Infants And Baptism

In extremum vero epistolae quaesisti quid eis respondendum sit, qui dilectionem tuam de parvulorum animabus requirunt, qui sine gratia baptismatis moriuntur, dicens: Si corpus originali tenetur culpa, unde anima quae a Deo datur rea erit, quae adhuc in actuali delicto corpori non consensit? Sed hac de re dulcissima mihi tua charitas sciat quia de origine animae inter sanctos patres requisitio non parva versata est. Sed utrum ipsa ab Adam descenderit an certe singulis detur, incertum remansit; eamque in hac vita insolubilem fassi sunt esse quaestionem. Gravis enim est quaestio, nec valet ab homine comprehendi. Quia, si de Adam substantia anima cum carne nascitur, cur non etiam cum carne moritur? Si vero cum carne non nascitur, cur in ea carne quae de Adam prolata est obligata peccatis tenetur? Sed cum hoc sit incertum, illud incertum non est, quia nisi sacri baptismatis gratia fuerit renatus homo, omnis anima originalis peccati vinculis est obstricta. Hinc enim scriptum est: Non est mundus in conspectu eius nec unius diei infans super terram. Hinc David ait: In iniquitatibus conceptus sum  peperit me mater mea. Hinc ipsa Veritas dicit: Nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu sancto, non intrabit in regnum coelorum. Hinc Paulus Apostolus ait: Sicut in Adam omnes moriuntur, ita et in Christo omnes vivificabuntur. Cur ergo infans qui nihil egit, in conspectu omnipotentis Dei non valet esse mundus? Cur Psalmista ex legitimo coniugio prolatus, in iniquitate conceptus est? Cur nisi qui mundatus aqua baptismatis fuerit, mundus non est? Cur in Adam omnis homo moritur, si originalis peccati vinculis non tenetur? Sed quia genus humanum in parente primo velut in radice putruit, ariditatem traxit in ramis; et inde omnis homo cum peccato nascitur, unde primus homo permanere noluit sine peccato. De his autem subtilius audaciusque loqui debueram; sed dum me et curarum tumultus premunt, et harum portitor ut laxari debuisset importunus exstitit, unde multa debui, pauca locutus sum. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, Registri Epistolarum, Liber IX, Epistula LII, Ad Secundinum

At the end of your letter, you ask what answer should be returned to those who question your love for the souls of little ones, those who die without baptism, saying, 'If the body is bound by the original fault, why is the soul by God found a guilty thing when it has yet to consent to actual error in the body?' But this matter which your dearest charity would know from me, concerning the origin of the soul, has been turned over often by the holy fathers. But whether it descends from Adam, or it is given to each one, remains uncertain; and in this life they have admitted it is an insoluble enquiry. Weighty indeed is the question and it is not possible for a man to resolve it. Because if from the substance of Adam the soul is born with the flesh, why indeed does it not die with the flesh? If, however, it is not born with the flesh, why in that flesh which is passed down from Adam does the chain of sin hold? But with this uncertain, yet this is not uncertain: that unless with the grace of holy baptism a man is renewed, every soul is bound with the chain of original sin. Whence it is written: 'There is nothing clean in His sight on the earth, not even a day old infant.' 1 And David says, 'I was conceived in iniquity and in fault my mother birthed me.' 2 And the Truth Himself says, 'Unless a man be reborn by water and the Holy Spirit he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' 3 And Paul says: 'As all die in Adam, so in Christ all shall live.' 4 How it is then that infants who have done nothing are not able to be clean in the sight of God? Why does the Psalmist who was brought forth in lawful marriage call himself conceived in iniquity? Why unless he who shall be cleansed by the water of baptism is not clean? Why in Adam do all die, if the chain of original sin does not bind? But because the human race has in its first parent, as it were, a rotten root, so the sickness spreads out into the branches. Concerning all this, one should speak more subtlety and more carefully, but we are pressed down by the cares of many troubles, such things I would rather be relieved of than to stand burdened by, whence for the many things I would say, I have said but a few. Saint Gregory the Great, Registry of Letters, Book 5, from Letter 52, To Secundinus 1 Job 15.15 2 Ps 50.7 3 Jn 3.3 4 1 Cor 15.33