Whether the Blessed Virgin Was Cleansed from the Infection of the
Fomes?
Objection 1: It would seem that the Blessed Virgin was not cleansed
from the infection of the fomes. For just as the fomes, consisting in
the rebellion of the lower powers against the reason, is a punishment
of original sin; so also are death and other corporeal penalties.
Therefore the fomes was not entirely removed from her.
Obj. 2: Further, it is written (2 Cor. 12:9): "Power is made perfect
in infirmity," which refers to the weakness of the fomes, by reason
of which he (the Apostle) felt the "sting of the flesh." But it was
not fitting that anything should be taken away from the Blessed
Virgin, pertaining to the perfection of virtue. Therefore it was
unfitting that the fomes should be entirely taken away from her.
Obj. 3: Further, Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii) that "the Holy
Ghost came upon" the Blessed Virgin, "purifying her," before she
conceived the Son of God. But this can only be understood of
purification from the fomes: for she committed no sin, as Augustine
says (De Nat. et Grat. xxvi). Therefore by the sanctification in the
womb she was not absolutely cleansed from the fomes.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Canticles 4:7): "Thou art all fair,
O my love, and there is not a spot in thee!" But the fomes implies a
blemish, at any rate in the flesh. Therefore the fomes was not in the
Blessed Virgin.
_I answer that,_ on this point there are various opinions. For some
have held that the fomes was entirely taken away in that
sanctification whereby the Blessed Virgin was sanctified in the womb.
Others say that it remained as far as it causes a difficulty in doing
good, but was taken away as far as it causes a proneness to evil.
Others again, that it was taken away as to the personal corruption,
by which it makes us quick to do evil and slow to do good: but that
it remained as to the corruption of nature, inasmuch as it is the
cause of transmitting original sin to the offspring. Lastly, others
say that, in her first sanctification, the fomes remained
essentially, but was fettered; and that, when she conceived the Son
of God, it was entirely taken away. In order to understand the
question at issue, it must be observed that the fomes is nothing but
a certain inordinate, but habitual, concupiscence of the sensitive
appetite, for actual concupiscence is a sinful motion. Now sensual
concupiscence is said to be inordinate, in so far as it rebels
against reason; and this it does by inclining to evil, or hindering
from good. Consequently it is essential to the fomes to incline to
evil, or hinder from good. Wherefore to say that the fomes was in the
Blessed Virgin without an inclination to evil, is to combine two
contradictory statements.
In like manner it seems to imply a contradiction to say that the
fomes remained as to the corruption of nature, but not as to the
personal corruption. For, according to Augustine (De Nup. et Concup.
i.), it is lust that transmits original sin to the offspring. Now
lust implies inordinate concupiscence, not entirely subject to
reason: and therefore, if the fomes were entirely taken away as to
personal corruption, it could not remain as to the corruption of
nature.
It remains, therefore, for us to say, either that the fomes was
entirely taken away from her by her first sanctification or that it
was fettered. Now that the fomes was entirely taken away, might be
understood in this way, that, by the abundance of grace bestowed on
the Blessed Virgin, such a disposition of the soul's powers was
granted to her, that the lower powers were never moved without the
command of her reason: just as we have stated to have been the case
with Christ (Q. 15, A. 2), who certainly did not have the fomes of
sin; as also was the case with Adam, before he sinned, by reason of
original justice: so that, in this respect, the grace of
sanctification in the Virgin had the force of original justice. And
although this appears to be part of the dignity of the Virgin Mother,
yet it is somewhat derogatory to the dignity of Christ, without whose
power no one had been freed from the first sentence of condemnation.
And though, through faith in Christ, some were freed from that
condemnation, according to the spirit, before Christ's Incarnation,
yet it does not seem fitting that any one should be freed from that
condemnation, according to the flesh, except after His Incarnation,
for it was then that immunity from condemnation was first to appear.
Consequently, just as before the immortality of the flesh of Christ
rising again, none obtained immortality of the flesh, so it seems
unfitting to say that before Christ appeared in sinless flesh, His
Virgin Mother's or anyone else's flesh should be without the fomes,
which is called "the law of the flesh" or "of the members" (Rom.
7:23, 25).
Therefore it seems better to say that by the sanctification in the
womb, the Virgin was not freed from the fomes in its essence, but
that it remained fettered: not indeed by an act of her reason, as in
holy men, since she had not the use of reason from the very first
moment of her existence in her mother's womb, for this was the
singular privilege of Christ: but by reason of the abundant grace
bestowed on her in her sanctification, and still more perfectly by
Divine Providence preserving her sensitive soul, in a singular
manner, from any inordinate movement. Afterwards, however, at the
conception of Christ's flesh, in which for the first time immunity
from sin was to be conspicuous, it is to be believed that entire
freedom from the fomes redounded from the Child to the Mother. This
indeed is signified (Ezech. 43:2): "Behold the glory of the God of
Israel came in by the way of the east," i.e. by the Blessed Virgin,
"and the earth," i.e. her flesh, "shone with His," i.e. Christ's,
"majesty."
Reply Obj. 1: Death and such like penalties do not of themselves
incline us to sin. Wherefore though Christ assumed them, He did not
assume the fomes. Consequently in order that the Blessed Virgin might
be conformed to her Son, from "whose fulness" her grace was derived,
the fomes was at first fettered and afterwards taken away: while she
was not freed from death and other such penalties.
Reply Obj. 2: The "infirmity" of the flesh, that pertains to the
fomes, is indeed to holy men an occasional cause of perfect virtue:
but not the "sine qua non" of perfection: and it is quite enough to
ascribe to the Blessed Virgin perfect virtue and abundant grace: nor
is there any need to attribute to her every occasional cause of
perfection.
Reply Obj. 3: The Holy Ghost effected a twofold purification
in the Blessed Virgin. The first was, as it were, preparatory to
Christ's conception: which did not cleanse her from the stain of sin
or fomes, but rather gave her mind a unity of purpose and disengaged
it from a multiplicity of things (Cf. Dionysius, Div. Nom. iv), since
even the angels are said to be purified, in whom there is no stain, as
Dionysius says (Eccl. Hier. vi). The second purification effected in
her by the Holy Ghost was by means of the conception of Christ which
was the operation of the Holy Ghost. And in respect of this, it may be
said that He purified her entirely from the fomes.
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