The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

ORIGIN OF BAIANISM. 369
belonged to it, and his state would have been in no way
abnormal.
But Baius rejected this idea of natural and supernatural
gifts in the first man as a manifest error, for which philosophy
by its interference in matters of faith was responsible. If,
according to Baius, Adam's sonship of God and his freedom
from the rebellion of concupiscence are a necessary part of
human nature, the absence of such an equipment in the state
of fallen man to-day must be a defect, an alteration of human
nature which, according to the Louvain theologian, had been
absolutely spoiled and evil since the time of the Fall, and the
virtues which are related of the heroes of classical antiquity
are really only vices, having the appearance of virtues. Concupiscence,
such as now exists in man, is according to him
nothing but original sin. At this point the question at once
arises as to how movements in man independent of his will
can be looked upon as personal sin. Baius replies that the
concept of liberty only excludes external violence, but not
interior necessity. Thus Baius, from the starting point of his
fundamental error, proceeds to its further consequences, and
builds up a whole theological system on grace and redemption,
on sin and merit, and on the love of God and justification. In
his teaching on sin in general and original sin in particular,
" he scarcely distinguishes his views on both questions from
the terrifying doctrine of the reformers of the enslavement
of human nature by the devil which was brought about by
sin."^
In 1563 Baius began to make his views public by means of
small works written in clear and precise terms, in which for
the most part he makes use of the words of St. Augustine, but,
taking the sentences of Augustine out of their historical
setting, the Pelagian controversy, he often gives them an
entirely new meaning.
Long before he had begun to write, he and his disciple
Hesse) s had maintained their views at the university, and had
met with so much support there that the Chancellor of the
^ ScHEEBEN ill Kirchenlexikon of Freiburg, I.^ 1861.
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