What each side means by affirming or denying freedom before grace
When the Protestants deny that man before grace has his freedom with respect to spiritual and supernatural works, they do not mean to deny that man before grace has the freedom essential to the will, opposed to physical necessity and brute determination, even regarding spiritual and supernatural things.
So they allow that man in that state leaves undone freely the supernatural acts the Gospel commands; and that when grace moves him he performs those acts freely and has a real power to act one way or the other, at least in the divided sense. All they mean is that man in that state is not free from bondage to sin or from dependence on God's motion through supernatural help, and that without such help he can do nothing whatever in the matter of salvation.
When the Roman School, for its part, affirms that man before grace is free in spiritual things and things of piety, it does not mean to deny that man before grace is a slave of sin and can do nothing at all without grace in the things that make up true piety toward God. It means only that man is by nature so made, and so endowed with that essential freedom, that with grace helping he moves freely toward good and always has a real power to do it or not do it.
Latin
LVII. Nam dum negant Protestantes hominem ante gratiam libertatem suam habere, quantum spectat ad opera spiritualia & supernaturalia, per id negare non intendunt hominem ante gratiam praeditum esse ea libertate, quae voluntati essentialis est, & quae opponitur necessitati Physicae & brutae determinationi, etiam circa res spirituales & supernaturales: adeoque hominem in eo statu libere omittere actus supernaturales in Evangelio praeceptos; quum vero per gratiam movetur, iisdem actibus libere defungi, & sic aut aliter agendi, saltem in sensu diviso, veram potestatem habeat: sed illud solum sibi volunt hominem in eo statu non esse liberum a servitute peccati, & a dependentia motionis divinae per auxilium supernaturale, & sine tali auxilio, in negotio salutis eum nihil omnino posse. Quum vero Schola Romana affirmat hominem ante gratiam liberum esse in rebus spiritualibus & quae ad pietatem spectant, per id inficiari non vult hominem ante gratiam esse peccati servum, & nihil prorsus eum sine gratia posse, in iis in quibus vera erga Deum pietas consistit. Sed mens ejus solum est, hominem per naturam talem esse, & ea essentiali libertate praeditum, ut gratia auxiliante libere in bonum feratur, & veram semper potestatem habeat illud faciendi, aut non faciendi.