On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §194 · Josué de la Place (Placeus)

Chapter 2: Placeus — habit as fountain; propagates; same species, number differs

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Placeus: In general I said hereditary corruption is the habit the first sin left in Adam's soul—namely as in its fountain, from which it flowed to us all by natural propagation. Is that not true? Yes, it has long ceased to be—in Adam. But it has not yet ceased in Adam's posterity. How then can a habit left in Adam's soul be called our sin? In the same way Calvin says Adam's sin is within us; hereditary sin is called old Adam; Adam's nature is called our nature; and what is sown is what is reaped. That habit left in Adam was propagated from him into us. So our sin differs from Adam's in number, but is the same in kind—and more: it draws its origin from his by a kind of natural contagion. If I say human nature is the nature created in Adam, does it follow that Adam's human nature and ours do not differ in number?

Latin

PLAC. Dixi in genere corruptionem haereditariam esse habitum, quem primum peccatum in Adami anima reliquit; nempe ut in suo fonte, unde ad nos omnes propagatione naturali manavit. Nonne hoc verum est? Atqui diu est cum esse desiit, nempe in Adamo. Sed nondum esse desiit in Adami posteris. At quomodo habitus in Adami anima relictus dici potest peccatum nostrum? Eo modo, inquam, quo peccatum Adami dicitur a Calvino intra nos esse, & peccatum haereditarium dicitur vetus Adam, & natura Adami dicitur natura nostra, & quod seminatur esse id quod metitur. Nimirum habitus ille in Adamo relictus ab eo in nos propagatus est. Differt igitur numero peccatum nostrum ab Adami peccato, sed est idem specie, nec id tantum, sed ab eo ducit originem quodam quasi naturali contagio. Si dixero naturam humanam esse illam quae creata est in Adamo, num inde sequetur, naturam humanam Adami, & nostram non differre numero?

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Josué de la Place (Placeus) on the imputation of Adam's first sin: chapters 1 to 12 and 14, and the later disputation up to its chapter on Romans 5:14, from the Latin. The rest is not yet translated.

Josué de la Place (c. 1596–1655), known in Latin as Placeus, was pastor at Nantes and from 1633 professor of theology at the Academy of Saumur, the school of Cameron and Amyraut.

On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin argues the distinctive Saumur thesis: Adam's sin reaches his posterity only mediately, through the inherited corruption — never by immediate reckoning of a sin they did not commit. Fellow Reformed theologians rejected the view, but the book remains its classic statement.

Part only: Chapters 1–12 and 14, and the disputation up to Romans 5:14

Datec. 1645–1655 AD (written after the 1645 Synod of Charenton, and read in draft by Drelincourt by 10 December 1653; printed posthumously at Saumur, 1661; Reformed / Amyraldian circle)

The English is made from the 1661 Saumur Latin of chapters 1 to 12 and 14 and part of the later disputation. No earlier English was copied.

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Translated from Latin (Saumur 1661) (Latin)
Also checked Text extract of Caput Primum (Latin)
Also checked machine-read text of the 1661 volume (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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