Dist. 33
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/33/q/bon-sent-II-d33-littera
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### DISTINCTION XXXIII.

#### Chapter I.

#### *Whether little children draw the sins of all their preceding fathers originally, as the sin of Adam.*

To the foregoing it seems that this must be added: whether the sins of the preceding fathers pass to little children, as we have said that the offense of the first man redounded onto all who are carnally begotten. And if the sins of the parents pass into little children, whether of all who were from Adam down to themselves, or of some and not of all. On this, Augustine, in the Enchiridion, discourses ambiguously. For he seems to approve that the sins of the preceding parents are imputed to little children, not however of all who were from Adam, lest by an unbearable and excessive burden the little children be weighed down in eternal punishment, but only of those parents who preceded them by a fourth generation. This he confirms by those words by which the Lord says in Exodus: *I am God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers unto the third and fourth generation;* as if the sins of the nearer parents only are imputed to little children, and not the others; which is by the moderation of the divine mercy. And that not only the offense of the first man holds little children, but also others, those to whom it so seems confirm from this, that little children too, not only adults, are said to be baptized *unto the remission of sins,* by the plural number, not by the singular *unto the remission of sin.* And David, begotten of lawful marriage, says: *In iniquities was I conceived, and in sins did my mother conceive me;* he does not say: *in iniquity or sin.* Whence they think that not only that one original sin, but also the many that can be found in the sin of Adam, and other sins of the parents, are imputed to little children.

#### Chapter II.

#### *How in that one first sin many are found.*

That indeed in the *actual* sin of Adam many sins can be noted, Augustine intimates in the Enchiridion: "There can," he says, "be understood many sins in the one transgression of Adam, if it be divided into its parts as it were.

For there is *pride* there, because man loved to be in his own power rather than God's; and *sacrilege,* because he did not believe God; and *homicide,* because he cast himself into death; and *spiritual fornication,* because the integrity of the human mind was corrupted by the serpent's persuasion; and *theft,* because the forbidden food was usurped; and *avarice,* because he desired more than should have sufficed him; and whatever else can be found in this one sin." — Then concerning the sins of the preceding parents, whether they are imputed to little children, he debates rather by opining than by asserting, thus saying: "That little children are bound by the sins of their parents — not only of the first men, but also of their own, of whom they were born — is not improbably said. For that divine sentence: *I will render the sins of the fathers upon the sons,* holds them before regeneration to such a degree that even one begotten of lawful marriage says: *In iniquities was I conceived, and in sins did my mother conceive me.* He did not say: *in iniquity or in sin,* although this too could rightly be said, but he chose to say *iniquities and sins,* because even in that one which passed into all men and is so great that by it human nature was changed, there are found, as I have said above, many sins; and others, of the parents, which cannot thus change nature, bind the sons by guilt, unless the grace of God come to aid." "But concerning the sins of the other parents, by whom each one succeeds in his generations from Adam himself down to his own father, it can not undeservedly be debated whether he who is born is implicated by all the evil acts and multiplied original offenses, so that the later each one is born, the worse off he is; or whether on this account God threatens posterity unto the *third and fourth generation* with the sins of the parents, because He does not extend His wrath further as regards the faults of forebears, by the moderation of His mercy, lest those to whom the grace of regeneration is not conferred should be pressed down by an excessive burden in eternal damnation itself, if they were compelled, from the very beginning of the human race, originally to contract the sins of all their preceding parents and to pay the penalties due for them. Whether anything else about so great a matter, when the holy Scriptures have been more diligently searched and treated, can or cannot be found, I do not dare rashly to affirm." — Behold, it becomes plain to the reader that Augustine said the foregoing not by asserting, but by reporting the opinions of various men.

Otherwise he would seem to contradict himself, who in the same book says that the punishment of little children, who are held only by original sin, is the mildest of all, in these words: "Mildest indeed will be the punishment of those who, besides the sin which they contracted as original, added nothing further; and among the rest, who did add, each will there have the more tolerable damnation, the lesser iniquity he had here." — Behold, here he plainly says that the punishment of little children is the lightest of all other punishments. And if this is so, then they are not bound by the sins of the preceding parents except Adam. For if they were punished eternally for the actual sins of the parents and for their own original sin, they would now be punished not less, but perhaps more than their own parents. Therefore not for the actual sins of the parents, nor even for the actual sins of the first parent, but for *original* sin, which is drawn from the parents, will the little children be damned, destined to feel for it no other punishment of material fire, or of the worm of conscience, except that they will lack the vision of God forever. By one sin, therefore, and not by many, are the little children bound. Whence also those things by which that opinion seems to be supported, namely that Scripture sometimes signifies *sins and iniquities* in little children, using the plural number, Augustine thus determines in the same book: "Since in Scripture the plural number is often wont to be signified by the singular number, as there: *Pray therefore to God, that He take away from us the serpent* — he does not say: *serpents,* which the people were suffering — and conversely the singular number is signified by the *plural,* as in the Gospel: *They are dead who sought the life of the child* — he does not say: *he is dead,* though he was speaking of Herod — and in Exodus: *They made golden gods,* though they made one calf, of which they said: *These are thy gods, O Israel* ": so too that original sin, being one, is signified by the plural number, when we say that little children are baptized unto the *remission of sins* and conceived in *sins or iniquities.*

#### Chapter III.

#### *Whether the sin of Adam is graver than the rest.*

Here it is usually asked whether the sin of Adam's transgression, from which original sin proceeded, and in which many sins were noted above, was graver than the rest of the sins. — To some it seems to be so, because that sin changed the whole of human nature, as Augustine in the Enchiridion: "That one sin, committed in a place and state of so great felicity, is so great that in the one man *originally,* and, so to speak, *radically,* the whole human race was damned." The same, in the book On the City of God: "By so much greater injustice was that commandment violated, by how much more easily it could have been kept by observance." "For not yet did desire resist the will, which followed afterward from the penalty of the transgression." — By these and other *authorities* are those supported who say that that sin was graver than the other sins of other men. This too they labor to show by *reason,* in this way: that sin did more harm than any of the others, because it vitiated the whole human race and subjected it to both deaths, which was done by no other sin; therefore that sin had a greater effect of evil than any other.

To which it can be said that, although that sin changed human nature into the necessity of death and diffused guilt into the whole human race, yet it must not be thought that it was graver than the sin against the Holy Spirit, which, as the Truth says, *is forgiven neither here nor in the future*. But that it corrupted the whole of human nature is not on that account because it was graver than all the other sins, but because it was committed by man at a time when in *one* man the *whole* of human nature was consisting, and therefore the whole was corrupted in him; and it brought forth a greater effect of evil as regards the *manifold defects* which flowed from it, but not as regards *eternal punishment,* which it did not merit as graver than that which many afterward merited by other sins; rather, we believe that others have merited a graver wrath than Adam merited.

#### Chapter IV.

#### *Whether that sin was forgiven to the first parents.*

But if it is asked whether that sin was forgiven to the first parents; we say that they obtained pardon through penance. Whence Augustine in the book On the Baptism of Little Children says: "Just as those first parents, by living righteously afterward, are believed to have been freed through the Lord's blood from the extreme punishment, yet did not in that life merit to be recalled to paradise; so too the flesh of sin, even when sins are remitted, if a man lives righteously in it, does not at once merit not to undergo that death which it drew from the propagation of sin."

#### Chapter V.

#### *How the sins of the parents are visited upon the sons, and are not visited.*

And although little children are bound by no sins of the parents except Adam's, yet it must not be denied that the sins of the parents redound upon the sons, as the Lord in Exodus said to Moses: *I am the strong God, jealous, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the sons unto the third and fourth generation, upon them that hate me.* — By these words it is plainly intimated that God renders the sins of the fathers upon the third and fourth sons. But to this there seems to be opposed what the Lord says in Ezekiel: *What is it, that you turn this parable into a proverb among yourselves, saying: The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the sons are set on edge? As I live, says the Lord, this parable shall be no more for you a proverb in Israel. Behold! all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. And the soul that has sinned, the same shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father shall not bear the iniquity of the son. The justice of the just shall be upon him, and the impiety of the impious shall be upon him.* — By these words God seems to correct, through the Prophet, what He had wrongly said in the Law. "For if He renders the sins of the fathers unto the third and fourth generation, it seems to be an injustice of God, that one should sin, and another be punished. For how is it just that one should sin, and another atone for the sins"? But, as Jerome says, "lest *the Law and the Prophets,* that is, *Exodus and Ezekiel,* nay, God Himself, who spoke both here and there, should seem to disagree in their sentences"; let us attend to the end of that authority of Exodus. For when He has said: *I render the iniquities of the fathers upon the sons,* He adds: *upon them that hate me;* by which He evidently shows that "the sons are not punished because the fathers sinned, but because, like them by a certain hereditary evil, they hate God." That, therefore, which the Lord says in Exodus, as Jerome hands down, does not mean what many suppose, nor is it like this proverb: *The fathers have eaten a sour grape,* etc. For that passage of Exodus, Jerome upon Ezekiel, and Augustine upon that Psalm: *O God, be not silent in my praise,* judge is to be understood of the sons *imitating* the sins of the fathers; over whom God is said to *render the sins of the fathers,* because He punishes them, in that they imitate the sins of the fathers, not because the fathers sinned. Not therefore does God correct in the Prophet what He had before said in the Law, but He opens up how it is to be understood. Whence also He reproves those who understood it perversely, who were saying: *The fathers have eaten,* etc.

Yet, if it is taken of imitators of evils, why did He commemorate only the *third and fourth generation,* since in every generation those are held guilty who imitate the sins of the fathers? And why did He commemorate the *fathers,* since all those too are evil who imitate the sins of any whomsoever? — But for this reason He named the *fathers* specially, because sons are most wont to imitate fathers, whom they especially love. And He commemorated the *third and fourth generation* for this reason, because parents are sometimes wont to live so long that they have third and fourth sons, who, seeing the iniquities of the fathers, become the heirs of their impiety through imitation. According to this mode, what is said in Exodus is rightly understood literally.

That it is also to be understood mystically is shown from the fact that it is called a *parable.* "For if it is a parable, as Jerome says, it sounds one thing in words, and contains another in sense. Whence some thus expound it: *the father* in us they say to be the light prick of the senses," namely the first motion of *suggestion,* or of thought; "*the son,* if thought has conceived sin," in which is noted the consent and delight of the *woman;* "*the grandson,* if what you have thought and conceived you have completed by deed," or have resolved to complete, in which is noted the consent of the man, or the perpetration of the sin; "*the great-grandson,* however, if you have not only done it, but glory in it, and this is the fourth generation"; not because three preceded, but it is called the fourth, because it is enumerated in the fourth place from the first motion, which is as it were the father. God therefore "will not eternally punish the first and second stirrings of thought, which the Greeks call *propathias,* without which no one of men can be; but if anyone has resolved to do the things he thought, and has been unwilling to correct what he did," these are mortal sins and the third and fourth generation.

"But to prove, as Jerome says, that the first impulse of thought is not eternally punished by God, that passage from Genesis is to be brought forward: *Cham sinned,* mocking the nakedness of his father, *and the sentence* not he himself, but his son Chanaan received: *Cursed be Chanaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren.* For what justice is it, that the father should sin, and the son be punished"? But this was said in a mystery.

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