Augustine in His Own Words
Against the Pelagians 377 brilliance."19 Third, there is the grace of Christ, who redeemed humankind from sin and who both taught and embodied a just way of life, serving as an exemplar of righteousness and a model for our imitation. Finally, there is the grace of baptism, which cleanses us of sin. But, on the far side of baptism, we have no excuses. We have the power; we need to just do it, do good and spurn evil. He suggested an analogy: We have eyes, the power (posse) of sight. That sight is God's gift, God's grace. But what we do with our eyes is our business. We do the willing (velle), whether for good or for evil.20 Given this view of human psychology, it is hard to imagine Pelagius lamenting, as Paul did, "I do not do the good I will, but I do the evil that I do not will" (Rom 7:19); nor could he have written anything like Confessions, portraying the will, as Augustine did, as a labyrinth of contrary forces and unfathomable depths.
The Pelagian controversy, as it unfolded from 411 to 431, was more than a duel between two theologians. It was a drama played out on the world stage. It enlisted a large and international cast of characters. There were rapid changes of scene and of fortune, chance events, unexpected collisions, complex personalities facing off over tenacious ideas. To appreciate the texts that follow, I need to sketch out the complicated course of the controversy. Its prelude begins in 410, with the sack of Rome. Pelagius joined the flood of refugees fleeing Italy and the Goths. His ship docked for a time at Hippo, but Augustine happened to be out of town. The two caught brief glimpses of one another in Carthage, but Augustine was busy dealing with the Donatists and the momentous Conference of 411. Pelagius did not linger and soon sailed off to Palestine.
The controversy erupted a year later, in 411, sparked not by Pelagius, but by his sharp-witted disciple and fellow refugee, Caelestius. When Caelestius applied for ordination in Carthage, he was accused of heterodoxy by Paulinus of Milan, Ambrose's former secretary and later his biographer. At an ecclesiastical tribunal presided over by Aurelius of Carthage, Caelestius was convicted and excommunicated (see excerpts below). He too sailed off and got himself ordained in Ephesus, much to the chagrin of the North Africans. Augustine had not been in town for the trial, but Flavius Marcellinus, the imperial commissioner who had overseen the forced reunion of the Donatists and who had prompted Augustine to begin composing City of God, pressed him to answer Caelestius. One hot-button issue had been Caelestius's denial that infants inherit Adam's sin. Augustine answered with a two-volume treatise, On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins and On Infant Baptism (De peccatorum meritis et
19. Pelagius, ep. ad Demetriadem 8 (PL 30:23). 20. Pelagius, Pro libero arbitrio, Book 3, quoted in Augustine, gr. et pecc. or. 1.4.5 (CSEL 42:127–28).