CCLXI. Corollary LVII

COROLLARY LVII.

Deterred by these and other things, several of the Calvinists¹ seemed to pass over to a different and more lenient judgment concerning predestination and reprobation, to defend it, and to represent it with such colors that the souls of men would not be so greatly offended. They established, namely²: 1) that men considered in themselves are not the object of predestination and reprobation, but that each decree is concerned with men fallen in Adam and therefore liable to eternal death and damnation; 2) that from this lost mass some are elected and others reprobated; 3) that both the former are elected and the latter reprobated by the absolute and mere good pleasure of the divine will, no account whatever being taken either of the perseverance of the former or of the final impenitence of the latter; and finally, 4) that the elect are necessarily led to glory by means which cannot be declined—

—but the reprobate are driven to death by the same necessity. And it must be attributed to this doctrine that its defenders have customarily been called infralapsarians. But although it may in some manner seem more tolerable³, it is nevertheless so constituted that it cannot be reconciled with the perennial profession of the Catholic name⁴. And these things certainly cannot be reconciled with it: a) that men fallen in Adam are consigned to eternal punishments without final impenitence foreseen; b) that lost humanity is not first referred to a benign and merciful God; c) that corrupted and depraved men are divided into the twofold class of the elect and reprobate by one will of God; d) that the elect are led to salvation by means which fasten them to one side; but e) that opportune aids of grace are withdrawn from the reprobate to such a degree that no faculty of escaping death and obtaining salvation is bestowed upon them.