are made useless by their denial of original sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the Pelagian claim that only death, not sin, passed from Adam makes infants suffer undeserved punishment, a prerogative that belongs to Christ alone.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine interprets Romans 5:12 'in whom all sinned' as meaning that all sinned in Adam, citing 'holy Hilary'.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from Romans 5 that universal reconciliation through Christ presupposes universal sin inherited from Adam, including in infants.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the Pelagians use the true praise of marriage to support the false claim that infants are born without sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine cites Cyprian's On Works and Alms to show that Cyprian taught inherited wounds from Adam, sins after baptism, and humanity's loss of paradise.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine cites Cyprian's synodal letter to Fidus, which approved baptizing infants before the eighth day because they contract Adam's sin, though not sins of their own.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that Cyprian's words on paradise restored and infant baptism prove that he taught original sin, without condemning creation or marriage.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine cites several works of Ambrose, whom Pelagius praised, to show that Ambrose taught original sin while honoring creation and marriage.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine shows that Catholic teachers praise all five goods, unlike the Manichees, yet affirm original sin, prevenient grace, and the saints' need of forgiveness.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Adam's sin vitiated his whole stock, so that all born of him through carnal concupiscence contract original sin and its penalty, as Rom 5:12 says.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · All were born children of wrath through original sin and needed a mediator whose unique sacrifice would reconcile them; God's “wrath” means his just vengeance, not a disturbed feeling.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Baptism is for all ages: infants die in it to original sin, adults also to their own sins.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Infants may also be bound by their own parents' sins until regeneration; rebirth exists because birth is faulty, as Ps 51:5 says even of one born in lawful marriage.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 47Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Augustine leaves undecided whether the sins of all one's ancestors are inherited or whether God limits this to the third and fourth generation.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Adam's sin, which condemned the whole race, is washed away only through Christ, the one mediator, who alone needed no rebirth.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Adam brought one sin into the world, but Christ took away that sin and all others added to it.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 51Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · All born of Adam are under condemnation, and only those reborn in Christ are freed.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 52Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Romans 6 shows that baptism is a likeness of Christ's death and resurrection, so that all the baptized, infants included, die to sin and live to God.
Retractations 1.9Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing On Genesis against the Manichaeans, Augustine corrects remarks on the will, on whether children would have been born without sin, on Israel's sacrifices, and on nature and original sin, so that the Pelagians cannot claim them.
Retractations 1.12Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing On True Religion, Augustine explains that the true religion existed before it was called Christian, defends the sense in which sin is voluntary, affirms that miracles still occur, and withdraws his view that the first couple would have had no children without sin.
Retractations 1.14Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing On the Two Souls, Augustine explains in what sense sin exists only in the will, how infants are guilty by origin from Adam, why he left open the question of souls given to bodily functions, and how even then he prayed for the grace of conversion for his Manichaean friends.
On Rebuke and Grace 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Those who fall away after receiving faith cannot plead that perseverance was not given them: they lost grace by their own will; yet perseverance is God's gift, as Scripture and Cyprian's exposition of the Lord's Prayer show, and rebuke remains useful.
On the Predestination of the Saints 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · The theory that infants are baptized or not according to foreseen future repentance would undo original sin; even the Pelagians did not say it, since future merits that will never exist are no merits.
On the Gift of Perseverance 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Why one infant, one sinner, or one believer receives grace or perseverance and another not is inscrutable, but certain: the one is predestined, the other not; Tyre and Sidon show that no one is judged by what he would have done, so unbaptized infants are condemned for original sin alone.
Commonitorium 3Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Marius Mercator traces the denial of original sin from Theodore of Mopsuestia through Rufinus the Syrian to Pelagius, Caelestius, and Julian of Eclanum, whom Augustine refuted.
Commonitorium 5Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Marius distinguishes original from natural sin against Julian, and answers Julian's claim that reason must judge Scripture by pointing to the virgin birth and the incarnation.
Commonitorium 8Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Against Julian's defence of sexual desire as God-given, Marius holds that desire in Adam and Eve served procreation but has since been vitiated, so that offspring need Christ.
Commonitorium 9Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Marius argues that Julian's view, that only death and not sin passes to Adam's descendants, makes God unjust, especially toward infants, who die though sinless on Julian's view.
Commonitorium 10Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Julian's claim that only death passed to all contradicts his defence of Caelestius and makes him a traducian himself; his distinction of two deaths repeats the condemned theses of Pelagius and Caelestius.
Commonitorium 11Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Marius quotes Julian's earlier letter to Pope Zosimus, in which he condemned the Pelagian theses on Adam's death, original sin, and infants, and shows that Julian meant them in a sense of his own.
Commonitorium 12Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Marius turns Julian's own argument that sin, not being a substance, cannot be transmitted against his claim that death, also not a substance, passes to Adam's imitators.
Commonitorium 14Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Marius argues that Julian's denial of original sin empties infant baptism of meaning, since every title of Christ (Saviour, Redeemer, Reconciler, Regenerator, Life) presupposes sin; he defends the twofold death from Adam with 1 Corinthians 15 and closes with Augustine's authority.
Objection and reply 2Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 431-432 · Baptism truly forgives original sin even in those who later apostatize; they are condemned for their later sins, and God, foreseeing this, never predestined them.
Chapter 9Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper refutes Cassian's claims that grace meets a will already turning to good and that Adam kept the knowledge of good after the fall, arguing that all fell in Adam and lost their good freedom, which only the liberator restores.
Chapter 13Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper rejects Cassian's claim that seeds of the virtues remain naturally in every soul, arguing that the virtues were lost in Adam and that faith and love are gifts of God, and dismisses the appeal to the Shepherd of Hermas.
Part 1, chapter 4Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The woman’s curse of painful childbirth shows original sin, which David, Solomon, Isaiah, and Job attest and which the sacrifices of the law could only figure until Christ’s sacrifice.
Part 1, chapter 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Adam’s sentence of toil and death passed from the root to all his descendants, as Paul, David, and the Gospel attest.