Augustine in His Own Words
which he was able to deceive—still those pestiferous teachings of his were condemned; even he himself anathematized them.74
Attack on Jerome's Monastery
After Pelagius's trial, some of his supporters reportedly attacked monks at Jerome's monastery in Bethlehem. This violence was one factor in a turning of the tide against Pelagius and his allies. We have several reports of the incident. Here is Augustine's, which he added as an appendix to his account of Pelagius's trial in Diospolis (or Lydda; today: Lod, Israel). From The Deeds of Pelagius:
(35.66) After this judgment [in favor of Pelagius], certain crimes are said to have been committed with incredible audacity by some band of rabble, who were held to have strongly supported Pelagius in his perversity. It is said that the servants and handmaidens of God, residing under the direction of the holy priest Jerome, were set upon in a most wicked onslaught, that a deacon was killed, that the buildings of the monastery were burned, and that only a well-fortified tower managed to protect Jerome himself, by the mercy of God, from the attack and assault of these impious people. About these matters, my view is that it is best for us to remain silent, and wait and see what our brother bishops there think should be done about such evils. For who would think they could ignore them? After all, the impious teachings of such persons [as Pelagius] ought to be refuted by all Catholics, even those who live far away from these lands, so that they cannot do damage wherever they have been able to spread. But impious actions, whose suppression belongs to episcopal discipline in the place where they are committed, should ordinarily be punished there, with pastoral diligence and pious severity, by those in authority in that place or nearby. Therefore, we, who live so far away, can only hope that such an end be put to these matters, that there be no necessity for further adjudication about it anywhere else, but rather an end which it is fitting for us to proclaim, so that the souls of all who have been seriously wounded by the report, winging about everywhere, of those crimes, may be healed by the mercy of God, following afterward.75
74. Ep. 4*.2–3 (BA 46B:108–10); trans. Eno, FOTC 81:41–42. On this, J.-P. Bouhot, "Une lettre d'Augustin d'Hippone à Cyrille d'Alexandrie (Epist. 4*)," in Lepelley, Les lettres de saint Augustin découvertes par Johannes Divjak, 147–54; Bonner, "Some Remarks on Letters 4* and 6*," in Lepelley, 155–64; and especially Dunn, "Augustine, Cyril of Alexandria, and the Pelagian Controversy," 63–88.
75. De gestis Pelagii 35.66 (BA 21:576–78); trans. Mourant and Collinge, FOTC 86:176–77.
Against the Pelagians 411
Making the Case to Rome (416)
After Pelagius's vindication, the North African bishops formed a united front. In 416, two regional councils were held, one in Carthage and one in Milevis, and both sent letters to Pope Innocent I, asking him to second their condemnations of Pelagius and Caelestius. To these letters, other documents were added, notably, copies of Pelagius's On Nature and Augustine's On Nature and Grace. These conciliar letters help highlight that the Pelagian controversy was much more than Augustine's personal battle with Pelagius. Augustine saw himself and was seen by his colleagues as the spokesman for North African theology. The following letter offers a compact summary of the theological issues as the North Africans saw them. Among the long list of signatories were Augustine, Alypius, and Possidius. From the Council of Milevis, preserved in Augustine's corpus as Letter 176:
(2) A new and very dangerous heresy is trying to break out through the efforts of the enemies of the grace of Christ, who seek by their wicked arguments to deprive us even of the Lord's Prayer. For though the Lord taught us to say, "Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors" (Mt 6:12), they say that it is possible for a human being in this life, simply by knowing God's commandments, to attain to such perfection of holiness solely by the force of free will, and without the help of the Savior's grace, that it is not even necessary to say: "Forgive us our debts." In that case, the words that follow, "Lead us not into temptation" (Mt 6:13), are not to be taken in the sense that we ought to ask for divine help lest we be tempted to fall into sin, but that this is in our own power and the human will alone suffices to fulfill it—as if it were in vain that the Apostle said: "It depends not upon the one willing or the one running, but upon God who shows mercy" (Rom 9:16); and, "God is faithful and will not let you be tested beyond what you can do, but will, with the temptation, provide you a way out so that you may be able to endure it" (1 Cor 10:13). If all this lay within human power, in vain would the Lord have said to the Apostle Peter, "I have prayed for you that your faith not fail" (Lk 22:32), and, "Keep vigil and pray that you not enter into temptation" (Mt 26:41). They also claim with wicked presumption that the little ones will possess eternal life even without the sacraments of Christian grace, thus emptying [the meaning out of] what the Apostle says: "By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so it was passed on to all human beings, in whom all have sinned" (Rom 5:12), and in another passage: "Just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive" (1 Cor 15:22). . . .
(4) The authors of this destructive error are said to be Pelagius and Caelestius, and we would rather see them cured of it in the Church than cut off from the Church and without hope of salvation (unless necessity requires it). It is reported that one of them, Caelestius, even entered the presbyterate in Asia, but your Holiness has probably been better informed by the church of Carthage on the action taken in his re-