16th–17th centuries

Original Sin in the Confessional Age: Trent, Flacius, Baius, the Socinians and the Eastern Confessions

The fifth session of the Council of Trent affirmed the reality and transmission of original sin but condemned the view that in baptism sin is merely "covered or not imputed": the baptized become "innocent, immaculate, pure", and only an "inclination to sin" remains in them. In Lutheranism Flacius asserted that original sin is not an accident but the very substance of fallen humanity and that "our substance is sin"; the Formula of Concord condemned this as a Manichaean error. In Louvain Baius taught that through the fall something of nature itself was lost, and was condemned by Rome (1567, 1579). The Socinians, according to Berkhof, revived Pelagianism, while the Eastern confessions of the 17th century, opposing the Augustinian West, spoke of "ancestral sin" but insisted on free will and rejected double predestination.