This dissertation explores the relationship between Ambrogio Catarino's doctrine of a pre-fall covenant between God and Adam and reformed theology's somewhat later, similar doctrine (the 'covenant of works'). Catarino first advanced the notion of a pre-fall covenant in 1532 in order to provide a rationale for humankind's participation in the guilt and corruption ensuing from Adam's first sin. He argued that the covenant, rather than some natural or real (biological) relationship to Adam, established humankind's moral solidarity with Adam, and thus humankind's culpability for Adam's transgression and experience of the penalties for the same.