In his doctrine of man Gregory stressed that Adam’s fall affected all his descendants, weakening but not destroying their freedom of will. Thus, once man has been moved by grace, he may cooperate with it and win merit for himself by his good works, which are the joint product of divine grace and human will. In baptism, God grants forgiving grace freely without any merit on man’s part, but for sins committed after baptism man must make atonement by penance, which is simply a form of punishment inflicted by the man himself instead of by God. “For either man himself by penance punishes sin in
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