# On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin - Author: [Augustine of Hippo](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/augustine-of-hippo/) - Latin title: *De gratia Christi et de peccato originali* - Date: 418 (probable) - Source: Karl F. Urba and Joseph Zycha, eds., Sancti Aureli Augustini opera, sect. VIII, pars 1, CSEL 42 (Vienna: Tempsky; Leipzig: Freytag, 1902) (Latin text: Urba–Zycha, De gratia Christi et de peccato originali (CSEL 42), digitized by Open Greek and Latin (csel-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0) - Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator - Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/ - Passages: 103 ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-1 - Source: CSEL 42:125 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine greets Albina, Pinianus, and Melania and explains that he writes in haste at Carthage in reply to their inquiry. ### Latin text Quantum de uestra corporali et maxime spiritali salute gaudeamus, sincerissimi fratres dilecti a deo Albina, Piniane et Melania, quia effari non possumus, uobis cogitandum credendumque dimittimus, ut ea de quibus nos consuluistis potius iam loquamur. festinante etenim perlatore. inter occupationes nostras multo apud Carthaginem quam ubicumque alibi densiores quantum deus donare dignatus est, ut potuimus, ista dictauimus. ### English translation (Claude) How much we rejoice over your bodily and above all your spiritual well-being, most sincere brothers beloved of God, Albina, Pinianus, and Melania, we cannot express, and so we leave it to you to consider and believe, so that we may now rather speak of the matters on which you consulted us. For since the bearer was in haste, we have dictated these things, as best we could, as much as God deigned to grant, amid our occupations, which are much more crowded at Carthage than anywhere else. ### Translation notes - Albina, her son-in-law Pinianus, and her daughter Melania the Younger were Roman aristocrats then living in Palestine, where they had met Pelagius. The work dates from 418. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.1 (CSEL 42:125; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-1). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-2 - Source: CSEL 42:125–126 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius's anathema against denying the need of grace for every act sounds orthodox but can be read to mean only the memory of forgiven sins or Christ's example. ### Latin text Scripsistis mihi cum Pelagio uos egisse, ut quaecumque aduersus eum dicerentur scripto damnaret, eumque dixisse audientibus uobis: anathemo qui uel sentit uel dicit gratiam dei, qua Christus uenit in hunc mundum peccatores saluos facere, non solum per singulas horas aut per singula momenta, sed etiam per singulos actus nostros non esse necessariam et qui hanc conantur auferre poenas sortiantur aeternas. quisquis haec audit et sensum eius ignorat, quem in libris suis satis euidenter expressit, non illis quos dicit inemendatos sibi fuisse subreptos aut omnino suos negat, sed in illis quos litteris suis quas Romam misit commemorat, omnino eum putat hoc sentire quod ueritas habet; quisquis autem quid in eis apertius dicat aduertit, debet habere etiam ista uerba suspecta, quia, etsi gratiam dei, qua Christus uenit in mundum peccatores saluos facere, in sola peccatorum remissione constituat, potest huic sensui uerba ista coaptare dicens ideo eam per singulas horas, per singula momenta et per actus singulos necessariam, ut semper in memoria retinentes et reminiscentes dimissa nobis esse peccata non peccemus ulterius adiuti non aliqua subministratione uirtutis, sed uiribus propriae uoluntatis quid sibi remissione peccatorum praestitum fuerit per actus singulos recordantis. item quoniam solent dicere nobis in eo Christum ad non peccandum praebuisse adiutorium, quia iuste ipse uiuendo iusteque docendo reliquit exemplum, possunt etiam ad hoc ista uerba coaptare, ut dicant per singula momenta, per singulos actus necessariam nobis esse huius modi gratiam, id est ut in omni conuersatione nostra intueamur dominicae conuersationis exemplum. peruidet autem fides uestra a confessione gratiae, de qua quaestio est, quam sit distinguenda ista confessio et tamen obtegi potest istorum ambiguitate uerborum. ### English translation (Claude) You wrote to me that you had urged Pelagius to condemn in writing whatever was alleged against him, and that he had said in your hearing: 'I anathematize whoever thinks or says that the grace of God, by which Christ came into this world to save sinners, is not necessary not only for every hour or every moment, but also for every one of our acts; and let those who try to take it away receive eternal punishment.' Whoever hears these words and does not know his meaning, which he has expressed clearly enough in his books (not those which he says were stolen from him before he had corrected them, or which he denies altogether are his, but those which he mentions in the letter he sent to Rome), thinks that he holds exactly what the truth holds. But whoever notices what he says more openly in them ought to hold even these words suspect. For although he places the grace of God, by which Christ came into the world to save sinners, in the forgiveness of sins alone, he can fit these words to that meaning by saying that it is necessary for every hour, every moment, and every act in this sense: that by always keeping in memory and recalling that our sins have been forgiven, we may sin no more, aided not by any supply of strength but by the powers of our own will, which recalls in every act what has been granted to it by the forgiveness of sins. Again, since they are accustomed to tell us that Christ gave us help for not sinning in this, that by living righteously himself and teaching righteously he left an example, they can also fit these words to this, saying that grace of this kind is necessary to us for every moment and every act, namely, that in all our conduct we should look to the example of the Lord's conduct. But your faith sees clearly how far such a confession is to be distinguished from the confession of the grace that is in question; and yet it can be concealed by the ambiguity of their words. ### Scripture references - 1 Tim 1:15: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Pelagius's statement is quoted as the recipients reported it; 'Christ came into the world to save sinners' is 1 Tim 1:15. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.2 (CSEL 42:125–126; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-2). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-3 - Source: CSEL 42:126–127 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Despite condemning these views at the synod, Pelagius in his books still places grace in nature, free choice, or law and teaching, not in God's inward help. ### Latin text Sed quid mirum? quandoquidem ipse Pelagius, cum episcopalibus gestis sine ulla recusatione damnauerit eos, qui dicunt gratiam dei et adiutorium non ad singulos actus dari, sed in libero arbitrio esse uel in lege atque doctrina — ubi putabamus eius de hac re omnes tergiuersationes esse consumptas — damnauerit etiam eos, qui docent gratiam dei secundum merita nostra dari, tamen in libris, quos edidit pro libero arbitrio, quorum mentionem facit in epistula, quam Romam misit, nihil aliud sentire monstratur quam id quod damnasse uidebatur. nam gratiam dei et adiutorium, quo adiuuamur ad non peccandum, aut in natura et libero ponit arbitrio aut in lege atque doctrina, ut uidelicet, cum adiuuat deus hominem, ut declinet a malo et faciat bonum, reuelando et ostendendo quid fieri debeat adiuuare credatur, non etiam cooperando et dilectionem inspirando, ut id quod faciendum esse cognouerit faciat. ### English translation (Claude) But what wonder? For Pelagius himself, although in the episcopal proceedings he condemned without any objection those who say that the grace and help of God is not given for individual acts but consists in free choice or in the law and teaching (where we thought all his evasions on this matter had been used up), and although he also condemned those who teach that the grace of God is given according to our merits, is nevertheless shown in the books he published in defense of free choice, which he mentions in the letter he sent to Rome, to hold nothing other than what he seemed to have condemned. For he places the grace and help of God, by which we are helped not to sin, either in nature and free choice or in the law and teaching; so that, when God helps a man to turn away from evil and do good, he is believed to help by revealing and showing what ought to be done, not also by cooperating and inspiring love, so that he may do what he has come to know he should do. ### Extrabiblical texts - Augustine, Gest. Pelag. (On the Proceedings of Pelagius): echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The 'episcopal proceedings' are those of the Synod of Diospolis (Lydda) in Palestine, 415 (see Augustine, On the Proceedings of Pelagius). The books 'in defense of free choice' (De libero arbitrio) survive only in fragments, chiefly those quoted here. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.3 (CSEL 42:126–127; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-3). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-4 - Source: CSEL 42:127 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius distinguishes capacity, will, and action, and holds that grace helps only the God-given capacity, not the will or the action. ### Latin text Nam cum tria constituat atque distinguat, quibus diuina mandata dicit inpleri: possibilitatem, uoluntatem, actionem — possibilitatem scilicet, qua potest homo esse iustus, uoluntatem, qua uult esse iustus, actionem, qua iustus est — horum trium primum, id est possibilitatem datam confitetur a creatore naturae nec esse in nostra potestate, sed eam nos habere, etiamsi nolimus, duo uero reliqua, id est uoluntatem et actionem nostra esse asserit atque ita nobis tribuit, ut nonnisi a nobis esse contendat. denique gratia dei non ista duo, quae nostra omnino uult esse, id est uoluntatem et actionem, sed illam, quae in potestate nostra non est et nobis ex deo est, id est possibilitatem, perhibet adiuuari, tamquam illa quae nostra sunt, hoc est uoluntas et actio, tam sint ualentia ad declinandum a malo et faciendum bonum, ut diuino adiutorio non indigeant, illud uero, quod nobis ex deo est, hoc sit inualidum, id est possibilitas, ut semper gratiae adiuuetur auxilio. ### English translation (Claude) For he sets up and distinguishes three things by which he says the divine commandments are fulfilled: capacity, will, and action; capacity, by which a man can be righteous; will, by which he wills to be righteous; action, by which he is righteous. Of these three he confesses that the first, capacity, is given by the Creator of nature and is not in our power, but that we have it even if we do not want it; but the other two, will and action, he asserts are ours, and he attributes them to us in such a way as to contend that they are from us alone. Accordingly, he maintains that the grace of God helps not those two which he wants to be entirely ours, will and action, but the one that is not in our power and is ours from God, capacity; as though the things that are ours, will and action, were so strong for turning away from evil and doing good that they need no divine help, while what is ours from God, capacity, were so weak that it is always helped by the aid of grace. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.4 (CSEL 42:127; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-4). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-5 - Source: CSEL 42:127–128 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine quotes Pelagius's own statement of the triad: being able is from God, while willing and being (doing) are man's own. ### Latin text Sed ne quis forsitan dicat nos uel non recte intellegere quae loquitur uel maleuolo animo in alium sensum quae non ita dicta sunt uertere, ipsa iam uerba eius accipite. . inquit, sic tria ista distinguimus et certum uelut in ordinem digesta partimur. primo loco posse statuimus, secundo uelle, tertio esse; posse in natura, uelle in arbitrio, esse in effectu locamus. primum illud, id est posse ad deum proprie pertinet, qui illud creaturae suae contulit, duo uero reliqua, hoc est uelle et esse ad hominem referenda sunt, quia de arbitrii fonte descendunt. ergo in uoluntate et opere bono laus hominis est, immo et hominis et dei, qui ipsius uoluntatis et operis possibilitatem dedit quique ipsam possibilitatem gratiae suae adiuuat semper auxilio; quod uero potest homo uelle bonum atque perficere, solius dei est. potest itaque illud unum esse, etiamsi duo ista non fuerint, ista uero sine illo esse non possunt. itaque liberum mihi est nec uoluntatem bonam habere nec actionem, nullo autem modo possum non habere possibilitatem boni; inest mihi, etiamsi noluero, nec otium sui aliquando in hoc natura recipit. quem nobis sensum exempla aliqua faciant clariorem. quod possumus uidere oculis, nostrum non est, quod uero bene aut male uidemus, hoc nostrum est; quod loqui possumus, dei est, quod uero bene aut male loquimur, nostrum est. et ut generaliter uniuersa complectar: quod possumus omne bonum facere, dicere, cogitare, illius est, qui hoc posse donauit, qui hoc posse adiuuat; quod uero bene uel agimus uel loquimur uel cogitamus, nostrum est, quia haec omnia uertere in malum etiam possumus. unde, quod propter calumniam uestram saepe repetendum est, cum dicimus posse hominem esse sine peccato, et confessione possibilitatis acceptae laudamus deum, qui nobis hoc posse largitus est, nec est ibi ulla laudandi hominis occasio, ubi solius dei causa tractatur; non enim de uelle nec de esse, sed tantummodo de eo quod potest esse disseritur. ### English translation (Claude) But lest anyone perhaps say that we either do not understand rightly what he says or with malicious intent twist into another sense what was not so said, now hear his own words. 'We,' he says, 'distinguish these three things thus, and divide them as if arranged in a definite order. In the first place we set being able, in the second willing, in the third being. Being able we place in nature, willing in choice, being in effect. The first, being able, belongs properly to God, who conferred it on his creature; but the other two, willing and being, are to be referred to man, because they come down from the source of choice. Therefore in will and good work the praise is man's, or rather both man's and God's, who gave the capacity for that very will and work and who always helps that very capacity by the aid of his grace. But that a man is able to will and accomplish good is of God alone. So that one can exist even if these two do not, but these cannot exist without that one. And so I am free not to have either a good will or an action, but I can in no way not have the capacity for good: it is in me even if I do not want it, and nature never in this respect admits any rest from it. Let some examples make this meaning clearer for us. That we can see with our eyes is not ours; but that we see well or badly is ours. That we can speak is God's; but that we speak well or badly is ours. And to embrace everything in general: that we can do, say, and think every good thing is his who gave this being able and who helps this being able; but that we act or speak or think well is ours, because we can also turn all these things to evil. Hence, and this must often be repeated because of your slander, when we say that a man can be without sin, we also praise God by confessing the capacity we have received, who bestowed this being able on us; and there is no occasion there for praising man, where the cause of God alone is being treated; for the discussion is not about willing or about being, but only about what can be.' ### Translation notes - Quoted from Pelagius, On Free Choice, book 3 (see 1.6), addressed to an opponent ('your slander'). The angle brackets in the edition mark the supplied word nos ('we'). ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.5 (CSEL 42:127–128; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-5). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-6 - Source: CSEL 42:128–130 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Paul's words 'God works in you both to will and to work' contradict Pelagius's claim that grace helps only the capacity, not the willing and doing. ### Latin text Ecce est totum dogma Pelagii in libro eius tertio pro libero arbitrio his omnino uerbis diligenter expressum, quo tria ista, unum quod est posse, alterum quod est uelle, tertium quod est esse, id est possibilitatem, uoluntatem, actionem, tanta curauit subtilitate distinguere, ut quandocumque legimus uel audimus eum diuinae gratiae adiutorium confiteri, ut a malo declinemus bonumque faciamus, siue in lege atque doctrina siue ubilibet constituat, sciamus quid loquitur nec erremus aliter eum intellegendo quam sentit. scire quippe debemus, quod nec uoluntatem nostram nec actionem diuino adiuuari credit auxilio, sed solam possibilitatem uoluntatis atque operis, quam solam in his tribus nos habere affirmat ex deo, tamquam hoc sit infirmum, quod deus ipse posuit in natura, cetera uero duo, quae nostra esse uoluit, ita sint firma et fortia et sibi sufficientia, ut nullo indigeant eius auxilio, et ideo non adiuuet ut uelimus, non adiuuet ut agamus, sed tantummodo adiuuet ut uelle et agere ualeamus. contra autem apostolus cum timore, inquit, et tremore uestram ipsorum salutem operamini. et ut scirent, quia non tantum in eo quod operari possint — hoc etenim in natura et in doctrina iam acceperant — sed etiam in eo quod operantur diuinitus adiuuantur, non ait: deus est enim qui operatur in uobis posse, tamquam ipsi iam et uelle et operari per se ipsos habeant nec in his duobus adiutorio eius indigeant, sed ait: deus est enim qui operatur in uobis et uelle et perficere, uel, sicut in aliis et maxime graecis codicibus legitur, et uelle et operari. uidete si non apostolus gratiae dei futuros aduersarios sancto spiritu tanto ante praeuidit et haec duo, id est et uelle et operari, quae iste ita nostra esse uoluit, tamquam ipsa diuinae gratiae non adiuuentur auxilio, deum in nobis dixit operari. ### English translation (Claude) See, the whole teaching of Pelagius is carefully expressed in exactly these words in his third book in defense of free choice, in which he has taken care to distinguish these three things, the first being able, the second willing, the third being, that is, capacity, will, and action, with such subtlety that whenever we read or hear him confess the help of divine grace for turning away from evil and doing good, whether he places it in the law and teaching or anywhere else, we may know what he means and not err by understanding him otherwise than he thinks. For we must know that he does not believe that either our will or our action is helped by divine aid, but only the capacity for will and work, which alone of these three he affirms we have from God; as though what God himself placed in nature were weak, while the other two, which he wanted to be ours, were so firm and strong and self-sufficient that they need no help from him; and therefore he does not help us to will, he does not help us to act, but only helps us to be able to will and act. On the contrary, the apostle says, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.' And so that they might know that they are divinely helped not only in being able to work (for this they had already received in nature and in teaching) but also in actually working, he does not say, 'For it is God who works in you being able,' as though they already had both willing and working through themselves and did not need his help in these two; but he says, 'For it is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish,' or, as is read in other and especially Greek manuscripts, 'both to will and to work.' See whether the apostle did not foresee by the Holy Spirit so long beforehand the future adversaries of the grace of God, and said that God works in us these two things, willing and working, which this man wanted to be ours in such a way as though they were not helped by the aid of divine grace. ### Scripture references - Phil 2:12: quotation, high confidence - Phil 2:13: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations: Phil 2:12–13. Augustine notes the variant 'to accomplish' (perficere) in Latin copies against 'to work' (operari) in others and in the Greek. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.6 (CSEL 42:128–130; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-6). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.7 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-7 - Source: CSEL 42:130 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius's apparent concession that the praise is 'both man's and God's' refers only to the capacity God gave in nature. ### Latin text Neque hinc Pelagius incautos fallat et simplices uel etiam se ipsum, quoniam cum dixisset: ergo in uoluntate et opere bono laus hominis est, uelut correxit atque addidit: immo et hominis et dei. non enim hoc propterea dixit, quia secundum sanam doctrinam intellegi uoluit, quod et uelle et operari deus operetur in nobis, sed cur hoc dixerit satis euidenter ostendit continuo subiungendo: qui ipsius uoluntatis et operis possibilitatem dedit. hanc autem possibilitatem in natura eum ponere de uerbis eius superioribus clarum est. sed ne nihil de gratia dixisse uideretur, adiunxit: quique ipsam possibilitatem gratiae suae adiuuat semper auxilio; non ait: ipsam uoluntatem uel ipsam operationem — quod si diceret, non abhorrere a doctrina apostolica uideretur — sed ait: ipsam possibilitatem, illud uidelicet ex tribus, quod in natura locauit, gratiae suae adiuuat semper auxilio, ut scilicet in uoluntate et actione non ideo laus sit et dei et hominis, quia sic uult homo, ut tamen deus uoluntati eius ardorem dilectionis inspiret, et sic operatur homo, ut tamen deus cooperetur — sine cuius adiutorio quid est homo? — sed ideo ad hanc laudem adiunxit et deum, quia nisi natura esset in qua nos condidit, qua uelle et agere possemus, nec uellemus nec ageremus. ### English translation (Claude) Nor let Pelagius deceive the unwary and simple, or even himself, by the fact that after saying, 'Therefore in will and good work the praise is man's,' he as it were corrected himself and added, 'or rather both man's and God's.' For he did not say this because he wanted it understood, according to sound teaching, that God works in us both willing and working; but he shows clearly enough why he said it by immediately adding, 'who gave the capacity for that very will and work.' And it is clear from his earlier words that he places this capacity in nature. But so as not to seem to have said nothing about grace, he added, 'and who always helps that very capacity by the aid of his grace.' He does not say 'that very will' or 'that very working' (had he said this, he would not seem to depart from the apostle's teaching), but he says 'that very capacity,' that is, the one of the three which he placed in nature, he 'always helps by the aid of his grace.' So in will and action the praise is not both God's and man's for this reason, that man wills in such a way that God nevertheless inspires the ardor of love in his will, and man works in such a way that God nevertheless cooperates (and without his help what is man?); but he added God to this praise for this reason, that unless there were the nature in which he created us, by which we could will and act, we would neither will nor act. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.7 (CSEL 42:130; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-7). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.8 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-8 - Source: CSEL 42:130–132 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius's fuller description of grace (revelation, opening the eyes of the heart, warning of the devil's snares) still amounts to law and teaching. ### Latin text Hanc autem naturalem possibilitatem quod adiuuari dei gratia confitetur, non est hic apertum uel quam dicat gratiam uel quatenus ea naturam sentiat adiuuari; sed sicut aliis locis, in quibus euidentius loquitur, intellegi potest, non uult aliud accipi quam legem atque doctrinam, qua naturalis possibilitas adiuuetur. Nam quodam loco ait: hic nos imperitissimi hominum putant iniuriam diuinae gratiae facere, quia dicimus eam sine uoluntate nostra nequaquam in nobis perficere sanctitatem — quasi deus gratiae suae aliquid imperauerit et non illis, quibus imperauit, etiam gratiae suae auxilium subministret, ut quod per liberum homines facere iubentur arbitrium, facilius possent implere per gratiam — et tamquam explicaturus quam dicat gratiam secutus adiunxit dicens: quam nos non, ut tu putas, in lege tantummodo, sed et in dei esse adiutorio confitemur. quis non hic desideret ut ostendat quam uelit intellegi gratiam? propter hoc enim maxime de illo expectare debemus, ut dicat hoc quod dicit non in lege tantummodo se gratiam confiteri. sed nobis hac expectatione suspensis quid addiderit intuemini. adiuuat enim nos deus, inquit, per doctrinam et reuelationem suam, dum cordis nostri oculos aperit; dum nobis, ne praesentibus occupemur, futura demonstrat; dum diaboli pandit insidias; dum nos multiformi et ineffabili dono gratiae caelestis illuminat. deinde sententiam suam quadam uelut absolutione concludens qui haec dicit, inquit, gratiam tibi uidetur negare an et liberum hominis arbitrium et dei gratiam confitetur? in his omnibus non recessit a commendatione legis atque doctrinae, hanc esse adiuuantem gratiam diligenter inculcans et hoc exequens quod proposuerat, cum diceret: sed in dei esse adiutorio confitemur. denique dei adiutorium multipliciter insinuandum putauit commemorando doctrinam et reuelationem et oculorum cordis adapertionem et demonstrationem futurorum et apertionem diabolicarum insidiarum et multiformi atque ineffabili dono gratiae caelestis illuminationem, ad hoc utique, ut diuina praecepta et promissa discamus. hoc est ergo gratiam dei ponere in lege atque doctrina. ### English translation (Claude) As for his confessing that this natural capacity is helped by the grace of God, it is not clear here either what grace he means or how far he thinks nature is helped by it; but, as can be understood from other passages where he speaks more plainly, he wants nothing else to be understood than the law and teaching by which natural capacity is helped. For in one place he says: 'Here the most ignorant of men think that we do injury to divine grace because we say that it in no way accomplishes holiness in us without our will; as though God had commanded something to his grace and did not also supply the aid of his grace to those to whom he gave commands, so that what men are commanded to do through free choice they might more easily fulfill through grace.' And, as if about to explain what grace he means, he went on to add: 'which we confess to be, not, as you think, in the law only, but also in the help of God.' Who would not want him here to show what grace he wants understood? For this above all we ought to expect from him, since he says that he confesses grace not in the law only. But while we are held in this expectation, see what he added: 'For God helps us,' he says, 'through his teaching and revelation, when he opens the eyes of our heart; when he shows us future things, so that we may not be taken up with present ones; when he lays bare the snares of the devil; when he illumines us with the manifold and ineffable gift of heavenly grace.' Then, concluding his statement as if with an acquittal, he says: 'Does he who says this seem to you to deny grace? Or does he confess both the free choice of man and the grace of God?' In all this he has not departed from commending the law and teaching, carefully impressing that this is the helping grace, and following out what he had proposed when he said, 'but also in the help of God.' In short, he thought the help of God should be conveyed in many ways, by mentioning teaching, revelation, the opening of the eyes of the heart, the showing of future things, the laying bare of the devil's snares, and illumination by the manifold and ineffable gift of heavenly grace, all of it certainly to this end, that we may learn the divine commands and promises. This, then, is to place the grace of God in law and teaching. ### Scripture references - Eph 1:18: echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Quoted from Pelagius, On Free Choice. 'The eyes of your heart' echoes Eph 1:18. The first quotation contains the Pelagian claim that grace enables men to fulfill 'more easily' what free choice could do. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.8 (CSEL 42:130–132; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-8). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.9 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-9 - Source: CSEL 42:132–133 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The law shows what to do but cannot enable it; it drives the proud to grace, and the righteousness of God is given, not commanded. ### Latin text Hinc itaque apparet hanc eum gratiam confiteri, qua demonstrat et reuelat deus quid agere debeamus, non qua donat atque adiuuat, ut agamus, cum ad hoc potius ualeat legis agnitio, si gratiae desit opitulatio, ut fiat mandati praeuaricatio; ubi enim non est lex, ait apostolus, nec praeuaricatio, et: concupiscentiam nesciebam, nisi lex diceret: non concupisces. ac per hoc usque adeo aliud est lex, aliud gratia, ut lex non solum nihil prosit, uerum etiam plurimum obsit, nisi adiuuet gratia, et haec ostendatur legis utilitas, quoniam quos facit praeuaricationis reos, cogit confugere ad gratiam liberandos et ut concupiscentias malas superent adiuuandos. iubet enim magis quam iuuat, docet morbum esse, non sanat; immo ab ea potius quod non sanatur augetur, ut attentius et sollicitius gratiae medicina quaeratur, quia littera occidit, spiritus autem uiuificat. si enim data esset lex, quae posset uiuificare, omnino ex lege esset iustitia; in quantum tamen etiam lex adiuuet, adiungit et dicit: sed conclusit scriptura omnia sub peccato, ut promissio ex fide Iesu Christi daretur credentibus. itaque lex, inquit, paedagogus noster fuit in Christo Iesu. hoc ipsum ergo superbis est utile sub peccato artius manifestiusque concludi, ne ad faciendam iustitiam de liberi arbitrii quasi propriis uiribus praesumatur, sed omne os obstruatur et reus fiat omnis mundus deo, quia non iustificabitur ex lege omnis caro coram illo; per legem enim cognitio peccati. nunc autem sine lege iustitia dei manifestata est, testificata per legem et prophetas. quomodo ergo sine lege manifestata, si per legem testificata? non itaque sine lege manifestata, sed sine lege iustitia, quia iustitia dei est, id est quae nobis non ex lege sit, sed ex deo, non quae illo imperante cognoscendo timeatur, sed quae illo donante diligendo teneatur, ut et qui gloriatur in domino glorietur. ### English translation (Claude) From this it appears that he confesses the grace by which God shows and reveals what we ought to do, not that by which he gives and helps us to do it; whereas the knowledge of the law, if the help of grace is lacking, avails rather to bring about transgression of the commandment. 'For where there is no law,' says the apostle, 'there is no transgression either,' and, 'I would not have known covetousness if the law had not said, You shall not covet.' And so the law and grace are so different that the law not only does no good but even does very great harm unless grace helps; and the usefulness of the law is shown in this, that those whom it makes guilty of transgression it compels to flee to grace to be set free and to be helped to overcome evil desires. For it commands rather than helps; it shows that there is a disease, it does not heal it; indeed, what is not healed is rather increased by it, so that the medicine of grace may be sought more attentively and anxiously, because 'the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.' 'For if a law had been given that could give life, righteousness would indeed be from the law.' Yet how far the law does help, he adds and says: 'But Scripture has shut up all things under sin, so that the promise might be given by faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.' 'Therefore the law,' he says, 'was our pedagogue in Christ Jesus.' This very thing, then, is useful to the proud: to be shut up more tightly and more plainly under sin, so that they may not presume to do righteousness by the supposedly proper powers of free choice, but that 'every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God; because by the law no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.' How then is it manifested apart from the law, if it is witnessed by the law? It is not, then, manifested apart from the law, but it is righteousness apart from the law, because it is the righteousness of God, that is, righteousness that is ours not from the law but from God: not that which is feared by knowing it when he commands, but that which is held by loving it when he gives; so that 'he who glories may glory in the Lord.' ### Scripture references - Rom 4:15: quotation, high confidence - Rom 7:7: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 3:6: quotation, high confidence - Gal 3:21–22: quotation, high confidence - Gal 3:24: quotation, high confidence - Rom 3:19–21: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 1:31: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations: Rom 4:15; Rom 7:7; 2 Cor 3:6; Gal 3:21–22; Gal 3:24 (Augustine's Latin 'in Christ Jesus'); Rom 3:19–21; 1 Cor 1:31. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.9 (CSEL 42:132–133; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-9). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.10 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-10 - Source: CSEL 42:133 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: No one fulfills the law through the law, only through the love poured in by the Spirit; Pelagius disguises his view of grace as law and teaching by changing his terms. ### Latin text Quid ergo est, quod iste legem atque doctrinam deputat gratiam, qua iuuamur ad operandam iustitiam, quae ut multum adiuuet, ad hoc adiuuat ut gratia requiratur? nemo enim legem potest implere per legem; plenitudo enim legis caritas, caritas autem dei non per legem diffusa est in cordibus nostris, sed per spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis. proinde per legem gratia demonstratur. ut lex per gratiam compleatur. quid enim iuuat Pelagium, quia diuersis uerbis eandem rem dicit, ut non intellegatur in lege atque doctrina gratiam constituere, qua possibilitatem naturae asserit adiuuari? quantum autem existimo, ideo ueretur intellegi, quia damnauit eos, qui dicunt gratiam dei et adiutorium non ad singulos actus dari, sed in libero arbitrio esse uel in lege atque doctrina, et tamen latere se putat, cum aliis atque aliis locutionibus uersat significationem legis atque doctrinae. ### English translation (Claude) Why is it, then, that this man counts as grace, by which we are helped to do righteousness, the law and teaching, which, however much it helps, helps only to this end, that grace may be sought? For no one can fulfill the law through the law; for 'love is the fulfillment of the law,' and 'the love of God has been poured out in our hearts' not through the law but 'through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.' Accordingly, grace is pointed out by the law, so that the law may be fulfilled by grace. What does it help Pelagius to say the same thing in different words, so as not to be understood to place in law and teaching the grace by which he asserts the capacity of nature is helped? As far as I judge, he fears to be understood because he condemned those who say that the grace and help of God is not given for individual acts but consists in free choice or in the law and teaching; and yet he thinks he escapes notice when he turns over the meaning of law and teaching in one expression after another. ### Scripture references - Rom 13:10: quotation, high confidence - Rom 5:5: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations: Rom 13:10; Rom 5:5. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.10 (CSEL 42:133; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-10). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.11 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-11 - Source: CSEL 42:133–135 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius explains 'God works in you to will' as God's promises and exhortations; Augustine insists on a grace that makes people actually believe, love, and be persuaded. ### Latin text Et alio quippe loco, cum diu asseruisset non adiutorio dei, sed ex nobis ipsis in nobis effici uoluntatem bonam, opposuit sibi ex apostoli epistola quaestionem atque ait: et quomodo, inquit, stabit illud apostoli: deus est enim qui operatur in uobis et uelle et perficere? deinde ut hanc oppositionem ueluti solueret, quam uidebat dogmati suo uehementer esse contrariam, secutus adiunxit: operatur in nobis uelle quod bonum est, uelle quod sanctum est, dum nos terrenis cupiditatibus deditos et mutorum more animalium tantummodo praesentia diligentes futurae gloriae magnitudine et praemiorum pollicitatione succendit; dum reuelatione sapientiae in desiderium dei stupentem suscitat uoluntatem; dum nobis — quod tu alibi negare non metuis — suadet omne quod bonum est. quid manifestius nihil aliud eum dicere gratiam, qua deus in nobis operatur uelle quod bonum est, quam legem atque doctrinam? in lege namque et doctrina sanctarum scripturarum futurae gloriae atque praemiorum promittitur magnitudo, ad doctrinam pertinet etiam quod sapientia reuelatur, ad doctrinam pertinet cum suadetur omne quod bonum est. et si inter docere et suadere uel potius exhortari distare aliquid uidetur, etiam hoc tamen doctrinae generalitate concluditur, quae quibusque sermonibus uel litteris continetur; nam et sanctae scripturae et docent et exhortantur et potest esse in docendo et exhortando etiam hominis operatio. sed nos eam gratiam uolumus isti aliquando fateantur, qua futurae gloriae magnitudo non solum promittitur, uerum etiam creditur et speratur, nec solum reuelatur sapientia, uerum et amatur nec solum suadetur omne quod bonum est, uerum et persuadetur. non enim omnium est fides, qui audiunt per scripturas regnum caelorum dominum pollicentem, aut omnibus persuadetur quibuscumque suadetur, ut ueniant ad eum qui dicit: uenite ad me omnes qui laboratis; quorum autem sit fides et quibus persuadetur, ut ad eum ueniant, satis ipse demonstrauit, ubi ait: nemo uenit ad me, nisi pater qui misit me traxerit eum, et paulo post, cum de non credentibus loqueretur, dixi, inquit, uobis, quia nemo potest uenire ad me, nisi fuerit ei datum a patre meo. hanc debet Pelagius gratiam confiteri, si uult non solum uocari, uerum etiam esse christianus. ### English translation (Claude) In another place too, after asserting at length that a good will is produced in us not by the help of God but from ourselves, he raised against himself a question from the apostle's letter, and said: 'And how will that saying of the apostle stand: For it is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish?' Then, to solve, as it were, this objection, which he saw was strongly opposed to his teaching, he went on to add: 'He works in us to will what is good, to will what is holy, when, as we are given over to earthly desires and, like dumb animals, love only present things, he kindles us by the greatness of future glory and the promise of rewards; when by the revelation of wisdom he rouses a stupefied will to the desire for God; when he urges on us' (which you elsewhere do not fear to deny) 'everything that is good.' What could be plainer than that he calls grace, by which God works in us to will what is good, nothing but the law and teaching? For in the law and teaching of the holy Scriptures the greatness of future glory and rewards is promised; to teaching also belongs the revealing of wisdom; to teaching belongs the urging of everything that is good. And if there seems to be some difference between teaching and urging, or rather exhorting, this too is included under the general heading of teaching, which is contained in any words or writings; for the holy Scriptures both teach and exhort, and there can also be human activity in teaching and exhorting. But we want these people at some time to confess that grace by which the greatness of future glory is not only promised but also believed and hoped for; by which wisdom is not only revealed but also loved; by which everything that is good is not only urged but also persuaded. For not all have faith who hear the Lord promising the kingdom of heaven through the Scriptures; nor are all persuaded, whoever are urged, to come to him who says, 'Come to me, all you who labor.' But whose the faith is, and who are persuaded to come to him, he himself showed clearly enough when he said, 'No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,' and a little later, speaking of those who did not believe, 'I told you that no one can come to me unless it has been given him by my Father.' This grace Pelagius ought to confess, if he wants not only to be called but also to be a Christian. ### Scripture references - Phil 2:13: quotation, high confidence - Matt 11:28: quotation, high confidence - John 6:44: quotation, high confidence - John 6:65: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quoted from Pelagius, On Free Choice. Quotations: Phil 2:13; Matt 11:28; John 6:44; John 6:65. The words 'which you elsewhere do not fear to deny' are Pelagius's aside to his opponent. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.11 (CSEL 42:133–135; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-11). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.12 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-12 - Source: CSEL 42:135 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Even Paul, given great revelations, needed the 'angel of Satan' to curb his pride, because his love was not yet perfect; revelation alone is not grace. ### Latin text Quid autem dicam de reuelatione sapientiae? neque enim facile quisquam sperauerit in hac uita posse peruenire ad magnitudinem reuelationum apostoli Pauli et utique in eis quid aliud credendum est ei reuelari solere, nisi quod ad sapientiam pertineret? et tamen dicit: in magnitudine reuelationum mearum ne extollar, datus est mihi stimulus carnis meae, angelus satanae, qui me colaphizet. propter quod ter dominum rogaui. ut auferret eum a me, et dixit mihi: sufficit tibi gratia mea; nam uirtus in infirmitate perficitur. procul dubio si iam summa et cui nihil esset addendum caritas in apostolo tunc fuisset, quae omnino non posset inflari, numquid necessarius esset angelus satanae, quo colaphizante reprimeretur elatio, quae in magnitudine reuelationum posset existere? quid est autem aliud elatio quam inflatio? et utique de caritate uerissime dictum est: caritas non aemulatur, non inflatur. haec itaque caritas adhuc etiam in tanto apostolo de die in diem profecto augebatur, quamdiu homo eius interior de die in diem renouabatur, perficienda sine dubio ubi iam non posset inflari. tunc autem mens eius adhuc erat, ubi inflaretur magnitudine reuelationis, donec impleretur solido aedificio caritatis; nondum enim perueniendo apprehenderat, quo proficiendo currebat. ### English translation (Claude) And what shall I say of the revelation of wisdom? For no one would easily hope to attain in this life to the greatness of the revelations of the apostle Paul; and what else must we believe was usually revealed to him in them but what belonged to wisdom? And yet he says: 'Lest I be exalted by the greatness of my revelations, there was given me a goad in my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me. Concerning this I asked the Lord three times to take it away from me, and he said to me: My grace is sufficient for you; for power is made perfect in weakness.' Without doubt, if there had already been in the apostle at that time the highest love, to which nothing was to be added, and which could not be puffed up at all, would an angel of Satan have been needed, by whose buffeting the elation that could arise from the greatness of the revelations might be kept down? And what is elation but being puffed up? And it is most truly said of love: 'Love is not jealous, is not puffed up.' This love, then, was still growing day by day even in so great an apostle, as long as his inner man was being renewed day by day, to be made perfect without doubt where it could no longer be puffed up. But at that time his mind was still at the point where it could be puffed up by the greatness of the revelation, until it should be filled with the solid building of love; for he had not yet reached and grasped that toward which he was running as he advanced. ### Scripture references - 2 Cor 12:7–9: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 13:4: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 4:16: allusion, high confidence - Phil 3:12–14: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: 2 Cor 12:7–9; 1 Cor 13:4; 2 Cor 4:16; Phil 3:12–14. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.12 (CSEL 42:135; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-12). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.13 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-13 - Source: CSEL 42:135–136 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Power is made perfect in weakness of mind as well as flesh; grace leads the predestined not only to know and believe the good but to do and love it. ### Latin text Ideoque nolenti perpeti molestiam, qua eius cohiberetur elatio, antequam esset in eo caritatis ultima et summa perfectio, rectissime dicitur: sufficit tibi gratia mea; nam uirtus in infirmitate perficitur; in infirmitate scilicet non, ut ille putat, carnis tantum, sed et carnis et animi, quia et animus erat in comparatione summae illius perfectionis infirmus, quando extolleretur. proinde stimulus carnis angelus satanae intellegebatur datus, quamuis esset in carnalium uel animalium nondum percipientium quae sunt spiritus dei comparatione firmissimus. quocirca si uirtus in infirmitate perficitur, quisquis se non fatetur infirmum, non perficitur. haec autem gratia, qua uirtus in infirmitate perficitur. praedestinatos et secundum propositum uocatos ad summam perfectionem glorificationemque perducit. qua gratia agitur non solum ut facienda nouerimus, uerum etiam ut cognita faciamus nec solum ut diligenda credamus, uerum etiam ut credita diligamus. ### English translation (Claude) And so to him who did not want to endure the trouble by which his elation was to be restrained, before there was in him the last and highest perfection of love, it is most rightly said: 'My grace is sufficient for you; for power is made perfect in weakness': in weakness, that is, not, as that man thinks, of the flesh only, but of both flesh and mind, because the mind too, in comparison with that highest perfection, was weak when it could be exalted. Therefore the goad of the flesh, an angel of Satan, was understood to have been given to it, although in comparison with the carnal or natural men, who do not yet perceive the things of the Spirit of God, the mind was very strong. Therefore, if power is made perfect in weakness, whoever does not confess himself weak is not made perfect. And this grace, by which power is made perfect in weakness, leads those who are predestined and called according to purpose to the highest perfection and glorification. By this grace it is brought about not only that we know what is to be done but also that we do what we know, not only that we believe what is to be loved but also that we love what we believe. ### Scripture references - 2 Cor 12:9: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 2:14: allusion, high confidence - Rom 8:28–30: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - 'As that man thinks' refers to Pelagius's interpretation (only weakness of the flesh). Quotations and allusions: 2 Cor 12:9; 1 Cor 2:14; Rom 8:28–30. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.13 (CSEL 42:135–136; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-13). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.14 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-14 - Source: CSEL 42:136–137 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: If grace is teaching, it is God's inward teaching that imparts love, so that those taught by God do what they learn; the righteousness 'from God' is given, not commanded. ### Latin text Haec gratia si doctrina dicenda est, certe sic dicatur, ut altius et interius eam deus cum ineffabili suauitate credatur infundere non solum per eos, qui plantant et rigant extrinsecus, sed etiam per se ipsum, qui incrementum suum ministrat occultus, ita ut non ostendat tantummodo ueritatem, uerum etiam inpertiat caritatem. sic enim docet deus eos, qui secundum propositum uocati sunt, simul donans et quid agant scire et quod sciunt agere. unde ad Thessalonicenses sic apostolus loquitur: de caritate autem fraternitatis non opus habetis uobis scribi; nam ipsi uos a deo didicistis, ut diligatis inuicem. atque ut probaret eos a deo didicisse, subiunxit: etenim facitis illud in omnes fratres in uniuersa Macedonia, tamquam hoc sit certissimum indicium, quod a deo didiceris, si id quod didiceris feceris. isto modo sunt omnes secundum propositum uocati, sicut scriptum est in Prophetis, docibiles dei. qui autem nouit quidem quid fieri debeat et non facit, nondum a deo didicit secundum gratiam, sed secundum legem, non secundum spiritum, sed secundum litteram, quamuis multi quod imperat lex facere uideantur timore poenae, non amore iustitiae, quam dicit apostolus iustitiam suam, quae ex lege est, tamquam sit imperata, non data; si autem data est, non dicitur iustitia nostra, sed dei, quia sic fit nostra, ut sit nobis ex deo. dicit enim: ut inueniar in illo non habens meam iustitiam quae ex lege est, sed eam quae ex fide est Iesu, iustitiam ex deo. tantum igitur inter legem distat et gratiam, ut, cum lex esse non dubitetur ex deo, iustitia tamen, quae ex lege est, non sit ex deo, sed iustitia, quae per gratiam consummatur, ex deo. quia ex lege iustitia dicitur, quae fit propter legis maledictum, iustitia ex deo dicitur, quae datur per gratiae beneficium, ut non sit terribile, sed suaue mandatum, sicut oratur in psalmo: suauis es, domine, et in tua suauitate doce me iustitiam tuam, id est, ut non formidine poenae seruiliter cogar esse sub lege, sed libera caritate delecter esse cum lege. praeceptum quippe liber facit, qui libens facit. et hoc modo quisquis discit, agit omnino quicquid agendum didicerit. ### English translation (Claude) If this grace is to be called teaching, let it certainly be called so in such a way that God is believed to pour it in more deeply and inwardly with ineffable sweetness, not only through those who plant and water outwardly but also through himself, who secretly supplies his own increase, so that he not only shows the truth but also imparts love. For so God teaches those who are called according to purpose, giving them at once both to know what they should do and to do what they know. Hence the apostle speaks thus to the Thessalonians: 'Concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.' And to prove that they had been taught by God, he added: 'For indeed you do this toward all the brothers in all Macedonia,' as though this were the surest sign that you have learned from God, if you have done what you have learned. In this way all who are called according to purpose are, as is written in the Prophets, 'taught by God.' But he who knows what ought to be done and does not do it has not yet learned from God according to grace, but according to the law, not according to the Spirit but according to the letter; although many seem to do what the law commands from fear of punishment, not from love of righteousness, which the apostle calls 'his own righteousness, which is from the law,' as though it were commanded, not given. But if it is given, it is not called our righteousness but God's, because it becomes ours in such a way that it is ours from God. For he says: 'that I may be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through the faith of Jesus, the righteousness from God.' So great, then, is the difference between the law and grace that, though the law is undoubtedly from God, the righteousness that is from the law is not from God, but the righteousness that is completed through grace is from God. For the righteousness called 'from the law' is that which is done because of the curse of the law; the righteousness called 'from God' is that which is given through the kindness of grace, so that the commandment is not terrible but sweet, as is prayed in the psalm: 'You are sweet, O Lord, and in your sweetness teach me your righteousness'; that is, so that I may not be forced slavishly by fear of punishment to be under the law, but may delight in free love to be with the law. For he who does the commandment freely does it as a free man. And whoever learns in this way does absolutely whatever he has learned should be done. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 3:6–7: allusion, high confidence - 1 Thess 4:9–10: quotation, high confidence - Isa 54:13: quotation, high confidence - John 6:45: quotation, medium confidence - Phil 3:9: quotation, high confidence - Ps 119:68 (118:68 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Gal 3:10: allusion, low confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: 1 Cor 3:6–7; 1 Thess 4:9–10; Isa 54:13 (John 6:45); Phil 3:9; Ps 119:68 (118:68 LXX) in Augustine's Latin ('You are sweet, O Lord...'); Gal 3:10, 13 (the curse of the law). ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.14 (CSEL 42:136–137; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-14). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.15 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-15 - Source: CSEL 42:137–138 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Christ's words 'everyone who has learned comes to me' show that God's teaching by grace produces the actual willing and coming, not just the capacity to come. ### Latin text De isto docendi modo etiam dominus ait: omnis, qui audiuit a patre meo et didicit, uenit ad me. qui ergo non uenerit, non de illo recte dicitur audiuit quidem et didicit sibi esse ueniendum, sed facere non uult quod didicit, prorsus non recte dicitur de isto docendi modo, quo per gratiam docet deus. si enim, sicut ueritas loquitur, omnis, qui didicit, uenit, quisquis non uenit, profecto nec didicit. quis autem non uideat et uenire quemquam et non uenire arbitrio uoluntatis? sed hoc arbitrium potest esse solum, si non uenit; non autem potest nisi adiutum esse, si uenit, et sic adiutum, ut non solum quid faciendum sit sciat, sed quod scierit etiam faciat. ac per hoc, quando deus docet non per legis litteram, sed per spiritus gratiam, ita docet, ut quod quisque didicerit non tantum cognoscendo uideat, sed etiam uolendo appetat agendoque perficiat. et isto diuino docendi modo etiam ipsa uoluntas et ipsa operatio, non sola uolendi et operandi naturalis possibilitas adiuuatur. si enim solum posse nostrum hac gratia iuuaretur, ita diceret dominus: omnis, qui audiuit a patre et didicit, potest uenire ad me; non autem ita dixit, sed omnis, qui audiuit, inquit, a patre et didicit, uenit ad me. uenire posse in natura ponit Pelagius uel etiam, ut modo dicere coepit, in gratia, qualemlibet eam sentiat, , ne sibi responderetur: si quod bene agimus, loquimur, cogitamus, ideo est et nostrum et dei, quia ille nobis hoc posse donauit, ergo et quod malum agimus, loquimur, cogitamus, et nostrum est et dei, quia illud posse ad utrumque donauit atque ita, quod absit, quemadmodum cum deo laudamur in operibus bonis, sic cum illo culpamur in malis. possibilitas quippe illa, quam dedit, tam nos facit bona posse quam mala. ### English translation (Claude) For when he wanted to show why it is ours, he said, 'because we can also turn all these things to evil.' This, then, is what he feared, and why he did not say 'it is both ours and God's': lest it be answered to him, 'If what we do, say, and think well is both ours and God's because he gave us this being able, then what we do, say, and think badly is also both ours and God's, because he gave that being able for both'; and so (far be it!) just as we are praised together with God in good works, so we would be blamed together with him in evil ones. For that capacity which he gave makes us able to do evil as well as good. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.18 (CSEL 42:140; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-18). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.19 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-19 - Source: CSEL 42:140–141 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius calls the capacity a single root that can bear virtues or vices, contrary to Christ's teaching that good and bad trees bear different fruit and Paul's that covetousness is the root of evils. ### Latin text De qua possibilitate Pelagius in libro primo pro libero arbitrio ita loquitur: habemus autem, inquit, possibilitatem utriusque partis a deo insitam uelut quandam, ut ita dicam, radicem fructiferam atque fecundam, quae ex uoluntate hominis diuersa gignat et pariat et quae possit ad proprii cultoris arbitrium uel nitere flore uirtutum uel sentibus horrere uitiorum. ubi non intuens quid loquatur unam eandemque radicem constituit bonorum et malorum contra euangelicam ueritatem doctrinamque apostolicam. nam et dominus nec arborem bonam dicit posse facere fructus malos nec malam bonos; et apostolus Paulus, cum dicit radicem malorum omnium esse cupiditatem, admonet utique intellegi radicem bonorum omnium caritatem. unde si duae arbores, bona et mala duo sunt homines, bonus et malus, quid est bonus homo nisi uoluntatis bonae, hoc est arbor radicis bonae? et quid est homo malus nisi uoluntatis malae, hoc est arbor radicis malae? fructus enim harum radicum atque arborum facta sunt, dicta sunt, cogitata sunt, quae bona de bona uoluntate procedunt et mala de mala. ### English translation (Claude) Of this capacity Pelagius speaks thus in his first book in defense of free choice: 'We have,' he says, 'the capacity for either side implanted by God, like a kind of fruitful and fertile root, so to speak, which according to the will of man brings forth and bears different things, and which can, at the choice of its own cultivator, either shine with the flower of virtues or bristle with the thorns of vices.' Here, not noticing what he says, he makes one and the same root of good and evil things, contrary to the truth of the Gospel and the teaching of the apostle. For the Lord says that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree good fruit; and the apostle Paul, when he says that covetousness is the root of all evils, certainly gives us to understand that love is the root of all goods. Hence, if the two trees, the good and the bad, are two men, a good one and a bad one, what is a good man but one of good will, that is, a tree of good root? And what is a bad man but one of bad will, that is, a tree of bad root? For the fruits of these roots and trees are deeds, words, and thoughts, which proceed good from a good will and bad from a bad one. ### Scripture references - Matt 7:18: allusion, high confidence - 1 Tim 6:10: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quoted from Pelagius, On Free Choice, book 1. Quotations and allusions: Matt 7:18; 1 Tim 6:10. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.19 (CSEL 42:140–141; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-1/#p-1-19). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.20 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-20 - Source: CSEL 42:141 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: A man becomes a good tree only by God's grace, which must also help him to bear fruit; he becomes bad by falling away from God, a corruption of a good nature, not a nature in itself. ### Latin text Facit autem homo arborem bonam. quando dei accipit gratiam; non enim se ex malo bonum per se ipsum facit, sed ex illo et per illum et in illo qui semper est bonus nec tantum ut arbor sit bona, sed etiam ut faciat fructus bonos, eadem gratia necessarium est ut adiuuetur, sine qua boni aliquid facere non potest. ipse quippe in bonis arboribus cooperatur fructum, qui et forinsecus rigat atque excolit per quemlibet ministrum et per se dat intrinsecus incrementum. malam uero arborem homo facit, quando se ipsum malum facit, quando a bono incommutabili deficit; ab eo quippe defectus est origo uoluntatis malae. qui defectus non aliam naturam malam initiat, sed eam quae bona condita est uitiat; sanato autem uitio nullum malum remanet, quia uitium naturae quidem inerat, sed uitium natura non erat. ### English translation (Claude) A man makes the tree good when he receives the grace of God; for he does not make himself good from evil by himself, but from him and through him and in him who is always good. And not only that the tree may be good, but also that it may bear good fruit, he must be helped by the same grace, without which he can do nothing good. For he himself cooperates in producing fruit in the good trees, who both waters and cultivates outwardly through any minister and gives the increase inwardly by himself. But a man makes the tree bad when he makes himself bad, when he falls away from the unchangeable good; for the falling away from him is the origin of an evil will. This falling away does not begin another, evil nature, but corrupts the one that was created good; and when the corruption is healed no evil remains, because the corruption was indeed in the nature, but the corruption was not the nature. ### Scripture references - Matt 12:33: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Cor 3:6–7: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Allusions: Matt 12:33; 1 Cor 3:6–7. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.20 (CSEL 42:141; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-20). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.21 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-21 - Source: CSEL 42:141 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The capacity can receive either root, love or covetousness, but covetousness comes from man or the devil, not from the Creator. ### Latin text Illa ergo possibilitas non, ut iste opinatur, una eademque radix est bonorum et malorum; aliud est enim caritas radix bonorum, aliud cupiditas radix malorum tantumque inter se differunt quantum uirtus et uitium. sed plane illa possibilitas utriusque radicis est capax, quia non solum potest homo habere caritatem, qua sit arbor bona, sed potest etiam cupiditatem, qua sit arbor mala. sed cupiditas hominis, quae uitium est, hominem habet auctorem uel hominis deceptorem, non hominis creatorem; ipsa est enim concupiscentia carnis et concupiscentia oculorum et ambitio saeculi, quae non est ex patre, sed ex mundo est. quis autem nesciat mundi nomine solere appellare scripturam a quibus habitatur hic mundus? ### English translation (Claude) That capacity, then, is not, as he supposes, one and the same root of good and evil things; for love, the root of good things, is one thing, and covetousness, the root of evil things, another, and they differ from each other as much as virtue and vice. But plainly that capacity is capable of either root, because a man can have not only love, by which he may be a good tree, but also covetousness, by which he may be a bad tree. But human covetousness, which is a vice, has as its author man, or the deceiver of man, not the creator of man; for it is 'the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the ambition of the world, which is not from the Father but from the world.' And who does not know that Scripture usually calls by the name 'world' those by whom this world is inhabited? ### Scripture references - 1 John 2:16: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotation: 1 John 2:16 (Augustine's Latin 'ambition of the world'). ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.21 (CSEL 42:141; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-21). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.22 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-22 - Source: CSEL 42:141–142 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Love, which is the good will itself, is from God according to John, so the good will cannot be from ourselves. ### Latin text Caritas autem, quae uirtus est, ex deo nobis est, non ex nobis scriptura teste, quae dicit: caritas ex deo est, et omnis qui diligit ex deo natus est et cognouit deum, quia deus caritas est. secundum istam caritatem melius intellegitur dictum: qui natus est ex deo, non peccat et quia non potest peccare, quia caritas, secundum quam natus ex deo est, non agit perperam nec cogitat malum. cum ergo peccat homo, non secundum caritatem, sed secundum cupiditatem peccat, secundum quam non est natus ex deo, quoniam illa possibilitas, ut dictum est, utriusque radicis est capax. cum ergo dicat scriptura: caritas ex deo est uel, quod est amplius, deus caritas est, cum apertissime clamet Iohannes apostolus: ecce qualem caritatem dedit nobis pater, ut filii dei uocemur et simus, iste audiens deus caritas est, quare adhuc usque contendit, quod ex illis tribus tantummodo possibilitatem habeamus ex deo, bonam uero uoluntatem bonamque actionem habeamus ex nobis? quasi uero aliud sit bona uoluntas quam caritas, quam scriptura nobis esse clamat ex deo et a patre datam, ut filii eius essemus. ### English translation (Claude) But love, which is a virtue, is ours from God, not from ourselves, as Scripture testifies, which says: 'Love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, because God is love.' In accordance with this love is better understood the saying, 'He who is born of God does not sin,' and that 'he cannot sin'; because love, in accordance with which he is born of God, 'does not act wrongly' and 'thinks no evil.' When, then, a man sins, he sins not in accordance with love but in accordance with covetousness, in accordance with which he is not born of God; since that capacity, as was said, is capable of either root. Since, then, Scripture says, 'Love is from God,' or, what is more, 'God is love'; since the apostle John cries most plainly, 'See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called and be sons of God'; why does this man, hearing 'God is love,' still contend that of those three we have only the capacity from God, but have the good will and the good action from ourselves? As if a good will were anything other than love, which Scripture cries is ours from God and given by the Father, so that we might be his sons. ### Scripture references - 1 John 4:7–8: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 3:9: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 13:4–5: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 4:16: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 3:1: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations: 1 John 4:7–8; 1 John 3:9; 1 Cor 13:4–5; 1 John 4:16; 1 John 3:1. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.22 (CSEL 42:141–142; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-22). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.23 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-23 - Source: CSEL 42:142–143 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius's book to a consecrated virgin teaches that grace is merited by doing God's will, which contradicts his condemnation of that view at the Palestinian synod. ### Latin text Sed forte, ut daretur nobis, praecedentia merita nostra fecerunt, sicut iste de gratia dei sentit in eo libro, quem ad sacram uirginem scripsit, cuius etiam commemorationem fecit in litteris, quas Romam misit. ibi enim interposito Iacobi apostoli testimonio, quo ait: subditi estote deo, resistite autem diabolo, et fugiet a uobis, subiungit et dicit: ostendit quomodo resistere debeamus diabolo, si utique subditi simus deo eiusque faciendo uoluntatem diuinam mereamur gratiam et facilius nequam spiritui sancti spiritus auxilio resistamus. ecce quam ueraci corde damnauit in ecclesiastico iudicio Palaestino eos, qui dicunt gratiam dei secundum merita nostra dari! an adhuc eum id sentire et apertissime praedicare dubitamus? quomodo ergo uerax fuit in episcopali examine illa confessio? an forte iam istum scripserat librum, ubi apertissime dicit gratiam secundum merita nostra dari, quod in orientali synodo sine ulla recusatione damnauit? confiteretur ergo sic se aliquando tenuisse, sed iam non tenere, ut de correctione eius apertissime gauderemus. nunc uero cum illi inter cetera et hoc fuisset obiectum, respondit: haec utrum Caelestii sint, ipsi uiderint, qui dicunt ea Caelestii esse; ego uero numquam sic tenui, sed anathematizo qui sic tenent. quomodo numquam sic tenuit, si hunc antea condiderat librum? aut quomodo anathematizat eos qui sic tenent, si hunc librum postea condidit? ### English translation (Claude) But perhaps our preceding merits brought it about that it should be given to us, as this man thinks of the grace of God in the book he wrote to a consecrated virgin, which he also mentioned in the letter he sent to Rome. For there, after citing the testimony of the apostle James, where he says, 'Be subject to God, but resist the devil, and he will flee from you,' he adds and says: 'He shows how we ought to resist the devil: if indeed we are subject to God and, by doing his will, merit divine grace, and more easily resist the wicked spirit with the help of the Holy Spirit.' See with what truthful heart he condemned, in the ecclesiastical court in Palestine, those who say that the grace of God is given according to our merits! Or do we still doubt that he holds this and proclaims it most openly? How then was that confession truthful in the episcopal examination? Or had he perhaps already written this book, in which he says most openly that grace is given according to our merits, which he condemned without any objection at the Eastern synod? Then let him confess that he once held this but holds it no longer, so that we might rejoice most openly at his correction. But as it is, when this too, among other things, had been put to him, he answered: 'Whether these are Caelestius's, let those see to it who say they are Caelestius's; but I never held this, and I anathematize those who hold it.' How did he never hold it, if he had composed this book before? Or how does he anathematize those who hold it, if he composed this book afterward? ### Scripture references - Jas 4:7: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Augustine, Gest. Pelag. (On the Proceedings of Pelagius): echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Quotation: Jas 4:7. The book 'to a consecrated virgin' is Pelagius's work quoted here and in 1.28 (its identity with his Letter to Demetrias is uncertain). The 'Eastern synod' is the Synod of Diospolis (415); Caelestius was Pelagius's associate. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.23 (CSEL 42:142–143; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-23). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.24 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-24 - Source: CSEL 42:143–145 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius says that running to God and becoming one spirit with him is done by free choice alone, and that grace follows as a reward; Augustine answers that grace so earned would not be grace. ### Latin text Sed ne forte respondeat ita se hic dixisse dei faciendo uoluntatem diuinam mereamur gratiam, sicut fidelibus et pie uiuentibus additur gratia, qua resistant fortiter temptatori, cum tamen gratiam etiam primitus accepissent, ut dei facerent uoluntatem, ne forte ergo ita respondeat, alia de hac re uerba eius accipite. qui currit, inquit, ad dominum et ab eo se regi cupit, id est uoluntatem suam ex eius uoluntate suspendit, qui ei adhaerendo iugiter unus secundum apostolum cum eo fit spiritus, non hoc nisi de arbitrii efficit libertate. uidete quantam rem dixerit non effici nisi arbitrii libertate, ac per hoc sine adiutorio dei nos deo existimat adhaerere. hoc est enim nonnisi de arbitrii libertate, ut cum adhaeserimus eo non adiuuante, tunc iam quoniam adhaesimus, etiam adiuuari mereamur. Sequitur enim et dicit: qua qui bene utitur, id est arbitrii libertate qui bene utitur, ita se, inquit, totum tradit deo omnemque suam mortificat uoluntatem, ut cum apostolo possit dicere: uiuo autem iam non ego, uiuit autem in me Christus, ponitque cor suum in manu dei, ut illud quo uoluerit ipse declinet. magnum profecto adiutorium diuinae gratiae, ut cor nostrum quo uoluerit deus ipse declinet! sed hoc tam magnum adiutorium, sicut iste desipit, tunc meremur, cum sine ullo adiutorio nonnisi de arbitrii libertate ad dominum currimus, ab eo nos regi cupimus, uoluntatem nostram ex eius uoluntate suspendimus eique adhaerendo iugiter unus cum illo efficimur spiritus. haec scilicet tam ingentia bona nonnisi de arbitrii secundum istum efficimus libertate, ut his praecedentibus meritis sic eius gratiam consequamur, ut cor nostrum quo uoluerit ipse declinet. quomodo est ergo gratia, si non gratis datur? quomodo est gratia, si ex debito redditur? quomodo uerum dicit apostolus: non ex uobis, sed dei donum est; non ex operibus, ne forte quis extollatur, et iterum, si autem gratia, inquit, iam non ex operibus, alioquin gratia iam non est gratia? quomodo, inquam, hoc uerum est, si opera tanta praecedunt, quae nobis adipiscendae gratiae meritum faciant, quo nobis non donetur gratuito, sed reddatur ex debito? ergone ut perueniatur ad adiutorium dei, ad deum curritur sine adiutorio dei? et ut deo adhaerentes adiuuemur a deo, a deo non adiuti adhaeremus deo? quid homini maius quidue tale poterit gratia ipsa praestare, si iam sine illa unus cum domino spiritus effici potuit nonnisi de arbitrii libertate? ### English translation (Claude) But lest he perhaps answer that he said here 'by doing God's will we merit divine grace' in the sense in which grace is added to the faithful and those who live piously, by which they may resist the tempter bravely, although they had also received grace at the first in order to do God's will: lest, I say, he answer so, hear other words of his on this matter. 'He who runs to the Lord,' he says, 'and desires to be ruled by him, that is, makes his own will depend on his will, who by cleaving to him constantly becomes one spirit with him, according to the apostle, does this only by freedom of choice.' See how great a thing he said is done only by freedom of choice; and therefore he thinks we cleave to God without God's help. For this is what 'only by freedom of choice' means: that when we have cleaved to him without his help, then, because we have cleaved, we merit also to be helped. For he goes on and says: 'He who uses it well' (that is, he who uses freedom of choice well) 'so gives himself wholly to God and mortifies all his own will that he can say with the apostle: I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me; and he places his heart in the hand of God, so that he may turn it wherever he wills.' A great help indeed of divine grace, that God himself turns our heart wherever he wills! But this so great help, as this man foolishly thinks, we merit when without any help, only by freedom of choice, we run to the Lord, desire to be ruled by him, make our will depend on his will, and by cleaving to him constantly are made one spirit with him. Such immense goods, according to him, we do only by freedom of choice, so that by these preceding merits we obtain his grace in such a way that he turns our heart wherever he wills. How then is it grace, if it is not given gratuitously? How is it grace, if it is paid as a debt? How does the apostle speak truly, 'It is not from yourselves, but it is the gift of God; not from works, lest anyone should be exalted,' and again, 'But if by grace, then no longer from works; otherwise grace is no longer grace'? How, I say, is this true, if such great works come first, which earn us the merit of obtaining grace, so that it is not given to us freely but paid as a debt? Is it then that, in order to reach God's help, one runs to God without God's help? And that in order to be helped by God while cleaving to God, we cleave to God without being helped by God? What greater thing, or what like it, could grace itself bestow on a man, if without it he could already be made one spirit with the Lord only by freedom of choice? ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 6:17: allusion, high confidence - Gal 2:20: quotation, high confidence - Prov 21:1: allusion, high confidence - Eph 2:8–9: quotation, high confidence - Rom 11:6: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quoted from Pelagius's book to a consecrated virgin. Quotations and allusions: 1 Cor 6:17; Gal 2:20; Prov 21:1; Eph 2:8–9; Rom 11:6. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.24 (CSEL 42:143–145; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-24). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.25 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-25 - Source: CSEL 42:145 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: God turned the angry heart of the Persian king in Esther to gentleness without any prior merit, showing that he works good wills inwardly. ### Latin text Sed uellem ut iste diceret, utrum rex ille Assyrius, cuius Esther sancta mulier execrabatur cubile, quando considebat in throno regni sui et omni stola illustrationis suae indutus erat, totus auro uariegatus lapidibusque pretiosis, et erat formidolosus ualde. et eleuata facie sua inflammata in claritate intuitus est eam tamquam taurus in impetu indignationis suae; et timuit regina et conuersus est color eius per dissolutionem et inclinauit se super caput delicatae suae, quae praecedebat eam — uellem ergo diceret iste nobis, utrum rex ille ad dominum iam cucurrerat et ab eo se regi cupiuerat suamque uoluntatem ex eius uoluntate suspenderat et ei iugiter adhaerendo unus cum illo spiritus factus erat nonnisi de arbitrii libertate, utrum se totum deo tradiderat omnemque suam mortificauerat uoluntatem et cor suum in manu dei posuerat. puto non desipere, sed insanire hominem, quisquis de illo rege, qualis tunc erat, haec senserit; et tamen conuertit deus et transtulit indignationem eius in lenitatem. quis autem non uideat multo maius esse indignationem a contrario in lenitatem conuertere atque transferre quam cor neutra affectione praeoccupatum, sed inter utramque medium in aliquid declinare? legant ergo et intellegant, intueantur atque fateantur non lege atque doctrina insonante forinsecus, sed interna et occulta, mirabili ac ineffabili potestate operari deum in cordibus hominum non solum ueras reuelationes, sed bonas etiam uoluntates. ### English translation (Claude) But I should like this man to tell us whether that Assyrian king, whose bed the holy woman Esther abhorred, when 'he sat on the throne of his kingdom and was clothed in all the robe of his splendor, all adorned with gold and precious stones, and was very terrifying; and lifting up his face, flushed with glory, he looked at her like a bull in the rush of his anger; and the queen was afraid, and her color changed as she fainted, and she bowed herself on the head of her maid who went before her': I should like him, then, to tell us whether that king had already run to the Lord and desired to be ruled by him, and made his will depend on his will, and by cleaving to him constantly had become one spirit with him only by freedom of choice; whether he had given himself wholly to God and mortified all his own will and placed his heart in the hand of God. I think that whoever thinks this of that king, as he then was, is not foolish but mad. And yet God turned him and changed his anger into gentleness. And who does not see that it is a much greater thing to turn and change anger into its opposite, gentleness, than to turn in some direction a heart preoccupied with neither feeling but in the middle between the two? Let them read, then, and understand, consider and confess, that God works in the hearts of men not by the law and teaching sounding from outside, but by an inward and hidden, wonderful and ineffable power, not only true revelations but also good wills. ### Scripture references - Prov 21:1: allusion, medium confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Add Esth 15:6–8 (Additions to Esther): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The quotation is from the Greek additions to Esther (Add Esth 15:6–7 in the Vulgate numbering; Esth D 6–7), which the Protestant canon does not include; 'Assyrian' is Augustine's word for the Persian king. 'God turned him and changed his anger into gentleness' is Add Esth 15:8. Allusion: Prov 21:1. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.25 (CSEL 42:145; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-25). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.26 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-26 - Source: CSEL 42:145–147 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Scripture attributes to God not only our ability but our actual good willing, doing, speaking, and thinking, as Paul's prayers and Christ's words show. ### Latin text Desinat itaque iam Pelagius et se ipsum et alios fallere contra dei gratiam disputando. non propter illorum unum trium, id est propter possibilitatem bonae uoluntatis atque operis, sed etiam propter uoluntatem atque operationem bonam erga nos gratia dei praedicanda est; nam illam possibilitatem ad utrumque ualere definit. et tamen non ideo tribuenda sunt deo etiam nostra peccata, sicut et propter eandem possibilitatem uult tribuere bona opera nostra, non ideo tantum adiutorium diuinae gratiae commendetur, quia possibilitatem adiuuat naturalem. desinat dicere: quod possumus omne bonum facere, dicere, cogitare, illius est qui hoc posse donauit, qui hoc posse adiuuat; quod uero bene uel agimus uel loquimur uel cogitamus, nostrum est, desinat, inquam, ista dicere. non solum enim deus posse nostrum donauit atque adiuuat, sed etiam uelle et operari operatur in nobis, non quia nos non uolumus aut nos non agimus, sed quia sine ipsius adiutorio nec uolumus aliquid boni nec agimus. quomodo enim dicitur: quod possumus bene agere, dei est, quod autem agimus, nostrum est, cum dicat apostolus orare se ad deum pro eis, ad quos scribebat, ne quid mali faciant et ut quod bonum est faciant? non enim ait: oramus, ut possitis nihil facere mali, sed ne quid faciatis mali, nec: ut possitis bonum facere, sed: ut bonum faciatis, quoniam de quibus scriptum est: quotquot enim spiritu dei aguntur, hi filii sunt dei, profecto ut agant quod bonum est, ab illo aguntur qui bonus est. quomodo dicit Pelagius: quod bene loqui possumus, dei est, quod bene loquimur, nostrum est, cum dicat dominus: spiritus patris uestri est qui loquitur in uobis? neque enim ait: non uos estis, qui dedistis uobis posse bene loqui, sed ait: non uos estis qui loquimini, nec ait: spiritus patris uestri est, qui uobis dat uel dedit posse bene loqui, sed ait: qui loquitur in uobis, non significans possibilitatis profectum, sed exprimens cooperationis effectum. quomodo dicit arbitrii liberi elatus assertor: quod possumus bene cogitare, dei est, quod autem bene cogitamus nostrum est? cui respondit humilis gratiae praedicator: non quia idonei sumus cogitare aliquid a nobis quasi ex nobismet ipsis, sed sufficientia nostra ex deo est; non enim ait posse cogitare sed cogitare. ### English translation (Claude) Let Pelagius therefore stop deceiving himself and others by arguing against the grace of God. The grace of God toward us is to be proclaimed not on account of only one of those three, that is, the capacity for good will and work, but also on account of the good will and good working; for he defines that capacity as able for both. And yet our sins are not therefore to be attributed to God, as he wants to attribute our good works to him on account of that same capacity; so the great help of divine grace is not commended because it helps natural capacity. Let him stop saying, 'That we can do, say, and think every good thing is his who gave this being able and who helps this being able; but that we act or speak or think well is ours'; let him stop, I say, saying this. For God not only gave and helps our being able, but also works in us willing and working; not because we do not will or do not act, but because without his help we neither will anything good nor do it. For how is it said, 'That we can act well is God's, but that we act is ours,' when the apostle says that he prays to God for those to whom he was writing, 'that they may do nothing evil' and 'that they may do what is good'? For he does not say, 'We pray that you may be able to do nothing evil,' but 'that you may do nothing evil'; nor 'that you may be able to do good,' but 'that you may do good'; since of those of whom it is written, 'For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God,' surely, in order that they may do what is good, they are led by him who is good. How does Pelagius say, 'That we can speak well is God's; that we speak well is ours,' when the Lord says, 'It is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you'? For he does not say, 'It is not you who gave yourselves the ability to speak well,' but he says, 'It is not you who speak'; nor does he say, 'It is the Spirit of your Father who gives or has given you the ability to speak well,' but he says, 'who speaks in you,' signifying not the advance of capacity but expressing the effect of cooperation. How does the proud defender of free choice say, 'That we can think well is God's, but that we think well is ours'? The humble preacher of grace answered him: 'Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God'; for he does not say 'to be able to think' but 'to think.' ### Scripture references - Phil 2:13: allusion, high confidence - 2 Cor 13:7: quotation, high confidence - Rom 8:14: quotation, high confidence - Matt 10:20: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 3:5: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations: Phil 2:13 (allusion); 2 Cor 13:7; Rom 8:14; Matt 10:20; 2 Cor 3:5. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.26 (CSEL 42:145–147; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-26). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.27 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-27 - Source: CSEL 42:147–148 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius should confess that love itself is God's gift, given before any merit, and that without grace no good can be done at all, not merely done less easily. ### Latin text Istam dei gratiam in diuinis eloquiis manifestam etiam Pelagius manifeste fateatur seque tamdiu contra sensisse non operiat inpudentissimo pudore, sed dolore saluberrimo aperiat, ut sancta ecclesia non turbetur peruicaci eius obstinatione, sed ueraci correctione laetetur. cognitionem et dilectionem, sicut sunt discernenda, discernat, quia scientia inflat, caritas aedificat — et tunc scientia non inflat, quando caritas aedificat — et cum sit utrumque donum dei, sed unum minus, alterum maius, non hic iustitiam nostram super laudem nostri iustificatoris extollat, ut horum duorum quod minus est diuino tribuat adiutorio, quod autem maius est humano usurpet arbitrio, et si consenserit nos gratia dei accipere caritatem, non sic sentiat, tamquam ulla merita bona nostra praecesserint. nam quae merita bona tunc habere poteramus, quando deum non diligebamus? ut enim acciperemus dilectionem, qua diligeremus, dilecti sumus, cum eam nondum haberemus. hoc Iohannes apostolus apertissime dicit: non quod nos dilexerimus deum, sed quia ipse dilexit nos, et alibi: nos diligamus, inquit, quia ipse prior dilexit nos. optime omnino atque uerissime. non enim haberemus, unde illum diligeremus, nisi hoc ab illo, cum prior nos diligeret, sumeremus. quid autem boni faceremus, nisi diligeremus? aut quomodo bonum non facimus, si diligamus? etsi enim dei mandatum uidetur aliquando non a diligentibus, sed a timentibus fieri, tamen ubi non est dilectio, nullum bonum opus inputatur nec recte bonum opus uocatur, quia omne quod non est ex fide peccatum est et fides per dilectionem operatur. ac per hoc gratiam dei, qua caritas dei diffunditur in cordibus nostris per spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis, sic confiteatur qui uult ueraciter confiteri, ut omnino nihil boni sine illa quod ad pietatem pertinet ueramque iustitiam fieri posse non dubitet, non quomodo iste, qui cum dicit propterea dari gratiam, ut quod a deo praecipitur, facilius inpleatur, quid de illa sentiat satis ostendit, scilicet quod etiam sine illa, etsi minus facile, fieri tamen quod diuinitus praecipitur potest. ### English translation (Claude) Let Pelagius, too, openly confess this grace of God, which is plain in the divine Scriptures, and let him not cover up with most shameless shame that he has so long thought the contrary, but disclose it with most wholesome sorrow, so that the holy church may not be troubled by his stubborn obstinacy but may rejoice in his truthful correction. Let him distinguish knowledge and love, as they are to be distinguished, because 'knowledge puffs up, love builds up' (and knowledge does not puff up when love builds up); and since both are gifts of God, but one lesser and the other greater, let him not here exalt our righteousness above the praise of our justifier, attributing the lesser of these two to divine help and claiming the greater for human choice. And if he agrees that we receive love by the grace of God, let him not think it in such a way as though any good merits of ours had preceded. For what good merits could we have had when we did not love God? For in order that we might receive the love with which to love, we were loved when we did not yet have it. The apostle John says this most plainly: 'Not that we loved God, but that he loved us'; and elsewhere, 'Let us love, because he first loved us.' Most excellently and most truly! For we would not have that with which to love him unless we received it from him when he first loved us. And what good would we do if we did not love? Or how do we not do good if we love? For although God's commandment sometimes seems to be done not by those who love but by those who fear, yet where there is no love no good work is counted, nor is it rightly called a good work, because 'everything that is not from faith is sin,' and 'faith works through love.' And therefore let whoever wants to confess truthfully confess the grace of God, by which 'the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us,' in such a way as not to doubt that without it absolutely nothing good that belongs to piety and true righteousness can be done; not as this man does, who, when he says that grace is given so that what God commands may be fulfilled more easily, shows clearly enough what he thinks of it, namely, that even without it, though less easily, what is divinely commanded can nevertheless be done. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 8:1: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 4:10: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 4:19: quotation, high confidence - Rom 14:23: quotation, high confidence - Gal 5:6: quotation, high confidence - Rom 5:5: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations: 1 Cor 8:1; 1 John 4:10; 1 John 4:19; Rom 14:23; Gal 5:6; Rom 5:5. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.27 (CSEL 42:147–148; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-27). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.28 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-28 - Source: CSEL 42:148 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius's word 'more easily' betrays his view that the devil can be resisted even without the Holy Spirit. ### Latin text In libro quippe ad uirginem sacram, quod et supra commemoraui, cum dicit: diuinam mereamur gratiam et facilius nequam spiritui sancti spiritus auxilio resistamus. significat profecto quid sapiat. ut quid enim hoc uerbum interposuit, id est facilius? an uero non erat integer sensus. ut nequam spiritui sancti spiritus auxilio resistamus? sed quantum detrimentum hoc additamento fecerit, quis non intellegat? uolens utique credi tantas esse naturae uires, quas extollendo praecipitat, ut etiam sine auxilio spiritus sancti, etsi minus facile, tamen aliquo modo nequam spiritui resistatur. ### English translation (Claude) For in the book to the consecrated virgin, which I mentioned above too, when he says, 'we merit divine grace and more easily resist the wicked spirit with the help of the Holy Spirit,' he certainly shows what he thinks. For why did he insert this word, 'more easily'? Or was the sense not complete, 'that we may resist the wicked spirit with the help of the Holy Spirit'? But who does not understand how much damage he did by this addition? He wants it to be believed, of course, that the powers of nature, which he casts down by exalting them, are so great that even without the help of the Holy Spirit, though less easily, the wicked spirit can nevertheless be resisted in some way. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.28 (CSEL 42:148; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-28). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.29 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-29 - Source: CSEL 42:148–149 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius calls free choice strong and firm for not sinning, with God's daily help added only to make it easier. ### Latin text Item in primo libro pro libero arbitrio cum autem tam forte, inquit, tam firmum ad non peccandum liberum in nobis habeamus arbitrium, quod generaliter naturae humanae creator inseruit, rursus pro inaestimabili eius benignitate cotidiano ipsius munimur auxilio. quid opus est hoc auxilio. si tam forte, tam firmum est ad non peccandum liberum arbitrium? sed etiam hic uult intellegi ad hoc esse auxilium, ut facilius fiat per gratiam, quod etsi minus facile tamen putat fieri praeter gratiam. ### English translation (Claude) Again, in the first book in defense of free choice, he says: 'But while we have in us a free choice so strong and so firm for not sinning, which the Creator implanted in human nature universally, we are again, by his inestimable kindness, protected by his daily help.' What need is there of this help, if free choice is so strong and so firm for not sinning? But here too he wants it understood that the help exists so that what he thinks is done even without grace, though less easily, may be done more easily through grace. ### Translation notes - Quoted from Pelagius, On Free Choice, book 1. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.29 (CSEL 42:148–149; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-29). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.30 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-30 - Source: CSEL 42:149 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The word 'more easily' implies that good works can be done without grace, contrary to Christ's 'Without me you can do nothing'. ### Latin text Item in eodem libro alio loco ut quod per liberum, inquit, homines facere iubentur arbitrium, facilius possint inplere per gratiam. tolle facilius, et non solum plenus, uerum etiam sanus est sensus, si ita dicatur: ut quod per liberum homines facere iubentur arbitrium, possint inplere per gratiam; cum autem facilius additur, adinpletio boni operis etiam sine dei gratia posse fieri tacita significatione suggeritur. quem sensum redarguit qui dicit: sine me nihil potestis facere. ### English translation (Claude) Again, in the same book, in another place, he says: 'so that what men are commanded to do through free choice they may more easily fulfill through grace.' Take away 'more easily,' and the sense is not only complete but also sound, if it is put thus: 'so that what men are commanded to do through free choice they may be able to fulfill through grace.' But when 'more easily' is added, it is suggested by tacit implication that the fulfilling of a good work can be done even without the grace of God. This sense is refuted by him who says, 'Without me you can do nothing.' ### Scripture references - John 15:5: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotation: John 15:5. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.30 (CSEL 42:149; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-30). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.31 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-31 - Source: CSEL 42:149 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine urges Pelagius to correct his errors and notes that neither he nor Caelestius anywhere confesses justifying grace or the 'children of the promise'. ### Latin text Emendet haec omnia, ne, si in rerum magnarum profunditate humana errauit infirmitas, etiam diabolica huic accedat errori uel fallacia uel animositas siue negando quod sensit siue defendendo quod perperam sensit, cum id se non debuisse sentire commemorata perspicua ueritate cognouerit. istam quippe gratiam, qua iustificamur, id est qua caritas dei diffunditur in cordibus nostris per spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis, in Pelagii et Caelestii scriptis, quaecumque legere potui, nusquam eos inueni quemadmodum confitenda est confiteri, prorsus numquam eos aduerti, sicut agnoscendi sunt, agnoscere filios promissionis, de quibus dicit apostolus: non hi qui filii carnis. hi filii dei, sed filii promissionis deputantur in semen. quod enim promittit deus, non facimus nos per arbitrium seu naturam, sed facit ipse per gratiam. ### English translation (Claude) Let him correct all these things, lest, if human weakness has erred in the depth of great matters, there should also be added to this error either the deceit or the obstinacy of the devil, whether by denying what he thought or by defending what he wrongly thought, once he has recognized, when the clear truth has been set before him, that he ought not to have thought it. For in the writings of Pelagius and Caelestius, as many as I have been able to read, I have nowhere found them confessing as it ought to be confessed that grace by which we are justified, that is, by which 'the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us'; and I have never noticed them acknowledging, as they ought to be acknowledged, the children of the promise, of whom the apostle says: 'Not the children of the flesh are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.' For what God promises we do not do by choice or nature, but he himself does by grace. ### Scripture references - Rom 5:5: quotation, high confidence - Rom 9:8: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations: Rom 5:5; Rom 9:8. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.31 (CSEL 42:149; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-31). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.32 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-32 - Source: CSEL 42:149–150 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine turns to the letter and statement of faith Pelagius sent to Pope Innocent, which answer charges about infant baptism and about excluding God's help. ### Latin text Nam ut de Caelestii opusculis interim taceam uel libellis eius, quos iudiciis ecclesiasticis allegauit, quae uobis omnia cum aliis quas necessarias existimauimus litteris mittenda curauimus, quibus omnibus diligenter inspectis possitis aduertere non eum ponere dei gratiam, qua iuuamur uel ad declinandum a malo uel ad faciendum bonum praeter naturale arbitrium uoluntatis nisi in lege atque doctrina, ita ut ipsas quoque orationes ad hoc asserat necessarias, ut ostendatur homini quid concupiscat et diligat — ut ergo haec interim omittam, nempe ipse Pelagius et litteras nuper et libellum Romam fidei suae misit scribens ad beatae memoriae papam Innocentium, quem defunctum esse nesciebat. in his ergo litteris duo dicit esse de quibus eum homines infamare conantur: unum, quod neget paruulis baptismi sacramentum et absque redemptione Christi aliquibus caelorum regna promittat, aliud, quod ita dicat posse hominem uitare peccatum, ut dei excludat auxilium et in tantum libero confidat arbitrio. ut gratiae repudiet adiutorium. sed de baptismo paruulorum, quamuis eis dandum esse concedat, quam peruerse contra fidem christianam et catholicam sentiat ueritatem, non hic locus est ut diligentius disseramus; nunc enim de adiutorio gratiae quod instituimus peragendum est. unde ad id quod proposuit quid etiam hinc respondeat uideamus. ut enim omittamus eius inuidiosas de suis inimicis querelas, ubi ad rem uentum est, ita locutus est. ### English translation (Claude) For, to say nothing for the present of Caelestius's short works, or of the statements he presented to ecclesiastical courts, all of which we have taken care to send you with other letters that we thought necessary (and if you examine them all carefully you can see that he places the grace of God, by which we are helped either to turn away from evil or to do good, apart from the natural choice of the will, only in the law and teaching, so that he asserts that even prayers themselves are necessary for this purpose, that it may be shown to a man what he should desire and love): to leave these aside for the present, Pelagius himself recently sent to Rome both a letter and a statement of his faith, writing to Pope Innocent of blessed memory, whom he did not know to be dead. In this letter, then, he says that there are two things about which people try to defame him: one, that he denies to infants the sacrament of baptism and promises the kingdom of heaven to some apart from the redemption of Christ; the other, that he says a man can avoid sin in such a way that he excludes God's help, and trusts so much in free choice that he rejects the help of grace. But concerning the baptism of infants, although he grants that it is to be given to them, how perversely he thinks against the Christian faith and Catholic truth this is not the place to discuss more carefully; for now we must carry through what we have undertaken concerning the help of grace. So let us see what he answers on this point too, to the charge he himself set out. For, to pass over his invidious complaints about his enemies, when he came to the matter, he spoke thus. ### Translation notes - Innocent I died on 12 March 417; the letter was received by his successor Zosimus. The 'statement of faith' is Pelagius's Libellus fidei. Augustine treats infant baptism in book 2. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 1.32 (CSEL 42:149–150; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-32). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.33 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-20/#p-1-33 - Source: CSEL 42:150–151 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius's letter to Innocent says free choice is 'always helped by divine aid' and in Christians 'helped by grace', but still leaves open that he means only law and teaching. ### Latin text , inquit, de traduce peccati dubium me esse, ita tamen, ut cui donauit deus gratiam peritiae consentiam, quia diuersa ab eis audiui, qui utique in ecclesia catholica constituti sunt presbyteri. Paulinus diaconus dixit: dic nobis nomina ipsorum. Caelestius dixit: sanctus presbyter Rufinus Romae qui mansit cum sancto Pammachio; ego audiui illum dicentem, quia tradux peccati non sit. Paulinus diaconus dixit: est aliquis alius? Caelestius dixit: audiui et plures dicere. Paulinus diaconus dixit: dic nomina ipsorum. Caelestius dixit: non tibi sufficit unus sacerdos? et post aliqua alio loco: Aurelius episcopus dixit: reliqua libelli legantur. et recitatum est, quod infantes qui nascuntur in eo statu sint, in quo fuit Adam ante transgressionem, usque in finem libelli minoris superius inserti. Aurelius episcopus dixit: docuisti, Caelesti, aliquando, ut dicit diaconus Paulinus, quod infantes qui nascuntur in eo statu sint, in quo fuit Adam ante transgressionem? Caelestius dixit: exponat quid dixit ante transgressionem. Paulinus diaconus dixit: tu nega te hoc docuisse. unum est e duobus: aut neget se docuisse aut iam damnet istud. Caelestius dixit: iam dixi, exponat quomodo dixit ante transgressionem. Paulinus diaconus dixit: nega te illa docuisse. Aurelius episcopus dixit: rogo, quid collegerim ego ex huius obiectione, dico, Adam constitutus in paradiso quod ante dicatur inexterminabilis factus, postea per transgressionem praecepti factus sit corruptibilis. hoc dicis, frater Pauline? Paulinus diaconus dixit: hoc, domine. Aurelius episcopus dixit: status certe infantum hodie baptizandorum utrum talis sit, qualis fuit ante transgressionem Adae, an certe de eadem origine peccati, de qua nascitur, transgressionis culpam trahat, hoc uult diaconus Paulinus audire. Paulinus diaconus dixit: utrum docuit hoc an non neget. Caelestius dixit: iam de traduce peccati dixi, quia intra catholicam constitutos plures audiui destruere necnon et alios astruere, licet quaestionis res sit ista, non haeresis. infantes semper dixi egere baptismo ac debere baptizari. quid quaerit aliud? ### English translation (Claude) Bishop Aurelius said: 'Let the following be read.' And it was read: 'That the sin of Adam harmed him alone and not the human race.' And when it had been read, Caelestius said: 'I said that I was in doubt about the transmission of sin, but in such a way that I would agree with anyone to whom God has given the grace of expert knowledge; because I have heard different things from those who are indeed established as presbyters in the Catholic Church.' The deacon Paulinus said: 'Tell us their names.' Caelestius said: 'The holy presbyter Rufinus, who lived at Rome with the holy Pammachius; I heard him say that there is no transmission of sin.' The deacon Paulinus said: 'Is there anyone else?' Caelestius said: 'I have heard more say it.' The deacon Paulinus said: 'Tell their names.' Caelestius said: 'Is one priest not enough for you?' And after some other things, in another place: Bishop Aurelius said: 'Let the rest of the statement be read.' And it was read: 'That infants who are born are in the state in which Adam was before the transgression,' to the end of the shorter statement inserted above. Bishop Aurelius said: 'Have you, Caelestius, at any time taught, as the deacon Paulinus says, that infants who are born are in the state in which Adam was before the transgression?' Caelestius said: 'Let him explain what he meant by before the transgression.' The deacon Paulinus said: 'Deny that you taught this. It is one of two things: either let him deny that he taught it or let him now condemn it.' Caelestius said: 'I have already said, let him explain in what sense he said before the transgression.' The deacon Paulinus said: 'Deny that you taught those things.' Bishop Aurelius said: 'I ask: what I have gathered from this man's charge, I say, is that Adam, placed in paradise, is said to have been made at first incorruptible, and afterward through the transgression of the commandment to have been made corruptible. Is this what you say, brother Paulinus?' The deacon Paulinus said: 'This, my lord.' Bishop Aurelius said: 'Whether the state of infants who are baptized today is such as it was before Adam's transgression, or whether indeed they contract the guilt of transgression from the same origin of sin from which they are born, this is what the deacon Paulinus wants to hear.' The deacon Paulinus said: 'Let him deny whether he taught this or not.' Caelestius said: 'I have already spoken about the transmission of sin: that I have heard many established within the Catholic Church deny it and others also affirm it, although this is a matter of inquiry, not of heresy. I have always said that infants need baptism and ought to be baptized. What else does he want?' ### Extrabiblical texts - Wis 2:23 (Wisdom of Solomon): echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Paulinus of Milan, Ambrose's former secretary, brought the charges. The Rufinus named by Caelestius is probably Rufinus the Syrian, not Rufinus of Aquileia. Aurelius's word 'incorruptible' (inexterminabilis) echoes Wis 2:23. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.3 (CSEL 42:168–169; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-3). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-4 - Source: CSEL 42:169 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Caelestius granted infant baptism but would not confess that Adam's sin passes to infants. ### Latin text Nempe cernitis sic Caelestium concessisse paruulis baptismum, ut in eos primi hominis transire peccatum, quod lauacro regenerationis abluitur, noluerit confiteri, quamuis et negare non ausus sit et propter hanc dubitationem suam non damnauerit eos qui dicunt quod peccatum Adae ipsum solum laeserit et non genus humanum et quod infantes qui nascuntur in eo statu sint, in quo Adam fuit ante praeuaricationem. ### English translation (Claude) You see clearly, then, that Caelestius granted baptism to little ones in such a way that he would not confess that the sin of the first man, which is washed away by the washing of regeneration, passes into them, although he did not dare to deny it either; and because of this doubt of his he did not condemn those who say that Adam's sin harmed him alone and not the human race, and that infants who are born are in the state in which Adam was before the transgression. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.4 (CSEL 42:169; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-4). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-5 - Source: CSEL 42:169–170 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Caelestius's Roman statement confessed infant baptism for the forgiveness of sins, words that seem to imply original sin. ### Latin text In libello autem, quem Romae edidit, qui gestis ibi ecclesiasticis allegatus est, ita de hac re loquitur, ut hoc se credere ostendat, unde hic dubitare se dixerat. nam uerba eius ista sunt: infantes autem, inquit, debere baptizari in remissionem peccatorum secundum regulam uniuersalis ecclesiae et secundum euangelii sententiam confitemur, quia dominus statuit regnum caelorum nonnisi baptizatis posse conferri. quod quia uires naturae non habent, conferri necessarium est per gratiae libertatem. si nihil de hac re deinceps diceret, quis non eum crederet confiteri etiam infantibus in baptismo originalia peccata dimitti dicendo eos in remissionem peccatorum baptizari oportere? hinc ergo est et illud quod scripsistis sic uobis respondisse Pelagium quod eisdem quibus et maiores sacramenti uerbis baptizentur infantes uosque fuisse laetatos id quod cupiebatis audisse et tamen adhuc de uerbis eius nos maluisse consulere. ### English translation (Claude) But in the statement he published at Rome, which was presented in the ecclesiastical proceedings there, he speaks of this matter in such a way as to show that he believes what here he had said he doubted. For these are his words: 'We confess that infants ought to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins according to the rule of the universal church and according to the saying of the Gospel, because the Lord established that the kingdom of heaven can be conferred only on the baptized; and since the powers of nature do not have this, it must be conferred through the freedom of grace.' If he said nothing further on this matter, who would not believe that he confessed that original sins too are forgiven infants in baptism, when he says that they ought to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins? This, then, explains what you wrote, that Pelagius answered you that infants are baptized with the same sacramental words as adults, and that you rejoiced to have heard what you wished, and yet chose to consult us further about his words. ### Scripture references - John 3:5: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The 'saying of the Gospel' is John 3:5. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.5 (CSEL 42:169–170; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-5). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-6 - Source: CSEL 42:170 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Caelestius explained that he confessed infant baptism for forgiveness only to avoid two kinds of baptism, while denying that any sin is inherited. ### Latin text Attendite itaque quid Caelestius apertissime dixerit, et ibi uidebitis quid uobis Pelagius occultauerit. Caelestius quippe adiungit et dicit: in remissionem autem peccatorum baptizandos infantes non idcirco diximus, ut peccatum ex traduce firmare uideamur. quod longe a catholico sensu alienum est, quia peccatum non cum homine nascitur, quod postmodum exercetur ab homine, quia non naturae delictum, sed uoluntatis esse monstratur. et illud ergo confiteri congruum, ne diuersa baptismatis genera facere uideamur, et hoc praemunire necessarium est, ne per mysterii occasionem ad creatoris iniuriam malum antequam fiat ab homine tradi dicatur homini per naturam. hunc sensum suum uobis aperire Pelagius uel timuit uel erubuit, quem discipulus eius palam sine ullius obscuritatis ambagibus apud sedem apostolicam profiteri nec timuit nec erubuit. ### English translation (Claude) Consider, then, what Caelestius said most openly, and there you will see what Pelagius concealed from you. For Caelestius adds and says: 'But we have not said that infants are to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins in order to seem to affirm sin by transmission, which is far removed from the Catholic sense; because sin is not born with a man, since it is afterward committed by the man, because it is shown to be a fault not of nature but of will. It is fitting, then, to confess the one, so that we may not seem to make different kinds of baptism; and it is necessary to guard against the other, so that it may not be said, on the occasion of the sacrament and to the injury of the Creator, that evil is handed on to man through nature before it is done by man.' This meaning of his Pelagius either feared or was ashamed to disclose to you, while his disciple neither feared nor was ashamed to profess it openly before the apostolic see, without the evasions of any obscurity. ### Translation notes - Quoted from Caelestius's statement to Zosimus (417). ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.6 (CSEL 42:170; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-6). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.7 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-7 - Source: CSEL 42:170–171 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pope Zosimus dealt gently with Caelestius, who had professed himself ready to be corrected by the apostolic see. ### Latin text Sed multum misericors memoratae sedis antistes, ubi eum uidit ferri tanta praesumtione praecipitem tamquam furentem, donec, si posset fieri, resipisceret, maluit eum sensim suis interrogationibus et illius responsionibus colligare quam destricta feriendo sententia in illud abruptum, quo iam propendere uidebatur, inpellere. ideo autem non dixi: aperte ceciderat, sed propendere uidebatur, quia superius in eodem libello suo de huius modi quaestionibus locuturus ante praedixerat: si forte ut hominibus quispiam ignorantiae error obrepsit, uestra sententia corrigatur. ### English translation (Claude) But the most merciful bishop of that see, when he saw him carried headlong by such presumption, as if raving, preferred, until he might if possible come to his senses, to bind him gradually by his own questions and the man's answers, rather than to drive him, by striking with a strict sentence, over that precipice toward which he already seemed to lean. And I did not say 'he had openly fallen,' but 'he seemed to lean,' because earlier in the same statement, when about to speak on questions of this kind, he had said beforehand: 'If perhaps some error of ignorance has crept upon us, as upon men, let it be corrected by your judgment.' ### Translation notes - Quoted from Caelestius's statement to Zosimus. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.7 (CSEL 42:170–171; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-7). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.8 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-8 - Source: CSEL 42:171 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Zosimus asked Caelestius to condemn the charges and accept Innocent's letter; he refused the first but promised the second, was given two months, and was later condemned. ### Latin text Hanc eius praelocutionem uenerabilis papa Zosimus tenens egit cum homine, quem falsae doctrinae uentus inflauerat, ut ea quae illi a diacono Paulino fuerant obiecta damnaret atque ut sedis apostolicae litteris, quae a sanctae memoriae suo praecessore manauerant, praeberet assensum. at ille noluit quidem diaconi obiecta damnare, sed beati papae Innocentii litteris non est ausus obsistere, immo se omnia, quae sedes illa damnaret, damnaturum esse promisit. atque ita uelut phreneticus, ut requiesceret, tamquam leniter fotus a uinculis tamen excommunicationis nondum est creditus esse soluendus. sed interposito duorum mensium tempore, donec rescriberetur ex Africa, resipiscendi ei locus sub quadam medicinali sententiae lenitate concessus est, quoniam reuera, si deposita peruicaciae uanitate quod promiserat uellet attendere et easdem litteras quibus se consensurum esse responderat diligenter legeret, sanaretur. sed posteaquam ex Africano episcoporum concilio rescripta directa sunt, quid fuerit consecutum, ut iustissime in eum sententia proferretur, cuncta legite, quia cuncta transmisimus. ### English translation (Claude) Holding him to this preface of his, the venerable Pope Zosimus dealt with the man, whom the wind of false teaching had puffed up, that he should condemn the things charged against him by the deacon Paulinus, and give his assent to the letter of the apostolic see which had come from his predecessor of holy memory. But he would not condemn the deacon's charges; yet he did not dare to resist the letter of the blessed Pope Innocent; indeed, he promised that he would condemn everything that that see condemned. And so, like a man out of his mind, gently soothed so that he might calm down, he was nevertheless not yet thought fit to be released from the bonds of excommunication. But an interval of two months was allowed, until a reply should come from Africa, and room for recovering his senses was granted him under a certain medicinal mildness of sentence; since in truth, if he had laid aside the vanity of obstinacy and been willing to attend to what he had promised, and had carefully read the same letter to which he had answered that he would consent, he would have been healed. But after the reply was sent from the council of African bishops, what followed, so that sentence was most justly pronounced against him, read it all, for we have sent it all. ### Translation notes - The African council's reply led to the condemnation of Pelagius and Caelestius by Zosimus in 418 (the Tractoria). ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.8 (CSEL 42:171; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-8). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.9 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-9 - Source: CSEL 42:171–172 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius deceived the Palestinian synod but not the Roman church, where he was well known; Zosimus followed Innocent's judgment of the Palestinian proceedings. ### Latin text Vnde etiam Pelagius, si se ipsum et sua scripta sine dolo cogitat, non recte dicit eadem sententia se non debuisse retineri. fefellit enim iudicium Palaestinum, propterea ibi uidetur esse purgatus; Romanam uero ecclesiam, ubi eum esse notissimum scitis, fallere usquequaque non potuit, quamuis et hoc fuerit utcumque conatus; sed, ut dixi, minime ualuit. recoluit enim beatissimus papa Zosimus, quid imitandus praecessor eius de ipsis senserit gestis. attendit etiam quid de illo sentiret praedicanda in domino Romanorum fides, quorum aduersus eius errorem pro ueritate catholica studia consonantia concorditer flagrare cernebat, inter quos ille diu uixerat et quos eius dogmata latere non poterant, qui Caelestium eius esse discipulum sic nouerant, ut fidelissimum et firmissimum possent de hac re testimonium perhibere. quid ergo de Palaestinae synodi gestis, quibus se Pelagius absolutum esse gloriatur, sanctus papa Innocentius iudicarit, quamuis et in litteris eius, quas nobis rescripsit, legere possitis et commemoratum, cum uenerabili papae Zosimo synodus Africana respondit, quod uestrae caritati cum ceteris instructionibus misimus, tamen nec in hoc opere praetereundum uidetur. ### English translation (Claude) Hence Pelagius too, if he thinks of himself and his writings without guile, does not rightly say that he should not have been held by the same sentence. For he deceived the Palestinian court, and that is why he seems to have been cleared there; but the Roman church, where you know he is very well known, he could not deceive at all, although he tried even this in some way; but, as I said, he was not at all able. For the most blessed Pope Zosimus recalled what his predecessor, whom he was bound to follow, had thought of those very proceedings. He also noted what was thought of him by the faith of the Romans, which is to be praised in the Lord, whose zeal for Catholic truth against his error he saw burning in harmony and concord; among them he had long lived, and his teachings could not be hidden from them; they knew Caelestius to be his disciple so well that they could bear the most faithful and firm testimony on this matter. What, then, holy Pope Innocent judged about the proceedings of the Palestinian synod, by which Pelagius boasts he was acquitted, although you can read it both in his letter which he wrote back to us and as recalled when the African synod replied to the venerable Pope Zosimus, which we sent to your Charity with the other documents, nevertheless it seems it should not be passed over in this work either. ### Extrabiblical texts - Augustine, Gest. Pelag. (On the Proceedings of Pelagius): echo, medium confidence ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.9 (CSEL 42:171–172; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-9). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.10 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/1-43/#p-2-10 - Source: CSEL 42:172–173 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Innocent replied to five African bishops that he could neither approve nor blame the Palestinian judgment, since Pelagius seemed to have evaded the charges rather than cleared himself. ### Latin text Cum enim nos in epistula, quam ei quinque episcopi scripsimus, eorundem gestorum Palaestinorum, quorum ad nos iam fama peruenerat, commemorationem fecissemus dicentes in Oriente, ubi degit, gesta ecclesiastica facta esse, quibus putatur esse purgatus, atque ad hoc inter cetera ille rescriberet, ita hoc dixit, tamquam significare uoluerit tunc fuisse haeresim iudicandam, si baptizari debere negaret infantes: nunc uero quoniam baptizandos fatetur, etiamsi causam baptismatis eorum non eam dicat. quam ueritas habet, sed quae ad fidem non pertinet, non se arbitratur errare et ideo non esse haereticum iudicandum. item in libello, quem Romae dedit, cum fidem suam a trinitate unius deitatis usque ad resurrectionem qualis futura est mortuorum, de quibus eum nullus interrogauerat et unde nulla illi quaestio mouebatur, quantum dicere libuit, explicasset, ubi ad id quod agebatur eius sermo peruenit, si quae uero, inquit, praeter fidem quaestiones natae sunt, de quibus esset inter plerosque contentio, non ego quasi auctor alicuius dogmatis definita hoc auctoritate statui, sed ea, quae de prophetarum et apostolorum fonte suscepi, uestri apostolatus offerimus probanda [esse] iudicio, ut, si forte ut hominibus quispiam ignorantiae error obrepsit, uestra sententia corrigatur. nempe perspicitis id eum egisse hac praelocutione praemissa, ut, si quid in illo apparuisset erroris, non in fide, sed in quaestionibus quae sunt praeter fidem uideretur errasse, ubi, etsi corrigendus est error, non tamen tamquam haeresis corrigatur et qui correctus non fuerit, ita dicatur errare, ut non tamen haereticus iudicetur. ### English translation (Claude) Therefore, after the many things we have been able to argue in writing against this error, the enemy of the grace of God which he bestows on small and great through Jesus Christ our Lord, we must now examine what they assert, wishing cunningly to avoid the odium of heresy: that this question lies outside any danger to the faith; so that, if they are convicted of having gone astray in it, they may seem to have erred not criminally but, as it were, civilly. For so Caelestius spoke at Carthage in the ecclesiastical proceedings: 'I have already spoken about the transmission of sin: that I have heard many established within the Catholic Church deny it and others also affirm it, although this is a matter of inquiry, not of heresy. I have always said that infants need baptism and ought to be baptized. What else does he want?' He said this as if he wanted to indicate that it should have been judged heresy then if he denied that infants ought to be baptized; but now, since he confesses that they are to be baptized, even though he does not give the reason for their baptism that the truth holds, but one that does not belong to the faith, he thinks he does not err, and so is not to be judged a heretic. Again, in the statement he gave at Rome, after he had explained his faith, as much as he pleased, from the Trinity of one Godhead to the resurrection of the dead as it will be, matters about which no one had questioned him and on which no question was raised with him, when his discourse came to the matter in hand, he said: 'But if any questions have arisen outside the faith, about which there has been dispute among many, I have not determined these by definite authority as the author of any teaching; but what I have received from the fountain of the prophets and apostles we offer for the judgment of your apostleship to be approved, so that, if perhaps some error of ignorance has crept upon us, as upon men, it may be corrected by your judgment.' You surely see that by this preface he aimed at this: that if any error appeared in him, he might seem to have erred not in the faith but in questions outside the faith, where, although error must be corrected, it is not corrected as heresy; and he who is not corrected is said to err in such a way that he is nevertheless not judged a heretic. ### Translation notes - Quoted from the Carthaginian proceedings (411) and Caelestius's statement to Zosimus (417). The editor's square brackets mark a word (esse) he deletes, left out here. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.26 (CSEL 42:184–185; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-12/#p-2-26). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.27 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-12/#p-2-27 - Source: CSEL 42:185–186 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine distinguishes truly open questions (the location of paradise, where Enoch and Elijah are, the number of heavens, the elements, eclipses, Methuselah's age) from questions of faith. ### Latin text Sed multum eum ista fallit opinio. longe aliter se habent quaestiones istae, quas esse praeter fidem arbitratur, quam sunt illae, in quibus salua fide, qua christiani sumus, aut ignoratur quid uerum sit et sententia definitiua suspenditur aut aliter quam est humana et infirma suspicione conicitur, ueluti cum quaeritur, qualis uel ubi sit paradisus ubi constituit deus hominem quem formauit ex puluere, cum tamen esse illum paradisum fides christiana non dubitet; uel cum quaeritur, utrum ibi sit nunc Helias uel Enoch an alicubi alibi, quos tamen non dubitamus in quibus nati sunt corporibus uiuere; uel cum quaeritur, utrum in corpore an extra corpus in tertium caelum sit raptus apostolus, quamquam sit ista inpudens inquisitio id scire uolentium, quod se ille cui hoc praestitum est salua utique fide nescire testatur; uel quot sint caeli, in quorum tertium se raptum esse commemorat; uel utrum elementa mundi huius conspicabilis quattuor an plura sint; quid faciat solem lunamue deficere his defectibus, quos praedicere astrologi certa temporum dinumeratione consuerunt; cur antiqui homines tam diu uixerint quam sancta scriptura testatur et utrum proportione longioris aetatis filios sera pubertate gignere coeperint; ubi potuerit Mathusalem uiuere, qui in arca non fuit, qui, sicut in plerisque codicibus et graecis et latinis numerantur anni, reperitur superuixisse diluuio; uel utrum paucioribus, qui rarissimi inueniuntur, potius credendum sit, in quibus ita est numerus conscriptus annorum, ut ante diluuium defunctus fuisse monstretur. quis enim non sentiat in his atque huius modi uariis et innumerabilibus quaestionibus siue ad obscurissima opera dei siue ad scripturarum abditissimas latebras pertinentibus, quas certo aliquo genere complecti ac definire difficile est, et multa ignorari salua christiana fide et alicubi errari sine aliquo haeretici dogmatis crimine? ### English translation (Claude) But this opinion greatly deceives him. The questions which he thinks lie outside the faith are very different from those in which, without harm to the faith by which we are Christians, either the truth is not known and a definitive judgment is suspended, or it is conjectured otherwise than it is by human and weak supposition. Such is the question what kind of place paradise is, or where it is, where God placed the man he formed from the dust, although the Christian faith does not doubt that that paradise exists; or whether Elijah or Enoch is there now or somewhere else, though we do not doubt that they live in the bodies in which they were born; or whether the apostle was caught up to the third heaven in the body or out of the body, although it is a shameless inquiry of those who want to know what he, to whom this was granted, testifies without harm to the faith that he does not know; or how many heavens there are, into the third of which he records that he was caught up; or whether the elements of this visible world are four or more; what makes the sun or moon fail in those eclipses which astronomers are accustomed to predict by a sure reckoning of times; why the ancients lived as long as holy Scripture testifies, and whether, in proportion to their longer age, they began to beget children at a late puberty; where Methuselah could have lived, who was not in the ark, and who, by the number of years as counted in most manuscripts both Greek and Latin, is found to have outlived the flood; or whether the fewer manuscripts, which are very rarely found, should rather be believed, in which the number of years is so written as to show that he died before the flood. For who does not see that in these and various and innumerable questions of this kind, whether concerning the most obscure works of God or the most hidden recesses of the Scriptures, which it is difficult to comprehend and define in any definite class, many things may be unknown without harm to the Christian faith, and in some one may err without any charge of heretical teaching? ### Scripture references - Gen 2:7–8: allusion, high confidence - Gen 5:24: allusion, high confidence - 2 Kgs 2:11: allusion, high confidence - 2 Cor 12:2–3: allusion, high confidence - Gen 5:21–27: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Allusions: Gen 2:7–8; Gen 5:24 and 2 Kgs 2:11 (Enoch and Elijah); 2 Cor 12:2–3; Gen 5:21–27 (Methuselah). In the Septuagint's usual chronology Methuselah outlives the flood by fourteen years; compare City of God 15.11. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.27 (CSEL 42:185–186; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-12/#p-2-27). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.28 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-12/#p-2-28 - Source: CSEL 42:186–187 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The Christian faith rests on the two men, Adam and Christ; even the righteous of old, including Job, were justified only by faith in the one mediator's incarnation, death, and resurrection. ### Latin text Sed in causa duorum hominum, quorum per unum uenundati sumus sub peccato, per alterum redimimur a peccatis, per unum praecipitati sumus in mortem, per alterum liberamur ad uitam, quoniam ille nos in se perdidit faciendo uoluntatem suam, non eius, a quo factus est, iste nos in se saluos fecit non faciendo uoluntatem suam, sed eius a quo missus est: in horum ergo duorum hominum causa proprie fides christiana consistit. unus est enim deus et unus mediator dei et hominum, homo Christus Iesus. quoniam non est aliud nomen sub caelo datum hominibus, in quo oportet saluos fieri nos, et in illo definiuit deus fidem omnibus suscitans illum a mortuis. itaque sine ista fide, hoc est sine fide unius mediatoris dei et hominum hominis Christi Iesu, sine fide, inquam, resurrectionis eius, quam deus omnibus definiuit, quae utique sine incarnatione eius ac morte non potest ueraciter credi: sine fide ergo incarnationis et mortis et resurrectionis Christi nec antiquos iustos, ut iusti essent, a peccatis potuisse mundari et dei gratia iustificari ueritas christiana non dubitat, siue in eis iustis, quos sancta scriptura commemorat, siue in eis, quos quidem illa non commemorat, sed tamen fuisse credendi sunt uel ante diluuium uel inde usque ad legem datam uel ipsius legis tempore non solum in filiis Israhel, sicut fuerunt prophetae, sed etiam extra eundem populum, sicut fuit Iob. et ipsorum enim corda eadem mundabantur mediatoris fide et diffundebatur in eis caritas per spiritum sanctum, qui ubi uult spirat non merita sequens, sed etiam ipsa merita faciens. non enim dei gratia gratia erit ullo modo, nisi gratuita fuerit omni modo. ### English translation (Claude) But in the case of the two men, through one of whom we were sold under sin and through the other redeemed from sins, through one cast headlong into death and through the other set free for life (because the former ruined us in himself by doing his own will, not the will of him by whom he was made, while the latter saved us in himself by doing not his own will but the will of him by whom he was sent): in the case of these two men, then, the Christian faith properly consists. 'For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus'; since 'there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved,' and in him 'God has fixed faith for all by raising him from the dead.' And so without this faith, that is, without faith in the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, without faith, I say, in his resurrection, which God has fixed for all, and which certainly cannot be truly believed without his incarnation and death: without faith, then, in the incarnation and death and resurrection of Christ, Christian truth does not doubt that the righteous of old could not have been cleansed from sins so as to be righteous, and justified by the grace of God; whether among those righteous whom holy Scripture records, or among those whom it does not record, but who must nevertheless be believed to have existed, either before the flood, or from then until the giving of the law, or in the time of the law itself, not only among the children of Israel, as the prophets were, but also outside that people, as Job was. For their hearts too were cleansed by the same faith in the mediator, and love was poured out in them through the Holy Spirit, who breathes where he wills, not following merits but even producing merits themselves. For the grace of God will in no way be grace unless it is in every way free. ### Scripture references - Rom 7:14: allusion, high confidence - John 6:38: allusion, high confidence - 1 Tim 2:5: quotation, high confidence - Acts 4:12: quotation, high confidence - Acts 17:31: quotation, high confidence - Rom 5:5: allusion, high confidence - John 3:8: allusion, high confidence - Rom 11:6: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: Rom 7:14; John 6:38; 1 Tim 2:5; Acts 4:12; Acts 17:31 (Augustine's Latin 'fixed faith for all'); Rom 5:5; John 3:8; Rom 11:6. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.28 (CSEL 42:186–187; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-12/#p-2-28). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.29 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-12/#p-2-29 - Source: CSEL 42:187–190 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Even under the law the righteous were saved by grace through the same faith in Christ that they expressed in the Psalms and prophets; that grace was hidden then and is revealed now. ### Latin text Quamuis ergo mors regnauerit ab Adam usque ad Moysen, quia non eam potuit uincere nec lex data per Moysen — non enim data est quae posset uiuificare, sed quae mortuos, quibus uiuificandis esset gratia necessaria, non solum peccati propagatione et dominatione prostratos, uerum etiam ipsius legis addita praeuaricatione conuictos deberet ostendere, non ut periret quisquis hoc in dei misericordia etiam tunc intellegeret, sed ut per regnum mortis ad supplicium destinatus etiam sibi ipsi per praeuaricationem legis manifestatus dei quaereret adiutorium, ut ubi abundauit peccatum superabundaret gratia, quae sola liberat a corpore mortis huius — quamuis ergo nec lex per Moysen data potuerit a quoquam homine regnum mortis auferre, erant tamen et legis tempore homines dei non sub lege terrente, conuincente, puniente, sed sub gratia delectante, sanante, liberante; erant qui dicerent: ego in iniquitatibus conceptus sum et in peccatis mater mea me in utero aluit, et: non est pax ossibus meis a facie peccatorum meorum. et: cor mundum crea in me, deus, et spiritum rectum innoua in uisceribus meis, et: spiritu principali confirma me, et: spiritum sanctum tuum ne auferas a me; erant qui dicerent: credidi propter quod locutus sum. eadem quippe et ipsi mundabantur fide qua et nos, unde et apostolus dicit: habentes autem eundem spiritum fidei secundum quod scriptum est: credidi, propter quod et locutus sum, et nos credimus, propter quod et loquimur. ex ipsa fide dicebatur: ecce uirgo in utero accipiet et pariet filium, et uocabunt nomen eius Emmanuel, quod est interpretatum nobiscum deus: ex ipsa fide de ipso dicebatur: et ipse tamquam sponsus procedens e thalamo suo exulabit ut gigas ad currendam uiam; a summo caeli egressio eius et occursus eius usque ad summum caeli; et non est qui se abscondat a calore eius; ex fide ipsa ipsi dicebatur: thronus tuus, deus, in saeculum saeculi. uirga directionis uirga regni tui. dilexisti iustitiam et odisti iniquitatem; propterea unxit te, deus, deus tuus oleo exultationis prae participibus tuis. eodem spiritu fidei ab illis haec futura uidebantur, quo a nobis facta creduntur. neque enim qui nobis ista fideli dilectione prophetare potuerunt, eorum ipsi participes non fuerunt. et unde est quod dicit apostolus Petrus: quid temptatis deum imponere iugum supra collum discipulorum, quod neque patres nostri neque nos potuimus portare? sed per gratiam domini Iesu credimus salui fieri quemadmodum et illi, nisi quia et illi per gratiam domini Iesu Christi salui facti sunt, non per legem Moysi, per quam non sanatio, sed cognitio est facta peccati, sicut docet apostolus dicens: per legem enim cognitio peccati? nunc autem sine lege iustitia dei manifestata est testificata per legem et prophetas. si ergo nunc manifestata est, etiam tunc erat, sed occulta. cuius occultationem significabat templi uelum, quod est ad eius significandam reuelationem Christo moriente conscissum. et tunc ergo ista gratia unius mediatoris dei et hominum hominis Christi Iesu erat in populo dei, sed tamquam in uellere pluuia, quam non debitam, sed uoluntariam segregat deus hereditati suae, inerat latens; nunc autem uelut siccato illo uellere, hoc est Iudaico populo reprobato in omnibus gentibus tamquam in area cernitur patens. ### English translation (Claude) Although, then, death reigned from Adam until Moses, because not even the law given through Moses could conquer it (for it was not given as one that could give life, but as one that should show the dead, for whose quickening grace was needed, to be not only laid low by the propagation and dominion of sin but also convicted by the added transgression of the law itself; not so that anyone should perish who even then understood this in the mercy of God, but so that, destined for punishment by the reign of death and made manifest even to himself by the transgression of the law, he might seek God's help, so that where sin abounded grace might abound all the more, the grace which alone frees from the body of this death): although, then, not even the law given through Moses could take away the reign of death from any man, yet even in the time of the law there were men of God who were not under the law that terrifies, convicts, and punishes, but under grace that delights, heals, and frees. There were those who said, 'I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother nourished me in the womb'; and, 'There is no peace in my bones because of my sins'; and, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me'; and, 'Strengthen me with a guiding spirit'; and, 'Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.' There were those who said, 'I believed, therefore I have spoken.' For they too were cleansed by the same faith as we, which is why the apostle says, 'Having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken, we too believe, therefore we also speak.' From that same faith it was said, 'Behold, a virgin will conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us.' From that same faith it was said of him, 'And he, like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, will exult like a giant to run his course; his going forth is from the height of heaven, and his circuit to the height of heaven; and there is no one who can hide from his heat.' From that same faith it was said to him, 'Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.' By the same spirit of faith they saw these things as future by which we believe them as done. For those who were able to prophesy these things to us with faithful love were not themselves without a share in them. And why does the apostle Peter say, 'Why do you tempt God by putting on the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are,' unless because they too were saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, not through the law of Moses, through which came not healing but knowledge of sin, as the apostle teaches when he says, 'For through the law comes knowledge of sin; but now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets'? If, then, it has now been manifested, it existed then too, but hidden. Its hiddenness was signified by the veil of the temple, which was torn when Christ died, to signify its revelation. So even then this grace of the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, was in the people of God, but it lay hidden, like the rain in the fleece, which God sets apart for his inheritance, not as owed but freely given; but now, as though that fleece had been dried, that is, the Jewish people rejected, it is seen openly in all nations as on the threshing floor. ### Scripture references - Rom 5:14: allusion, high confidence - Gal 3:21: allusion, high confidence - Rom 5:20: quotation, high confidence - Rom 7:24: allusion, high confidence - Ps 51:5 (50:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 38:3 (37:4 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 51:10–12 (50:12-Ps LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 116:10 (115:1 LXX): quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 4:13: quotation, high confidence - Isa 7:14: quotation, high confidence - Matt 1:23: quotation, high confidence - Ps 19:5–6 (18:6-Ps LXX): quotation, high confidence - Ps 45:6–7 (44:7-Ps LXX): quotation, high confidence - Acts 15:10–11: quotation, high confidence - Rom 3:20–21: quotation, high confidence - Matt 27:51: allusion, high confidence - Judg 6:36–40: allusion, high confidence - Ps 68:9 (67:10 LXX): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: Rom 5:14; Gal 3:21; Rom 5:20; Rom 7:24; Ps 51:5 (50:7 LXX); Ps 38:3 (37:4 LXX); Ps 51:10–12 (50:12–14 LXX); Ps 116:10 (115:1 LXX); 2 Cor 4:13; Isa 7:14 with Matt 1:23; Ps 19:5–6 (18:6–7 LXX); Ps 45:6–7 (44:7–8 LXX); Acts 15:10–11; Rom 3:20–21; Matt 27:51; Judg 6:36–40 (Gideon's fleece); Ps 68:9 (67:10 LXX, 'voluntary rain... for your inheritance'). The image of the dried fleece as the Jewish people 'rejected' is Augustine's own typology, translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.29 (CSEL 42:187–190; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-12/#p-2-29). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.30 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-30 - Source: CSEL 42:190 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine rejects the Pelagian division of history into three ages of righteousness: by nature, under the law, and under grace. ### Latin text Non igitur sicut Pelagius et eius discipuli tempora diuidamus dicentes primum uixisse iustos homines ex natura, deinde sub lege, tertio sub gratia — ex natura, scilicet ab Adam tam longa aetate, qua lex nondum erat data — tunc enim, aiunt, educe ratione cognoscebatur creator et quemadmodum uiuendum esset scriptum gerebatur in cordibus, non lege litterae, sed naturae. uerum uitiatis moribus, inquiunt. ubi coepit non sufficere natura iam decolor, lex ei addita est, qua uelut luna fulgori pristino detrita rubigine redderetur. sed posteaquam nimia, sicut disputant, peccandi consuetudo praeualuit, cui sanandae lex parum ualeret, Christus aduenit et tamquam morbo desperatissimo non per discipulos, sed per se ipsum medicus ipse subuenit. ### English translation (Claude) Let us not, then, divide the times as Pelagius and his disciples do, saying that righteous men lived first by nature, then under the law, and third under grace: by nature, that is, from Adam through that long age in which the law had not yet been given. 'For then,' they say, 'the Creator was known by the guidance of reason, and how one should live was carried written in hearts, not by the law of the letter but by that of nature. But when morals had been corrupted,' they say, 'and nature, now discolored, began not to be enough, the law was added to it, by which, as by a moon, it might be restored to its original brightness, the rust rubbed off. But after,' as they argue, 'the excessive habit of sinning prevailed, which the law could not heal, Christ came and, as for a most desperate disease, the physician himself came to its aid, not through disciples but through himself.' ### Translation notes - Augustine summarizes Pelagian teaching; the wording may come from Pelagius's On Free Choice. The text of 'by the guidance of reason' is uncertain in the digital text (educe) and is translated by sense. The moon image is as printed; the sense seems to be 'like a polished mirror'. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.30 (CSEL 42:190; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-30). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.31 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-31 - Source: CSEL 42:190–191 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The righteous of old belong to Christ's body and will rise in him, because they believed in his future incarnation, just as we believe in his future judgment. ### Latin text Haec disputantes a gratia mediatoris iustos excludere conantur antiquos, tamquam dei et illorum hominum non fuerit mediator homo Christus Iesus, quia nondum ex utero uirginis carne suscepta homo nondum fuit, quando illi iusti fuerunt. quod si ita esset, nequaquam apostolus diceret: per hominem mors et per hominem resurrectio mortuorum. sicut enim in Adam omnes moriuntur, sic et in Christo omnes uiuificabuntur, quandoquidem illi antiqui iusti secundum istorum uaniloquia sibi sufficiente natura nec mediatore homine Christo indiguerunt, per quem reconciliarentur deo, nec in eo uiuificabuntur, ad cuius corpus et membra secundum id quod propter homines homo factus est non pertinere monstrantur. si autem, quemadmodum per apostolos suos ueritas loquitur, sicut in Adam omnes moriuntur, sic et in Christo omnes uiuificabuntur, qui per illum hominem mors et per istum hominem resurrectio mortuorum, quis audeat dubitare christianus etiam illos iustos, qui recentioribus generis humani temporibus deo placuerunt, ideo in resurrectionem uitae aeternae, non mortis aeternae esse uenturos, quia in Christo uiuificabuntur; ideo autem uiuificari in Christo, quoniam ad corpus pertinent Christi; et ideo pertinere ad corpus Christi, quia et ipsis caput est Christus; ideo et ipsis caput esse Christum, quia unus mediator est dei et hominum homo Christus Iesus? quod eis non fuisset, nisi in eius resurrectionem per eius gratiam credidissent. et hoc quomodo fieret, si eum in carne uenturum esse nescissent neque ex hac fide iuste pieque uixissent? nam si propterea illis non profuit incarnatio Christi, quia nondum facta erat, nec nobis prodest iudicium Christi de uiuis et mortuis, quia nondum factum est; si autem nos per huius nondum facti, sed futuri iudicii fidem stabimus ad dexteram Christi, profecto illi per incarnationis eius tunc nondum factae, sed futurae fidem membra sunt Christi. ### English translation (Claude) By arguing this they try to exclude the righteous of old from the grace of the mediator, as though the man Christ Jesus was not the mediator between God and those men, because, not yet having taken flesh from the virgin's womb, he was not yet a man when those righteous lived. If this were so, the apostle would by no means say, 'Through a man came death, and through a man the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive'; since, according to these people's empty talk, those righteous of old, their nature being sufficient for them, neither needed the man Christ as mediator, through whom they might be reconciled to God, nor will be made alive in him, to whose body and members, in respect of his having become man for men's sake, they are shown not to belong. But if, as the Truth says through his apostles, 'as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive,' because through that man came death and through this man the resurrection of the dead, what Christian would dare to doubt that even those righteous who pleased God in the more ancient times of the human race will come to the resurrection of eternal life, not of eternal death, because they will be made alive in Christ; that they will be made alive in Christ because they belong to the body of Christ; that they belong to the body of Christ because Christ is their head too; and that Christ is their head too because there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus? This he would not have been for them unless they had believed in his resurrection through his grace. And how would this have happened if they had not known that he would come in the flesh, and had not lived righteously and piously from this faith? For if the incarnation of Christ did not benefit them because it had not yet taken place, then neither does Christ's judgment of the living and the dead benefit us, because it has not yet taken place. But if we, through faith in this judgment, not yet done but to come, will stand at Christ's right hand, surely they, through faith in his incarnation, then not yet done but to come, are members of Christ. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 15:21–22: quotation, high confidence - Col 1:18: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Tim 2:5: quotation, high confidence - 2 Tim 4:1: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 25:33: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: 1 Cor 15:21–22; Col 1:18; 1 Tim 2:5; 2 Tim 4:1; Matt 25:33. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.31 (CSEL 42:190–191; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-31). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.32 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-32 - Source: CSEL 42:191–192 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day and made his servant swear with a hand under his thigh, showing that the righteous of old believed in the coming incarnation. ### Latin text Neque enim putandum est, quod antiquis iustis sola quae semper erat diuinitas Christi, non etiam quae nondum erat eius humanitas reuelata profuerit. illud enim, quod ait dominus Iesus: Abraham concupiuit diem meum uidere et uidit et gauisus est, si diem suum uoluit suum tempus intellegi, testimonium profecto perhibuit Abrahae, quod fide fuerit incarnationis eius inbutus. secundum hanc enim habet tempus; diuinitas uero eius omne tempus excedit, quia per illam uniuersa facta sunt tempora. quod etsi quisquam de die sempiterno accipiendum putauerit, qui nullo finitur crastino, nullo praeuenitur hesterno, hoc est de ipsa aeternitate, in qua coaeternus est patri, quomodo id uere concupisceret Abraham, nisi eius nosset futuram mortalitatem, cuius quaesiuit aeternitatem? aut si ad hoc aliquis horum uerborum sensum coartat, ut dicat nihil intellegendum in eo quod ait dominus quaesiuit diem meum nisi quaesiuit me, qui sum dies permanens, hoc est lumen indeficiens — uelut cum dicimus uitam filii, de qua loquitur euangelium dicens: sic dedit et filio uitam habere in semet ipso, non aliud ipsum, aliud eius uitam, sed eundem ipsum filium intellegimus uitam, qui dixit: ego sum uia, ueritas et uita, et de quo dictum est: ipse est uerus deus et uita aeterna, ut hanc eius aequalem patri diuinitatem uidere cupiuerit Abraham nequaquam incarnatione eius praecognita, sicut eum nonnulli etiam philosophi quaesiuerunt, qui nihil de eius carne didicerunt — numquid et illud, quod iubet Abraham ponere manum seruum suum sub femore suo et iurare per deum caeli, aliter quisquam recte intellecturus est nisi Abraham scisse in qua uenturus esset deus caeli carnem de illo femore propagari? ### English translation (Claude) Nor should it be thought that only the divinity of Christ, which always existed, benefited the righteous of old, and not also his humanity, which did not yet exist but was revealed to them. For in what the Lord Jesus says, 'Abraham longed to see my day, and he saw it and was glad,' if he meant 'his day' to be understood as his time, he certainly bore witness to Abraham that he was imbued with faith in his incarnation. For in respect of this he has time; but his divinity exceeds all time, because through it all times were made. And even if someone thinks it should be taken of the everlasting day, which is ended by no tomorrow and preceded by no yesterday, that is, of that eternity in which he is coeternal with the Father, how would Abraham truly long for this, unless he knew of the future mortality of him whose eternity he sought? Or if someone narrows the sense of these words so as to say that in the Lord's saying 'he sought my day' nothing is to be understood but 'he sought me, who am the abiding day, that is, the unfailing light' (as when we speak of the life of the Son, of which the Gospel speaks, saying, 'So he has granted the Son also to have life in himself,' we do not understand the Son to be one thing and his life another, but the same Son to be the life, who said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life,' and of whom it was said, 'He is the true God and eternal life'), so that Abraham desired to see this divinity of his, equal to the Father, without any foreknowledge of his incarnation, as even some philosophers sought him, who learned nothing of his flesh: will anyone rightly understand in any other way the fact that Abraham bids his servant put his hand under his thigh and swear by the God of heaven, except that Abraham knew that the flesh in which the God of heaven was to come would be propagated from that thigh? ### Scripture references - John 8:56: quotation, high confidence - John 5:26: quotation, high confidence - John 14:6: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 5:20: quotation, high confidence - Gen 24:2–3: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: John 8:56; John 5:26; John 14:6; 1 John 5:20; Gen 24:2–3. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.32 (CSEL 42:191–192; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-32). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.33 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-33 - Source: CSEL 42:192–193 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Melchizedek's offering foreshadowed Christ's flesh and blood; Christ is mediator as man, lower than the Father in the form of a servant and higher than us because sinless. ### Latin text Cuius carnis et sanguinis, quando ipsum Abraham benedixit, Melchisedech etiam testimonium christianis fidelibus notissimum protulit, ut tanto post Christo diceretur in psalmis, quod nondum factum, sed adhuc futurum, eadem tamen ipsa et patrum quae nostra est fides una cantabat: tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech. in Adam quippe inuenientibus mortem per hoc prodest Christus, quod est mediator ad uitam; non autem per hoc mediator est, quod aequalis est patri. per hoc enim quantum pater tantum et ipse distat a nobis. et quomodo erit medietas, ubi eadem ipsa distantia est? ideo apostolus non ait: unus mediator dei et hominum Christus Iesus, sed homo Christus Iesus. per hoc ergo mediator, per quod homo; inferior patre per quod nobis propinquior, superior nobis per quod patri propinquior. quod apertius ita dicitur: inferior patre, quia in forma serui, superior nobis, quia sine labe peccati. ### English translation (Claude) Of this flesh and blood Melchizedek too, when he blessed Abraham himself, brought forward a testimony very well known to faithful Christians, so that so long afterward it was said to Christ in the Psalms (something not yet done but still to come, yet sung by the one faith of the fathers, which is also ours): 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.' For to those who find death in Adam, Christ is of benefit in this respect, that he is mediator for life; but he is not mediator in the respect in which he is equal to the Father. For in that respect he is as far from us as the Father is. And how will there be a middle where the distance is the same? That is why the apostle does not say, 'one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus,' but 'the man Christ Jesus.' He is mediator, then, in the respect in which he is man: lower than the Father in that he is nearer to us, higher than we in that he is nearer to the Father. This is said more plainly thus: lower than the Father because in the form of a servant, higher than we because without the stain of sin. ### Scripture references - Gen 14:18–19: allusion, high confidence - Ps 110:4 (109:4 LXX): quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 2:5: quotation, high confidence - Phil 2:7: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Melchizedek's bread and wine (Gen 14:18–19) were read as a figure of the Eucharist. Quotations and allusions: Gen 14:18–19; Ps 110:4 (109:4 LXX); 1 Tim 2:5; Phil 2:7. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.33 (CSEL 42:192–193; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-33). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.34 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-34 - Source: CSEL 42:193–194 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Denying that nature was corrupted in Adam attacks the rule of faith itself; far from being purer before the law, humanity was then so sinful that the flood destroyed all but Noah's family. ### Latin text Quapropter quisquis humanam contendit in qualibet aetate naturam non indigere medico secundo Adam, quia non est uitiata in primo Adam, non in aliqua quaestione, in qua dubitari uel errari salua fide potest, sed in ipsa regula fidei, qua christiani sumus, gratiae dei conuincitur inimicus. quale est autem, quod ab istis illa quae ante legem fuit uelut adhuc minus malis moribus uitiata hominum natura laudatur? neque respiciunt tantis tamquam intolerabilibus peccatis homines tunc fuisse submersos, ut excepto uno homine dei et eius coniuge tribusque filiis et totidem nuribus iusto iudicio dei sicut igne postea terra exigua Sodomorum ita totus mundus diluuio deleretur. ex quo tempore igitur per unum hominem peccatum intrauit in mundum et per peccatum mors, et ita in omnes homines pertransiit, in quo omnes peccauerunt, profecto uniuersa massa perditionis facta est possessio perditoris. nemo itaque, nemo prorsus inde liberatus est aut liberatur aut liberabitur nisi gratia redemptoris. ### English translation (Claude) Therefore whoever contends that human nature at any age does not need the physician, the second Adam, because it was not corrupted in the first Adam, is convicted of being an enemy of the grace of God, not in some question where one may doubt or err without harm to the faith, but in the very rule of faith by which we are Christians. And what of the fact that these people praise the human nature that existed before the law as though it were still less corrupted by evil conduct? They do not consider that men were then sunk in sins so great and so intolerable that, apart from one man of God and his wife and three sons and as many daughters-in-law, the whole world was destroyed by the flood, by the just judgment of God, as the small land of Sodom was later destroyed by fire. From the time, then, when 'through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death, and so it passed to all men, in whom all sinned,' the whole mass of perdition certainly became the possession of the destroyer. And so no one, absolutely no one, has been or is or will be freed from it except by the grace of the Redeemer. ### Scripture references - Gen 7:13: allusion, high confidence - Gen 19:24: allusion, high confidence - Rom 5:12: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotation: Rom 5:12 in Augustine's Latin ('in whom all sinned'). Allusions: Gen 7:13 (1 Pet 3:20); Gen 19:24. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.34 (CSEL 42:193–194; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-34). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.35 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-35 - Source: CSEL 42:194–195 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: God's threat that an uncircumcised infant would perish from his people cannot be just unless infants inherit guilt, since they have committed no sin of their own. ### Latin text Et ante Abraham quidem utrum aliquo corporali et uisibili sacramento iusti uel eorum paruuli signarentur, scriptura non exprimit. ipse tamen Abraham signum accepit circumcisionis signaculum iustitiae fidei et sic accepit, ut deinceps etiam omnes paruulos domus suae circumcidere iuberetur, recentissimos a uisceribus matrum octauo die natiuitatis eorum, ut etiam hi, qui corde ad iustitiam credere nondum possent, tamen iustitiae fidei signaculum sumerent. quod sub terrore tanto est imperatum, ut diceret deus animam illam de suo populo perituram, cuius octauo die praeputii circumcisio facta non fuisset. huius tam horribilis poenae iustitia si quaeratur, nonne istorum omnis de libero arbitrio et laudabili sanitate et puritate naturae quantumlibet arguta sit argumentatio repercussa et confracta dissiliet? quid enim mali, quaeso, paruulus propria uoluntate commisit, ut alio neglegente et eum non circumcidente ipse damnetur damnatione tam seuera, ut pereat anima illa de populo suo? neque enim temporalis mortis terror incussus est, cum de iustis, quando moriebantur, tunc potius diceretur: et appositus est ad populum suum uel appositus est ad patres suos, quoniam deinceps homini nulla temptatio formidatur, quae illum separet a populo suo, si populus eius ipse est populus dei. ### English translation (Claude) Whether before Abraham the righteous or their little ones were marked with some bodily and visible sacrament, Scripture does not state. But Abraham himself received the sign of circumcision, 'a seal of the righteousness of faith,' and received it in such a way that thereafter he was commanded to circumcise all the little ones of his house too, fresh from their mothers' wombs, on the eighth day of their birth, so that even those who could not yet believe with the heart unto righteousness might nevertheless receive the seal of the righteousness of faith. This was commanded under such great terror that God said that that soul would perish from his people whose foreskin had not been circumcised on the eighth day. If the justice of so terrible a penalty is asked, will not all their argumentation about free choice and the praiseworthy soundness and purity of nature, however subtle, be beaten back, broken, and shattered? For what evil, I ask, did a little one commit by his own will, that when another neglected to circumcise him, he himself should be condemned with so severe a condemnation that that soul should perish from his people? For it was not the terror of temporal death that was struck into them, since of the righteous, when they died, it was rather said, 'And he was gathered to his people,' or 'He was gathered to his fathers'; for no temptation is thereafter feared for a man that might separate him from his people, if his people is the people of God. ### Scripture references - Rom 4:11: quotation, high confidence - Gen 17:12: allusion, high confidence - Gen 17:14: quotation, high confidence - Rom 10:10: allusion, medium confidence - Gen 25:8: quotation, high confidence - Judg 2:10: quotation, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: Rom 4:11; Gen 17:12; Gen 17:14 (in the Septuagint form with 'on the eighth day'); Rom 10:10; Gen 25:8; Judg 2:10. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.35 (CSEL 42:194–195; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-35). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.36 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-36 - Source: CSEL 42:195 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The penalty cannot be for sins in a previous life, as Platonists suggest, since the unborn have done nothing; it is for Adam's debt, and circumcision on the eighth day with a stone knife prefigured Christ. ### Latin text Quid sibi ergo uult pro nullo propriae uoluntatis admisso tanta damnatio? neque enim, sicut nonnulli secundum Platonicos opinantur, hoc uniuscuiusque infantis animae redditur, quod ante istam uitam sua uoluntate commisit, cum haberet ante hoc corpus uel bene uel male uiuendi liberum arbitrium, cum Paulus apostolus apertissime dicat nondum natos nihil egisse boni uel mali. unde ergo recte infans illa perditione punitur, nisi quia pertinet ad massam perditionis et iuste intellegitur ex Adam natus antiqui debiti obligatione damnatus, nisi inde fuerit non secundum debitum, sed secundum gratiam liberatus? quam gratiam nisi gratiam dei per Iesum Christum dominum nostrum, quem profecto inter cetera ueterum sacramenta etiam ipsa praeputii circumcisio prophetauit? dies enim octauus est in hebdomadum recursibus dies dominicus, quo resurrexit dominus, et petra erat Christus. unde circumcisionis cultellus est petrinus et caro praeputii corpus peccati. ### English translation (Claude) What, then, is the meaning of so great a condemnation for no fault of one's own will? For it is not, as some think following the Platonists, that each infant's soul is repaid for what it committed by its own will before this life, when before this body it had free choice of living well or badly; since the apostle Paul says most plainly that those not yet born had done nothing good or evil. Why, then, is an infant rightly punished with that perdition, except because it belongs to the mass of perdition and is rightly understood, as born of Adam, to be condemned by the bond of the ancient debt, unless it has been freed from it, not according to what is owed but according to grace? And what grace but the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, whom, among the other sacraments of the ancients, the circumcision of the foreskin itself also prophesied? For the eighth day, in the recurring cycle of weeks, is the Lord's day, on which the Lord rose; and 'the rock was Christ.' Hence the knife of circumcision is of stone, and the flesh of the foreskin is the body of sin. ### Scripture references - Rom 9:11: allusion, high confidence - Rom 7:25: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Cor 10:4: quotation, high confidence - Josh 5:2: allusion, medium confidence - Rom 6:6: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: Rom 9:11; Rom 7:25; 1 Cor 10:4; Josh 5:2 and Exod 4:25 (knives of stone); Rom 6:6. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.36 (CSEL 42:195; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-36). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.37 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-37 - Source: CSEL 42:195–196 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Baptism in Christ is the true circumcision, freeing infants from the debt contracted by carnal birth through Christ, who was made 'sin', that is, a sacrifice for sin. ### Latin text Mutatis proinde sacramentis posteaquam uenit qui eis significabatur esse uenturus, non tamen mutato mediatoris auxilio, qui etiam priusquam uenisset in carne, antiqua sua membra liberabat suae incarnationis fide, et nos cum essemus mortui delictis et praeputio carnis nostrae, conuiuificati sumus Christo, in quo circumcisi sumus circumcisione non manu facta, quam figurabat circumcisio manu facta, ut euacuaretur corpus peccati, cum quo sumus ex Adam nati. damnatae originis propagatio nos damnat, nisi mundemur similitudine carnis peccati, in qua missus est sine peccato, qui tamen de peccato damnaret peccatum; factus est enim pro nobis peccatum. unde dicit apostolus: obsecramus pro Christo, reconciliamini deo. eum qui non nouerat peccatum pro nobis peccatum fecit, ut nos simus iustitia in ipso. deus ergo, cui per eum reconciliamur, fecit eum pro nobis peccatum, id est sacrificium per quod dimitterentur nostra peccata, quoniam peccata uocantur sacrificia pro peccatis. et utique ipse pro peccatis nostris est immolatus nullum habens uitium solus in hominibus, quale quaerebatur etiam tunc in pecoribus, quo significabatur unus sine uitio ad uitia sananda uenturus. quocumque igitur die suae natiuitatis infans baptizatur in Christo, tamquam octauo circumciditur die, quoniam in illo circumciditur, qui tertio quidem ex quo crucifixus est, sed octauo in hebdomadibus resurrexit die. circumciditur autem in expoliationem corporis carnis, id est ut debitum, quod contagio carnalis generationis attraxit, gratia spiritalis regenerationis absoluat; nullus enim est mundus a sorde — qua, obsecro, sorde nisi peccati? — nec infans, cuius est unius diei uita super terram. ### English translation (Claude) The sacraments have therefore been changed, since he has come whom they signified was to come; but the help of the mediator has not been changed, who even before he came in the flesh freed his ancient members by faith in his incarnation. And we, when we were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of our flesh, have been made alive together with Christ, in whom we have been circumcised with the circumcision not made with hands, which the circumcision made with hands prefigured, so that the body of sin with which we were born from Adam might be done away. The propagation of a condemned origin condemns us, unless we are cleansed by the likeness of sinful flesh, in which he was sent without sin, who nevertheless condemned sin by sin; for he was made sin for us. Hence the apostle says: 'We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin he made sin for us, so that we might be the righteousness of God in him.' God, then, to whom we are reconciled through him, made him sin for us, that is, a sacrifice through which our sins might be forgiven, since sacrifices for sins are called sins. And indeed he was sacrificed for our sins, he alone among men having no blemish, such as was required even then in animals, by which it was signified that one without blemish would come to heal blemishes. On whatever day of his birth, then, an infant is baptized in Christ, he is as it were circumcised on the eighth day, since he is circumcised in him who rose on the third day after he was crucified, but on the eighth day in the weeks. And he is circumcised for the stripping off of the body of the flesh, that is, so that the grace of spiritual regeneration may release the debt which the contagion of carnal generation contracted. For no one is clean from filth (from what filth, I ask, but that of sin?), not even an infant whose life on earth is one day old. ### Scripture references - Col 2:11–13: quotation, high confidence - Rom 6:6: allusion, high confidence - Rom 8:3: allusion, high confidence - 2 Cor 5:20–21: quotation, high confidence - Lev 22:21: allusion, low confidence - Job 14:4–5: quotation, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: Col 2:11–13; Rom 6:6; Rom 8:3; 2 Cor 5:20–21; Lev 22:21 and similar (unblemished victims); Job 14:4–5 in the Septuagint-based Latin ('no one is clean from filth, not even an infant whose life on earth is one day'). The digital text repeats 'in ipso'; the repetition is removed. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.37 (CSEL 42:195–196; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-37). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.38 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-38 - Source: CSEL 42:196–197 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Original sin does not make marriage evil or children not God's work; nature and its fault are propagated together, the one from the Creator, the other from Adam's sin. ### Latin text Sic autem argumentantur dicentes: ergo malum sunt nuptiae et non est opus dei homo quem generant nuptiae? quasi nuptiarum bonum sit morbus concupiscentiae, in quo uxores diligunt qui ignorant deum, quod apostolus prohibet. ac non potius pudicitia coniugalis, qua in bonos usus ordinate filios procreandi redigitur libido carnalis, aut uero possit esse homo nisi opus dei non solum qui de coniugio, uerum etiam qui de fornicatione uel de adulterio procreatur. sed in hac quaestione, ubi quaeritur non cui rei creator, sed cui saluator sit necessarius, non intuendum est quid boni sit in procreatione naturae, sed quid in peccato mali, quo certum est uitiatam esse naturam. simul autem utrumque propagatur, et natura et naturae uitium, quorum est unum bonum, alterum malum. illud de conditoris largitate sumitur, hoc de origine damnationis attrahitur; illi est causa bona uoluntas dei summi, huic mala uoluntas hominis primi; illud indicat deum creaturae institutorem, hoc indicat deum inoboedientiae punitorem. denique idem ipse Christus propter illud creandum factor est hominis, propter hoc sanandum factus est homo. ### English translation (Claude) But they argue thus, saying: 'Then marriage is evil, and the man whom marriage begets is not the work of God?' As if the good of marriage were the disease of concupiscence, in which those who do not know God love their wives, which the apostle forbids; and not rather conjugal chastity, by which carnal lust is brought back to the good use of begetting children in an orderly way. Or as if a man could be anything but the work of God, not only one begotten of marriage but also one begotten of fornication or adultery. But in this question, where the issue is not for what the Creator is necessary but for what the Savior is necessary, we must look not at what good there is in the procreation of nature but at what evil there is in sin, by which it is certain that nature has been corrupted. Both are propagated together, the nature and the fault of nature, of which one is good and the other evil. The one is received from the generosity of the Creator; the other is contracted from the origin of condemnation. The cause of the one is the good will of the supreme God; the cause of the other the evil will of the first man. The one shows God as the founder of the creature; the other shows God as the punisher of disobedience. Finally, the same Christ, for the creating of the one, is the maker of man; for the healing of the other, he was made man. ### Scripture references - 1 Thess 4:5: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Allusion: 1 Thess 4:5 ('not in the passion of lust like the gentiles who do not know God'). Augustine's text says fornicatio ('fornication'), distinct from adulterium ('adultery'). ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.38 (CSEL 42:196–197; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-38). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.39 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-39 - Source: CSEL 42:197–198 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Marriage has three goods, offspring, fidelity, and the sacramental bond, and it makes good use of lust; the shame attached to sexual desire comes from the disobedience of sin, not from marriage. ### Latin text Bonum ergo sunt nuptiae in omnibus quae sunt propria nuptiarum. haec autem tria sunt: generandi ordinatio, fides pudicitiae, conubii sacramentum. propter ordinationem generandi scriptum est: uolo iuniores nubere, filios procreare, matres familias esse; propter fidem pudicitiae: uxor non habet potestatem corporis sui, sed uir; similiter et uir non habet potestatem corporis sui, sed mulier; propter conubii sacramentum: quod deus coniunxit, homo non separet. de quibus in aliis opusculis nostris, quae uobis non sunt incognita, quantum domino adiuuante potuimus, satis nos disseruisse meminimus. propter haec omnia honorabiles nuptiae in omnibus et torus inmaculatus. in quantum enim nuptiae bonae sunt, in tantum faciunt plurimum boni etiam de libidinis malo, quoniam libidine non bene utitur libido, sed ratio. libido est autem in illa quam notat apostolus repugnante legi mentis inoboedientium lege membrorum, ratio uero bene utens libidine ipsa est in lege nuptiarum. nam si nullum de malo bonum fieri posset, nec deus ex adulterino concubitu hominem conderet. sicut ergo adulterii damnabile malum, quando et inde homo nascitur, non inputatur deo, qui certe in opere hominum malo facit ipse opus bonum, ita quicquid est pudendum in membrorum illa inoboedientia, de qua erubuerunt qui post peccatum foliis ficulneis eadem membra texerunt, non nuptiis inputatur, propter quas concubitus coniugalis non solum est licitus, uerum etiam utilis et honestus, sed inputatur peccato inoboedientiae, cuius haec poena est consecuta, ut homo inoboediens deo sua quoque sibi inoboedientia membra sentiret. de quibus erubescens, quod non ad arbitrium uoluntatis eius, sed ad libidinis incentiuum uelut arbitrio proprio mouerentur, quae pudenda iudicauit, operienda curauit. non enim confundi debuit homo de opere dei aut ullo modo fuerant creato erubescenda, quae instituenda uisa sunt creatori. itaque nec deo nec homini illa simplex nuditas displicebat, quando nihil erat pudendum, quia nihil praecesserat puniendum. ### English translation (Claude) Marriage, then, is good in all the things that are proper to marriage. And these are three: the ordinance of begetting, the fidelity of chastity, and the sacrament of wedlock. For the ordinance of begetting it is written, 'I want the younger women to marry, to bear children, to be mothers of families'; for the fidelity of chastity, 'The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband; likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife'; for the sacrament of wedlock, 'What God has joined, let not man separate.' We remember having discussed these things sufficiently, as far as we could with the Lord's help, in other works of ours which are not unknown to you. Because of all these, 'marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled.' For in so far as marriage is good, so far it does very much good even from the evil of lust; for it is not lust that makes good use of lust, but reason. Lust is in that law of the disobedient members warring against the law of the mind, which the apostle points out; but reason making good use of lust is in the law of marriage. For if no good could come from evil, God would not create a man from an adulterous union. Just as, then, the damnable evil of adultery, when a man is born even from it, is not imputed to God, who certainly does a good work of his own in the evil work of men, so whatever is shameful in that disobedience of the members, at which they blushed who after sin covered those same members with fig leaves, is not imputed to marriage, on account of which conjugal intercourse is not only lawful but also useful and honorable, but is imputed to the sin of disobedience, whose penalty followed: that man, disobedient to God, should feel his own members disobedient to himself. Blushing at them, because they were moved not at the choice of his will but at the incitement of lust, as if by their own choice, he took care to cover what he judged shameful. For man should not have been ashamed of the work of God, nor were the things which the Creator saw fit to establish in any way created to be blushed at. And so that simple nakedness displeased neither God nor man when there was nothing to be ashamed of, because nothing had gone before to be punished. ### Scripture references - 1 Tim 5:14: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:4: quotation, high confidence - Matt 19:6: quotation, high confidence - Heb 13:4: quotation, high confidence - Rom 7:23: allusion, high confidence - Gen 3:7: allusion, high confidence - Gen 2:25: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Augustine, Bon. conjug. (On the Good of Marriage): echo, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: 1 Tim 5:14; 1 Cor 7:4; Matt 19:6; Heb 13:4; Rom 7:23; Gen 3:7; Gen 2:25. The 'other works' are chiefly On the Good of Marriage. 'Sacrament of wedlock' (conubii sacramentum) means the indissoluble bond. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.39 (CSEL 42:197–198; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-39). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.40 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-40 - Source: CSEL 42:198–199 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: There would have been marriage and procreation in paradise without sin, but the members would have obeyed the will without lust, pain, or bloodshed. ### Latin text Essent autem procul dubio nuptiae etiam non praecedente peccato, quia neque ob aliam causam uiro adiutorium non alius uir, sed femina facta est et illa dei uerba: crescite et multiplicamini, non est damnandorum praedictio peccatorum sed fecundatarum benedictio nuptiarum. his enim deus ineffabilibus suis uerbis, id est diuinis rationibus in suae sapientiae per quam facta sunt omnia ueritate uiuentibus uim seminis indidit primis hominibus. si autem peccato non fuisset dehonestata natura, absit ut opinemur tales futuras fuisse nuptias in paradiso, ut in eis ad prolem seminandam non nutu uoluntatis, sicut pes ad ambulandum, manus ad operandum, lingua ad loquendum, sed aestu libidinis membra genitalia mouerentur nec, sicut nunc fit, uirginitatis integritas ad concipiendos fetus ui turbidi uitiaretur ardoris, sed obsequeretur imperio tranquillissimae caritatis et eo modo non esset dolor et cruor uirginis concumbentis, quomodo non esset etiam matris gemitus parientis. haec ideo non creduntur, quia in ista mortalitatis conditione inexperta sunt. in deterius quippe uitio mutata natura non inuenit primae illius puritatis exemplum. sed fidelibus loquimur, qui nouerunt credere diuinis eloquiis etiam nullis adhibitis expertae ueritatis exemplis. quomodo enim nunc ostendam sine ullis parentibus de puluere hominem factum eique de suo latere coniugem? et tamen quod oculus iam non inuenit, fides credit. ### English translation (Claude) There would without doubt have been marriage even if sin had not come first, for it was for no other reason that not another man but a woman was made as a helper for the man; and those words of God, 'Increase and multiply,' are not a prediction of sins to be condemned but a blessing of fruitful marriage. For by these ineffable words of his, that is, by the divine reasons in the truth of his wisdom, through which all things were made, he implanted in the first human beings the power of seed. But if nature had not been dishonored by sin, far be it from us to suppose that marriage in paradise would have been such that in it the genital members would be moved to sow offspring not at the bidding of the will, as the foot is moved to walk, the hand to work, the tongue to speak, but by the heat of lust; or that, as now happens, the integrity of virginity would be violated for the conception of offspring by the force of a turbulent ardor; rather, it would obey the command of the most tranquil love, and so there would be no pain and blood of the virgin in intercourse, just as there would be no groaning of the mother in giving birth. These things are not believed because they have not been experienced in this condition of mortality. For nature, changed for the worse by the fault, finds no example of that first purity. But we speak to believers, who know how to believe the divine words even when no examples of experienced truth are brought forward. For how could I now show a man made from dust without any parents, and a wife made for him from his side? And yet what the eye no longer finds, faith believes. ### Scripture references - Gen 2:18: allusion, high confidence - Gen 1:28: quotation, high confidence - John 1:3: allusion, medium confidence - Gen 2:7: allusion, high confidence - Gen 2:21–22: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: Gen 2:18; Gen 1:28; John 1:3; Gen 2:7; Gen 2:21–22. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.40 (CSEL 42:198–199; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-40). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.41 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-41 - Source: CSEL 42:199–200 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Marriage without lust cannot now be shown but is believed from Scripture, just as childbirth without pain and life without death; shame over the body followed the first sin. ### Latin text Sic ergo et primarum nuptiarum sine libidinis passione tranquillitas et motus genitalium sicut aliorum membrorum non ad effrenati caloris incitamentum, sed ad uoluntatis arbitrium — quales nuptiae perseuerassent, si peccati non interuenisset obprobrium — nunc ostendi non potest, sed ex his quae diuina auctoritate conscripta sunt non immerito credi potest. sic enim modo non inuenio sine pruriente libidine concumbentem; sicut non inuenio sine dolore et gemitu parturientem, sine futura morte nascentem, et tamen secundum scripturarum sanctarum ueritatem gemitus parturientis et mors hominis non fuissent, si peccatum non praecessisset; sic nec illud unde erubuerunt, qui membra illa texerunt, quia et hoc in eisdem sanctis litteris praecedente peccato scriptum est consecutum. membra quippe illa nisi indecens motus oculis eorum non utique clausis, sed in hoc non apertis, hoc est non attentis, animaduertenda nuntiasset, nihil in suo corpore, quod utique totum deus laudabile fecerat, pudendum uelandumque sensissent, quia nisi praeisset facinus, quod inoboedientia est ausa committere, non sequeretur dedecus, quod uerecundia uellet abscondere. ### English translation (Claude) So too the tranquillity of the first marriage without the passion of lust, and the movement of the genital members, like that of the other members, not at the incitement of unbridled heat but at the choice of the will (such as marriage would have continued to be had the disgrace of sin not intervened), cannot now be shown, but can not unreasonably be believed from what is written by divine authority. For just as I do not now find anyone having intercourse without itching lust, so I do not find anyone giving birth without pain and groaning, or anyone born without future death; and yet, according to the truth of the holy Scriptures, neither the groaning of the woman in labor nor the death of man would have existed had sin not come first. So neither would that at which they blushed who covered those members; for this too is written in the same holy Scriptures as having followed after sin had come first. For unless an unseemly movement had announced those members as things to be noticed to their eyes, which were certainly not closed, but not opened to this, that is, not attentive to it, they would have felt nothing in their body shameful and needing to be veiled, since God had made the whole of it praiseworthy; because, had the crime not gone before which disobedience dared to commit, the disgrace would not have followed which modesty wished to hide. ### Scripture references - Gen 3:16: allusion, high confidence - Gen 3:19: allusion, medium confidence - Gen 3:7: allusion, high confidence - Gen 2:25: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Allusions: Gen 3:16; Gen 3:19; Gen 3:7; Gen 2:25. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.41 (CSEL 42:199–200; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-41). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.42 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-42 - Source: CSEL 42:200 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Marriage's goods (offspring, chastity, sacrament) are distinct from the evil of lust at which even marriage blushes; infants receive their nature from God and the contagion of sin from that inherited fault. ### Latin text Clarum est igitur hoc non esse nuptiis inputandum, quod etsi non esset, nuptiae tamen essent, quarum bonum non aufertur isto malo, sed ab eis et hoc malum in usum uertitur bonum. uerum quia iam ista conditione mortalium nunc simul aguntur concubitus et libido, eo fit, ut cum libido reprehenditur, etiam nuptialis concubitus licitus et honestus reprehendi putetur ab eis, qui nolunt discernere ista uel nesciunt. nec attendunt illud esse nuptiarum bonum, unde gloriantur nuptiae, id est proles, pudicitia, sacramentum, illud autem non esse nuptiarum, sed carnalis concupiscentiae malum, de quo erubescunt et nuptiae. sed quia sine illo malo fieri non potest nuptiarum bonum, hoc est propagatio filiorum, ubi ad huius modi opus uenitur, secreta quaeruntur, arbitri remouentur, filiorum quoque ipsorum, si iam inde aliqui nati sunt, cum per aetatem sentire ista iam coeperint, praesentia deuitatur, atque ita nuptiae sinuntur exercere quod licet, ut non neglegant occultare quod dedecet. hinc est, quod infantes etiam qui peccare non possunt, non tamen sine peccati contagione nascuntur, non ex hoc quod licet, sed ex eo quod dedecet. nam ex hoc quod licet natura nascitur, ex illo quod dedecet uitium. naturae nascentis est auctor deus, qui hominem condidit et qui uirum ac feminam nuptiali iure coniunxit, uitii uero auctor est diaboli decipientis calliditas et hominis consentientis uoluntas. ### English translation (Claude) It is clear, then, that this is not to be imputed to marriage, since even if it did not exist, there would still be marriage, whose good is not taken away by this evil; rather, by marriage even this evil is turned to good use. But since in the present condition of mortals intercourse and lust now go together, it comes about that when lust is blamed, lawful and honorable conjugal intercourse is also thought to be blamed by those who either will not or cannot distinguish these things. They do not notice that the good of marriage is that in which marriage glories, that is, offspring, chastity, and the sacrament, while the other is not an evil of marriage but of carnal concupiscence, at which even marriage blushes. But since the good of marriage, that is, the propagation of children, cannot be accomplished without that evil, when it comes to a work of this kind, privacy is sought, witnesses are removed, even the presence of the couple's own children, if any have already been born of it, is avoided once they have begun by their age to perceive such things; and so marriage is allowed to do what is lawful in such a way that it does not neglect to hide what is unseemly. Hence it is that even infants, who cannot sin, are nevertheless not born without the contagion of sin, not from what is lawful but from what is unseemly. For from what is lawful nature is born; from what is unseemly, the fault. Of the nature that is born God is the author, who created man and who joined man and woman by the law of marriage; but of the fault the author is the cunning of the deceiving devil and the will of the consenting man. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.42 (CSEL 42:200; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-42). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.43 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-43 - Source: CSEL 42:200–201 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Lust does not harm regenerated spouses unless they misuse it, even within marriage; intercourse for procreation is good in itself, and Paul's concession for other intercourse implies a fault. ### Latin text Vbi nihil deus fecit, nisi quod hominem uoluntate peccantem iusto iudicio cum stirpe damnauit, et ideo ibi quicquid etiam nondum erat natum merito est in praeuaricatrice radice damnatum, in qua stirpe damnata tenet hominem generatio carnalis, unde sola liberat regeneratio spiritalis. ideo regeneratis parentibus, si tamen in eadem gratia perseuerauerint, procul dubio libido ista propter remissionem peccatorum, quae in eis facta est, non nocebit, nisi cum ea male utuntur non solum in omnibus inlicitis corruptelis, uerum etiam in ipsis coniugibus, quando non propagandi uoluntate operam creandis filiis inpendunt, sed lasciuiendi uoluptate exsaturandae cupidini inseruiunt. quod propter uitandas fornicationes maritis et uxoribus ne fraudent inuicem nisi ex consensu ad tempus, ut orationibus uacent, secundum ueniam, non secundum imperium concedit apostolus. euidenter quippe dum tribuit ueniam, denotat culpam. nuptialis autem concubitus, quem matrimoniales quoque indicant tabulae causa procreandorum fieri filiorum, per se ipsum prorsus, non in comparatione fornicationis est bonus. qui tametsi propter corpus mortis, quod nondum est resurrectione renouatum, sine quodam bestiali motu, de quo natura erubescit humana, non potest fieri, tamen ipse concubitus non est peccatum, ubi ratio libidine utitur ad bonum, non superatur ad malum. ### English translation (Claude) In this God did nothing except that by just judgment he condemned man, sinning by his will, together with his stock; and therefore whatever was not yet born was rightly condemned there in the transgressing root. In that condemned stock carnal generation holds man, and only spiritual regeneration frees him from it. Therefore in regenerated parents, if indeed they persevere in the same grace, this lust will without doubt do no harm, because of the forgiveness of sins that has taken place in them, unless they use it badly, not only in all unlawful corruptions but even with their own spouses, when they give themselves to the work of begetting children not with the will to propagate but serve the satisfying of desire with the pleasure of wantonness. This the apostle grants to husbands and wives, to avoid fornications, that they should not defraud one another except by consent for a time, so as to devote themselves to prayer, by way of concession, not of command. For clearly, while he grants pardon, he indicates fault. But conjugal intercourse, which the marriage contracts too declare to take place for the sake of procreating children, is good in itself, absolutely, not merely in comparison with fornication. And although, because of the body of death, which has not yet been renewed by the resurrection, it cannot take place without a certain animal movement at which human nature blushes, yet the intercourse itself is not sin, where reason uses lust for good and is not overcome by it for evil. ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 7:2: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:5–6: allusion, high confidence - Rom 7:24: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - 'Fornications' (fornicationes) renders the Latin of 1 Cor 7:2 as Augustine cites it. Allusions: 1 Cor 7:2, 5–6; Rom 7:24. The 'marriage contracts' (tabulae matrimoniales) stated that marriage was 'for the procreation of children'. Augustine's teaching that intercourse beyond procreation is a pardonable fault is translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.43 (CSEL 42:200–201; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-43). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.44 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-44 - Source: CSEL 42:201–202 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Concupiscence remains in the baptized but no longer harms them, while it makes their offspring guilty until they too are reborn; its full removal awaits the resurrection, to which baptism leads. ### Latin text Obesset ista carnis concupiscentia etiam tantummodo quod inesset, nisi peccatorum remissio sic prodesset, ut quae in eis est, et nato et renato, nato quidem et inesse et obesse, renato autem inesse quidem, sed non obesse possit. in tantum autem obest natis, ut, nisi renascantur, nihil possit prodesse, si nati sunt de renatis. manet quippe in prole, ita ut ream faciat originis uitium, etiam si in parente reatus eiusdem uitii remissione ablutus est peccatorum, donec omne uitium, cui consentiendo peccatur, regeneratione nouissima consumatur, id est ipsius etiam renouatione carnis, quae in eius resurrectione futura promittitur, ubi non solum nulla peccata faciamus, sed nec habeamus ulla desideria uitiosa, quibus consentiendo peccemus, ad quam beatam perfectionem huius quod nunc datur sancti lauacri gratia peruenitur. qua enim regeneratione spiritus modo fit, ut peccata omnia remittantur, eius merito fiet etiam regeneratio carnis in aeternam uitam, qua in ipsa carne incorruptibiliter resurgente peccatorum omnium incitamenta sanentur. sed ea salus adhuc in spe facta est, non tenetur in re neque per praesentiam possidetur, sed expectatur per patientiam. Ac per hoc non solum peccata omnia, quorum nunc remissio fit in baptismo, quae reos faciunt, dum desideriis uitiosis consentitur atque peccatur, uerum etiam ipsa desideria uitiosa, quibus si non consentitur, nullus peccati reatus contrahitur, quae non in ista, sed in alia uita nulla erunt, eodem lauacro baptismatis uniuersa purgantur. ### English translation (Claude) This concupiscence of the flesh would do harm merely by being present, were it not that the forgiveness of sins so benefits us that, while it is present both in one who is born and in one who is reborn, in the one born it can both be present and do harm, but in the one reborn it can be present but not do harm. And it harms those who are born to such a degree that, unless they are reborn, nothing can benefit them, even if they are born of the reborn. For the fault of origin remains in the offspring so as to make it guilty, even if in the parent the guilt of that same fault has been washed away by the forgiveness of sins, until every fault by consenting to which one sins is consumed by the final regeneration, that is, by the renewal of the flesh itself, which is promised in its future resurrection, where we shall not only commit no sins but shall not even have any vicious desires by consenting to which we might sin. To this blessed perfection one comes by the grace of the holy washing now given. For by the merit of that regeneration of the spirit through which all sins are now forgiven, there will also come about the regeneration of the flesh for eternal life, by which, in that very flesh rising incorruptible, the incitements of all sins will be healed. But that salvation has so far been brought about in hope; it is not held in reality nor possessed as present, but is awaited through patience. And therefore not only all sins, whose forgiveness now takes place in baptism, which make people guilty when vicious desires are consented to and sin is committed, but also the vicious desires themselves, which, if not consented to, contract no guilt of sin, and which will not exist in the other life though they do in this one, are all cleansed by the same washing of baptism. ### Scripture references - Titus 3:5: allusion, medium confidence - Rom 8:24–25: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Allusions: Titus 3:5; Rom 8:24–25. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.44 (CSEL 42:201–202; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-44). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.45 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-45 - Source: CSEL 42:202–203 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Baptized parents still beget children guilty of the inherited fault, as olive seeds produce wild olives; the church's exorcism and renunciation in infant baptism show that infants are freed from the devil's power. ### Latin text Reatus itaque uitii eius, de quo loquimur, in regeneratorum prole carnali tamdiu manebit, donec et illic lauacro regenerationis abluatur. regeneratus quippe non regenerat filios carnis, sed generat ac per hoc in eos non quod regeneratus, sed quod generatus est traicit. sic igitur siue reus infidelis siue absolutus fidelis non generat absolutos uterque, sed reos, quomodo non solum oleastri, sed etiam oleae semina non oleas generant, sed oleastros. sic itaque in damnatione hominem prima natiuitas tenet, unde nisi secunda non liberat. tenet ergo diabolus, liberat Christus; tenet deceptor Euae, liberat filius Mariae; tenet qui per coniugem uenit ad uirum, liberat qui de coniuge natus est, quae non pertulit uirum; tenet qui causam libidinis intulit feminae, liberat qui sine libidine est conceptus in femina. omnes ille prorsus per unum tenere potuit nec ab eius dominatione liberat nisi unus, quem tenere non potuit. denique ipsa ecclesiae sacramenta, quae tam priscae traditionis auctoritate concelebrat, ut ea isti, quamuis in paruulis existiment simulatorie potius quam ueraciter fieri. non tamen audeant aperta inprobatione respuere — ipsa, inquam, sanctae ecclesiae sacramenta satis indicant paruulos a partu etiam recentissimos per gratiam Christi de diaboli seruitio liberari. excepto enim quod in peccatorum remissionem non fallaci, sed fideli mysterio baptizantur, etiam prius exorcizatur in eis et exsufflatur potestas contraria, cui etiam uerbis eorum a quibus portantur se renuntiare respondent. quibus omnibus rerum occultarum sacratis et euidentibus signis a captiuatore pessimo ad optimum redemptorem transire monstrantur, qui pro nobis infirmitate suscepta alligauit fortem, ut uasa eius eriperet, quia infirmum dei non solum est hominibus, uerum et angelis fortius. liberans itaque deus pusillos cum magnis in utrisque ostendit quod locuta est per apostolum ueritas; non enim solos aetate maiores, sed etiam pusillos eruit a potestate tenebrarum, ut transferat in regnum filii caritatis suae. ### English translation (Claude) The guilt of that fault of which we are speaking will therefore remain in the carnal offspring of the regenerated until there too it is washed away by the washing of regeneration. For a regenerated man does not regenerate children of the flesh but generates them, and therefore passes on to them not what he is as regenerated but what he is as generated. So, then, whether a guilty unbeliever or an acquitted believer, neither generates acquitted children, but guilty ones; just as not only the seeds of the wild olive but also those of the olive produce not olives but wild olives. So the first birth holds man in condemnation, from which only the second frees him. The devil holds, Christ frees; the deceiver of Eve holds, the son of Mary frees; he holds who came to the husband through the wife, he frees who was born of a wife who had not known a husband; he holds who brought the cause of lust to the woman, he frees who was conceived in a woman without lust. He could hold all men absolutely through one, and none frees from his dominion but the one whom he could not hold. Finally, the very sacraments of the church, which it celebrates by the authority of so ancient a tradition that these people, although they think that in little ones they are performed as a pretense rather than truly, nevertheless do not dare to reject them by open disapproval: the very sacraments of the holy church, I say, show clearly enough that little ones, even those most newly born, are freed from the service of the devil through the grace of Christ. For besides the fact that they are baptized for the forgiveness of sins by a mystery that is not deceptive but faithful, the opposing power is first exorcised in them and breathed out, and they answer, by the words of those who carry them, that they renounce it. By all these sacred and evident signs of hidden realities they are shown to pass from the worst captor to the best redeemer, who, having taken on weakness for us, bound the strong man in order to seize his goods; because the weakness of God is stronger not only than men but also than angels. God, then, freeing small and great, shows in both what the Truth spoke through the apostle; for he rescues not only those older in age but also little ones from the power of darkness, to transfer them into the kingdom of the Son of his love. ### Scripture references - Titus 3:5: allusion, high confidence - Rom 11:17: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 12:29: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 1:25: allusion, high confidence - Col 1:13: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The exorcism, exsufflation (breathing out the evil power), and renunciation spoken by sponsors were part of the baptismal rite. Quotations and allusions: Titus 3:5; Rom 11:17, 24 (olive and wild olive); Matt 12:29; 1 Cor 1:25; Col 1:13. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.45 (CSEL 42:202–203; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-45). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.46 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-46 - Source: CSEL 42:203–205 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: God still creates human beings out of goodness even though they are born under the devil's power because of their inherited fault; the fault dishonors their nature without destroying it, and Christ in weakness overcomes the proud angel. ### Latin text Nec quisquam miretur et dicat: cur ergo creat bonitas dei, quod possideat malignitas diaboli? hoc enim suae creaturae seminibus ex illa bonitate largitur, qua etiam facit solem suum oriri super bonos et malos et pluit super iustos et iniustos. hac quippe bonitate etiam ipsa semina benedixit uel benedicendo constituit. quam benedictionem naturae laudabili culpa damnabilis non ademit, quae licet per dei punientis iustitiam ualuerit, ut homines cum peccati originalis uitio nascerentur, non tamen ualuit, ut homines non nascerentur, sicut in ipsis aetate maioribus quaelibet uitia peccatorum non ex homine hominem tollunt, sed permanet dei opus bonum in quantiscumque malis inpiorum operibus. nam etsi homo in honore positus et non intellegens comparatur pecoribus eisque similis fit, non tamen usque adeo similis fit, ut pecus sit. comparatur namque per uitium, non per naturam, non pecoris uitio, sed naturae. tantae namque excellentiae est in comparatione pecoris homo, ut uitium hominis natura sit pecoris, nec tamen ideo natura hominis in naturam uertitur pecoris. ac per hoc deus hominem damnat propter uitium, quo natura dehonestatur, non propter naturam, quae uitio non aufertur; bestias uero absit ut opinemur poenae damnationis obnoxias, quas iustum est ut miseriae sint expertes, quae nec beatitudinis possunt esse participes. quid ergo mirum est uel iniquum, ut inmundo spiritui subdatur homo non propter naturam, sed propter inmunditiam suam, quam non ex opere diuino, sed ex humana uoluntate uenientem in originis labe contraxit, cum et ipse spiritus inmundus bonum sit, quod spiritus, malum, quod inmundus? illud quippe est ex dei opere, hoc ex propria uoluntate. natura itaque fortior, id est angelica inferiorem naturam, id est humanam uitii societate subditam tenet. ideo mediator angelis fortior infirmus propter homines factus est, sic superbia captiuatoris redemptoris humilitate destruitur, ut qui super filios hominis angelica fortitudine gloriatur, a filio dei suscepta humana infirmitate uincatur. ### English translation (Claude) Nor should anyone wonder and say: 'Why then does the goodness of God create what the malice of the devil possesses?' For he bestows this on the seeds of his creature out of that goodness by which he also makes his sun rise on the good and the evil and sends rain on the just and the unjust. By this goodness he blessed the seeds themselves, or established them by blessing. This blessing of a praiseworthy nature a damnable fault did not take away; though it had such force, through the justice of God punishing it, that men are born with the fault of original sin, it did not have such force that men are not born; just as in those older in age any vices of sins do not take man away from man, but God's good work remains in however great evil works of the ungodly. For although 'man, placed in honor and not understanding, is compared to the beasts and becomes like them,' he does not become so like them as to be a beast. For he is compared through a fault, not through nature; not through the fault of a beast, but of nature. For man is of such excellence in comparison with a beast that the fault of a man is the nature of a beast; and yet the nature of man is not therefore turned into the nature of a beast. And therefore God condemns man for the fault by which his nature is dishonored, not for the nature, which is not taken away by the fault. But far be it from us to think that beasts are liable to the punishment of condemnation, which it is just should be free from misery, since they cannot share in happiness. What wonder, then, or what injustice is it that man is made subject to an unclean spirit, not because of his nature but because of his uncleanness, which, coming not from the divine work but from the human will, he contracted in the stain of his origin; since that unclean spirit itself is good in that it is a spirit, evil in that it is unclean? The former is from the work of God, the latter from its own will. So the stronger nature, that is, the angelic, holds the lower nature, the human, in subjection through fellowship in fault. Therefore the mediator, stronger than the angels, was made weak for men's sake; so the pride of the captor is destroyed by the humility of the redeemer, so that he who glories over the sons of men in angelic strength is conquered by the Son of God, who took up human weakness. ### Scripture references - Matt 5:45: quotation, high confidence - Ps 49:12 (48:13 LXX): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations and allusions: Matt 5:45; Ps 49:12, 20 (48:13, 21 LXX). ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.46 (CSEL 42:203–205; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-46). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.47 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-47 - Source: CSEL 42:205–206 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine quotes Ambrose on original sin: all fell and died in Adam, all are born under sin, and only Christ, conceived without intercourse, was free of it. ### Latin text Sed iam etiam istum conclusuri librum oportere arbitramur, ut Ambrosium antistitem dei, cuius inter latinae linguae scriptores ecclesiasticos praecipue Pelagius integerrimam fidem praedicat, sicut de gratia fecimus ita et de peccato originali, in quo delendo ipsa gratia euidentius commendatur, calumniosae istorum loquacitati respondere faciamus. in eo opere quod scripsit de resurrectione sanctus Ambrosius lapsus sum, inquit, in Adam, de paradiso eiectus sum in Adam, mortuus in Adam: quomodo reuocat nisi me in Adam inuenerit ut in illo culpae obnoxium, morti debitum, ita in Christo iustificatum? item scribens contra Nouatianos ait: omnes homines sub peccato nascimur, quorum ipse ortus in uitio est, sicut habes lectum dicente Dauid: ecce in iniquitatibus conceptus sum et in delictis peperit me mater mea. ideo Pauli caro corpus mortis erat, sicut ipse ait: quis me liberabit de corpore mortis huius? Christi autem caro damnauit peccatum, quod nascendo non sensit, quod moriendo crucifixit, ut in carne nostra esset iustificatio per gratiam, ubi erat ante conluuio per culpam. item idem ipse cum exponeret Esaiam prophetam, loquens de Christo ideo, inquit, et quasi homo per uniuersa temptatus est et in similitudine hominum cuncta sustinuit, sed quasi de spiritu natus abstinuit a peccato; omnis enim homo mendax et nemo sine peccato nisi unus deus. seruatum est igitur, ut ex uiro et muliere, id est per illam corporum commixtionem nemo uideatur expers esse delicti. qui autem expers delicti, expers etiam huius modi conceptionis. item cum exponeret euangelium secundum Lucam, non enim uirilis coitus, inquit, uuluae uirginalis secreta reserauit, sed inmaculatum semen inuiolabili utero spiritus sanctus infudit; solus enim per omnia ex natis de femina sanctus dominus Iesus, qui terrenae contagia corruptelae inmaculati partus nouitate non senserit et caelesti maiestate depulerit. ### English translation (Claude) But now, as we are about to conclude this book too, we think we ought to have Ambrose, the bishop of God, whose faith Pelagius especially proclaims as most sound among the church writers of the Latin tongue, answer the slanderous talk of these people on original sin, as we did on grace; for in the blotting out of original sin grace itself is commended more evidently. In the work Saint Ambrose wrote on the resurrection he says: 'I fell in Adam, I was cast out of paradise in Adam, I died in Adam; how does he call me back, unless he has found me in Adam, liable to guilt and owed to death in him, and so justified in Christ?' Again, writing against the Novatianists, he says: 'All of us men are born under sin, and our very origin is in fault, as you have read where David says: Behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother bore me. That is why Paul's flesh was a body of death, as he himself says: Who will deliver me from the body of this death? But Christ's flesh condemned sin, which he did not experience in being born and which he crucified in dying, so that in our flesh there might be justification through grace where before there was defilement through guilt.' Again, the same man, expounding the prophet Isaiah, says, speaking of Christ: 'Therefore, as a man, he was tempted in all things, and in the likeness of men he endured everything; but as born of the Spirit he abstained from sin. For every man is a liar, and no one is without sin but God alone. It has been kept, therefore, that no one born of man and woman, that is, through that union of bodies, is seen to be free from sin. But he who is free from sin is free also from this kind of conception.' Again, expounding the Gospel according to Luke, he says: 'For no male intercourse opened the secrets of the virgin's womb, but the Holy Spirit poured immaculate seed into the inviolate womb. For of those born of woman the Lord Jesus alone is holy in every respect, who by the newness of his immaculate birth did not experience the contagion of earthly corruption and by his heavenly majesty repelled it.' ### Scripture references - Ps 51:5 (50:7 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Rom 7:24: quotation, high confidence - Rom 8:3: allusion, high confidence - Heb 4:15: allusion, high confidence - Ps 116:11 (115:2 LXX): quotation, high confidence - Mark 10:18: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Ambrose, On the Death of His Brother Satyrus 2.6 (the book 'on the resurrection'); On Repentance 1.3.13 (against the Novatianists); the lost commentary on Isaiah; Exposition of Luke 2.56. Quotations within them: Ps 51:5 (50:7 LXX); Rom 7:24; Rom 8:3; Heb 4:15; Ps 116:11 (115:2 LXX); Mark 10:18. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Grat. Chr. 2.47 (CSEL 42:205–206; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-47). ## On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.48 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-gratia-christi-peccato-originali/2-30/#p-2-48 - Source: CSEL 42:206–207 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pelagius's claim that we are born without vice contradicts Ambrose, whom he praised, so he must either renounce his error or remain rightly condemned. ### Latin text His tamen uerbis hominis dei, quem tanto praeconio ipse laudauit Pelagius, contradicit et dicit