LatineEnglish
QUESTION III. Why God threatened Adam with death only, the other evils being omitted.1
QVAESTIO III. Cur Deus Adae solùm mortem omissis aliis malis comminatus sit.
CVM Adam propter peccatum non in solá corporis mortem incurrerit, sed aliis quàm plurimis incómodis & malis corporalibus fuerit obnoxius: Cur Deus in tradendo hoc praecepto, solam mortis corporalis mentionem fecit, tacitis tot tantísque aliis malis quae violato illo praecepto non Adamo tátùm, sed omnibus eius posteris comparata erant. Equidem tres eius rei causas satis probabiles videor mihi afferre posse. Primò quidem solius mortis corporalis mentio est facta, quoniam mors omnium corporis malorú extremum, summum, maximéque formidandum est malum. Mors enim, auctore Aristotele, in cap. 6. libro 3. Moralium ad Nicomachum maximè omnium rerum est horribilis, quippe cùm terminus sit. Deinde, quia caetera mala propterea veheméter affligunt hominé, quia sunt velut quaedam mortes, ut ita dicá, partiales & in ipsam morté tandem perducunt, quaelibet enim poena corporis, si vel nimis diuturna vel nimis intensa sit, tandé homini mor-[té affert...]
Since Adam, on account of sin, ran not into the death of the body alone, but was liable to very many other discomforts and corporeal evils: Why did God, in delivering this precept, make mention only of corporeal death, with so many and such great other evils passed over in silence — which, that precept being violated, were prepared not for Adam only, but for all his posterity? Indeed I seem able to bring forward three sufficiently probable causes of this. First, mention was made of corporeal death alone, because death is the extreme, the highest, and the most to be dreaded of all the evils of the body. For death, on the authority of Aristotle, in chapter 6 of the third book of the Ethics to Nicomachus, is the most horrible of all things, since it is the terminus. Then, because the other evils vehemently afflict man for this reason — that they are, as it were, certain partial deaths (so to speak), and at last lead into death itself: for any penalty of the body, if it be either too prolonged or too intense, at last brings death to man... [continues]2
[...quaelibet enim poena corporis... tandé homini mor]té affert. Caeterae igitur poenae corporis, sunt velut lineae à circunferentia circuli ductae usque ad centrum, in quod omnes lineae terminantur & desinunt: ipsam verò mortem rectè appellaverim tanquam centrum, utpote quae terminus sit omnium malorum. Postremò, eam voluit Deus poenam tantùm exprimere, quae generatim & ex aequo omnes Adae posteros peccati eius participes comprehenderet: huiusmodi autem sola est mors, quae aequaliter cunctis hominibus accidit, quemadmodum elegans Poëta cecinit, [Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede...]
[...for any penalty of the body... at last brings] death to man. The other penalties of the body, therefore, are as it were lines drawn from the circumference of a circle to the center, in which all the lines terminate and end; but death itself I would rightly call, as it were, the center, inasmuch as it is the terminus of all evils. Lastly, God willed to express only that penalty which would generally and equally comprehend all the posterity of Adam, partakers of his sin; but of this kind death alone is, which befalls all men equally, as the elegant Poet sang: [“Pale death strikes with equal foot...] [continues]3
[...quemadmodum elegans Poëta cecinit,] Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede Pauperum tabernas, regumq́, turres. CAETERA autem corporis mala nec omnibus nec aequaliter contingunt.
[...as the elegant Poet sang:] “Pale death strikes with equal foot the huts of the poor and the towers of kings.” But the other evils of the body befall neither all, nor equally.4
Translator’s notes
- Third question of the disputation (rule above). ↩
- Large decorated initial 'C'. Three reasons for naming death alone — (1) death is the supreme, most-feared evil (Aristotle, EN 3.6); (2) the other evils are 'partial deaths' that lead to it. Marginal gloss: 'Tres causae cur Deus solam mortem comminatus fuerit Adamo.' ↩
- The third reason: only death falls equally on all Adam's posterity (the other ills do not). The circle-and-center image: death is the terminus of all evils. Sentence breaks into the Horace quotation (catchword 'Pallida'), completed on PDF 501. ↩
- The Horace quotation completed (Odes 1.4.13-14): death alone is universal and impartial. Marginal gloss: 'Horat. lib. 1. carm.' Closes QUAESTIO III (rule below). ↩