Chapter XI.
The prophets teach, by their words, that there is no one who is not conceived in sin. Whether this sin belongs to parents or to offspring, from which only Christ is shown to have been immune.
Thus it follows: For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother bore me (Psalm 50:7). Who acts with such fervor in repentance? He lay prostrate on the ground, poured out in tears, did not taste food, renounced bathing. What more shall I say that he abstained from the adornment and grooming of a king (Confessions of Saint Augustine, Book IV Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, Chapter 11)? He added a confession of his sinfulness and transmitted it to be sung throughout the eternal ages in the whole world. Behold, I am conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother bore me. Turn away your face from my sins: and blot out all my iniquities. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. Before we are born, we are stained by sin; and before we enjoy the light, we receive the injustice of our origin, conceived in iniquity: it does not specify whether of our parents, or ours. And in their sins each mother brings forth her own child: nor did he state clearly whether the mother gives birth in sin, or if sins are already present in the unborn. But see that both interpretations are not to be understood. Nor is the concept of iniquity free, because parents themselves are not free from fault. And if an infant is not without sin even for a day, much less are the days of maternal conception without sin. Therefore, we are conceived in the sin of our parents, and we are born in their sins. But childbirth itself also has its contagions, and nature itself has not only one contagion. Indeed, marriage is good, a holy union; but those who have wives should live as if they did not. The marriage bed is defiled, and no one should defraud the other, unless perhaps for a limited time, to devote themselves to prayer. However, according to the Apostle, one should not engage in prayer at the time when they engage in physical union, and when a woman is menstruating, the cloth is defiled, and during those days of purification she cannot offer her sacrifice. And the woman who gives birth, and many others who are exempted from sacrifice, are forbidden until the woman is purified by the prescribed rite.
The Lord said to him: Before I formed you in the womb of your mother, I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you, and made you a prophet unto the nations (Jer. 1:5). Who is so great, to whom such things are bestowed? Is it Jeremiah, perchance? But he was not set forth as a prophet unto the nations, but unto Judea at that time; whereas now also unto nations which have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. See, however, lest it be said of him who, before he was born of a Virgin, already existed, and always was, and even operated while still in the womb of Mary; and so holy was he, that he sanctified his own prophets: in whom alone both the virginal conception and birth were without any mortal taint of origin. For it was fitting (Conf. S. Aug. lib. IV cont. duas epist. Pelag., cap. 11) that he who was not going to have the sin of the fall in his body would not experience any natural contamination of generation. Therefore, David rightly mourned deeply within himself the very stains of nature, that the blemish would appear in man before life.