Note 39 — Chapter XV

A typical illustration of the perplexity and inconsistency which resulted from the conflict of Abélard’s critical moral sense with apparently fixed dogmas is seen in his treatment of original sin in the Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. He finds two meanings for the word sin—guilt and punishment; and he strains his conscience to the point of admitting that we may inherit Adam’s sin in the latter sense. Then comes the question of unbaptized children—whom Bernard calmly consigned to Hades—and he has to produce the extraordinary theory that the Divine Will is the standard of morality, and so cannot act unjustly. But his conscience asserts itself, and he goes on to say that their punishment will only be a negative one—the denial of the sight of God—and will only be inflicted on those children who, in the divine prescience, would have been wicked had they lived!