INPOSSIBILE EST NON PECCARE. KATEGORIE HŘÍCHŮ U AMBROSIASTERA
INPOSSIBILE EST NON PECCARE. CATEGORIES OF SINS IN AMBROSIASTER

Summary/Abstract: In his Commentaries, Ambrosiaster repeatedly states that it is impossible for a man to avoid sins. This article examines the five quaestiones of Ambrosiaster where this statement is specified as a result of the author’s differentiation of sins. Quaestio 102 Against the Novatians reveals a comprehension for the “fragility of the human race” and defends the possibility of penance and remission of sins after baptism. In the three quaestiones on Psalms 1, 23 and 50 (q. 110–112), the author separates impietas as a more serious but avoidable sin, from a more general category of peccatum which is unavoidable, and defines the corresponding punishments. When examining the identity of the mysterious Melchizedek (q. 109), Ambrosiaster contrasts the human long-life effort and divine unchangeable eternity. In this context, the possibility to avoid all sins (for human nature, able to choose between sinning and not sinning) is seen as a higher degree of perfection than the divine impossibility to sin (because of his immutability) and is rejected for this reason. All this is an important completion to the theme opened up in the Commentaries.

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