X.
The Reality of Original Sin
The confession affirms the hereditary nature of sin passed from Adam to all humanity, rejecting false teachings and acknowledging our collective loss in the Fall.
X. We believe that the whole lineage of Adam is infected with such a contagion, which is original sin, and a hereditary vice, and not merely an imitation, as the Pelagians have claimed, whom we detest in their errors.✦1 And we do not consider it necessary to inquire how sin comes from one man to another, since it is enough that what God had given him was not for him alone, but for his whole lineage; and thus that in his person we have been stripped of all good things, and have stumbled into all poverty and curse.✦✦✦2
Read the original French
X. Nous croyons que toute la lignée d’Adam est infectée de telle contagion, qui est le péché originel, et un vice héréditaire, et non pas seulement une imitation, comme les Pélagiens ont voulu dire, lesquels nous détestons en leurs erreurs. Et n’estimons pas qu’il soit besoin de s’enquérir comme le péché vient d’un homme à l’autre, vu que c’est assez, que ce que Dieu lui avait donné n’était pas pour lui seul, mais pour toute sa lignée; et ainsi, qu’en la personne d’icelui nous avons été dénués de tous biens, et sommes trébuchés en toute pauvreté et malédiction.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.5.12 — Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death, and so death spread to all people, because all sinned—
- ↩Rom.5.12 — Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death, and so death spread to all people, because all sinned—
- ↩1Cor.15.22 — For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
- ↩Gen.3.17 — And to Adam he said, "Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
Notes
- 1 ↩"Imitation" names the Pelagian claim that Adam's sin is passed on only by example and copying, not by inherited corruption. "Vice" here is that inherited corruption of nature, not merely a bad habit.
- 2 ↩"Good things" and "poverty" keep the source's paired metaphor: the gifts entrusted to Adam, then the destitution of the fall. "In his person" renders en la personne d'icelui (Adam as head of the lineage).
French Confession of Faith (Confession de La Rochelle / Gallican Confession) companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit