To Florus 4.98
This detestable theft is plain. It was immediately punished by the retribution that clings to sins: before it could spread to destroy its hearers, it entrapped its own author. No one denies that the first human being incurred a sin. The question is how that sin could be found in newborn people. Define what you think the condition of the first sin was. You say, “There was free will, for sin cannot exist without will.” I approve this. But then you add, “Yet this sin, which cannot exist without will, clings to newborn people without will” (compare Augustine, On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.5.15).
Latin
Apparet certe furtum detestabile, quod quidem confestim ea, quae peccatis adhaeret, ultione punitum est, videlicet ut antequam in pestem procederet audientium, suum circumveniret auctorem. Ecce enim non abnuitur primum hominem aliquod incurrisse peccatum; sed quaeritur quomodo hoc peccatum posset in nascentibus inveniri. Defini tu peccati primi qualem putes conditionem fuisse; dicis: Voluntas fuit libera, non enim potest esse sine voluntate peccatum; nos hoc probamus. Tu vero subdis: Sed hoc peccatum, quod sine voluntate esse non potest, haeret sine voluntate nascentibus [n145] .