In making his statement concerning the substantiality of original sin,
the purpose of Flacius was to wipe out the last vestige of spiritual
powers ascribed to natural man by Strigel, and to emphasize the doctrine
of total corruption, which Strigel denied. His fatal blunder was that he
did so in terms which were universally regarded as savoring of
Manicheism. As was fully explained in the chapter of the Synergistic
Controversy Strigel taught that free will, which belongs to the
substance and essence of man, and hence cannot be lost without the
annihilation of man himself, always includes the capacity to choose in
both directions, that also with respect to divine grace and the
operations of the Holy Spirit man is and always remains a _liberum
agens_ in the sense that he is able to decide _in utramque partem;_ that
this ability, constituting the very essence of free will, may be
weakened and impeded in its activity, but never lost entirely. If it
were lost, Strigel argued, the very substance of man and free will as
such would have to be regarded as annihilated. But now man, also after
the Fall, is still a real man, possessed of intellect and will. Hence
original sin cannot have despoiled him of this liberty of choosing _pro_
or _con_ also in matters spiritual. The loss of original righteousness
does not, according to Strigel, involve the total spiritual disability
of the will and its sole tendency and activity toward what is
spiritually evil. Moreover, despite original corruption, it is and
remains an indestructible property of man to be able, at least in a
measure, to assent to and to admit, the operations of the Holy Spirit,
and therefore and in this sense to be converted "_aliquo modo volens._"
(Planck 4, 667. 675. 681.)
It was in opposition to this Semi-Pelagian teaching that Flacius
declared original sin to be not a mere accident, but the substance of
man. Entering upon the train of thought and the phraseology suggested by
his opponent, he called substance what in reality was an accident,
though not an accident such as Strigel contended. From his own
standpoint it was therefore a shrewd move to hide his own synergism and
to entrap his opponent, when Strigel plied Flacius with the question
whether he denied that original sin was an accident. For in the context
and the sense in which it was proposed the question involved a vicious
dilemma. Answering with yes or no, Flacius was compelled either to
affirm Strigel's synergism or to expose himself to the charge of
Manicheism. Instead of replying as he did, Flacius should have cleared
the sophistical atmosphere by explaining: "If I say, 'Original sin is an
accident,' you [Strigel] will infer what I reject, _viz._, that the
corrupt will of man retains the power to decide also in favor of the
operations of the Holy Spirit. And if I answer that original sin is not
an accident (such as you have in mind), you will again infer what I
disavow, _viz._, that man, who by the Fall has lost the ability to will
in the spiritual direction, has _eo ipso_ lost the will and its freedom
entirely and as such." As it was, however, Flacius instead of adhering
strictly to the real issue--the question concerning man's cooperation in
conversion--and exposing the sophistry implied in the question put by
Strigel, most unfortunately suffered himself to be caught on the horns
of the dilemma. He blindly walked into the trap set for him by Strigel,
from which also later on he never succeeded in fully extricating
himself.
With all his soul Flacius rejected the synergism involved in Strigel's
question. His blunder was, as stated, that he did so in terms
universally regarded as Manichean. He was right when he maintained that
original sin is the inherited tendency and motion of the human mind,
will, and heart, not toward, but against God,--a direction, too, which
man is utterly unable to change. But he erred fatally by identifying
this inborn evil tendency with the substance of fallen man and the
essence of his will as such. It will always be regarded as a redeeming
feature that it was in antagonizing synergism and championing the
Lutheran _sola gratia_ that Flacius coined his unhappy proposition. And
in properly estimating his error, it must not be overlooked that he, as
will be shown in the following, employed the terms "substance" and
"accident" not in their generally accepted meaning but in a sense, and
according to a philosophical terminology, of his own.