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Letters concerning the Establishment of the Holy Synod (1723)
Eastern Patriarchs, tr. King, 1865
6. Article 6
We believe that the first man created by God fell in Paradise, when, disregarding the divine commandment, he obeyed the deceitful counsel of the serpent, and thence flowed in succession original sin, so that no one is born according to the flesh who does not bear this burden, and does not feel its fruits (effects) in this life. But the fruits (of the fall) and burdens which we call sin, such as impiety, blasphemy, murder, hatred, and whatever else takes place by a wicked choice, are against the divine will, and not of nature; for many of the forefathers and prophets, and countless others, who lived in the shadow, (under the old dispensation,) and in the truth (under the new dispensation) for example, the divine forerunner, (John,) and especially the mother of the Word of God, and ever-virgin Mary, were not tempted of such crimes, and those like them; but with us evil is present, and as a punishment to man for his transgression, divine justice has inflicted pains, afflictions, bodily infirmities, the pangs of child-birth, living painfully during our earthly pilgrimage, and finally death of the body.