To Florus 2.190
I say ‘greatest’ not because I deny that the devil was more guilty, but because, when a basis for instruction was being sought, it was more fitting for the apostle to mention a human being, to whom successive generations of humanity especially looked, than a being of airy substance. Within humanity itself, however, it was established that the first woman sinned first (Genesis 3:6; compare 1 Timothy 2:14). But because fathers’ authority is more effective and greater in all things, he called the man the model of sin—not the one with whom the offense began, but the one who, through the power of the male sex, is shown to have been more readily imitated. You see how the coherence of the interpretation testifies that truth is within it (Genesis 3:6) (1 Timothy 2:14).
Latin
Maximam autem dico, non quia diabolum magis reum fuisse diffitear, sed quia, cum institutionis ratio peteretur, accommodatius Apostolus hominis, quem plurimum successio humanitatis aspexit, quam aeriae substantiae fecerit mentionem. Verum in ipsa humanitate primam mulierem deliquisse constabat; sed quia patrum in omnibus efficacior est et maior auctoritas, eum dixit formam fuisse peccati, non a quo coepit delictum, sed qui per potestatem sexus virilis magis fuisse probatur imitabilis. Vides nempe, ut consequentia intellectus veritatem sibi inesse testetur.