Augustine in His Own Words
Against the Pelagians 397 selves. Thus the individuals might be brought to their senses by a fear of ecclesiastical judgment rather than punished by a judgment itself. Hence, we did not cease to argue against these evil doctrines either through books or by instructions to the people.52
Pelagius Denounces Confessions
In Rome, probably around 405, a bishop who was a friend of Augustine happened to be speaking with Pelagius and quoted from Augustine's Confessions, Book 10. Pelagius was, to put it mildly, irritated. Here is Augustine's account. From On the Gift of Perseverance:
(20.53) And which of my works has been able to be more widely known and more popular than the books of my Confessions? Although I published this work before the Pelagian heresy arose, certainly I said in it to God, and said it often: "Give what you command, and command what you will."53 When these words of mine were quoted one day at Rome in Pelagius's presence by a fellow bishop and brother of mine,54 Pelagius was not able to bear them and, attacking them with considerable emotion, came close to fighting with the one who had quoted them. Yet what does God command first and foremost but that we believe in him? And this, therefore, he gives, if it is well said to him, "Give what you command." And also in this same work, when I recounted my conversion, how God converted me to this faith that I was laying waste to with a most miserable and raging loquacity, do you not remember how I told the story in such a way as to show that it was granted to the faithful and daily tears of my mother that I should not perish? Certainly I was taught there that God, by his grace, converts people's wills, not only those turned away from right faith but also those turned against right faith. And I begged God for growth in perseverance, you know, and you can review [my words] when you wish. But as for all the gifts of God which in that work I either requested or praised, who would dare to deny or even to doubt that God foreknew that He would give them and could never have failed to know to whom He would give them? This is the evident and certain predestination of the saints, which necessity
52. De gestis Pelagii 22.46 (BA 21:532–34); trans. Mourant and Collinge, FOTC 86:157–58. 53. "Give what you command, and command what you will" (da quod iubes et iube quod uis): This phrase appears at key junctures as a sort of refrain: conf. 10.29.40 (twice), 10.31.45 and 10.37.60 (CCL 27:176, 179, 188). On this, see Cornelius Mayer, "Da quod iubes et iube quod uis," Aug-Lex 2: 211–13; for a complete listing of the phrase in Augustine's works, see Hombert, "Appendice," Gloria Gratiae, 593–94.
54. "Fellow bishop and brother of mine": Augustine does not identify him. O'Donnell, 3:201, suggests two possibilities: Evodius of Uzalis, who was in Italy in 404–5; and Possidius of Calama, who was in Italy in 408. Brown, Augustine of Hippo, 343, suggests Paulinus of Nola.