The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

and inquire whether it came by contagion of the apple, or from the breath
of the serpent? and whether medicines make it worse?"
II. VITIUM. The word vitium is used in the Vulgate five times. It has
the sense, "fault" of a bodily kind, even in animals; "moral fault, vice," as in
Job xx. 11: "Sin of his youth." Vulgate, "vices of his youth." Gal. v. 24:
"The flesh with the affections (margin 'or passions') and lusts." Rheims'
transl. of Vulg., "vices and concupiscences." With the Vulgate agrees in
general the classic usage of the word vitium.
III. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN MORBUS AND VITIUM.
The use of these two words in the Confession is not tautological, but in the
highest degree delicate and discriminating. They are not synonyms, but
are used not only to convey a different idea, but with a certain degree of
antithesis. Cicero, in the Tusculan Questions, Book 4, says, "Morbus is the
corruption of the whole body, such as is fever for example; vitium is when
the parts of the body are at variance among themselves, from which results
pravity of the members, distortion, deformity." So Nonius says, "Vitium is
an abiding impediment of the body, such as blindness, lameness,
unsoundness."
Morbus in German would be "Krankheit." Vitium would be
"Fehler." The one term may be said to be derived from medicine, the other
from surgery.
Morbus, in a theological sense, is moral sickness, disease, or plague;
vitium is moral vice, fault, or defect, maiming, mutilation, or distortion.
IV. THERE IS A CORRESPONDENCE therefore between the two
names vitium and morbus, and the two parts of the definition of original
sin: a. VITIUM corresponds with the negative part of the definition.
Original sin as a defect of original righteousness, the mutilation of the
moral man, the lack of something essential to his moral perfection, is
vitium. b. MORBUS corresponds with the positive part of the definition.
Original sin as the presence of a corrupting element infecting the moral
man, the indwelling of a pervading and positive evil added to his
constitution, is morbus.
In a word, the vitium takes away the good, the morbus