inal sin went down to the infemus, but that their pun- ishments were different. In this respect the damnation of unbaptized children became defidc, as it had to be in some way distinguished from that of adults. Carrying out this view, the most distinguished scholastics, such as Peter Lombard (^SenU 2, d. 33), Thomas Bonaventura, and Scotus, assign to them only j^eena damni, in contra- distinction from jjcena sensus. The contrary assertion of Petavius {De Deo, ix, 10, 10) is based on an error. Gregory of Itimini alone makes an exception, and for this reason received the name of tortor infantum (Sar- pi, Storia del Cone, di Trento, ii ; Fleim', Hist. Eccl. i, 142, n. 128).
Now, although the essential nature of the^ja?;« damni consists in the deprivation of the happiness of seeing God, there exists a difference in the manner of applying the idea to children and their inheritance of original sin. Ill the fifth session of the Council of Trent the Dommicans advocated the stricter view, making of the limbus infantum a dark, midergromid prison, while the Franciscans placed it above in a region of light. Oth- ers made the condition of these children still better: they supposed them occupied with studying nature, philosophizing on it, and receivmg occasional visits from angels and samts. As the council thought it best not to decide this point, theologians have since been free to embrace either view. Bellarmine {De amiss, grat. vi, 6) considers their state, like Lombard, as one of sorrow. On the contrary, cardinal Sfondrani {Nodus prcedest. dissol. i, 1, 23, and i, 2, 16) and Peter Godoy (compare Thomas, Qucest. 5 de malo, a. 2) consider them as enjoy- ing all the natural happiness of which they are capable. They do not even know that supernatural happiness consists in the visio clara Dei, and can feel no pain from this, to them unknown, exclusion. Finally, Perrone (v, 275), who takes Concil. Tr. sess. v, c. 4, as including in de fide only the want of the siqxrnaturalis beatitudo, says : " Si spectetnr relative ad supernaturalem beatitu- dinem habet talis status rationem posnaj et damrj lionis; si vero spectetnr idem status in se sive absolute, cum per peccatum de naturalibus nihil amiserint, talis erit ipso- rum conditio, qualis fuisset, si Adam neque peccasset neque elevatus ad supernaturalem statum fuisset, i. e. in conditione puroe nature." This attempt at conciliation agrees so well with the Roman Catholic view of original sin, that on this account it has been admitted {Cone. Tr. sess. V, 2, 3, 5, and sess. vi; Bellarmine, De grat. prim, horn. v). ^Moreover, it is well known that Roman Cath- olic principles are of great elasticitj- in their application, so that there is always some way for the Church of get- ting out of difficulties. Thus, while the Catechism (ii, 2, 28) continues to assert that, aside from baptism, there is " nulla alia salutis comparand^ ratio," we learn from the theologians, from Duns Scotus down to Klee {Dogm. iii, 119), that the mere deslderium haptismi can be con- sidered as valid for the children while yet in tlie moth- ers' womb, and is eqidvalent to the actual performance of the rite of baptism on the child. What becomes of the children who, though baptized, die soon after baptism, and who thus lose the meritum e congruo necessary for justification, cannot here be taken into consideration.
Protestantism has taken but little notice of all these views. It was considered by many that these theories were too unimportant. The old Protestant Church, on the contrary, tried to prove the untenability on Biblical or philosophical grounds of this changeable doctrine, its late origin, and its inner contradictions. Neither did it forget the impossibility of separating the^jajja damni and poena sensus (Calvin, iii, 16, 9 ; Aretius, Loci, 17 ; Rys- senius, Summa, xviii, 3, 4 ; B. Pictet, ii, 265 ; Gerhard, xxvii, 8, 3 ; S. Niemann, De distinct. Pontif. in interna classib. 1689). The old Protestant theologians consid- ered it as an undeniable truth that there exist no other divisions than heaven and hell in the, to us, unknown world ; also that there can be no further distinction be- tween the souls of the departed than that based on be- lief anil mibelief, causing the former to be blessed and
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the latter to be damned. Still there arose questions which it was difficidt for them to settle : the lleformed theologians disposed of them in a comparatively easy manner, for, as they admitted only of a gradual differ- once between the two dispensations, and upheld the identity of tlte action of grace and faith possible to both, they fiiund no dithculty in ascribing blessedness to the saints of the old dispensation. It is well known that Zwingle went even further. Thus they also disposed of the doctrme of predestination, at least in regard to elect children, in which the Jiiks seminalis was presup- posed, and no one could deny, in view of Matt, xix, 14, that children dying in infancy can also be among the elect. Tlie Lutherans solved the two questions in a different manner: in order to justify the qualitative equality of the Jewish and Christian faith, they were obliged to assert the retrospective power of Christ's merits. With regard to children, they found a still greater difficulty on account of their stricter conception of original sin and their doctrine concerning baptism, which bears such close resemblance to that of the Ro- man Catholic Church. The only way in which they could dispose of it was to have recourse to the free pow- er of God, who can give salvation in other than the general way. Thus reasons Gerhard when he says, "Quasi non possit Deus extraordinarie cum infantibus Christianorum parentura per preces ecclesiaj et paren- tum sibi oblatis agere'' (ix, 282). Also Buddeus (v, 1, (j) : '"In infantibus parentum Christianorum, qui ante baptismum moriuntur per gratiam quamdam extraordi- nariam fltlem produci ; ad infidelium autem infantes quod attinet, salutem ajternam lis tribuere non aude- mus."' See Herzog, i^ea^-A'wc^Wo/?. viii, 415; Biblioth. Sacra, 1863, i. See Life, Eternal ; Predestination ; Election; Salvation; Grace; Sin; Infants; Bap- tism (OF Infants).