Via Patrum

On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §186

Man. Post. Cap. II §XIX: Placeus — no prior convention; theses and Synod letters

Placeus: He says I played variously with the name of imputation. I was nowhere near that. I treated the matter as seriously as I could, as one who cares for truth and peace. I also shrank from every evasion. My first aim was to clear the state of the question of every obstacle and make it plain and liquid, so that there would be no room left for tergiversation, dissimulation, or side-stepping. That he charges me with breaking agreements I can scarcely believe. How had we 'agreed' at the opening of the Dispute, or settled between us the sense of the word imputation, when we had never disputed that point with each other? I was never allowed even to see the learned man or speak with him face to face, and I could by no means get him to confer with me on this question. When he says 'Now everything is shifted,' you may think, Reader, that he means this later manuscript of mine, or at least the time when it was written. Not so. The words of mine he quotes are not taken from this Manuscript, but partly from my Theses on the state of fallen man before grace—published five years before this controversy began—and partly from the later of the only two letters I wrote him, two or three months after the last National Synod. In the first letter I disputed nothing; I only asked him modestly how the Synod's Decree on imputation was to be understood—of the Mediate, or of the Immediate? In the second I briefly showed that the reasons I had given in the theses do not attack mediate imputation, and that great theologians have not been lacking who deny the immediate while confessing the mediate. He had written back that both points must be shown; when I had done so, he for some time refused to answer; at last, in a second letter, he protested that he would not answer me on the matter, nor dispute it with me or with anyone else, except in the next National Synod. And so we ended writing letters to each other.

Latin

PLAC. Quod ait me, in nomine imputationis varie lusisse, ab eo longissime abfui, & quam maxime potui serio egi, ut veritatis & pacis decebat studiosum. Abhorrui etiam ab omni tergiversatione, & nihil mihi prius fuit quam ut statum quaestionis purgarem ab omni impedimento, & clarum facerem & liquidum, ne ullus vel tergiversationi, vel dissimulationi, vel declinationi locus esse posset. Quod autem me accusat, quasi conventis non steterim, satis mirari nequeo. Quomodo enim consenseramus Disputationis initio, aut convenerat inter nos de vocis imputationis significatu, qui nunquam ea de re inter nos disputaveramus? Virum enim Doctum mihi nunquam datum est, videre, aut coram alloqui. Ut autem de hac quaestione mecum conferre vellet, impetrare nulla ratione potui. Cum autem dicit, Nunc in alia omnia itur, putas fortasse, Lector, eum hoc meum manufcriptum posterius aut saltem tempus quo scriptum est, designare. At non ita est. Quae enim subjungit verba mea non petuntur ex hoc meo Manufcripto, sed partim ex Thesibus meis de statu hominis lapsi ante gratiam, quinquennio, antequam inciperet ista controversia, publicatis, partim ex duarum epistolarum quas solas ad eum scripsi, posteriore, duobus aut tribus a Synodo postrema Nationali mensibus: In priore autem nihil disputabam, tantum ex ipso quaerebam modeste, qua de imputatione Decretum Synodi esset intelligendum, de Mediata, an de Immediata? In posteriore vero breviter ostendebam, nec rationes a me in thesibus allatas mediatam oppugnare imputationem, nec defuisse magnos Theologos qui immediatam negarent confessa mediata. Illud enim utrumque rescripserat ostendendum esse, quod ubi a me factum est, aliquamdiu respondere mihi renuit; tandem vero datis ad me secundis literis protestatus est se mihi ea de re non responsurum, neque mecum aut cum alio ullo eo de negotio disputaturum, nisi in proxima Synodo Nationali. Atque ita finem scribendarum invicem literarum fecimus.

About this text

New English, free to read. Open any section below.

English follows the locked 1661 Saumur Latin of Capita I–XIV partial through Man. Post. No modern English was copied. Cap. IX deepen+ remain.

Catalogue & scope

IA deimputationepri00lapl. Densify: Capita I–XII + Caput XIV + Man. Post. Cap. II–VI through Cap. X Rom. 5:14 tip. Not whole Disputatio; Cap. X Rom. 5:14+ / ~494 pp Disputatio remain.

Witnesses

This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.