Verse 12. And Adam said, The woman whom you gave me as companion, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.¹

VERS. 12. Dixitque Adam, Mulier quam dedisti mihi sociam, dedit mihi de ligno, & comedi.

...of sin, there is not only no lightening or diminution of the crime, but on the contrary a more detestable aggravation and exaggeration of it. Hear what Augustine writes, book 14 of the City of God, chapter 14: 'Worse and more damnable,' he says, 'is the pride by which, even in manifest sins, a refuge of excuse is sought — as those first human beings, of whom she said, The serpent seduced me, and I ate, and he said, The woman whom you gave me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate: nowhere here does a petition for pardon sound, nowhere an imploring of the medicine. For although these do not, like Cain, deny what they committed, yet still pride seeks to refer to another what it did wrongly: the pride of the woman onto the serpent, the pride of the man onto the woman. But it is rather an accusation than a true excuse, where there is an open transgression of the divine command. For they did not fail to do this because the woman committed it at the serpent's persuasion, and the man at the woman's imparting — as if anything were to be preferred to God, to whom either it should be believed, or yielded.'³

peccati non modo nulla est elevatio, vel diminutio sceleris, sed contra, detestabilior eius aggravatio & exaggeratio. Audi quae Augustinus scribat lib. 14. de Civitate Dei, cap. 14. Peior est, inquit, damnabiliorque superbia, qua etiam in peccatis manifestis suffugium excusationis inquiritur, sicut illi primi homines, quorum & illa dixit, Serpens seduxit me, & manducavi: & ille dixit, Mulier quam dedisti mihi, haec mihi dedit de ligno, & edi: nusquam hic sonat petitio veniae, nusquam imploratio medicinae. Nam licet isti non sicut Cain, quod commiserunt negent, adhuc tamen superbia quaerit in alium referre, quod perperam fecit: superbia mulieris in serpentem, superbia viri in mulierem. Sed accusatio potius quam excusatio vera est, ubi mandati divini est aperta transgressio. Neque enim hoc propterea non fecerunt, quia id mulier serpente suadente, vir muliere impertiente commisit, quasi quicquam Deo cui vel crederetur, vel cederetur, anteponendum fuit.

But this thought, and this passage of Moses, St. Gregory treated with most grave and eloquent words in book 22 of the Morals, chapter 13: 'These are the true testimonies of humility,' he says, 'both that each recognize his own iniquity, and, having recognized it, open it by the voice of confession. But on the contrary, it is the accustomed vice of the human race both to commit sin by hiding, and to hide the committed sin by denying, and to multiply the convicted sin by defending. For from that lapse of the first man we derive these increases of wickedness, from whom we drew the very root of fault. For thus he, when he had touched the forbidden tree, hid himself from the face of the Lord among the trees of paradise. In which hiding — because he could not hide from God — not the effect of hiding is described, but the affection is noted. Who, when he was reproved by the Lord that he had touched the forbidden tree, at once responded, The woman whom you gave me as companion, she gave me of the tree, and I ate. The woman too, when questioned, responded, saying, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. For to this end had they been questioned, that the sin which they had committed by transgressing, they might blot out by confessing; whence that serpent, the persuader, who was not to be recalled to pardon, was not questioned about the fault. Man was therefore asked where he was, that he might look upon the perpetrated fault, and by confessing recognize how far he was from the face of his Creator; but they chose to apply to themselves, both of them, the solaces of defense rather than of confession. And when the man wished to excuse the sin by the woman, the woman by the serpent, they increased the fault which they tried to protect: Adam obliquely touching the Lord, that he himself was the author of their sin, who made the woman; and Eve referring the fault to the Lord, who had placed the serpent in paradise. For those who had heard from the mouth of the deceiving devil, You shall be as Gods — because they could not be like God in divinity, to the heap of their error they tried to make God like themselves in fault. So therefore, while they strive to defend their guilt, they added [to it], so that their fault, when examined, became more atrocious than it had been when perpetrated.'⁴

Verum hanc sententiam, atque hunc Mosis locum, gravissimis & disertissimis verbis tractavit B. Gregorius in lib. 22. Moralium, cap. 13. Haec sunt, inquit, vera humilitatis testimonia, & iniquitatem suam quemque cognoscere, & cognitam voce confessionis aperire. At contra, usitatum humani generis vitium est, & latendo peccatum committere, & commissum negando abscondere, & convictum defendendo multiplicare. Ex illo quippe lapsu primi hominis haec augmenta nequitiae ducimus, ex quo ipsam radicem traximus culpae. Sic namque ille dum lignum vetitum contigisset, abscondit se a facie Domini inter ligna paradisi. In qua absconsione scilicet, quia Deum latere non poterat, non latendi effectus describitur, sed affectus notatur. Qui cum argueretur a Domino quod de ligno vetito contigisset, illico respondit, Mulier quam dedisti mihi sociam, ipsa mihi dedit de ligno, & comedi. Ipsa quoque mulier inquisita respondit dicens, Serpens decepit me, & comedi. Ad hoc quippe requisiti fuerant, ut peccatum quod transgrediendo commiserant, confitendo delerent: unde & serpens ille persuasor, qui non erat revocandus ad veniam, non est de culpa requisitus. Interrogatus est itaque homo ubi esset, ut perpetratam culpam respiceret & confitendo cognosceret quam longe a conditoris sui facie abesset: sed adhibere sibimet utrique defensionis solatia, quam confessionis elegerunt. Cumque excusare peccatum voluit vir per mulierem, mulier per serpentem, auxerunt culpam, quam tueri conati sunt: oblique Adam Dominum tangens, quod ipse peccati eorum auctor extiterit, qui mulierem fecit: & Eva culpam ad Dominum referens qui serpentem in paradiso posuisset. Qui enim ore diaboli fallentis audierant, Eritis sicut Dii: quia Deo esse similes in divinitate nequiverunt, ad erroris sui cumulum, Deum sibi facere similem in culpa conati sunt. Sic ergo reatum suum dum defendere moliuntur: addiderunt ut culpa eorum atrocior discussa fieret, quam fuerat perpetrata.

'Whence now also the branches of the human race still draw bitterness from this root, so that when anyone is reproved for his vice, he hides himself under the words of defenses as if under certain leaves of trees, and, as if to certain secret works of his own excuse, flees the face of the Creator, while he does not want what he does to be known. In which hiding, namely, he hides not himself from the Lord, but the Lord from himself. For he acts so that he may not see the all-seeing One, but not so that he himself may not be seen. Against which...'⁵

Unde nunc quoque humani generis rami ex hac adhuc radice amaritudinem trahunt, ut cum de vitio suo quisque arguitur, sub defensionum verba quasi sub quaedam se arborum folia abscondat, & velut ad quaedam excusationis suae opera secreta, faciem conditoris fugiat, dum non vult cognosci quod facit. In qua videlicet occultatione non se Domino, sed Dominum abscondit sibi. Agit quippe, ne omnia videntem videat, non autem ne ipse videatur. Quo contra...

'...to each sinner, the beginning of illumination is now the humility of confession: because he refuses to spare himself, who does not blush to confess the evil which he did; and he who by defending could have been accused, by accusing himself most swiftly defends himself. Whence to dead Lazarus, who was pressed by a great mass, it is by no means said, Come to life, but Come forth. By which resurrection, which was wrought in his body, is signified how we are raised up in the heart, when, namely, it is said to the dead man, Come forth — so that the man dead in his sin, and now buried by the mass of evil habit, because he lies hidden within his conscience through wickedness, may go forth from himself through confession. For to the dead man Come forth is said: that he may be provoked to go forth, from the excuse and concealment of sin, to his own accusation by his own mouth. Whence David the prophet, reviving from that great mass of so great a crime, went forth as it were at the voice of the Lord, when, rebuked by Nathan, he accused what he had done. Because, therefore, this fault of concealment vehemently grew in the human race, well did blessed Job, when he said, If I have hidden my sin, add, as a man. For he perceives it to be proper to man, which descends from the imitation of the old parent.' Thus Gregory.⁶

cuique peccatori, iam exordium illuminationis est humilitas confessionis: quia sibimet ipsi iam parcere renuit, qui malum non erubescit fateri, quod fecit: & qui defendendo accusari potuit, accusando se celerrime defendit. Unde & mortuo Lazaro, qui mole magna premebatur nequaquam dicitur, Revivisce, sed Veni foras. Ex qua scilicet resurrectione quae gesta in illius est corpore, signatur qualiter nos resuscitemur in corde, cum videlicet mortuo dicitur, Veni foras, ut nimirum homo in peccato suo mortuus, & per molem malae consuetudinis iam sepultus, quia intra conscientiam suam absconsus iacet per nequitiam, a semetipso foras exeat per confessionem. Mortuo enim veni foras, dicitur: ut ab excusatione atque occultatione peccati, ad accusationem suam ore proprio exire provocetur. Unde David propheta ab illa tanti mole facinoris reviviscens, ad vocem Domini quasi foras exijt, dum per Nathan correptus, quod fecerat, accusavit. Quia igitur haec occultationis culpa in humano genere vehementer excrevit, bene beatus Iob cum diceret, Si abscondi peccatum meum, interposuit Quasi homo. Hominis quippe esse proprium conspicit, quod ex parentis veteris imitatione descendit. Sic Gregorius.

Nor is it to be passed over what St. Bernard said to the same purpose in the first sermon on the feast of All Saints: 'It must be considered,' he says, 'that Adam was as cruel toward his wife afterward, in undergoing the penalty, as he had been indulgent to her in the fault. For by transferring the fault from himself onto his wife, he wished to transfer also the deserved penalty onto her alone. O perversity! You flee to undergo the penalty for her, and did not refuse to admit the fault? You were perniciously merciful, where you ought to have been severe; but you were more perniciously cruel, where you ought to have shown mercy. For never ought one to sin on account of another, which is justice; yet it is fitting willingly to bear the sins of others, which is mercy. There are four degrees of sinning: the first, interior consent; the second, exterior completion; the third, habit; the fourth, the excuse or defense of sin — and to this supreme degree the first humans came. And these four increases of sin Job, mystically deploring, says: Why did I not die in the womb? having come forth from the belly, why did I not at once perish? why was I received upon the knees? why suckled at the breasts? For sin first hides in thought; then goes forth into deed; then is confirmed and strengthened by habit; finally is suckled and nourished by excuse and defense.' Thus Bernard.⁷

Nec praetereundum quod dixit in eandem sententiam B. Bernardus sermone primo in festo omnium Sanctorum, Considerandum, inquit, Adamum, quam fuerat indulgens uxori in culpa, tam fuisse adversus eam postea crudelem in subeunda poena. Nam transferendo culpam a se in uxorem, poenam quoque meritam voluit in eam solam traducere. O perversitas, poenam pro ea suscipere refugis, & culpam admittere non recusasti? Perniciose misericors fuisti, ubi severus esse debebas: sed perniciosius crudelis fuisti, ubi misericordiam impendere debebas. Nunquam enim propter alium peccari debet, quod est iustitia: libenter tamen aliena peccata portare decet, quod est misericordia. Quatuor sunt peccandi gradus, primus, interior consensus: alter, exterior perfectio: tertius, consuetudo: quartus, peccati excusatio vel defensio, & ad hunc supremum gradum primi homines pervenerunt. Atque haec quatuor peccati incrementa Iob mystice deplorans, Quare, inquit, non in vulva mortuus sum? egressus ex utero non statim perij? cur exceptus sum genibus? cur lactatus uberibus? Etenim peccatum primo latet in cogitatione: tum prodit in opus: deinde consuetudine firmatur ac roboratur: denique lactatur & nutritur excusatione ac defensione. Haec Bernardus.