ose things that concern the nature of the species, are
transmitted by parents to their children, unless there be a defect of
nature: thus a man with eyes begets a son having eyes, unless nature
fails. And if nature be strong, even certain accidents of the
individual pertaining to natural disposition, are transmitted to the
children, e.g. fleetness of body, acuteness of intellect, and so
forth; but nowise those that are purely personal, as stated above.

Now just as something may belong to the person as such, and also
something through the gift of grace, so may something belong to the
nature as such, viz. whatever is caused by the principles of nature,
and something too through the gift of grace. In this way original
justice, as stated in the First Part (Q. 100, A. 1), was a gift of
grace, conferred by God on all human nature in our first parent. This
gift the first man lost by his first sin. Wherefore as that original
justice together with the nature was to have been transmitted to his
posterity, so also was its disorder. Other actual sins, however,
whether of the first parent or of others, do not corrupt the nature
as nature, but only as the nature of that person, i.e. in respect of
the proneness to sin: and consequently other sins are not transmitted.

Reply Obj. 1: According to Augustine in his letter to Avitus [*Ep. ad
Auxilium ccl.], children are never inflicted with spiritual punishment
on account of their parents, unless they share in their guilt, either
in their origin, or by imitation, because every soul is God's
immediate property, as stated in Ezech. 18:4. Sometimes, however, by
Divine or human judgment, children receive bodily punishment on their
parents' account, inasmuch as the child, as to its body, is part of
its father.

Reply Obj. 2: A man can more easily transmit that which he has of
himself, provided it be transmissible. But the actual sins of our
nearer ancestors are not transmissible, because they are purely
personal, as stated above.

Reply Obj. 3: The first sin infects nature with a human corruption
pertaining to nature; whereas other sins infect it with a corruption
pertaining only to the person.
________________________

THIRD ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 81, Art. 3]

Whether the Sin of the First Parent Is Transmitted, by the Way of
Origin, to All Men?

Objection 1: It would seem that the sin of the first parent is not
transmitted, by the way of origin, to all men. Because death is a
punishment