On the Virginal Conception, and On Original Sin: Chapter 27/Chapter 28
ON THE VIRGINAL CONCEPTION, AND ON ORIGINAL SIN
sin in infants because of the sin of their other ancestors, as it does follow that there is sin in infants because of Adam's sin.
Chapter 27 What original sin is, and that it is equal in all I therefore understand original sin to be nothing other than the sin that is in an infant as soon as it has a rational soul, no matter what might have taken place in the body before it was ensouled (some corruption of its members, for example) or what might happen in the future in either the soul or the body.
For the reasons given above, I think this original sin is the same in all naturally propagated infants, and that all who die in it alone are equally damned.
Any sin that is added to original sin in a human being is personal sin; and just as a person is born sinful because of the nature,so too the nature is made more sinful by a person, since when any person sins, human being sins.
I cannot understand this sin that I call 'original' to be anything else in infants but the deprivation of required justice that I discussed above, which was brought about by Adam's disobedience.As a result of his disobedience, all are children of wrath;51 for the spontaneous* abandonment of justice that human nature committed in Adam accuses the nature, and the inability to recover justice does not (as I have explained) excuse persons. This deprivation of justice is accompanied by deprivation of happiness, so that just as they are without any justice, so too are they without any happiness. Because of these two deprivations they are banished into exile in this life, and unless they are protected by divine governance,they are constantly exposed to sins and miseries that befall them at every point and attack them from every direction.
Chapter 28 Against those who do not think infants should be damned There are some whose minds are unwilling to accept that infants who die unbaptized ought to be damned solely on account of this injustice of which I have spoken, since no human being judges that they deserve to be blamed for some other person's sin, and because infants are not yet just and capable of understanding at that age; and they do not think that God should judge innocent children more strictly than human beings would judge them.What needs to be said to them is that the way God ought to treat infants is different from the way human beings ought to treat them. A human being ought not to 51 Cf. Ephesians 2:3.