[Appendix] Twenty First Distinction

Single Question. Whether Adam’s Sin was the Gravest Sin

Bonaventure, Sent.2 d.21 q.3 a.3
Scotus, Sent.2 d.21 q.1
Richard of St. Victor, Sent.2 d.21 q.2
Durandus, Sent.2 d.21 q.3
Francis of Meyronnes, Sent.2 d.31 single question

1. About the twenty first distinction the question asked is whether the sin of Adam was the greatest.

2. That it was: that sin is greatest for which the greatest punishment is inflicted; but the sin of Adam was such. Proof: because death of the body and loss of blessedness was inflicted on him and his posterity.

3. Again on Psalm 68 ‘Whom I took not away, I then paid back,’ Augustine says, ‘Because [the devil] desired equality with God, therefore did he lose happiness.’ But the desire for divinity is the greatest sin in the angel, and it is much more so in man, for whom divinity is less proportionate.

4. Against this is what Augustine says Literal Commentary on Genesis last chapter (and it is in the text of Lombard), where Augustine expressly maintains that Adam did not sin by being overcome with carnal concupiscence but by being encompassed with a certain friendly benevolence toward this wife. He says that Eve’s sin was greater.

To the Question

5. I reply by saying first that Adam’s sin per se and per accidens was less than the sin of the angel. I say second that it was per se less than the sin of Eve. I say third that it was per accidens greater.

6. Note about the first that, as was said above, the first sin of the first parent cannot be found in an act of love of concupiscence but in an act of love of friendship. Love of friendship is twofold, namely toward oneself and toward one’s neighbor; now sin cannot be greatest toward one’s neighbor but toward oneself, and that because it is against the first commandment, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God etc.’ And the first sin of the angel is found in such love, namely love of friendship for oneself, and so it was the greatest. But the sin of Adam is not found in love of friendship for himself, as is plain from Augustine above [n.4], but in love of friendship for his neighbor, namely Eve, whom he loved too much, as is plain there from Augustine. So his sin was not directly against the first and greatest commandment, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,’ because it was not a hatred of God; nor was his sin directly against the second commandment, which is about love of neighbor, because it was not a hatred of neighbor but an excessive love of neighbor.     Therefore it was not against the greatest commandment absolutely speaking; nor was it an inordinate love of self, as was said; therefore it was not the greatest sin per se, as the sin of the angel was, nor the greatest per accidens, as by circumstance of person, for Adam did not then have as great an excellence in gifts of nature or grace as the angel did. Therefore etc     .

7. Note too that eating of the tree was in itself indifferent and was only wrong because forbidden; and so it is per se graver to act against those commandments of the Decalogue whose infringement is an infringement of a law of nature.

8. On the second point [n.5], the truth of what Augustine says is plain because Eve sinned in love of friendship for herself and desired equality of knowledge with God; and she violated the divine commandment by eating the apple; and third she suggested to her husband that he should eat, and therefore she sinned more gravely and in more ways. But Adam, according to Augustine’s meaning, sinned only in that he so much loved his wife, because she ate of the forbidden apple. Hence he was not directly moved by contempt for God, nor by desire for knowledge, nor by greed for the apple, but by inordinate love for Eve, whom he did not wish to sadden by not agreeing with her. So per se Adam’s sin was less than Eve’s sin.

9. But it was per accidens greater in that Adam had more notable natural gifts and more perfect gifts of grace; and so he and not Eve received original justice on behalf of everyone, and he lost it for himself and for everyone; and so in its consequences and per accidens his sin was greater.     Therefore etc     .

To the Arguments

10. To the first objection [n.2] I say that directly per se a greater punishment is due to many mortal sins than is due to Adam’s sin. Hence if Adam would have had to be damned for that sin, he would have had a less intense punishment in hell than would be due now for one damned sinner for one mortal sin. Such there sin could be; indeed there are many such. Per accidens however Adam’s sin was more gravely punished, namely by removal of favors; for because he had received justice for everyone, justice was taken away from everyone; hence the infliction of death was only the taking away of a favor, because, as was made plain above, Adam was immortal before. But loss of blessedness is due also to any mortal sin.

11. To the second objection [n.3] the answer is plain from what has been said, because Adam did not directly desire equality with God.