Protestants: fallen man is not weakened but dead toward works of piety
The Protestants, both the theologians of the Augsburg Confession and those specifically called Reformed, teach by common consent that fallen man, before the grace of Christ, lacks all strength in what pertains to works of piety, which of themselves serve and are directed to salvation, and to the inward and spiritual acts of the Christian and theological virtues.
They do not think it enough to say that our free choice in this respect is faint, weakened, broken and diminished; they hold that it is entirely extinguished and lost. So man before grace must be compared not to a sick man or a captive but to a dead man, after the manner of Scripture, which often insists that men of themselves and without grace are dead in sins.
Hence they will not allow it to be said that man before grace has free choice for works of piety and supernatural works; they hold that to that extent he has been stripped of his freedom.
Latin
XVIII. Quod spectat autem Protestantes, tam eos qui Theologi Confessionis Augustanae, quam qui singulariter Reformati dicuntur, communi consensu docent, hominem lapsum, ante Christi gratiam, viribus omnibus destitutum esse in iis quae pertinent ad opera pietatis, quae per se ad salutem prosunt & referuntur, & actus internos ac spirituales virtutum Christianarum & Theologicarum: nec satis esse putant, si dicamus liberum nostrum arbitrium hoc respectu languere, & debilitatum esse, fractum & attenuatum, sed volunt illud prorsus extinctum & amissum esse: adeoque hominem ante gratiam comparari debere, non homini aegro & captivo, sed homini mortuo: juxta scripturae morem, quae saepe inculcat homines ex se & sine gratia in peccatis mortuos esse. Unde non patiuntur dici hominem, ante gratiam liberum arbitrium habere ad opera pietatis & supernaturalia, sed volunt illum eatenus libertate sua spoliatum esse.