Dist. 31
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/2/d/31/q/bon-sent-II-d31-littera
----------------------------------------
### DISTINCTION XXXI.

#### Chapter I.

#### *How original sin is transmitted from parents into the offspring.*

"Now it remains to investigate how that sin is transmitted from parents into the offspring, namely whether according to the soul alone, or according to the flesh, or according to both."

#### Chapter II.

#### *Whether according to the soul, or according to the flesh.*

"Some have thought that original sin is contracted according to the soul, not only according to the flesh, because they judged that not only the flesh but also the soul is from traduction. For just as in the generation of offspring the flesh is substantially drawn from the paternal flesh, so too the soul of the begotten is thought to be essentially derived from the soul of the begetter. And therefore, just as from corrupted flesh corrupted flesh is sown, so too from the sinful soul a sinful soul, infected by original corruption, is said to be drawn from them."

#### Chapter III.

#### *He shows that sin is transmitted through the flesh, and how.*

But the Catholic faith rejects this and condemns it as contrary to the truth; for it admits not souls, but the flesh alone, as we said above, to be from traduction. Therefore original sin is drawn from the parents not according to the soul, but according to the flesh alone. For original sin, as we said above, is concupiscence, not indeed an act, but a defect. Hence Augustine: *Concupiscence itself is the law of the members or of the flesh, which is a certain diseased affection, or languor, that stirs up illicit desire, that is, carnal concupiscence, which is called the law of sin; and it is said to remain in the flesh, not as if it were not in the soul, but because it comes to be in the soul through the corruption of the flesh.*

#### Chapter IV.

#### *He shows the cause of the corruption of the flesh, from which sin comes to be in the soul.*

For the flesh was corrupted on account of sin in Adam, so much so that, whereas before sin man and woman could come together without the incentive of lust and the fervor of concupiscence, and the marriage-bed was undefiled, now after sin carnal union cannot take place without lustful concupiscence, which is always a defect, and even a fault, unless it be excused by the goods of marriage. In concupiscence, therefore, and in lust the flesh is conceived that is to be formed into the body of the offspring. Hence the flesh itself, which is conceived in vicious concupiscence, is polluted and corrupted; and from its contact the soul, when it is infused, contracts a stain, by which it is polluted and becomes guilty, that is, the defect of concupiscence, which is original sin.

#### Chapter V.

#### *Why sin is said to be in the flesh.*

And therefore sin itself is said to remain in the flesh. The flesh, then, which is sown in the concupiscence of lust, has neither fault nor the act of fault, but the cause. In that which is sown, therefore, there is corruption; but in that which is born, there is the defect of concupiscence. Hence Ambrose, on the words of the Apostle, thus says: "How does sin dwell in the flesh, since it is not a substance, but a privation of good? Behold, the body of the first man was corrupted through sin, and that corruption, by the condition of the offense, remains in the body, keeping the force of the divine sentence given against Adam, by whose fellowship the soul is stained with sin. Through that, therefore, which remains as the cause of the deed, sin is said to *inhabit* the flesh"; this is the law of the flesh. The same: "Sin does not dwell in the soul, but in the flesh, because the cause of sin is from the flesh, not from the soul; because the flesh is from the origin of the flesh of sin, and through traduction all flesh becomes the cause of sin"; but the soul is not transmitted by traduction, and therefore does not have the cause of sin in itself. Augustine too shows that the soul contracts sin from the flesh, in a certain sermon on the Words of the Apostle, saying: "The defect of concupiscence is something that the soul contracted not from itself, but from the flesh. For human nature was not at first established with a defect by the work of God, but was wounded by a defect coming from the choice of the will of the first men, so that there is in the flesh not good, but a defect, by which the soul is infected."

#### Chapter VI.

#### *Whether the cause of original sin, which is in the flesh, is fault or punishment.*

Here it is usually asked whether the cause of original sin, which has been said to be in the flesh, is fault or punishment, or something else. It cannot be fault, because fault is not in an irrational thing. For if fault were in the flesh before the infusion of the soul, it would be actual or original. But it is not actual there, nor is it original fault, because it itself is the cause of original sin. But if it is punishment, what is it? Passibility, or mortality, or some other corruption? For it is established that these defects are in the flesh. — To which it can be said that the manifold defect of the flesh, and especially a certain pollution, which the flesh contracts from the fervor of the intercourse of the parents and from lustful concupiscence while it is conceived, is the cause of original sin, and can rightly be called the defect or corruption of the flesh. This foulness seems to be greater in the flesh transmitted concupiscentially than in that from which it is transmitted. And that there is a defect or corruption in the flesh before the conjunction of the soul is proved by its effect, when the soul is infused, which is stained by the corruption of the flesh; just as in a vessel a defect is recognized when the wine poured in turns sour. — But lest we wonder and be disturbed in understanding when we hear that original sin is transmitted to the offspring from parents already cleansed of that sin by baptism, Augustine, in the book On the Baptism of Little Children, suggests by the bringing forward of various likenesses that this can happen, thus saying: "Just as the foreskin is taken away by circumcision, yet it remains in him whom the circumcised have begotten; just as the chaff also, which is separated by human labor with such great diligence, yet remains in the fruit which is born from the cleansed wheat": so the sin which is cleansed in the parents by baptism remains in those whom they have begotten. For they beget by this, that they still draw the old, not by this, that He advanced them in newness among the sons of God. For parents do not beget children according to that generation by which they were born anew, but rather according to that by which they themselves also were first carnally generated.

#### Chapter VII.

#### *Why it is called original sin.*

It has now been shown what original sin is, and how it passes from the parents into the offspring, and through the flesh into the soul. From which it also becomes known why it is called original sin, namely for this reason, that it is transmitted from the vicious law of our origin, in which we are conceived, that is, the lustful concupiscence of the flesh, as was said above. For it is not because we have been conceived from the flesh drawn from Adam that we have drawn sin, since Christ's body too was formed from the same flesh which descended from Adam, but His conception was accomplished not by the law of sin, that is, the concupiscence of the flesh, whence His flesh too was not sinful, but rather by the working of the Holy Spirit. But our conception does not take place without lust, and therefore is not without sin. This Augustine clearly shows in the book On the Faith, to Peter, thus saying: "Because, while man and woman mingle with each other, the intercourse of the parents is not without lust; for this reason the conception of the children born from their flesh cannot be without sin, where it is not propagation that transmits sin to the little ones, but lust; nor does the fecundity of human nature cause men to be born with sin, but the foulness of lust, which men have from that most just condemnation of sin. Therefore blessed David, on account of original sin, by which the children of wrath are naturally bound, says: *In iniquities I was conceived, and in sins did my mother conceive me*" (Psalm 50, 7, Vulgate). — From this, then, it appears that original sin is transmitted from the law of conception, because unless conception took place thus in the flesh, the soul would not draw the defect of concupiscence from the conjunction with the flesh.

But against this it is objected in this way. In the very conception, where sin is said to be transmitted, the flesh is propagated, yet the soul is not then infused, according to the natural philosophers, but only when the body has already been formed; which Moses too in Exodus plainly signifies, where he says concerning the striking of a pregnant woman: *If anyone,* he says, *strikes a pregnant woman and causes a miscarriage, if the offspring is still unformed, he shall be fined money; but if it is formed, he shall give a soul for a soul* (Exodus 21, 22). Now "formed" is understood as animated by its own soul, and "unformed" as that which does not yet have a soul. In the very conception, therefore, when the flesh is propagated, the soul is not yet infused. How, then, is sin transmitted there, since sin cannot be where there is no soul? — To which it can be said that in that conception sin is said to be transmitted, not because original sin is there, but because the flesh there contracts that from which sin comes to be in the soul, when it is infused. And both are called "conception," namely both when the flesh is propagated and receives the form of the human body, and when the soul is infused — which is sometimes also called "nativity," whence, *that which is born in her* — but properly "nativity" is called the bringing forth into the light.

---