346 E VOLUTION A ND DOGMA . 



bodies, according to the gravity of their transgres- 

 sions. Those whose offences were slight were united 

 with the heavenly bodies ; those who transgressed 

 most gravely were condemned to a union with cold 

 and obscure bodies ; whilst those whose sin was of 

 medium gravity were compelled to seek an abode in 

 human bodies. It is this third class of spirits that 

 are known as human souls. This error found favor 

 with the Manicheans and other heretics who taught 

 the transmigration of souls, and is at bottom the 

 same as the doctrine of modern spiritualists who 

 teach the soul's reincarnation. 



Another error regarding the origin of the soul, 

 which has had numerous defenders, is that commonly 

 known as Traducianism. There are, however, two 

 kinds of Traducianism, which must be distinguished 

 one from the other. These are corporeal Traducian- 

 ism and spiritual Traducianism. 



Corporeal Traducianism, St. Augustine tells us, 

 was taught by Tertullian. 1 According to his view, 

 the human soul is but a subtile, material substance, 

 and the soul of the son, like the body, proceeds 

 directly from the father by ordinary generation. 

 Such teaching manifestly reduces the souls of men 

 to the same level as the souls of brutes, and is tanta- 

 mount to a denial of their spirituality and immortal- 

 ity. This error was adopted by the Apollinarists 

 and Luciferians, and is essentially the same as that 



1 Cf. " De Anima," cap. xix, where he asserts "hominis 

 anima, velut surculus quidam ex matrice Adam in propaginem 

 deducta, et genetalibus feminze foveis commendata cum omni sua 

 paratura, pullulabit tarn intellectu quam et sensu.' 1 



