Whether the First Sin of Our First Parent Is Contracted by His
Descendants, by Way of Origin?
Objection 1: It would seem that the first sin of our first parent is
not contracted by others, by way of origin. For it is written (Ezech.
18:20): "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father." But he
would bear the iniquity if he contracted it from him. Therefore no
one contracts any sin from one of his parents by way of origin.
Obj. 2: Further, an accident is not transmitted by way of origin,
unless its subject be also transmitted, since accidents do not pass
from one subject to another. Now the rational soul which is the
subject of sin, is not transmitted by way of origin, as was shown in
the First Part (Q. 118, A. 2). Therefore neither can any sin be
transmitted by way of origin.
Obj. 3: Further, whatever is transmitted by way of human origin, is
caused by the semen. But the semen cannot cause sin, because it lacks
the rational part of the soul, which alone can be a cause of sin.
Therefore no sin can be contracted by way of origin.
Obj. 4: Further, that which is more perfect in nature, is more
powerful in action. Now perfect flesh cannot infect the soul united
to it, else the soul could not be cleansed of original sin, so long
as it is united to the body. Much less, therefore, can the semen
infect the soul.
Obj. 5: Further, the Philosopher says (Ethic. iii, 5): "No one finds
fault with those who are ugly by nature, but only those who are so
through want of exercise and through carelessness." Now those are
said to be "naturally ugly," who are so from their origin. Therefore
nothing which comes by way of origin is blameworthy or sinful.
_On the contrary,_ The Apostle says (Rom. 5:12): "By one man sin
entered into this world, and by sin death." Nor can this be
understood as denoting imitation or suggestion, since it is written
(Wis. 2:24): "By the envy of the devil, death came into this world."
It follows therefore that through origin from the first man sin
entered into the world.
_I answer that,_ According to the Catholic Faith we are bound to hold
that the first sin of the first man is transmitted to his
descendants, by way of origin. For this reason children are taken to
be baptized soon after their birth, to show that they have to be
washed from some uncleanness. The contrary is part of the Pelagian
heresy, as is clear from Augustine in many of his books [*For
instance, Retract. i, 9; De Pecc. Merit. et Remiss. ix; Contra
Julian. iii, 1; De Dono Persev. xi, xii.]
In endeavoring to explain how the sin of our first parent could be
transmitted by way of origin to his descendants, various writers have
gone about it in various ways. For some, considering that the subject
of sin is the rational soul, maintained that the rational soul is
transmitted with the semen, so that thus an infected soul would seem
to produce other infected souls. Others, rejecting this as erroneous,
endeavored to show how the guilt of the parent's soul can be
transmitted to the children, even though the soul be not transmitted,
from the fact that defects of the body are transmitted from parent to
child--thus a leper may beget a leper, or a gouty man may be the
father of a gouty son, on account of some seminal corruption,
although this corruption is not leprosy or gout. Now since the body
is proportionate to the soul, and since the soul's defects redound
into the body, and vice versa, in like manner, say they, a culpable
defect of the soul is passed on to the child, through the
transmission of the semen, albeit the semen itself is not the subject
of the guilt.
But all these explanations are insufficient. Because, granted that
some bodily defects are transmitted by way of origin from parent to
child, and granted that even some defects of the soul are transmitted
in consequence, on account of a defect in the bodily habit, as in the
case of idiots begetting idiots; nevertheless the fact of having a
defect by the way of origin seems to exclude the notion of guilt,
which is essentially something voluntary. Wherefore granted that the
rational soul were transmitted, from the very fact that the stain on
the child's soul is not in its will, it would cease to be a guilty
stain binding its subject to punishment; for, as the Philosopher says
(Ethic. iii, 5), "no one reproaches a man born blind; one rather
takes pity on him."
Therefore we must explain the matter otherwise by saying that all men
born of Adam may be considered as one man, inasmuch as they have one
common nature, which they receive from their first parents; even as
in civil matters, all who are members of one community are reputed as
one body, and the whole community as one man. Indeed Porphyry says
(Praedic., De Specie) that "by sharing the same species, many men are
one man." Accordingly the multitude of men born of Adam, are as so
many members of one body. Now the action of one member of the body,
of the hand for instance, is voluntary not by the will of that hand,
but by the will of the soul, the first mover of the members.
Wherefore a murder which the hand commits would not be imputed as a
sin to the hand, considered by itself as apart from the body, but is
imputed to it as something belonging to man and moved by man's first
moving principle. In this way, then, the disorder which is in this
man born of Adam, is voluntary, not by his will, but by the will of
his first parent, who, by the movement of generation, moves all who
originate from him, even as the soul's will moves all the members to
their actions. Hence the sin which is thus transmitted by the first
parent to his descendants is called "original," just as the sin which
flows from the soul into the bodily members is called "actual." And
just as the actual sin that is committed by a member of the body, is
not the sin of that member, except inasmuch as that member is a part
of the man, for which reason it is called a "human sin"; so original
sin is not the sin of this person, except inasmuch as this person
receives his nature from his first parent, for which reason it is
called the "sin of nature," according to Eph. 2:3: "We . . . were by
nature children of wrath."
Reply Obj. 1: The son is said not to bear the iniquity of his father,
because he is not punished for his father's sin, unless he share in
his guilt. It is thus in the case before us: because guilt is
transmitted by the way of origin from father to son, even as actual
sin is transmitted through being imitated.
Reply Obj. 2: Although the soul is not transmitted, because the power
in the semen is not able to cause the rational soul, nevertheless the
motion of the semen is a disposition to the transmission of the
rational soul: so that the semen by its own power transmits the human
nature from parent to child, and with that nature, the stain which
infects it: for he that is born is associated with his first parent
in his guilt, through the fact that he inherits his nature from him
by a kind of movement which is that of generation.
Reply Obj. 3: Although the guilt is not actually in the semen, yet
human nature is there virtually accompanied by that guilt.
Reply Obj. 4: The semen is the principle of generation, which is an
act proper to nature, by helping it to propagate itself. Hence the
soul is more infected by the semen, than by the flesh which is
already perfect, and already affixed to a certain person.
Reply Obj. 5: A man is not blamed for that which he has from his
origin, if we consider the man born, in himself. But it we consider
him as referred to a principle, then he may be reproached for it:
thus a man may from his birth be under a family disgrace, on account
of a crime committed by one of his forbears.
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