B. Scotus’ own Response

28. As to the question I say that God could have acted so that Mary had never been in original sin; he could also have acted so that she was in sin only at one instant [Henry of Ghent, infra n.30]; he could also have acted so that she was in sin for some time and was purged in the last instant of that time [the common opinion, nn.14-16].

29. I clarify the first: since grace is equivalent to original justice as concerns divine acceptation, so that - because of it - original sin is not in a soul possessed of grace, God could in the first instant of the soul have poured into it as much grace as he poured into another soul at circumcision or baptism; therefore in its first instant the soul would not have had original sin, just as neither would it have had original sin afterwards when the person was baptized. And if the infection of the flesh was there in the first instant, it was not a necessary cause of infection in the soul, just as neither was it after baptism when - according to many [Lombard et al, see Scotus Ord. 2 dd.30-34 nn.29, 33] - it remains and the infection in the soul does not remain; or the flesh could have been cleansed before the infusion of the soul, so that in that instant the soul was not infected.

30. The second [n.28, Henry of GhentQuodlibet 15 q.13, “Was it possible, according to nature, that the Virgin, in the instant in which she was conceived a human being from seed according to the body and in which the soul was united to the body, could truly have contracted original sin and remained in the sin only for that instant? And it seems to me that this is very well possible... When a fava bean is moved upwards with violent motion and meets something moved more forcefully, to wit a millstone falling naturally downwards, it is, by the sudden contact of the stone, altered in an instant into a space equal thereto by the natural motion of the stone pushing the fava bean downwards, so that it is not possible for the fava bean to rest in a space equal to itself in the way it would have rested if it were left to itself. And this example, as it seems to me, is valid.for our present purpose: for the corporeal human form has being.in the first moment of its generation from the seed., and in the same instant the human body.has infected being.; and in the same instant the rational soul is created in the body...and thereby the soul contracts from the body the stain of original sin.; and in the whole preceding time the soul did not have that stain, because it did not have being; nor did [the stain] have being in the Virgin during the subsequent time, as I reckon becomes the dignity of the Virgin, in the way it is possible according to nature, so that only in passing and in an instant was she in original sin; that is to say, original sin had in that instant first and final being at once, but according to different indications of that instant, because as the instant was the term of past time, original sin had in it first being., but as the instant was the beginning of subsequent time, original sin had in it final being by the subsequent impulse of the motion of grace, as by a superior expelling original sin in that subsequent time. Thus it seems to me that original sin could have been in the Virgin for the sole moment of an instant. But whether it so happened God knows - and I neither know it nor assert it, but it seems reasonable to me and possible that, in accord with the aforesaid, it did happen.” ⁴³] is plain, because a natural agent can begin to act in an instant such that in that instant it will have been at rest under one contrary and in the immediate time it is in a state of becoming under the contrary form; but whenever a natural agent can act, God can act; therefore he can cause grace in the time immediate to some instant. There is also confirmation of this because, when the soul is in sin, it can, by divine power, be in grace; but in the time when the Virgin was conceived she could have been in sin and, for you [Henry], she was; therefore likewise she could have been in grace.

31. Nor was it then necessary that she would have been in grace in the first instant of the time, just as neither was this necessary in the case of alteration and motion [n.30 footnote].

32. Further, if God had created grace in the first instant, the third member [n.30] could be there posited, and God could have conserved this grace in the immediate time.

33. The third [n.28] is manifest.

34. But as to which one happened among these three that have been shown to be possible, God knows; but if it not be repugnant to the authority of the Church or to the authority of Scripture, then to attribute to Mary the more excellent seems probable.