81. Ep. 166.4.10–6.16 (CSEL 44:530–70); trans. Parsons, FOTC 30:15–22. (continued)
Against the Pelagians 417
Infants Lost by Original Sin
That anguishing is one side of Augustine. There is another, tougher side. Around 418, both before and after Pelagius's final condemnation, Augustine and his North African colleagues conducted a wide-ranging letter-writing campaign, spelling out and defending their views to friends and allies across the Empire. Gerald Bonner has argued that in this period one sees Augustine hardening his position.82 The following is an example in which he summarizes the logic of predestination in its most unbending terms. From Letter 190 to Optatus of Milevis:
(3.12) But God willed that so many He created be born whom He foreknew would have no part in His grace so that by their countless multitude they might outnumber those whom He has deigned to predestine to the kingdom of His glory as children of promise. Thus, He even willed to show by this very multitude of rejected [infants] how the mere number, whatever it may be, of the justly damned is of no account with a just God. And those who are redeemed from that damnation may understand that what they see meted out to so large a part is owed to the whole lump of clay. And in this part are included not only those who add many sins to the original sin by the free choice of an evil will, but even many infants, bound only by the fetter of original sin, who are carried off from this life without the grace of the Mediator. Indeed, the whole mass would have received for its debt a just damnation, if the potter, who is not only just but merciful, had not made of it vessels for honor, according to grace (Rom 9:21), not according to their due, when He both comes to the aid of the little ones who have no merits to speak of and predisposes their elders that they may have some merits.83
Persecutor of Newborns?
After 418, the Pelagian controversy entered its third phase. Here Augustine faced off with his most tenacious critic, Julian of Eclanum, who from his exile in the Greek East had the leisure to pen long and venomous treatises against his African adversary. Lancel has referred to the two men's voluminous and no-holds-barred exchanges as "a dialogue of the deaf," while Brown has called these a "slogging-match."84 We cannot begin to survey here the range of issues they slogged over. Some of the back-and-forth arguments are ones we have already seen. In this section, I want to highlight two issues. The first is this debate about unbaptized infants. In the two previous passages, we saw Augustine's sometimes
82. Bonner, "Augustine and Pelagianism," 28–30. 83. Ep. 190.3.12 (CSEL 57:146–47); my trans., based on Parsons, FOTC 30:277–78. 84. Lancel, Saint Augustine, 417; Brown, Augustine of Hippo, 389.