Part 14
(41.) But I beg of you to see, what after all is the small amount of Ins objection, that to him who " willeth and runneth" there is no necessity for God's mercy, which actually prevents him, in order that he may run,—because, forsooth, the apostle says concerning a certain person, " Let him do what he will,"
2 in the matter, I suppose, which he goes on to treat, when he says, " He sinneth not, let him
3 as if indeed it should be regarded as a great matter marry;"" to be willing to marry, when the subject is a laboured discussion concerning the assistance of God's srace. Well, then,
[I suppose] even in this case to have a will is of considerable advantage, even if God's providence, which governs all things, does not join together the man and the woman ! So again,
[I suppose it is] in the case of the apostle's writing to
Philemon, that " his kindness should not be as it were of necessity, but voluntary,"—as if any good act could indeed be voluntary otherwise than by God's " working in us both to will and to do of His own good pleasure."
4 So again, when the Scripture says in Deuteronomy, " Life and death hath He li to set before man, and good and evil," and admonishes him choose life ; " as if, forsooth, this very admonition did not come from God's mercy, or as if there were any advantage in choosing life, unless God inspired love to make such a choice, and it were better to have it as the object of our choice. On this point it is said : " For anger is in His indignation, and in His pleasure is life." 5
Or again, because it is said, " The commandments, if thou
G—as if a man ought not to thank God,
wilt, shall save thee,"
1 Luke xi. 9. 2 i Cor. vii. 36. 3 1 Cor. vii. 36.
Pliil. ii. 13. « Ps. xxx. 5. c Ecclus. xv. 15.
352 ON man's perfection in righteousness, [chap. XIX.
because he has a will to keep the commandments, since, if he wholly lacked the light of truth, it would not be possible for him to possess such a will. " Fire and water being set before him, a man stretches forth his hand towards which he; 1 and yet higher is He who calls man to his higher pleases vocation than any thought on man's own part, inasmuch as the beginning of correction of the heart lies in faith, even as it is written, " Thou shalt come, and pass on from the
2 Every one makes his choice of good,
beginning of faith."
" according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of; 3 and as the Prince of faith says, " No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw faith
4 And that He spake this in reference to the faith which him."
believes in Him, He subsequently explains with sufficient clearness, when He says : " The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life ; yet there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. And He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."
(12.) God's promises conditional. Saints oftJie Old Testament were saved by the grace of Christ.
He, however, thought he had discovered a great support for his cause in the prophet Isaiah ; because by him God said
" If ye be willing, and hearken unto me, ye shall eat the good of the land ; but if ye be not willing, and hearken not to me, the sword shall devour you : for the mouth of the Lord hath
6 As if the entire law were not full of conspoken this."
ditions of this sort ; or as if its commandments had been given to proud men for any other reason than that " the law was added because of transgression, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made."
7 " It entered, therefore, that the offence might abound ; but where sin abounded,
8 In other words, That man
grace did much more abound."
might receive commandments, trusting as he did in his own resources, and that, failing in these and becoming a transgressor, he might ask for a deliverer and a saviour ; and that
1 Ecclus. xv. 16. 2 Cant. iv. 8 (Sept.). 3 Rom. xii. 3. 4 John vi. 44.
6 Jolrnvi. 62-65. 6 Isa. i. 19,. 20. 7 Gal. iii. 19. 8 Rom. v. 20.
CHAP. XX.] GOD AND MAN IN CO-OPERATION. 353 the law by its fear might humble him, and bring him, as a schoolmaster, to faith and grace. Thus " their weaknesses being multiplied, they hastened " [after the Saviour] ;* and in order to heal them, Christ in due season came. In His grace even righteous men of old believed, and by the same grace were they holpen ; so that with joy did they receive a foreknowledge of Him, and some of them even foretold His coming,—whether they were found among the people of Israel themselves, as Moses, and Joshua the son of Xun, and Samuel, and David, and such-like worthies ; or outside that people, as Job ; or previous to their formation, as Abraham, and Xoah, and all others either mentioned in Holy Scripture or tacitly assumed therein. "For there is but one God, and one only Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus," without whose grace nobody is delivered from condemnation, whether he has derived that condemnation from him in whom all men sinned, or has afterwards aggravated it by his own iniquities.
Chap. xx.— (43.) No man is assisted unless he does himself also work. Our course is a constant progress. But what is the import of the last statement which he has made : " If any one say, ' It may possibly be that a man sin not even in word/ then the answer," says he, " which must be given is, ' Quite possible, if God so will ; and God does so will, therefore it is possible.' " See how unwilling he was to say, " If God give His help, then it would be possible ; " and yet the Psalmist thus addresses God : " Be Thou my helper, for-; 3 where of course help is not sought for prosake me not curing bodily advantages and avoiding bodily evils, but for practising and fulfilling righteousness. Hence it is that we say : " Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" 4 Kow no man is assisted [by God,] unless he also himself does something ; assisted, however, he is, if he prays, if he believes,
5 for " whom He if he is " called according to God's purpose did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren, Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them
1 Ps. xvi. 4 (Sept.). 2 1 Tim. ii. 5. 3 Ps. xxvii. 9.
* Matt. vi. 13. 6 Rom. viii. 28.
354 ON MAN'S PERFECTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. [CHAP. XXI.
He also called ; and whom He called, them He also justified x We run, and whom He justified, them He also glorified."
therefore, whenever we make advance ; and our healthy condition keeps pace with us in this onward course (just as a
2 when the wound is in process of a sound and careful treatment), in order that we may be in every sore is said to run respect perfect, without any infirmity of sin whatever,— result which God not only wishes, but even causes and helps us to accomplish. And this God's grace does, in co-operation with ourselves, through Jesus Christ our Lord, as well by commandments, sacraments, and examples, as by His Holy
Spirit also ; through whom there is latently shed abroad in
3 that love, "which maketh intercession for us with our hearts groanings which cannot be uttered," 4 until health and salvation be perfected in us, and God be manifested to us as He will be seen in His eternal truth.
Chap. xxi.—(44.) Conclusion of the work. In the regenerate it is not concupiscence, but consent, which is sin.
Whosoever, then, supposes that any man or any men
(except the one Mediator between God and man
5 ) have ever lived, or are yet living in this present state, who have not wanted, and do not want, forgiveness of sins, he opposes Holy Scripture, wherein it is said by the apostle : " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so
6 And death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
he must needs go on to assert, with an impious contention, that there may possibly be men who are freed and saved from sin without the liberation and salvation of the one Mediator
Christ. Whereas He it is who has said: "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick
7 "I am; " not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 8
He, moreover, who says that any man, after he has received remission of sins, has ever lived in this body, or still is living, so righteously as to have no sin at all, he contradicts the
Apostle John, who declares that " If we. say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
9 Observe,
1 Rom. viii. 29, 30. 2 Ps. lxxvii. 2. 3 Rom. v. 5.
4 Rom. viii. 26. 5 1 Tim. ii. 5. 6 Rom. v. 12.
? Matt. ix. 12. 8 Matt. ix. 13. » 1 John i. 8.
CHAP. XXI.] CONSENT, NOT CONCUPISCENCE, IS SIN. 355 the expression is not we had, but "we have" If, however, anybody contend that the apostle's statement concerns the sin which dwells in our mortal flesh after the original flaw of our nature, which was caused by the wilfulness of the first man when he sinned, then the Apostle Paul enjoins us " not " to l [implying] that he does not sin who altogether withholds his consent from this same indwellu obey it in the lusts thereof;' ing sin, and so brings it to no evil work,—either in deed, or word, or thought,—although the lusting after it may be excited (which in another sense has received the name of sin, inasmuch as consenting to it would amount to sinning), but excited against our will This, no doubt, is drawing subtle distinctions ; but the man who indulges in them should consider what relation all this bears to the Lord's Prayer, wherein we say, " Forgive us our debts."
2 Now, if I judge aright, it would be unnecessary to put up such a prayer as this, if we never in the least degree consented to the lusts of the before-mentioned sin, either in a slip of the tongue, or in a wanton thought ; all that it would be needful to say would be, " Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"
Nor could the Apostle James say : " In many things we all
4 For in truth only that man offends whom an evil offend."
concupiscence persuades, either by deception or by force, to do or say or think something which he ought to avoid, by directing his appetites or his aversions contrary to the rule of righteousness. Finally, if it be asserted that there either have been, or are in this present life, any persons, with the sole exception of our Great Head, " the Saviour of His body [the
1 who are righteous, without any sin,—and this,
Church,]' either by not consenting to the lusts thereof, or because that must not be accounted as any sin, which is such that God does not impute it to them by reason of their godly lives
(although the blessedness of being without sin is a different thing from the blessedness of not having one's sin imputed to
6—I do not deem it necessary to contest the point over much. Fam quite aware that some hold this opinion,7 whose him),
1 Rom. vi. 12, 2 Matt. vi. 12. 3 Matt. vi. 13.
* Jas. iii. 2. 6 Eph. i. 22, 23, and v. 23. 6 Ps. xxxii. 2.
7 See Augustine's treatise, De Natura et Gratia, 74, 75.
356 ON man's perfection in righteousness, [chap. XXI.
views on the subject I have not the courage to censure, although, at the same time, I cannot defend them. But if any man says that we ought not to use the prayer, " Lead us not into temptation " (and he says as much who maintains that God's help is unnecessary to a person for the avoidance of sin, and that his own will, after accepting only the law, is sufficient for the purpose), then I do not hesitate at once to affirm that such a man ought to be removed from the public ear, and to have his anathema pronounced by every mouth.
PREFACE
TO THE BOOK
ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS.
the year of Christ 415, Pelagins was accused of heresy
IN" in Palestine, and brought to trial on one or two occasions. At the first trial, which was held on or about the 30 th of
July, at a congress of his presbyters, by John, bishop of Jerusalem, no regular account was kept of the proceedings, as we are informed by Augustine in the following work (sec. 39 and 55). The hour and the day of this assembly we may learn from
Orosius, a presbyter of Spain, who was present at the congress, and has in his Apology committed to writing some of its most memorable acts. "We are informed by him that * after a great deal of earnest proceeding on both sides, the bishop John proposed the last resolution, that certain brethren should be sent with a letter to the blessed Innocent, Pope of Eome, to the
I intent that he might decide on all the points which were to follow."
The second trial took place afterwards at a city in Palestine called Diospolis [Lydda], before fourteen bishops, at winch was kept an accurate report of the proceedings. The bishops are severally mentioned by Augustine in his work against Julianus, chs. v. and vii, in the following order : " Eulogius, John, Ammonianus, Porphyry, Eutonius, another Porphyry, Fidus,
Zoninus, Zoboennus, Xymphidius, Chromatius, Jovinus, Eleutherius, and Clematius. There can be no doubt that Eidogius, bishop of Ca?sarea, was also primate of the province of Palestine, because he is constantly mentioned by Augustine as
358 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS.
occupying the first place before the other thirteen bishops, and even before John himself, bishop of Jerusalem.
We find from the epistle of Lucian, Be revelatione corporis
Stcpliani martyris, that this synod was held at the approach of Christmas. In this epistle he tells us of three visions which God had shown him in the year 415,—the first on December 3d, and the other two on the 10th and 17th of the same month ; that he then reported the matter to John, bishop of Jerusalem, who sent him in quest of the martyr's sepulchre. He further informs us that he discovered the sepulchre, and at once returned to John, " who (says he) was attending a synod at Lydda, which is Diospolis." This must have happened about the 21st of the month, since Lucian goes on to say that John came, in the company of two more bishops,
Eutonius of Sebaste and Eleutherius of Jericho, and that in their presence the relics of the martyr were removed on the 26th day of the same month of December. A certain deacon, called Annianus, is supposed to have pleaded the cause of Pelagius at the synod; some learned men 'finding it easier to interpret of this deacon than of
Pelagius what Jerome writes in a letter addressed to Alypius and Augustine (Epist. Augustinian. 202, 2) : " For everything which he denies having ever uttered in that miserable synod of Diospolis he professes to hold in this work." Jerome bestowed the epithet of " miserable" on this synod of Diospolis, for no other reason (as we suppose) than because he discovered from the Acts [or register of the proceedings] how miserably the synod had been duped by Pelagius. Pope
Innocent, after a sight of these Acts, expressly owned (see
Upist. Augustinian. 184, 4) that " he could not bring himself to refuse either blame or praise of those men" [meaning the bishops of the synod]. Augustine, however, in the following treatise (see chs. iv. and viii.), does not hesitate to call them
" pious judges," and (in his first book against Julianits, ch. v.)
" catholic judges," who, when Pelagius abjured the errors attributed to him, pronounced him a Catholic, and acquitted him indeed, he frequently cites these fourteen bishops as witnesses of the Catholic faith in opposition to Julianus.
In his letters addressed to Pope Innocent in the year 416
PREFACE. Sod
(see Epist. Av.gustinian. 175, 4, and 177, 2), Augustine intimated that he knew nothing of the Acts of the synod except from hearsay ; and in a letter to John, bishop of Jerusalem
179, 4), he earnestly requested him to forward them to him. But the report was in his hands about midsummer in
417, when he wrote his Epistle to Paulinus {Epist. 186, 31); so that the date of the following treatise is thus traced to the commencement of the year 417, supposing it to have been published immediately after he had received the Acts.
The title given to this work by Augustine, in his book On
Original Sin (14), stands Be Gcstis Palccstinis [On the Proceedings which took place in Palestine] ; by this title Prosper likewise refers to the work (in his book [so-called] Adv. Collatorem, 47) ; but yet we ought to retain the inscription Be
Gcstis Pdagii, which is prefixed both to the ancient editions and to the particular Retractation in. which Augustine reviewed this work. The treatise had this title given to it, no doubt, either because it had been already commonly accepted as a description of these proceedings of Pelagius and his vindication, which led to liis boast that he had been acquitted ; or else from the fact that an examination had become necessary of those proceedings, which the accused party had himself published in an abridged and garbled form. Hence Possidonius named the treatise by the title, Contra Gcsta Pdagii [A Protest, or Vindication, against the Proceedings of Pelagius].
Out of tins book Photius copied a very accurate account of the Synod of Diospolis and inserted it in his Bibliothcca (cod.
54). One may therefore conclude that this work of Augustine's is one of those which Possidonius, in his life [of the saint], ch. xi., mentions as having been " translated into the Greek tongue." The Aurelius to whom the work is dedicated is mentioned by Photius in the cited passage, and by
Prosper before* him (in the 43d chapter of the above-quoted
Advcrsus Collatorcm), as "the bishop of Carthage." Now, although the title-page of old did not give them this information, they could both of them discover this fact about Aurelius from reading this book, especially ch. 23 [xi.].
EXTKACT FROM THE SECOND BOOK,
CHAPTER XLVII.,
THE RETRACTATIONS.
"[TT happened] about this time, in the East (that is to say,
JL in Syrian Palestine), that Pelagius was summoned by
1 before a tribunal of bishops, and was heard on his trial by fourteen prelates, in the absence of certain Catholic brethren his accusers, who were unable to be present on the day appointed for the synod. On his condemning the very dogmas which were read from the indictment against him, and which assailed the grace of Christ, they pronounced him to be a
Catholic. But when the Acts of this synod found their way into our hands, I wrote a treatise on them, to prevent the idea gaining ground that, because he had been in a manner acquitted, his opinions also were approved by the bishops or that the accused could by any chance have escaped condemnation at their hands, unless he had condemned the opinions charged against him. This treatise of mine begins with these words : ' After there fell into my hands'—
' Postca quam in manus nostras! ]
1 [Their names were Heros and Lazarus.]
A WORK,
IN ONE BOOK,
ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS,
ADDRESSED TO
BISHOP AURELIUS [of Carthage],
AUEELIUS AUGUSTINE.
WRITTEN ABOUT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR A.D. 417.
the several heads of error which were alleged against pelagius at the synod in palestine, with his answers to eacn charge, are minutely discussed. augustine shows that, although pelagius was acquitted by the synod, there still clave to him a suspicion of heresy ; and that the acquittal of the accused by the synpd was so contrived, that the heresy itself with which he was charged was unhesitatingly condemned.
Chap. 1. Introduction. AFTER there fell into my hands, holy father Aurelius, the ecclesiastical acts, by which fourteen bishops of the province of Palestine pronounced Pelagius a Catholic, that hesitation of mine received its limit, which previously rendered me reluctant to make any lengthy or confident statement about his actual defence. This defence, indeed, I had already read in a paper, which he himself forwarded to me. Forasmuch, however, as I received no letter therewith from him, I was afraid that some discrepancy might be detected between my own statement of the subject and the record itself of the ecclesiastical proceedings ; and that, should Pelagius say, as was quite possible, that he had not sent me any paper (and it would have been difficult for me to prove that he had when
362 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. II.
there was only one witness in the case), I should myself rather seem guilty in the eyes of all, who would readily credit his denial either of a supposed falsification, or else (to say the least) of a reckless credulity. Now, however, when I am to treat of matters which are shown to have actually transpired, and when, as it appears to me, all doubt is removed whether he really acted in the way described, your holiness, and everybody who reads these pages, will no doubt be able to judge, with greater readiness and certainty, both of his defence and of this my treatment of it.
Chap. 2. [i.]
First of all, then, I offer to the Lord my God, who is also my defence and guide, unspeakable thanks, because I was not misled in my views respecting our holy brethren and fellow-bishops who sat as judges on that case. His answers, indeed, they approved, and not without reason ; because they had not to consider how he had in his writings stated the points which were objected against him, but what he had to say about them in his reply at the pending inquiry. A case of unsoundness in the faith is one thing, that of incautious statement is another thing. Now sundry objections were urged against Pelagius out of a certain book, which our holy brethren and fellow-bishops in Gaul, Heros and Lazarus, gave
1 being themselves unable to be present,
[to Bishop Eulogius,] owing (as we afterwards learned from credible information) to the severe indisposition of one of them. The first of these objectionable opinions, which he inserts in a certain book of his, is this : " No man can be without sin unless he has acquired a knowledge of the law." After this had been read out, the synod inquired : " Did you, Pelagius, express yourself thus ? " Then in answer he said : "I certainly used the words, but not in the sense in which they understand them.
I did not say that a man is unable to sin who has acquired a knowledge of the law ; but that a man is by the knowledge of the law assisted towards not sinning, even as it is written, 'He hath given them a law for a help.'"
2 Upon hearing
1 [Who presided in this synod during the trial of Pelagius. His name is mentioned "below, see ch. 3. [ix.]
2 Isa. viii. 20 (Septuagint).
CHAR III] NO EIGHT LIVING WITHOUT GEACE. 363 this, the synod declared : " The words which have been spoken by Pelagius are not alien from the mind of the
Church." Assuredly they are not alien, as he expressed them in his answer ; the statement, however, which was produced from his book has a different sound. But this the bishops, who were Greek-speaking men, and did not catch the words through the interpreter, did not care about discussing, All they had to consider at the moment was, what the man who was under examination said was his meaning,—not in what words his opinion was alleged to have been expressed in his book.
Chap. 3. Xow to say that a man is by a knowledge of the law assisted towards not sinning, is a different assertion from saying that a man cannot be without sin unless he has acquired a knowledge of the law. We see, for example, that corn-floors may be threshed without machines,— however much these may assist the operation ; and that boys can find their way to school without the pedagogue,—however valuable for the conduct be the office of pedagogues ; and that many persons recover from sickness without physicians,—although the doctor's skill is clearly of greatest use ; and that men sometimes thrive on other aliments besides bread,—however invaluable the use of bread must needs be allowed to be ; and several other illustrations may occur to the thoughful reader, without our prompting. From which instances we are undoubtedly reminded that there are two sorts of aids. Some are indispensable, and without their help results could not be attained. Without a ship, for instance, no man could take a voyage ; no man could speak without a voice ; without legs no man could walk ; without light nobody could see ; and so on in numberless instances. Amongst them this also may be reckoned, that without God's grace no man can live rightly. But then, again, there are other helps, which render us assistance in such a way that we might effect the object to which they are ordinarily auxiliary even in their absence. Such are those which I have already mentioned,—the machines for threshing corn, the pedagogue for conducting the child, medical art applied to the recovery of health, and other like instances. We have therefore to inquire to which of these two classes
364 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. IV.
belongs the knowledge of the law,—in other words, to consider in what way it helps us towards the avoidance of sin. If it be in the sense of an indispensable aid, not only was Pelagius' answer before the judges true, but what he wrote in his book was true also. If, however, the help afforded by the knowledge of the law be of such a character, that the avoiding of sin can only be effected by it when it is present, but even if it be absent, then the result is still obtainable by some other means, —in this case, indeed, his answer to the judges was still true, and not unreasonably did it find favour with the' bishops, to the effect that " man is assisted in not sinning by a knowledge; " but what he wrote in his book is not true, that " there is no man without sin except him who has acquired a knowledge of the law,"—a statement which the judges left [undetermined and even] undiscussed. They were ignorant of the law of the Latin language, and were content with the confession of the man who was pleading his cause before them ; especially as no one was present on the other side who could oblige the interpreter to expose his meaning by an explanation of the words of his book, and to show why it was that the brethren were not groundlessly moved [to bring their charges against the accused.] For but very few persons are thoroughly acquainted with the law. The mass of the members of Christ, who are scattered abroad everywhere, being ignorant of the very profound and complicated contents of the law, have their merit in that piety and unfailing hope in God and sincerity of love which spring from their simple faith. Endowed with such gifts, they trust that by the grace of God they may be purged from their sins through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Chap. 4. [ir.]
If Pelagius, as he probably might, were to say in reply to this, that this very description [of the Christian graces] was what he meant by " the knowledge of the law," which is indispensable for a man's being free from sins, which is also communicated by the doctrine of faith to converts and babes in Christ, and in which candidates for baptism are catechetically instructed with a view to their knowing the creed, [all I can say is, that] this is not what is usually meant when any one is said to have a knowledge of the law. This phrase is
CHAP. IV.] ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAW. 365 only applied to such persons as are skilled in the law. But if he persists in describing the knowledge of the law by the words in question, which, however few in number, are massive in weight, and used to designate all who are rightly baptized according to the prescribed rule of the Churches ; and if he maintains that it was of this that he said, " No one is without sin, but the man who has acquired the knowledge of the law,"— knowledge which must needs be conveyed to believers before they attain to the actual remission of sins,—even in such case there would crowd around him a countless multitude, not indeed of angry disputants, but of whining baptized infants, who would exclaim,—not, to be sure, in words, but in the very truthfulness of innocence, " What is it, what is it that you have written : ' He only can be without sin who has acquired a knowledge of the law ?
' See here are we, a large flock of lambs ; we are without sin, and yet we have no knowledge of the law." Now surely they with their silent tongue would compel him to silence, or, perhaps, even to confess that he was corrected of his great perverseness ; or else (if you will), that he had already for some time entertained the opinion which he acknowledged before his ecclesiastical examiners, but that he had failed before to express his opinion in words of sufficient care,—that his faith, therefore, should be approved, but his book revised and amended. For as the Scripture says : " There is that slippeth in his speech, but not from his heart."
1 Now it he would only admit this, or were already saying as much, who would not most readily forgive those words which he had committed to writing with too great heedlessness and neglect, especially on his declining to defend the opinion which the said words contain, and affirming that to be his proper view which the truth approves ? This we must suppose was in the minds of the pious judges themselves ; but yet, if they could only have understood the contents of his Latin book, duly interpreted to them, as [they understood] his reply to the synod which was spoken in Greek, and therefore quite intelligible to them, they would have adjudged the former, as they did in fact the latter, as not alien from the Church. Let us go on to consider the other cases.
1 Ecclus. xix. 16.
366 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELA.GIUS. [CHAP. V.
Chap. 5. [in.]
The synod of bishops then proceeded to say : " Let another section be read." Accordingly there was read the passage in the same book wherein Pelagius had laid down the position that " all men are ruled by their own will." On this being read, Pelagius said in answer : " This I stated in the interest of the freedom of our will. God is its helper whenever it chooses good ; man, however, when sinning is himself in fault, as under the direction of a free will." Upon hearing this, the bishops exclaimed : " Nor again is this opposed to the
I doctrine of the Church." For who indeed could condemn or i deny the freedom of the will, when God's help is associated with it ? His opinion, therefore, as thus explained in his answer, was, and not without good reason, deemed satisfactory by the bishops. And yet, after all, the statement made in his book, " All men are ruled by their own will," ought no doubt to have moved the apprehensions of our brethren, who had discovered how much his party advanced in discussion against the grace of God. The bare statement, " All men are ruled by their own will," implies that God rules no man, and that the Scripture says in vain, " Save Thy people, [0 Lord,] and bless Thine inheritance ; rule them, and lift them up for
1 They would not, of course, remain in one stay, if they ever."
are ruled only by their own will without God, even as sheep which have no shepherd. Now unquestionably to be led is something more compulsory than to be ruled. He who is ruled at the same time does something himself,—indeed, when ruled by God, it is with the express view that he should also act rightly ; whereas the man who is led can hardly be understood to do anything himself at all. And yet the Saviour's helpful grace is so much better than our own wills and desires, that the apostle does not hesitate to say : " As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
And our free will can do nothing better for us than to submit itself to be led by Him who can do nothing amiss ; and after doing this, not to doubt that it was helped to do it by Him of whom it is said in the psalm, " He is my God, His mercy
shall go before me.
1 Ts. xxviii. 9. 2 Piom. viii. 14. 3 Ps. lix. 10.
CHAP. VII.] HOW GOD'S CHILDREN ARE LED. 367
Chap. 6.
Indeed, in this very Look which contains these statements, after laying down the position, " All men are governed by their own will, and every one submits himself to his own desire," Pelagius goes on to adduce the testimony of Scripture, from which it is evident enough that no man ought to trust to himself for direction. For on this very subject the Wisdom of Solomon declares : I myself also am a mortal man like unto all ; and the offspring of him that was first made of the earth," *—with other similar words to the conclusion of the paragraph, where we read : " For all men have one entrance into life, and the like going out therefrom ; wherefore I prayed, and understanding was given to me ; I called [upon God,] and the Spirit of Wisdom came into me." 2 Now is it not clearer than light itself, how that man, on duly considering the wretchedness of human frailty, did not dare to commit himself to his own direction, but prayed, and understanding was given to him, concerning which the apostle says : " But we have the mind [or understanding] of the Lord s and he called [upon; "
God,] and the Spirit of Wisdom entered into him ? Now it is by this Spirit, and not by the strength of their own will, that they who are God's children are governed and led.
Chap. 7. As for the passage from the psalm, " He loved cursing, and it shall come upon him ; and he willed not blessing, so it shall be far removed from him,"
4 which he quoted as if to prove his own point, " that all men are ruled by their own will," who can be ignorant that this is not a fault of nature as God created it, but of that human will which departed away from God ? The fact indeed is, that even if he had not loved cursing, and had willed blessing, he would in this very case, too, deny that his will had received any assistance from God ; in his ingratitude and impiety, moreover, he would submit himself to be ruled by himself, until he found out to his cost, by the penalties of his condition, that, sunk as he was into ruin without God to govern him, he was utterly incapable of directing his own self. In like manner, from the passage which he quoted in the same book under the same head of his subject, " He hath set fire and
1 Wisd. vii. 1. 2 Wisd. vii. 0, 7. 3 1 Cor. ii. 16. 4 Ps. cix. 18.
368 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. VIII.
water before thee ; stretch forth thy hand unto whether thou wilt; before man are good and evil, life and death, and whichever he liketh shall be given to him/' * it is manifest that, if he applies his hand to fire, and if evil and death please him, his human will effects all this ; but if, on the contrary, he loves goodness and life, not alone does his will accomplish the haj)py choice, but as it is assisted by divine grace. For purposes of darkness or not seeing, the eye indeed is self-sufficient ; but for the purposes of sight, it is in its own luminous resources not selfsufficient ; the assistance of a clear external light must be rendered to it. God forbid, however, that they who are " the called according to His purpose, whom He also foreknew, and predestinated to be conformed to the likeness of His Son," should be given up to perish through their own wilful desire.
3 who are
This end is suffered only by "the vessels of wrath," perfectly prepared for perdition ; in whose very destruction, indeed, God "makes known the riches of His glory on the
4 Now it is on this account that, after
vessels of His mercy."
5 he immediately adds, " My God will show me vengeance upon my saying, "He is my God, His mercy shall go before me,"
6 That therefore happens to them which is menenemies."
tioned in Scripture, ". God gave them up to the lusts of their own heart."
7 This, however, does not happen to the predestinated, who are ruled by the Spirit of God, for not in vain is their cry : " Deliver me not, Lord, to the sinner, according to my desire."
8 With regard, indeed, to the evil lusts which assail them, their prayer has ever assumed some such shape as this : " Take away from me the concupiscence of the
Upon belly ; and let not the desire of lust take hold of me."
those whom He governs as His subjects does God bestow this gift ; but not upon those who think themselves capable of governing themselves, and who, in the stiff-necked confidence of their own self-will, disdain to have Him to rule over them.
Chap. 8.
This being the case, howmust God's children,who have learned the truth of all this, and rejoice at being ruled and led by the
1 Ecclus. xv. 16, 17. 2 Rom. viii. 29. 3 Rom. ix. 22.
4 Rom. ix. 23. 5 Ps. lix. ] 0. 6 Same verse.
* Rom. i. 21. 8 Ps. cxl. 8 (Sept.). 9 Ecclus. xxiii. 5, 6.
CHAP. IX.] GOD'S HELP REGULATIVE. 369
Spirit of God, have been affected when they heard or read that
Pelagius had declared in writing that " all men are governed by their own will, and that every one submits himself to his own desire ? " And yet, when questioned by the bishops, he fully perceived what an evil impression these words of his might produce ; so he told them in his answer that " he had made such an assertion in the interests of free will,"—adding at once, " God is the helper of this free will whenever it chooses good ; whilst man is himself in fault when he sins, as being under the influence of his own will." Although the pious judges even approved of this sentiment, thev were unwilling to consider or examine how incautiously he had written, or indeed in what sense he had employed the words found in his book. They thought it was enough that he had made such a confession concerning the freeo o dom of the will, as to admit that God helped the man who chose the good ; whereas the man who sinned was himself to blame, his own inclination having all to do with his conduct in this direction. According to this, God rules those whom He assists in their choice of the good. So far, then, as they rule anything themselves, they rule it rightly, since they themselves are ruled by Him who is right and good.
Chap. 9. Another statement was read which Pelagius had placed in his book, to this effect: * In the day of judgment no leniency will be shown to the ungodly and the sinner ; but they will be consumed in eternal fires." This induced the brethren to regard the statement as open to the objection, that it seemed so worded as to imply that all sinners whatever ought to be punished with an eternal penalty, without excepting even those who hold Christ as their foundation,
1 concernalthough " they build thereupon wood, hay, stubble," ing whom the apostle writes : " If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss ; but he shall himself be saved, yet
2 When, however, Pelagius said in his selfso as by fire."
defence that "he had made his assertion in accordance with the Gospel, in which it is written concerning sinners, ' They shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
3 it was impossible for Christian judges to into life eternal,'"
1 1 Cor. iii. 12. 2 1 Cor. iii. 15. 3 Matt. xxv. 46.
4 2 A
370 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. X.
be dissatisfied with a sentence which is written in the Gospel, and was spoken by the Lord ; especially as they knew not what there was in the words of Pelagius' book which could so disturb the brethren, who were accustomed to hear his discussions, and those of his followers. Since also they were absent who presented the indictment against Pelagius to the holy bishop Eulogius, there was no one to urge him that he ought to distinguish by allowing some exceptional case between those sinners who must be saved by fire, and those who must be punished with everlasting perdition. If, indeed, the judges had come to understand by these means the reason why the objection had been made to his statement, had he then refused to allow the distinction, he would have been justly open to blame.
Chap. 10. On Origen's error concerning the non-eternity of the punishment of the devil and the damned. What Pelagius said in addition to his last statement, " Who believes differently is an Origenist," was approved by the judges, because in very deed the Church most justly abominates the opinion of Origen, that even they whom the Lord pronounces worthy of everlasting punishment, and the devil himself and his angels, will be purged, and after a time, however protracted, be released from their punishment, and shall then cleave to the saints who reign with God in the society of their blessed life. This additional sentence, therefore, the synod pronounced to be "not opposed to the Church," accepting it not in Pelagius' sense, but rather in accordance, the Gospel, that the ungodly and sinful men whom with eternal fires shall consume will be such as the Gospel determines to be worthy of such a punishment ; and that he is a sharer in Origen's abominable opinion, who affirms that their punishment can possibly ever come to an end, when the Lord has said it is to be eternal. Concerning those sinners, however, of whom the apostle declares that " they shall be saved, yet so as by fire, after their [evil] work has been burnt up," inasmuch as no objectionable opinion in reference to them was manifestly chargeable against Pelagius, the synod determined nothing. Wherefore he who says that the ungodly and sinner, whom the truth consigns to eternal punishment, can ever be
1 The bishops Heros and Lazarus ; see above 1 [n.]. 2 1 Cor. iii. 12, 15.
CHAP. XL] PELAGIUS AND ORIGEN AT ISSUE. 371 liberated therefrom, is not unfitly designated by Pelagius as an " Origcnist" But, on the other hand, he who supposes that no sinner whatever deserves mercy in the judgment of God, may be designated by whatever name Pelagius is disposed to give to him, only it must at the same time be quite understood that the supposition is an error, and is not received as truth by the Church. " For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy."
Chap. 11. But how this judgment is to be accomplished, it is not easy to understand from Holy Scripture ; for there are many modes therein of describing that which is to come to pass only in one mode. In one place the Lord declares that He will u shut the door" against those whom He does not admit into His kingdom and that, on their clamorously demanding admission, " Open unto us, . . . we have eaten and drunk in Thy presence," and so forth, as the Scripture describes this expostulation, "He will say unto them in answer, I know you not, ... all ye workers of
2 In another passage He reminds us that He will command " all which would not that He should reign over them iniquity."
to be brought to Him, and be slain in His presence."
3 In another place, again, He tells us that He will come with His angels in His majesty ; and before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another; some He will set on His right hand, and after enumerating their good works, will award to them eternal life ; and others on His left hand, whose barrenness in all good works He will expose, will He condemn to everlasting burnings.
4 In two other passages He deals,—[in one] with that wicked and slothful servant, who
5 and [in the other] with neglected to trade with His money, the man who was found at the feast without the weddinogarment,—and He orders them to be bound hand and foot, and to be cast into outer darkness.
6 And in yet another scripture, after admitting the five virgins who were wise, He
7 ISTow these shuts the door against the other five foolish ones.
descriptions,—and there are others which at the instant do not
1 Jas. ii. 13. 2 Luke xiii. 25-27. 3 Luke xix. 27. 4 Matt. xxv. 33. 5 Luke xix. 20-24. ,: Matt, x.xii. 11-13.
7 Matt. xxv. 1-10.
372 ON THE PEOCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. XII.
occur to me,—are all intended to represent to us the future judgment, which, of course will be held not over one, or over five, but over multitudes. For if it were a solitary case only of the man who was cast into outer darkness for not having on the wedding garment, He would not have gone on at once to give it a plural turn, by saying : " For many are called, but few are chosen; " * whereas it is plain that, after the one was cast out and condemned, many still remained behind in the house. However, it would occupy us too long to discuss all these questions to the full. This brief remark, however, I may make, without prejudice (as they say in affairs of money) to some better discussion, that by the many descriptions which are scattered throughout the Holy Scriptures there is signified to us but one mode and process of final judgment, which is inscrutable to our minds,—all that admits of any variety being the rewards and punishments which will follow men's deserts.
Touching the particular point, indeed, which we have before us at present, it is sufficient to remark that, if Pelagius had actually said that all sinners whatever without exception would be punished in an eternity of punishment by everlast-
2 had approved of this, ing fire, then whosoever of his judges he would, to begin with, have brought the sentence [of the synod] down on his own head. " For who will boast that he
[has a pure heart, or will boldly say that he] is pure from sins ? 3 Forasmuch, however, as he did not say all, nor certain, but made an indefinite statement only,—and afterwards, in explanation, declared that his meaning was according to the words of the Gospel,—his opinion was affirmed by the judgment of the bishops to be true ; but it does not even now appear what Pelagius really thinks on the subject, and in consequence there is no indecency in inquiring further into the decision of the episcopal judges.
Chap. 12. [iv.]
It was further objected against Pelagius, that he had written in his book, that "evil did not enter his thoughts."
1 Matt. xxii. 14.
2 [Judicum ; the other reading, judicium, means, " If any one had approved of such a judgment," etc.]
3 Prov. xx. 9 (Septuagint).
CHAP. XIII.] EVIL THOUGHTS IMPLY CONSENT. 373
In reply, however, to this charge, he said : " We made no such statement. What we did say was, that the Christian ought to be careful not to have evil thoughts." Of this, as it became them, the bishops approved. For who can doubt that evil ought not to be thought of ? And, indeed, if what he said in his book about evil not being thought runs in this form, " nee cogitandum quidem" the ordinary meaning of such words is
" that evil ought not even to be thought of." Now if any person denies this, what else does he in fact say, than that evil ought to be thought of ? And if this were true, it could not be said in praise of charity that "it thinketh no evil!"
But after all, the phrase about " not entering into the thoughts " of righteous and holy men is not quite a commendable one, for this reason, that what enters the mind is commonly called a thought, even when assent to it does not follow. The thought, however, which involves blame, and is justly forbidden, is never unaccompanied with assent and compliance. Possibly those men had an incorrect copy of Pelagius' writings, who thought it proper to object to him that he had used the words : " Malum nee in cogitationem venire" that is, that whatever is evil never entered into the thoughts of righteous and holy men. Which is, of course, a very absurd statement. For whenever we censure evil things, we cannot enunciate them in words, unless they have first occupied the thoughts. But, as we said before, that is termed a culpable thought of evil which carries with it the assent of our will.
Chap. 13. [v.]
After the judges had accorded their approbation to this answer of Pelagius, another passage which he had written in his book was read aloud : " The kingdom of heaven was promised even in the Old Testament." Upon this Pelagius remarked in vindication : " This can be readily proved by the
Scriptures. The heretics, however, in order to disparage the Old Testament, deny this statement ; but I simply followed the authority of the Scriptures when I said this ; for in the prophet Daniel it is written : ' The saints of the Most High shall
2 After they had heard this answer, the synod said : " This is not opposed at all to the Church's faith."
take the kingdom.' "
1 1 Cor. xiii. 5. 2 Dan. vii. 18.
374 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. XIV.
Chap. 14. Thep7ira.se " Old Testament " used in two senses. The heir of the Old
Testament. In the Old Testament there were heirs of the New Testament. Was it therefore without reason that our brethren [the accusing bishops] were moved by his words to include this charge among the others against him ? Certainly not. The fact is, that the phrase Old Testament is constantly employed in two different ways,—in one, following the authority of the Holy Scriptures ; in the other, following the most common mode of speech. For the Apostle Paul says, in his Epistle to the Galatians : " Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law ? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond-maid, the other by a free woman.
. . . Which things are an allegory : for these are the two covenants [or testaments] ; the one which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and is most intimately connected with the Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children ; whereas the Jerusalem which is above is free, and is the mother of us all." x Now, inasmuch as the Old Testament tends to bondage, whence it is written, " Cast out the bond-woman and her son, for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac," whereas the kingdom of heaven tends to liberty ; what has the kingdom of heaven to do with the Old Covenant [or Testament] ? Since, however, as I have already remarked, we are accustomed, in our ordinary use of words, to designate all those Scriptures of the law and the prophets which were given previous to the Lord's incarnation, and are embraced together by canonical authority, under the name and title of the Old Testament, what man who is ever so moderately informed in ecclesiastical lore can be ignorant that the kingdom of heaven could be quite as well promised in those early Scriptures as even the "New Testament itself, to which the kingdom of heaven belongs ? At all events, in those ancient Scriptures it is most distinctly written : " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will accomplish a new covenant [or testament] with the house of Israel and with the house of Jacob ; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the
1 Gal. iv. 21-26. 2 Gal. iv. 30.
CHAP. XIV.] THE NEW MAX FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT. 375 hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt."
1 This was done on Mount Sinai. But then there had not yet risen the prophet Daniel to say : " The saints of the Most High shall
2 For by these words he foretold the
take the kingdom."
merit not of the Old, but of the Xew Testament. In the same manner did the same prophets [of the Old Testament] foretell that Christ Himself would come, in whose blood the Xew Covenant [or Testament] was consecrated. Of this Testament also the apostles became the ministers, as the most blessed Paul declares : " He -hath made us able ministers of the Xew Testament ; not in its letter, but its spirit : for the letter killeth, but the spirit givetli life." 3 In that testament, however, which is properly called the Old, and was given on Mount Sinai, only earthly happiness is expressly promised. Accordingly that land, into which the nation, after beingr led through the wilderness, was conducted, is called the land of promise, wherein peace and royal power, and the gaining of victories over enemies, and an abundance of children and of fruits of the ground, and gifts of a similar kind, are the promises of the Old Testament. And these, indeed, are figures of the spiritual blessings which appertain to the Xew Testament ; but yet the man who lives under God's law with those earthly blessings for his sanction, is precisely the heir of the Old Testament [or Covenant,] for just such rewards are promised and given to him, according to the terms of the Old
Covenant, as are the objects of his desire according to the condition of the old man. But whatever blessings are there figuratively set forth as appertaining to the Xew Testament require the new man to give them effect. And no doubt the great apostle understood perfectly well what he was saying, when he described the two covenants [or testaments] as capable of the allegorical distinction of the bond-woman and the free,—attributing the children of the flesh to the Old Covenant, and to the Xew the children of the promise
"They," says he, "which are the children of the flesh, are not the children of God ; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."
4 The children of the flesh, then, belong to the earthly Jerusalem, which is in bondage with
1 Jer. xxxi. 31, 32. " Dm. vii. 18. 3 2 Cor. iii. 6. * Rom. ix. 8.
376 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. XV.
her children ; whereas the children of the promise belong to the Jerusalem above, the free, the mother of ns all, eternal in
1 Whence we can easily see who they are that the heavens.
appertain to the earthly, and who to the heavenly kingdom. But then the happy persons, who even in that early age were by the grace of God taught to understand the distinction now set forth, were thereby made the children of promise, and were accounted in the secret purpose of God as heirs of the New Covenant [which was to come] ; although they continued with perfect fitness to administer the Old Testament to the ancient people of God, because that covenant was divinely appropriated to that people in God's distribution of the times and seasons.
Chap. 15. How then should there not be a feeling of just disquietude entertained by the children of promise, sons of the free Jerusalem, which is eternal in the heavens, when they see that by the words of Pelagius the distinction which has been drawn by
Apostolic and Catholic authority is abolished, and Agar is supposed to be by some means on a par with Sarah ? He therefore does injury to the scripture of the Old Testament with the depravity of a heretic, who with an impious and sacrilegious face denies that it was inspired by the good, supreme, and very God, —as Marcion does, as Manichseus does, and other pests of similar opinions. On this account (that I may put into as brief a space as I can what my own views are on the subject), as much injury is done to the New Testament, when it is put on the same level with the Old Testament, as is inflicted on the Old itself, when men deny it to be the work of the supreme God of goodness. Now, when Pelagius in his answer gave as his reason (for saying that even in the Old Testament there was a promise of the kingdom of heaven), the testimony of the prophet Daniel, who most plainly foretold that the saints should receive the kingdom of the Most High, it was fairly decided that the statement of Pelagius was not opposed to the
Catholic faith, although not according to the distinction which shows that the earthly promises of Mount Sinai are the proper characteristics of the Old Testament ; nor indeed was the
1 Gal. iv. 25, 26.
CHAP. XVI.] PELAGIUS AND THE WIDOW. 3*77 decision an improper one, considering that mode of speech which designates all the canonical Scriptures which were given to men before the Lord's coming in the flesh by the title of the " Old Testament." The kingdom of the Most High is of course none other than the kingdom of God ; otherwise, anybody might boldly contend that the kingdom of God is one thing, and the kingdom of heaven another.
Chap. 16. [vi.] The next objection was to the effect that Felagius in that same book of his wrote thus : " A man is able, if he likes, to; " and that he addressed a certain widow in live without sin a letter in the following fulsome strain : " In thee piety may find a dwelling-place, such as she finds nowhere else ; in thee righteousness, though a stranger in every other place, can find a sojourn ; that truth, which no one any longer recognises, can discover an abode and a friend in thee ; by thee alone, moreover, that law of God, which almost everybody despises, is honoured." And in another sentence he writes : " how happy and blessed art thou, when that righteousness which we must believe to flourish only in heaven has found a shelter on earth only in thy heart
! " In another work addressed to her, after reciting the prayer of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, and teaching her in what manner saints ought to pray, he says : " Such an one is worthy to raise his hands to God and with a good conscience does he pour out his prayer, since he is able to say, 'Thou, Lord, knowest how holy and harmless are the hands which I stretch out to Thee ; how pure also they are of all injury, and iniquity, and violence moreover, how righteous, and pure, and free from all deceit, are the lips with which I offer to Thee my supplication, that Thou wouldst have mercy upon me. ' To all this Pelagius said in answer : " We asserted that a man could, if he liked, live without sin, and could keep God's commandments ; but that this power was given to him by God. But we never said that any man could be found who at no time whatever, from infancy to old age, committed sin ; but that if any person were converted from his sins, he could by his own labour and God's grace live without sin. And yet nobody even thus was rendered incapable of change ever afterwards. As for the
378 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. XVIII.
other statements which they have made against us, they are not to be found in our books, nor have we at any time said such things." Upon hearing this vindication, the synod put this question to him : " You have denied having ever written such words ; are you therefore ready to anathematize those who do hold these opinions ? " Pelagius answered : " I anathematize them as fools, but not as heretics, for there is no dogma in the business." The bishops then pronounced their judgment in these words : " Since now Pelagius has with his own mouth anathematized this vague statement as foolish verbiage, dedaring in his reply, ' That a man is able with God's assistance and grace to live without sin/ let him now proceed to answer the other heads of accusation against him."
Chap. 17. Well now, had the judges in this case either the power or the right to condemn these unrecognised and vague words, when no person on the other side was present to prove that
Pelagius had written the very culpable sentences which were alleged to have been addressed by him to the widow ? In such a matter, it surely could not be enough to produce a manuscript, and to read out of it words as his, if there were not also witnesses forthcoming [to identify the writing] in case he denied, on the words being read out, that they ever dropped from his pen. But even here the judges did all that lay in their power to do, when they asked Pelagius whether he would anathematize the persons who held such sentiments as he declared he had never himself propounded either in speech or in writing. And when he answered that he did anathematize them as fools, what right had the judges to push the inquiry any further on the matter, in the absence of
Pelagius' opponents ?
Chap. 18.
But perhaps the point requires some consideration, whether he was right in saying that " such as held the opinions in question deserved anathema, not as heretics, but as fools, since there was no dogma in the matter." The question, when fairly confronted, is no doubt far from being an unimportant one,—how far a man deserves to be described as a heretic ? On this occasion, however, the judges acted rightly
CHAP. XVIII.] FOOLS AND HERETICS. 379 in abstaining from it altogether. Let us take an instance to illustrate the point. If any one were to allege that eaglets are suspended on the talons of the parent bird, and so exposed to the rays of the sun, such as wink or flinch are flung to the ground as spurious, the light being in some mysterious way the gauge of their genuine nature, he is not to be accounted
1 Now, a heretic, although the story happens to be untrue.
since it occurs in the writings of the learned, and is very commonly received as fact, ought it to be considered a foolish thing to mention it, even though it be not true ? much less ought our credit, which gains for us the name of being trustworthy, to be affected, on the one hand injuriously if the story be believed by us, or beneficially if disbelieved.
2 If, to go a step further in illustration, any one were from this instance to contend that there existed in birds reasonable souls, from the notion that human souls at intervals passed into them, then indeed we should have to reject from our mind and ears alike an idea like this as the rankest heresy ; and even if the story about the eagles were true (as there are many curious facts about bees confest to the most common observation), we should still have to consider, and even demonstrate, the great difference that exists between the condition of creatures like these, which are quite irrational, however surprising in their powers of sensation, and the nature which is common (not to human beings and brute animals, but) to men and angels. There are, to be sure, a great many foolish things said by foolish and ignorant persons, which yet fail to prove them heretics. One might instance the silly talk so commonly heard about the pursuits of other people, from persons who have never learned these pursuits ; equally hasty and untenable are the judgments they express, whether in the shape of excessive and indiscriminate praise of those they love, or of blame in the case of those they happen to dislike. The same remark might be made concerning the usual current of human conversation : whenever it does not touch on a subject which requires dogmatic accuracy of statement, but is thrown out at
1 [It is told by Pliny, Hist. Nat. x. 3 (3), and Lucan, Pharsalia, ix. 902, etc.]
2 [Creditum, however, is read in both clauses ; we should expect non creditum in one, as one reading has it.]
380 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. XIX.
random, or suggested by the passing moment, it is too often pervaded by foolish levity, whether uttered by the mouth or expressed in writing. Many persons, indeed, when gently reminded of their reckless gossip, have afterwards much regretted their conduct ; [its only excuse was its utter thoughtlessness, for] they scarcely recollected what they had never uttered with a fixed purpose, but had poured forth in a sheer volley of casual and unconsidered words. It is, unhappily, almost impossible to be quite clear of such faults. Who is he " that slippeth not in his tongue,"
1 and " offendeth not in word ? 2 It, however, makes all the difference in the world, to what extent, and from what motive, and whether in fact at all, a man when warned of his fault corrects it, or obstinately clings to it so as to make a dogma and settled opinion of that which he had not at first uttered on purpose, but only in levity. Although, then, it turns out eventually that every heretic is a fool, it does not follow that every fool must on the nonce be dubbed a heretic. The judges were quite right in saying that Pelagius had anathematized the vague folly under consideration by its fitting designation ; for even if it were heresy, there could be no doubt of its being foolish prattle. Whatever, therefore, it was, they designated the offence under a general name. But whether the quoted words had been used with any definitely dogmatic purpose, or only in a vague and indeterminate sense, and with an unmeaningness which should be capable of an easy correction, they did not deem it necessary to discuss on the present occasion, since the man who was on his trial before them denied that the words were his at all, in whatever sense they had been employed.
Chap. 19. Now it so happened that, while we were reading this defence of Pelagius in the small paper which we received at
3 there were present certain holy brethren, who said that first, they had in their possession some hortatory or consolatory works which Pelagius had addressed to a widow lady whose name did not appear, and they advised us to examine whether the words which he had abjured for his own occurred
1 See Ecclus. xix. 16. 2 See Jas. iii. 2.
8 See below, in chap. 57. [xxxii.]
CHAP. XX.] DUBIOUS FEAES ABOUT PELAGIUS. 381 anywhere in these books. They were not themselves aware whether they did or not. The said books were accordingly read through, and the words in question were actually discovered in them. Moreover, they who had produced the copy of the book, affirmed that four years had almost passed away since they first regarded the contents as really the work of
Pelagius, nor had they once heard a doubt expressed about his authorship. Considering, then, from the integrity of these servants of God, which was very well known to us, how impossible it was for them to use deceit in the matter, the conclusion seemed inevitable, that Pelagius must be supposed by us to have rather been the deceiver at his trial before the bishops ; only we thought it was quite possible that something might, even all those years before, have been put out in his name, although not actually composed by him, for not even did our informants tell us that they had received the books from Pelagius himself, nor had they ever heard him admit his own authorship. Now, in my own case, certain of our brethren have told me that sundry writings have found their way into