{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050648.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050648.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050648.htm","text":"Chapter 41 [XXVI.]\u2014The Pelagians Argue that Original Sin Cannot Come Through Marriage If Marriage is Good.\nAfter this he proceeds with the following words: \u201cCertainly if evil is contracted from marriage, it may be blamed, nay, cannot be excused; and you place under the devil\u2019s power its work and fruit, because everything which is the cause of evil is itself without good. The human being, however, who is born of wedlock owes his origin not to the reproaches of wedlock, but to its seminal elements: the cause of these, however, lies in the condition of bodies; and whosoever makes a bad use of these bodies, deals a blow at the good desert thereof, not at their nature. It is therefore clear,\u201d argues he, \u201cthat the good is not the cause of the evil. If, therefore,\u201d he continues, \u201coriginal evil is derived even from marriage, the cause of the evil is the compact of marriage; and that must needs be evil by which and from which the evil fruit has made its appearance; even as the Lord says in the Gospel: \u2018A tree is known by its fruits.\u2019 2282 How then,\u201d he asks, \u201cdo you think yourself worthy of attention, when you say that marriage is good, and yet declare that nothing but evil proceeds from it? It is evident, then, that marriages are guilty, since original sin is deduced from them; and they are indefensible, too, unless their fruit be proved innocent. But they are defended, and pronounced good; therefore their fruit is proved to be innocent.\u201d","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: On Marriage and C...","type":"page"}