That these punishments are transferred from the guilty to the innocent, the scriptures say — partly by the words of Exod. 20:5 [and] ch. 34:7, partly by examples, of which hitherto. But the same [scriptures] deny [it]: Deut. 24:16, Ezek. 18:4 and 20, Jer. 31:30, as I cited above (q. 31). In each of these opinions, says St. Gregory (bk. 15 Morals, ch. 31), “while a dissimilar sense is found, the mind of the hearer is instructed, so that it may subtly seek out the way of discretion.” Various, therefore, are the responses of various [authors]. First: [that] (from the cited place of the same St. Gregory, and from it Rabanus, bk. 4 on Exod., ch. 20) the punishments of original sin are extended to sons before baptism, [but] not [those] of any actual [sin] after baptism. Secondly: [that] in the Old Testament this transference of punishments had place, [but] not in the New. St. Augustine (bk. 6 Against Julian, ch. 12). Thirdly: [that] the punishments of parents pertain to sons, if indeed they imitate their [parents’] wickedness and crimes: otherwise not. The Chaldee Paraphrase on Exod. 20; St. Gregory and Rabanus (in the places cited); St. Augustine (bk. Against Adimantus, ch. 7); St. Chrysostom (homily 29 on Genesis); St. Jerome (on Ezek. 18); Anastasius of Nicaea (q. 32); St. Anselm (On the Conception of the Virgin, ch. 25). Fourthly: [that] while the parents live, their evils are extended to the sons, [but] not [when the parents are] dead. Because in the former way a greater grief afflicts them; in the latter, none. So some in Abulensis (q. 71). Fifthly: [that] the same miseries are extended to little sons, and [those] not yet emancipated, [but] not to adults, and [those] emancipated, [who are] altogether pure of the crime. Because those [little ones] are something of the parents’: these [adults] not. So some in the same [author] (q. 7). Sixthly: [that] by the divine judgment punishments are carried over from one to another, [but] not by the human. St. Augustine (here, q. 8; and bk. 6 Against Julian, ch. 9 and following); Eusebius (Preparation for the Gospel, bk. 12, ch. 25). Seventhly: [that] corporal and temporal punishments are drawn over to the innocent, [but] never spiritual and perennial [ones]. St. Thomas (2a2ae, q. 108, a. 4, ad 1); and, as it seems to me, Origen (bk. 7 Against Celsus), where thus: “Their own punishment awaits the impious, who, having despised the remedies which were offered, persist in a malice (so to speak) incurable. Yet we, by the doctrine concerning future punishment, draw back many from sinning. But let us consider what, in Celsus, a priest — whether of Apollo or of Jupiter — may answer on this. ‘Slow,’ he says, ‘grind the mills of the gods, and [they grind] upon the children of children, and [those] who shall be born from them.’ See how much rather [is] that [saying] of ours: ‘The fathers shall not die for the sons, nor the sons die for the fathers. Each shall die by his own sin.’ Likewise that [saying]: ‘He who shall have eaten a sour grape, his own teeth shall be set on edge.’ Likewise that: ‘The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father shall not bear the iniquity of the son: and the justice of the just shall be upon him, as the iniquity of the unjust shall be upon him.’ But if anyone should say that that [saying], ‘upon the children of children, and [those] who shall be born from them,’ is similar to this ours: ‘Who repays the sins of the fathers upon the sons, unto the second and third generation, [of those] who hate him’ — let him learn that, in Ezekiel, this is said [to be] a parable, reprehending those who say, ‘The fathers ate a sour grape, and the teeth of the sons were set on edge’: which saying that [other] soon follows: ‘[As] I live, says the Lord, [it shall not be so], but each shall die by his own sin.’” Eighthly: [that] not even corporal and temporal punishments are ever drawn over to those who are guilty of no fault at all: but only to those in whom some fault has resided. To me, that reconciliation of the scriptures seems to be conveniently and truly made through the 3rd, 7th, and 8th responses. But where this or that is more fitting is to be said [determined] in Exodus, and in the Prophets. The seventh response indeed pertains here, and likewise, as it were a certain makeweight [ἐπίμετρον, epimetron], the responses 4, 5, and 6 — as [is] clear from the above disputations.
(col. 905)