On the Virginal Conception, and On Original Sin: Chapter 8
BASIC WRITINGS
already dead, but they were going to die on account of sin, since "through one human being sin entered into this world, and through sin, death."22 Thus, when Adam sinned, we all sinned in him: not because we, who did not even exist yet, sinned, but because we were going to come from him in the future, and at that time the necessity came about that when we did exist, we would sin, since "by the disobedience of one, many were made sinners."23
We can understand in a similar way the claim that a human being is conceived from unclean seed, in iniquities, and in sins: not that there is the uncleanness of sin, or sin or iniquity, in the seed, but because from the seed and from the moment of conception from which a human being begins to exist, he receives the necessity that once he has a rational soul, he will have the uncleanness of sin, which is nothing other than sin and iniquity. For even if a child is conceived as a result of vicious concupiscence, there is no more fault in the seed than there would be fault in spit or blood simply because someone spat or bled as a result of an evil will. It is not, after all, the spit or the blood that is blamed, but the evil will. So it is clear how sin does not exist in infants from the moment of their conception and yet, at the same time, how the texts I quoted from Scripture are true. There is no sin in infants because they do not have a will, without which sin is not present; and yet sin is said to be present, because they carry in their seed the necessity of sinning once they are human beings.
Chapter 8 That there was neither sin nor the necessity of future sin in the seed received from the Virgin If, as I believe, these things are true, there is no sin in that which is received into the offspring from the parent, since it has no will.And so it is clear that there could not be any stain of sin in that which the Son of God assumed into his person from the Virgin. I have said, however, that the seed is transmitted from the parents with a necessity of future sin, once it is animated by a rational soul. This is indeed the case for only one reason, namely, that (as I have said) human nature is born in infants with a debt of making recompense for the sin of Adam and, as I have proposed,24 the sin of their immediate parents. Human nature is in no way capable of making such recompense; and so long as it fails to make this recompense, it is sinning. Left to itself, it does not have the power
22 Romans 5:12.
23 Romans 5:19.
24 proposed, but not affirmed:Anselm will in fact argue in Chapter 24 that the sins of one's immediate parents are not included in original sin.