Chapter 526
Against the Pelagians 391
Caelestius: "I heard various others say it as well." Deacon Paulinus: "State their names!" Caelestius: "Isn't one priest enough for you?" Bishop Aurelius: (a little later): "Let the rest of the charges be read." And it was read out: "That infants who are newborns are in the same state that Adam was in before the transgression." And so on to the end of the list of charges.
(3.4) Bishop Aurelius: "Caelestius, did you ever teach, as Deacon Paulinus claims, that newborn infants are in the same state that Adam was in before the transgression?"
Caelestius: "Let him explain what he means by 'before the transgression.' " Deacon Paulinus: "You deny you taught this? [Turning to the court:] One of two options: Either let him deny that he used to teach this or let him condemn it here and now."
Caelestius: "I just said: Let Paulinus explain what he meant by 'before the transgression.' "
Deacon Paulinus: "Deny you taught this!" Bishop Aurelius: "I ask you what I am to gather from this objection of yours. Here's what I say: Adam, as constituted in paradise, was made imperishable. Afterwards, through the transgression of [God's] command, he was made corruptible. Do you say this, brother Paulinus?"
Deacon Paulinus: "Yes, my lord." Bishop Aurelius: "What is the state of unbaptized infants today? Is it the same as Adam's was before the transgression? Or does it bring along the guilt of the transgression from the same sinful origin from which it is born? That is what Deacon Paulinus wants to hear."
Deacon Paulinus: "Did he teach this? Or does he deny it now?" Caelestius: "I have said that concerning the transmission of sin, I have heard different people within the Catholic Church argue against it, and some others defend it. It is an open question, not a matter of heresy. I have always said that infants need baptism and ought to be baptized. What more does he want?"42
Rufinus the Syrian
In his testimony, Caelestius appealed to a certain "holy presbyter Rufinus" to justify his stance on the sin of Adam. Scholars presume that Caelestius was referring to Rufinus the Syrian, who, it seems, had once been a monk in Jerome's monastery in Bethlehem and who later settled in Rome. Some scholars have suggested that Rufinus, not Pelagius, was the real founder of what became the Pelagian movement.43 During his stay in Rome in the
42. Gr. et. pecc. or. 2.3.3–3.4 (CSEL 42:168–69); my trans. 43. This claim dates back to the 5th-century historian Marius Mercator. On Rufinus's role in the contro-