Part 16
Chap. 47. [xxiii.]—Pelagius' book, which teas sent by Timasius and Jacobus to Augustine, was answered by the latter in his work " On Nature and Grace."
But when there was actually placed in my hands, by those faithful servants of God and honourable men, Timasius and
410 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. XLVII.
Jacobus, the treatise in which Pelagius dealt with the question of God's grace, it became very evident to me—too evident, indeed, to admit of any further doubt—how hostile to salvation by Christ was his poisonous perversion of the truth. He treated the subject in the shape of an objection started, as if by an opponent, in his own terms against himself ; for he was already suffering a good deal of obloquy from his opinions on the question, which he now appeared to solve for himself in no other way than by simply describing the grace of God as nature created [by God] with a free-will, occasionally combining therewith either the help of the law, or even the remission of sins ; although these additional admissions were not plainly made, but only sparingly suggested by him. And yet, even under these circumstances, I refrained from inserting Pelagius' name in my work, wherein
I refuted this book of his ; for I still thought that I should^ render a prompter assistance to the truth if I continued to preserve a friendly relation to him, and so to spare his _ personal feelings, while at the same time I showed no mercy, as I was bound not to show it, to the productions of his pen.
Hence, I must say, I now feel some annoyance^ that in this trial he somewhere said : " I anathematize those who hold these opinions, or have at any time held them." He might have been contented with saying, " TJwse who hold these opinions" which we should have regarded in the light of a self-censure ; but when he went on to say, " Or have at any time held them," [I cannot help asking], in the first place, how he could dare to condemn so unjustly those harmless persons who no longer held the errors, which they had learnt either from others, or actually from himself ? And, in the second place, [I must inquire] who among all those persons that were aware of the fact of his not only having held the opinions in question, but of his having taught them, could help suspecting, and not unreasonably, that he must have acted insincerely in condemning those who now held those opinions, seeing that he did not hesitate to condemn in the same strain and at the same moment those also who had at any time previously held them, when they would be sure to remember that they had no less a person than himself as chap, xlviil] augustixe's refutation of pelagianism. 411 their instructor in these errors ? There are, for instance, such persons as Timasius and Jacobus, to say nothing of any others. How can he with unblushing face look at them, his dear friends (who have never relinquished their love of him) and his former disciples ? These are the persons to whom
I addressed the work in which I replied to the statements of [Pelagius'] book. I think I ought not to pass over in silence the style and tone which they observed towards me in their correspondence, and I have here added a letter of theirs as a sample.
Chap. 48. [xxiv.] A letter written by Timasius and Jacobus to Augustine on receiving his treatise " On Nature and Grace."
" To his lordship, the truly blessed and deservedly venerable father, Bishop Augustine, Timasius and Jacobus send greeting in the Lord. "VVe have been so greatly refreshed and strengthened by the grace of God, which your word has ministered to us, my lord, our truly blessed and justly venerated father, that we may with the utmost sincerity and propriety say, ' He sent His word and healed them.' * We have found, indeed, that your holiness has so thoroughly sifted the contents of his poor worthless book as to astonish us with the answers with which even the slightest points of his error have been confronted, whether it be on matters which every Christian ought to rebut, loathe, and avoid, or on those in which he is not with sufficient certainty found to have erred,—although even in these he has, with incredible subtlety, suggested his
2 There belief that God's grace should be kept out of sight.
is, however, one consideration which affects us under so great a benefit, that this most illustrious gift of the grace of God has, however slowly, so fully shone out upon us. If, indeed, it has happened that some are removed from the influence of this clearest light of truth, whose blind condition required its illumination, yet even to them, we doubt not, the same grace will find its steady way, however late, by the merciful favour of that God 'who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.' 3 As for ourselves, indeed, thanks to that loving spirit which is in you, we have, in consequence of your instruction, some time since thrown off our
1 Ps. cvii. 20. 2 Supprimendam. 3 1 Tim. ii. 4.
412 ON THE PKOCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. L.
subjection to his errors ; but we still have even now cause for continued gratitude in the fact that, as we have been informed, the false opinions which we formerly believed are now becoming apparent to others—a way of escape opening out to them in the extremely precious discourse of your holiness." Then, in another hand, [comes this conclusion] :
" May the mercy of our God keep your blessedness in safety, and mindful of us, for His eternal glory."
Chap. 49. [xxv.]
2 were to confess that he had once been implicated in this error as a person possessed, but that he now anathematized all that held these opinions, whoever
If now even that man should withhold his congratulation from him, now that he was in possession of the way of truth, would surely surrender all the instincts of charity. As the case, however, now stands, he has not only not acknowledged his liberation from his pestilential error; but, as if that were a small thing, he has gone on to anathematize men who have reached that freedom, who love him so well that they would fain desire his own emancipation. Amongst these are those very men who have expressed their good-will towards him in the [abovementioned] letter, which they forwarded to me. For he it was whom they had chiefly in view when they said how much they were affected at the fact of my having at last written that work. " If, indeed, it has happened," they say, " that some are removed from the influence of this clearest light of truth, whose blind condition required its illumination, yet even to them," they go on to remark, " we doubt not, the self-same grace will find its way, by the merciful favour of
God." Any name, or names, even they too thought it desirable as yet to suppress, in order that, if friendship still lived on, the error of the friends might the more surely die.
Chap. 50. Pelagius has no good reason to be annoyed if his name be at last used in the controversy, and he be expressly refuted; concerning the Epistles which were written to him by the Bishops.
But now if Pelagius thinks of God, if he is not ungrateful for His mercy in having brought him before this tribunal of
1 [See Augustine's Epist. 168.] 2 Pelagius.
CHAP. LI.] AUGUSTINE'S CONSIDERATION TOWARDS PELAGIUS. 413 the bishops, that thus he might be saved from the hardihood of afterwards defending these anathematized opinions, and be at once led to acknowledge them as deserving of abhorrence and rejection, he will be more thankful to us for a letter in which, by mentioning his name, we shall open the wound in order to cure it, than for one in which we were afraid to cause him pain, and, in fact, only produced irritation,—a result which causes us regret. Should he, however, feel angry with us, let him reflect how unfair such anger is ; and, in order to subdue it, let him ask God to give him that grace which, in this trial, he has confessed to be necessary for each one of our actions, that so by His assistance he may gain a real victory. For of what use to him are all those great laudations contained in the letters of the bishops, which he thought fit to be mentioned, and even to be read and quoted in his favour,—as if all those persons who heard his strong and, to some extent, earnest exhortations to goodness of life could not have easily discovered how perverse were the opinions which he was entertaining ?
Chap. 51. [xxyl]
For my own part, indeed, in the letter which he produced,
I not only abstained from all praises of him, but I even exhorted him, with as much earnestness as I could, short of actually mooting the question, to cultivate right views about the grace of God. In my salutation I called him Dominus}— a title which, in our epistolary style, we usually apply even to some persons who are not Christians,—and this without untruth; inasmuch as we do, in a certain sense, owe to all such persons a service, which is yet freedom, to help them in obtaining the salvation which is in Christ. I added the epithet Dilcctissimus [most beloved] ; and as I now call him by this term, so shall I continue to do so, even if he be angry with me ; because, if I ceased to retain my love towards him, because of his feeling the anger, I should only injure myself rather than him. I, moreover, styled him Besideratissimus [most longed-for], because I greatly longed to have a conversation with him in person ; for I had already heard that
1 [This term corresponds somewhat to our Sir; but Augustine here refers to its more expressive meaning of Master, or Lord.]
414 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. LII.
he was endeavouring publicly to oppose the [doctrine of] grace, whereby we are justified, whenever any mention was made of it. The brief contents of the letter itself indeed show all this; for, after thanking him for the pleasure he gave me by the information of his own health and that of his friends (whose bodily health we are bound of course to wish for, however much we may desire their amendment in other respects), I at once expressed the hope that the Lord would recompense him with such blessings as do not appertain to physical welfare, but which he used to think, and probably still thinks, consist solely in the freedom and power he possesses over his will,—at the same time, and for this reason, wishing him eternal life. Then again, remembering the many good and kind wishes he had expressed for me in his letter, which I was answering, I went on to beg of him, too, that he would pray for me, that the Lord would indeed make me such a man as he believed me to be already ; that so I might gently remind him, against the opinion he was himself entertaining, that the very righteousness which he had thought worthy to be praised in me was * not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."
1 This is the substance of that short letter of mine, and such was my purpose when I dictated it. This is a copy of it
Chap. 52. [xxvu. and xxviii.]
" To my very dear sir, and most longed-for brother Pelagius,
Augustine sends greeting in the Lord. I thank you very much for the pleasure you have kindly afforded me by your letter, and for informing me of your good health. May the Lord requite you with blessings, and may you ever enjoy them, and live with Him for evermore in eternity, my very dear sir and most longed-for brother. Tor my own part, indeed, although
I do not admit your high encomiums of me, which your kind
2 conveys, I yet cannot be insensible of the benevolent letter view you entertain towards my poor deserts ; at the same time requesting you to pray for me, that the Lord would make me
1 Rom. ix. 16.
2 [Tuce Benignitatis Eplstola is more than "your kind letter." " Benignitas " is a complimentary abstract title addressed to the correspondent.]
CHAP. LIII.] PELAGITJS HERETICAL, AFTER ALL. 415 such a man as you suppose me to be already." Then, in another hand, it follows : * Be mindful of us ; may you be safe, and find favour with the Lord, my very dear sir and most beloved brother."
Chap. 53. [xxix.] As to that which I placed in the postscript,—that he might
" find favour with the Lord,"—I intimated that this lay rather in His grace than in man's sole will; for I did not make it the subject either of exhortation, or of precept, or of instruction, but simply of my wish. But just in the same way as
I should, if I had fallen to exhorting or enjoining, or even to instructing him, simply have shown that all this appertained indeed to the freedom of man's will, without, however, derogating from the grace of God; so, in like manner, when I expressed the matter in the way of a wish, I asserted no doubt the grace of God, but at the same time I did not quench the liberty of the human will. Wherefore, then, did he produce this letter at the trial ? If he had only from the beginning entertained views in accordance with it, very likely he would not have been at all summoned before the bishops by the brethren, who, with all their kindness of disposition, could yet not help being offended with his perverse contentiousness. Now, however, as I have given on my part an account of this letter of mine, so would they, whose epistles he quoted, explain theirs also, if it were necessary;—they would tell us either what they thought, or what they were ignorant of, or with what purpose they wrote to him. Pelagius, therefore, may boast to his heart's content of the friendship of holy men, he may read their letters recounting his praises, he may produce whatever synodal acts he pleases to attest his own acquittal,—there still stands against him the fact, proved by the testimony of competent witnesses, that he has inserted in his books statements which are opposed to that grace of God whereby we are called and justified ; and unless he shall, after true confession, anathematize these statements, and then go on to contradict them both in his writings and discussions, he will certainly seem to all those who have a fuller knowledge of him to have laboured in vain in his attempt to set himself right
416 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. LIV.
Chap. 54. [xxx.] On the letter of Pelagius, in which he boasts that his errors had been approved byfourteen Bishops.
For I will no longer conceal my opinion of the transactions which took place after this trial, and which rather augment the suspicion against him. A certain epistle found its way into our hands, which was ascribed to Pelagius himself, writing to a friend of his, a presbyter, who had kindly admonished him
(as appears from the forenamed epistle), to prevent any one's separating himself from the body of the Church on his account. Among the other contents of this document, which it would be both tedious and unnecessary to quote here, Pelagius says
" By the sentence of fourteen bishops our statement was received with approbation, in which we affirmed that ' a man is able to live without sin, and easily to keep the commandments of God, if he pleases.' This sentence [of the bishops]," says he, " has filled the mouths of the gainsayers with confusion, and has separated asunder the entire set which was conspiring together for evil." Whether, indeed, this epistle was really written by Pelagius, or was composed by somebody in his name, none can fail to discern, after the manner in which the erroneous doctrine claims to have achieved a victory, even in the judicial proceedings where it was refuted and condemned.
]STow, he has adduced the words we have just quoted according to the form in which they occur in his book of Ccvpitula
[" Chapters "], as it is called, not in the shape in which they were objected to him at his trial, and even repeated by him in his answer. For even his accusers, through some unaccountable inaccuracy, left out a word in their indictment, concerning which there is no small controversy. They made him say, that " a man is able to live without sin, if he likes and, if he likes, to keep the commandments of God." There is nothing said here about this being " easily " done. Afterwards, when he gave his answer, he spake thus : " We said, that a man is able to live without sin, and to keep the commandments of God, if he pleases ;" he did not then say, " easily, keep," but only " keep." So in another passage, amongst the
1 statements about which Hilary consulted me, and I gave him my views, it was objected to Pelagius that he had said, " A man is able, if he likes, to live without sin ;" when he admitted
CHAP. LV.] PELAGIAN BOASTING. 41 himself, in reply, that he had already said, "A man is able to live without sin." Now, on this occasion, we do not find on the part either of those who brought the objection or of him who rebutted it, that the word " easily" was used at all. Then, again, in the narrative of the holy Bishop John, which we have partly quoted above/ he says, " When they were importunate and exclaimed, ' He is a heretic ;' he said, ' Still it is true that a man is able, if he only will, to live without sin;' and then, when we questioned him on this point, he answered, ' I did not say that man's nature has received the power of being impeccable,—but I said, whosoever is willing, in the pursuit of his own salvation, to labour and struggle to abstain from sinning, and to walk in the commandments of God, receives the possibility of doing so from God
' then, whilst some were whispering, and remarking on the statement of Pelagius, that
' without God's grace man was able to attain perfection,' I then censured the statement" [continued the bishop], " and reminded them, besides, that even the Apostle Paul, after so many labours,—not, indeed, in his own strength, but by the grace of God,—said, ' I laboured more abundantly than they
2 and; yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me/ all so on, as I have already mentioned."
Chap. 55.
What, then, is the meaning of those vaunting words of theirs in this epistle, wherein they boast of having induced the fourteen bishops who sat in that trial to believe not merely that a man is able, but that He is " easily " able to abstain from sinning, according to the position which is laid down in the Cajpitida of this same Pelagius,—when, in the draft of the proceedings, notwithstanding the frequent repetition of the general charge and full consideration bestowed on it, there is nowhere found the occurrence of this [offensive word] ? How, indeed, can this word fail to contradict the very defence and answer which Pelagius made ; since the Bishop John asserted that Pelagius put in this answer in his presence, that " he wished it to be understood that the man who willingly laboured and strove to secure his salvation was able to avoid
1 In. 37. [xiv.] 2 i cor. xv. 10.
418 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. LV.
sin," while Pelagius himself, when engaged in a formal
1 distinctly said, that "it was by his own effort and the grace of God that a man is inquiry and conducting his defence, able to live without sin ? " Now, is a thing easily done when labour and effort are required to effect it ? For I suppose that every man would agree with us in the opinion, that wherever there is effort there cannot be an easy achievement of a result. And yet this precious epistle, buoyed up by the lightness of its inflated and turgid contents, has outrun in speed the record of the proceedings, which was drawn more tardily, and has first fallen into men's hands ; so it is asserted that fourteen bishops in the East have determined, not only
" that a man is able to live without sin, and to keep God's commandments," but " easily able." Nor is God's assistance once named: it is merely said, " If he likes;" so that, of course, as nothing is affirmed of the divine grace, for which the earnest fight was made, it remains that the only thing one reads of in this epistle is the unhappy and self-deceiving because represented as victorious—power of human pride. As if the Bishop John, indeed, had not expressly declared that he censured this statement, and that, by the help of three
2 he had, as if by thunderbolts, inspired texts of Scripture, struck to the ground the gigantic mountains of such presumption which they had piled up against the still overtowering heights of heavenly grace ; or as if again those other bishops who were John's assessors could have borne with
Pelagius, either in mind or even in ear, when he pronounced these words : " We said that a man is able to live without sin and to keep the commandments of God, if he likes," unless he had gone on at once to say : " But the ability to do this God has given to him " (for they were quite unaware that he was speaking of nature, and not of that grace which they had learnt from the doctrine of the apostle) ; and had afterwards added this qualification : " We never said, however, that any man could be found, who at no time whatever from his infancy to his old age committed sin, but that
1 [At the Synod of Diospolis. The proceedings before John, bishop of
Jerusalem, were not duly registered. See above, 39.]
2 [See above, 37. J
CHAP, lvl] its groundlessness shown. 419 if any person were converted from his sins, he could by his own exertion and the grace of God live without sin." Now, by the very fact that in their sentence they used these words, he has answered correctly, " that a man can live without sin when he has the assistance and grace of God
" what else did they fear than that, if he denied this, he would be doing a manifest wrong not to man's inability, but to God's grace ? It has indeed not been denned at what particular time a man becomes sinless ; it has only been judicially settled, that this result can only be reached by the assisting grace of God ; it has not, I say, been defined whether a man, whilst he is in this flesh which lusts against the Spirit, ever has been, or now is, or ever can be, by his present use of reason and free-will, either in the full society of man or in monastic solitude, in such a state as to be beyond the necessity of offering up the prayer, not in behalf of others, but for himself personally : " Forgive us our debts ; "
! or whether this gift [of a sinless condition] shall be consummated at the time when " we shall be like Him, when we shall see Him as He is
2 when it shall be said, not by [Christians] militant; " u I see another law in my members, warring against the law
3 but by them when triumphant : " death, where is thy sting ? grave, where is thy victory ? " of my mind,"
4 Now, this is perhaps hardly a question which ought to be discussed between Catholics and heretics, but only among Catholics with a view to a peaceful settlement.
Chap. 56. [xxxi.] How, then, can it be believed that Pelagius (if indeed this epistle is his) could have been sincere, when he acknowledged the grace of God, which is not nature with its free-will, nor the knowledge of the law, nor simply the forgiveness of sins, but a something which is necessary to each of our actions, and when he anathematized everybody who entertained the contrary opinion,—seeing that in his epistle he set forth the
1 Matt. vi. 12. 2 1 Johniii. 2. 3 Rom. vii. 23. 4 1 Cor xv. 55.
5 [This point, however, was definitely settled a "year or two afterwards, at a council held in Carthage. (See its Canons 6-8.) See also, above, the
Preface to the treatise On the Perfection of Man's Righteousness.]
420 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. LVII.
ease wherewith a man could avoid sinning (concerning which no question had arisen at this trial), just as if the judges had come to an agreement to receive even this word, and said nothing about the grace of God, by the acknowledgment and subsequent admission of which [at the trial] he escaped the penalty of condemnation by the Church ?
Chap. 57. [xxxn.] Fraudulent practices pursued by Pelagius in his report of the proceedings in Palestine, in ilie paper wherein he defended himself to
Augustine.
There is yet another point which I must not pass over in silence. In a paper containing his defence which he sent to me by a friend of ours, one Charus, a citizen of
Hippo, but a deacon in the Eastern Church, he has made a statement which is different from what is contained in the
Acts of the Bishops. Now, these formal acts, as regards their contents, are of a far higher and firmer tone, and altogether more straightforward in defending the Catholic verity in opposition to this heretical pestilence. Now, when I read this paper of his, previous to receiving a copy of the Acts, I was not aware that he had put down therein those very words which he had used at the trial, when he was present for himself. There are a few in respect of which there is not much discrepancy, and which do not occasion me much anxiety, [xxxiii.] But I could not help feeling annoy^ ance at the unmistakeable signs he gave of having kept back a defence of sundry sentences of Ccelestius, which he had clearly enough anathematized in the Acts. Now, some of these he disavowed for himself, simply remarking, that
" he was not in any way responsible for them." In his paper, however, he refused to anathematize these same opinions, which are to this effect : " That Adam was created mortal, and that he must have died whether he had sinned or not. That Adam's sin injured only himself, and not the human race. That the law, no less than the gospel, leads us to the kingdom [of heaven]. That new-born infants are in the same condition as Adam was before he fell.
That, on the one hand, the entire human race does not die owing to Adam's death and transgression ; nor, on the other hand, does the whole human race rise again through
CHAP. LVIII.] DUPLICITY OF PELAGIUS. 421 the resurrection of Christ. That infants, even if they die unbaptized, have eternal life. That rich men, even if they are baptized, unless they renounce and give up all, have, whatever good they may seem to have done, nothing of it reckoned to them ; neither shall they possess the kingdom of heaven. Now, in his paper, the answer which he gives to all this is : " These statements have not been all made by me, even on their own showing, nor do I hold myself responsible for them." In the
Acts of the Bishops, however, he expressed himself as follows on these points : " The other points were never advanced by me, as even their testimony goes to show, to whom, however, I do not feel that I am at all answerable for them. But yet, for the satisfaction of the holy synod, I anathematize those who either now hold, or have ever held, these opinions." Now, why did he not express himself thus in his paper also ?
It would not, I suppose, have cost much ink, or writing, or delay ; nor have occupied much of the paper itself, if he had done this. Who, however, can help believing that there is a contrivance in all this, for the purpose of passing off this paper in all directions as an abridgment of the Episcopal
Acts ? In consequence of which, men might think that there had arisen an interference with his right still to maintain any of these opinions which he pleased,—on the ground that they had been simply laid to his charge, but had not received his approbation, although, at the same time, they had not been by him anathematized and condemned.
Chap. 58. He has, moreover, in this same paper, huddled together many of the points which were objected against him. out of the Capitula, or heads, of Ccelestius' book ; nor has he kept distinct, at the intervals which separate them in the
Acts, the two answers in which he anathematized these very heads [before the bishops ; ] but he has substituted one general reply for them all. This, I should have supposed, had been done for the sake of brevity, had I not perceived that he had a very special object in the arrangement which disturbs us. For thus has he closed this answer : " I say again, that these opinions, even according to their own showing, are not mine
422 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. LVIII.
nor, as I have already said, am I to be held responsible for them. The opinions which I have confessed to be my own,
I maintain are sound and correct ; those, however, which I have said are not my own, I reject according to the judgment of this holy synod, pronouncing anathema on every man that opposes and gainsays the doctrines of the holy Catholic Church; and likewise on those who by broaching false opinions have excited odium against us." This last paragraph the Acts do not contain ; it has, however, no bearing on the matter which causes us anxiety. By all means let them have his anathema who have brought him into disrepute by their invention of false doctrine. But, when first I read, "Those opinions which I have said are not my own, I reject in accordance with the judgment of this holy synod," being ignorant that' any judgment had been arrived at on the point by the
Church, since there is here nothing said about it (and I had not then read the Acts, or formal proceedings before the bishops), I really thought that nothing else was meant than that he promised that he would entertain the same view about the Ccqntula of Coelestius as the Church, which had not yet determined the question, might some day decide respecting them ; and that he was ready to reject the opinions which the Church had not yet indeed rejected, but might one clay have occasion to reject ; and that this, too, was the purport of what he further said : " Pronouncing anathema on every man that opposes and gainsays the doctrines of the holy Catholic
Church." But in fact, as the Acts testify, a judgment of the Church had already been pronounced on these subjects by the fourteen bishops ; and it was in accordance with this judgment that he professed to reject all these opinions, and to pronounce his anathema against those persons who, by reason of the said opinions, were contravening the judgment, which had already, as the proceedings show, been actually settled. For already had the judges asked : " What says the monk Pelagius to all these heads of opinion which have been read in his presence ? For this holy synod condemns them, as does also God's holy
Catholic Church." Now, they who know nothing of all this, and only read this paper of his, are led to suppose that some one or other of these opinions may lawfully be maintained,
CHAP. LIX.] PELAGIAXISM, IF NOT PELAGIUS, CONDEMNED. 423 as if they had not been determined to be contrary to Catholic doctrine, and as if Pelagins had declared himself to be ready to hold the same sentiments concerning them as the Church, which had not as yet determined, but might have to determine. He has not, in short, expressed himself in this paper, to which we have so often referred, straightforwardly enough for us to discover the fact, of which we find a voucher in the
Acts, that all those dogmatic assertions which were being stealthily overrun by this same heresy, and were in turn inspiring it with the vigour of a contentious audacity, had really been condemned by fourteen bishops presiding in an ecclesiastical synod. Now, if he was afraid that this fact would become known, as is the case, he has more reason for self-correction than for resentment at the vigilance with which we are watching the controversy to the best of our ability, however late. If, however, it is untrue that he had any such fears, and we are only indulging in a suspicion which is natural to man, let him forgive us_; but, at the same time, let him continue to oppose and resist the opinions which were rejected by him with anathemas in the proceedings before the bishops, when he was on his defence ; for if he now shows any leniency to them, he would run the risk of seeming not only to have believed these opinions formerly, but to be cherishing them still.
Chap. 59. [xxxiv.] AlthougJi Pelagins was acquitted, 7iis heresy was condemned.
ISTow, with respect to this treatise of mine, which perhaps is not unreasonably lengthy, considering the importance and extent of its subject, I have wished to inscribe it to your
Eeverence, in order that, if it be not displeasing to your mind, it may become known to such persons as I have thought to stand in need of it under the recommendation of your authority, which carries so much more weight than our own poor industry. [With such a sanction, I trust that my endeavour will avail] to crush the vain and contentious thoughts of those persons who suppose that, because Pelagius was acquitted, those Eastern bishops who pronounced the judgment approved of those dogmas which are beginning to shed very pernicious influences against the Christian faith, and that
424 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. LX.
grace of God whereby we are called and justified. These the
Christian verity never ceases to condemn, as indeed it condemned them even by the authoritative sentence of the fourteen bishops ; nor would it, on the occasion in question, have hesitated to condemn Pelagius too, unless he had anathematized the heretical opinions with which he was charged. But now, while we render to this man the respect of brotherly affection
we have all along expressed with all sincerity our anxiety for him and interest in him), let us observe, with as much brevity as is consistent with accuracy of observation, that, notwithstanding the undoubted fact of his having been acquitted by a human verdict, the heresy itself has ever been held worthy of condemnation by divine judgment, and has actually been condemned by the sentence of these fourteen bishops of the Eastern Church.
Chap. 60. [xxxv.]
This is the concluding clause of their judgment. The synod said : " Now forasmuch as we have received satisfaction in these inquiries from the monk Pelagius, who has been present ; since he yields assent to godly doctrines, and rejects and anathematizes those which are repugnant to the faith of the Church, we pronounce him still to belong to the communion of the Catholic Church." Now, there are two facts here contained with entire perspicuity in this brief statement of the holy bishops who judged him, concerning the monk Pelagius : one, that " he yields assent to; " the other, that " he rejects and anathegodly doctrines matizes those which are repugnant to the faith of the Church."
On account of these two concessions, Pelagius was pronounced to be " in the communion of the Catholic Church." Let us, in pursuit of our inquiry, briefly recapitulate the entire facts, in order to discover what were the words he used which made those two points so clear, as far as men were able at the moment to form a judgment as to what were manifest points.
In regard, indeed, to the allegations which were made against him, he is said to have rejected and anathematized, as contrary
[to the faith of the Church,] all the statements which in his answer he denied having ever made. Let us, then, summarize the whole case so far as we can.
CHAP. LXII.] CCELESTIUS AND THE COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. 425
Chap. 61. The Pelagian heresy was raised by sundry persons who affected the monastic state.
plished,—" There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you,"
Since the Apostle Paul's prediction must needs be accom-
1—after the promulgation of the older heresies, there has been lately introduced, not by bishops or presbyters, or indeed by any persons of the clerical orders, but by certain men who have affected the monastic life, a heresy which disputatiously resists, under colour of defending our free will, that grace of God which we have through our Lord Jesus Christ, and endeavours to overthrow the foundation of the Christian faith, of which it is written, " Since by one man came death, by one man came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive f
2 and thoroughly denies God's help in our actions, by affirming that, "in order to avoid sin and to fulfil righteousness, human nature has sufficient power, which has been created with a free will ; and that God's grace lies in the fact that we have been so created as to be able [to accomplish so much] by the exercise of our free will; and in the further fact that God has given to us the assistance of His law and commandments, and also in that He forgives their past sins when men turn to Him." In these things alone must God's grace be regarded as consisting, not in the help He gives us for each of our actions ; " seeing that a man can live without sin, and keep
God's commandments easily if he likes."
Chap. 62. Cozlestias condemned at Carthage by episcopal judgment. Pelagius acquitted by bishops in Palestine, in consequence of his deceptive answers; but yet his heresy was condemned by them.
After this heresy had deceived a great many persons, and was still disturbing the brethren whom it had failed to deceive, one Ccelestius, who entertained these sentiments, was brought up for trial before the Church of Carthage, and was condemned by a formal sentence of the bishops there present.
1 1 Cor. xi. 19. 2 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22.
3 This trial was held at Carthage, before the Bishop Aurelius (to whom Augustine dedicated the present treatise), at the beginning of the year 402, as appears from the letter to lnnocentius among Augustine's Epistles, 17u.
426 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. LXII.
A few years afterwards, Pelagius himself, who was said to have been this man's instructor, having been accused of holding his heresy, found his way also before an episcopal
1 The indictment was prepared against him by the tribunal.
Gallican bishops, Heros and Lazarus, who were, however, not present at the proceedings, being excused from attendance owing to the illness of one of them. After the charges were duly recited, and Pelagius had met them by his answers, the fourteen bishops of the province of Palestine were induced by the tenor of his vindication to pronounce him free from the taint of this heresy, although they did not hesitate, at the same time, to condemn the heresy itself. They approved indeed of his answer to one of the objections, that " a man is assisted by a knowledge of the law, towards not sinning; even as it is written, ' He hath given them a law for a help;'" but yet they disapproved of this knowledge of the law being regarded as that grace of God concerning which the Scripture says : " Who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." 3 Nor did,
Pelagius say absolutely : " All men are ruled by their own will," as if God did not rule them ; for he said, when questioned on this point : " This I stated in the interest of the freedom of our will ; God is its helper, whenever it makes choice of God. Man, however, when sinning, is himself in fault, as being under the direction of his free will." They approved, moreover, of his statement, that " in the day of judgment no leniency will be shown to the ungodly and the sinners, but they will be punished in everlasting fires ;" because in his defence he said, " that he had made such an assertion in accordance with the gospel, in which it is written concerning sinners, ' They shall go away into everlasting punish-
4 It must be ment, but the righteous into life eternal.'"
observed here, that he had not said, all sinners are reserved for eternal punishment, for then he would evidently have run counter to the apostle, who distinctly states that some of them
6 When also Pelagius said
will be saved, " yet so as by fire."
1 This happened in the year 415, in the month of December, at Diospolis.
2 Isa. viii. 20 (Septuagint). 3 Kom. vii. 24, 25.
4 Matt. xxv. 46. 5 1 Cor. iii. 15.
CHAP. LXIII.] RECAPITULATORY NOTES. 427 that " the kingdom of heaven was promised even in the Old
Testament/' they approved of the statement, on the ground that he supported himself by the testimony of the prophet
Daniel, who thus wrote : " The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom." * They understood him in this statement of his to mean by the term " Old Testament," not simply the covenant which was made on Mount Sinai, but the entire body of the canonical Scriptures which had been given previous to the coming of the Lord. His allegation, however, that " a man is able to live without sin, if he likes," was not approved by the bishops in the sense which he had evidently meant it to bear in his book—as implying that this attainment of sinlessness was solely in a man's power by reason of his free-will (for it was contended that he must have meant no less than this by his saying: "if he likes"),—but only in the sense which he actually gave to the passage on the present occasion in his answer ; in the very sense, indeed, in which the episcopal judges mentioned the subject in their own interlocution with especial brevity and clearness, that a man is able to live without sin with the help and grace of God. But still it was left undetermined when the saints were to attain to this state of perfection,—whether in the body of this death, or when death shall be swallowed up in victory.
Chap. 63. The dogmas of Coelestius were laid to the charge of Pelaghts, as his master. Of the opinions which were objected against Pelagius, on the ground that they had been dogmatically affirmed, by oral teaching or in writing, by his disciple Coelestius, he acknowledged some as entertained also by himself; but, in his vindication, he said that he held them in a different sense from that which was alleged in the indictment. One of these opinions was thus stated: "Before the advent of Christ some men lived holy and righteous lives." Ccelestius, however, was stated to have said that " they lived sinless lives." Again, it was objected that Coelestius declared " the Church to be without spot and wrinkle." Pelagius, however, said in his reply,
" that he had made such an assertion, but as meaning that the
Church is by the laver of baptism cleansed from every spot
1 Dan. vii. 18.
428 ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. LXIV.
and wrinkle, and that in this purity the Lord would have her continue." Eespecting that statement of Coelestius : " That we do more than is commanded us in the law and the gospel/'
Pelagius urged in his own vindication, that "he spoke concerning that virginity" of which Paul says : " I have no commandment
1 Another objection alleged, that Coelestius had maintained that of the Lord."
every individual has the faculty of possessing c diversity of gifts which the apostle sets forth." Pelagius, however, answered, that all powers and graces, thus annulling that
" he did not annul the diversity of gifts, but declared that God gives to the man who has proved himself worthy to receive them, all graces, even as He conferred them on the Apostle Paul."
Chap. 64. These four dogmas, thus connected with the name of Coelestius, were therefore not approved by the bishops in their judgment, in the sense in which Coelestius was said to have set them forth, but in the sense which Pelagius gave to
1 them in his reply. For they saw clearly enough, that it is one thing to lead a sinless life, and another thing to live holily and righteously, as Scripture testifies that some lived before the coming of Christ. And although the Church here on earth is not without spot or wrinkle, she is yet being cleansed from every spot and wrinkle by the laver of regeneration, and in this state the Lord would have her continue. And continue she certainly will, for without doubt she shall reign without spot or wrinkle in an everlasting felicity. [They saw, too,] that the perpetual virginity, which is not commanded, is unquestionably a greater thing than the purity of wedded life, which is commanded—although virginity is perpetuated in many persons, who, notwithstanding, are not without sin. [And they, moreover, saw] that all those graces were in fact possessed by the Apostle Paul, which he enumerates in a certain passage ; and yet, for all that, they could quite understand, in regard to his having been worthy to receive them, either that the merit was not according to his works, but rather, in some
[mysterious] way, according to [God's] predestination ; (for the apostle says himself : " I am not [worthy, or] meet to be
2 or else their attention was not arrested by called an apostle ;")
1 1 Cor. vii. 25. 2 1 Cor. xv. 9.
CHAP. LXY.] HEADS OF PELAGIAN ERPOP. 429 the sense which Pelagius gave to the word, as he himself viewed it. Such are the points on which the bishops pronounced the agreement of Pelagius with the doctrines of godly truth.
Chap. 65.
Let us now, by a like recapitulation, bestow a little more attention on those subjects which the bishops said he rejected and condemned as contrary to the faith; for herein especially lies the gist of the whole of that heresy. We will entirely pass over the strange terms of adulation which he is reported to have put into writing in praise of a certain widow these expressions he denied having ever inserted in any of his writings, or given utterance to, at any time whatever, while he anathematised all who held the opinions in question not indeed as heretics, but as simpletons. The following are the:—" That wild thickets of this heresy, which we are sorry to see shooting out buds, nay growing into trees, day by day was made mortal, and must have died whether he had
IAdam sinned or not ; that Adam's sin injured only himself, and not the human race ; that the law no less than the gospel leads us to the kingdom [of heaven] ; that new-born infants are in the same condition as Adam was before he fell; that the whole human race does not, on the one hand, die in consequence of Adam's death and transgression ; nor, on the other hand, does the whole human race rise acrain through the resurrection of Christ ; that infants, even if they die unbaptized, have eternal life ; that rich men, even if baptized, unless they renounce and surrender everything, have (whatever good they may seem to have done) nothing of it reckoned to them neither can they possess the kingdom of God ; that God's grace and assistance are not given for single actions, but are imparted in the freedom of the will, and in the law and in doctrine ; that the grace of God is bestowed according to our merits, so that grace really lies at the control of a man's own will, as he makes himself worthy or unworthy of it ; that men cannot be called children of God, unless they have become entirely free from sin; that oblivion and ignorance are no underlying elements of sin, as they do not happen through the will, but occur of necessity; that the will cannot be free, if it requires the help of God ; inasmuch as every one in the pos-
430 ON THE PEOCEEDINGS OF PELAGIUS. [CHAP. LXVL
session of his proper will has either something to do, or to abstain from doing ; that our victory comes not from God's,' help, but from our own free will ; that from the circumstance i of [the Apostle] Peter's saying, that ' we are partakers of the x it must follow that the soul has the power
J divine nature,'
Vof being without sin, just in the way that God Himself has." For no less than this have I read in the eleventh chapter of the book, which bears no title of its author, but is commonly reported to be the work of Coelestius,—in words to this effect
" Now how can anybody," asks the author, " become a 'partaker of the thing from the condition and power of which he is distinctly declared to be a stranger ? " Accordingly, the brethren who prepared these objections understood him to have said that man's soul and God are of the self-same nature, and to have asserted that the soul is a portion of God ; for they took him to mean that the soul partakes of the same condition and power as God. Moreover, in the last of the f objections laid to his charge there occurs this position : " That pardon is not given to penitents according to the grace and mercy of God, but according to their own merits and effort, since through repentance they have been worthy of mercy."
l Now all these dogmas, and the arguments which were advanced in support of them, were repudiated and anathematised by Pelagius, and his conduct herein was approved of by the judges, who accordingly pronounced that he had, by his rejection and anathema, condemned the opinions in question as contrary to the faith. Let us therefore rejoice—whatever may be the circumstances of the case, whether Coelestius laid down these theses or not, or whether Pelagius believed them or not—that the injurious principles of this new heresy were condemned before that ecclesiastical tribunal ; and let us thank God for such a result, and proclaim His praises.
Chap. 66.— The harsh measures of the Pelagians against the holy monies and nuns who belonged to Jerome's charge.
There is another point [connected with this narrative] which concerns the conduct of sundry followers of Pelagius who carried their support of his cause after these judicial proceedings to an incredible extent of perverseness and audacity. They
1 2 Pet. i. 4.
CHAP. LXVI.] PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF PELAGIANS. 431
1 to have most cruelly beaten and maltreated the serare said vants and handmaidens of the Lord who lived under the care of the holy presbyter Jerome, slain his deacon, and burnt his monastic houses ; whilst he himself, by God's mercy, narrowly escaped the violent attacks of these impious assailants in the shelter of a well-defended fortress. However, I think it better becomes me to say nothing of these matters, but to wait and see what measures our brethren the bishops may deem it their duty to adopt concerning such scandalous enormities ; for nobody can suppose that it is possible for them to pass them over without notice. Impious doctrines put forth by persons of this character it is no doubt the duty of all Catholics, however remote their residence, to oppose and refute, and so to hinder all injury from such opinions wheresoever they may happen to find their way ; but impious actions it belongs to the discipline of the episcopal authority on the spot to control ; and they must be left for punishment to the bishops of the very place or immediate neighbourhood, to be dealt with as pastoral diligence and godly severity may suggest. We, therefore, who live at so great a distance, are bound to hope that such a stop may there be put to proceedings of this kind, that there may be no necessity elsewhere of further invoking judicial remedies. But what rather befits our personal activity is so to set forth the truth, that the minds of all those who have been severely wounded by the report, so widely spread everywhere, may be healed by the mercy of God following our efforts. "With this desire, I must now at last terminate this work, which, should it succeed, as I hope, in commending itself to your mind, will
I trust, with the Lord's blessing, become serviceable to its readers—recommended to them, [Aurelius], rather by your name than by my own, and through your care and diligence receiving a far wider circulation.
1 [He here refers to a letter (32) of Pope Innocent to John, Bishop of Jerusalem.
It thus commences: "Plunder, slaughter, incendiary fire, every atrocity of the maddest kind have been deplored by the noble and holy virgins Eustochium and
Paula, as having been perpetrated, at the devil's instigation, in several places of your diocese," etc. An epistle by the same writer (33) addressed to Jerome, begins with these words: "The apostle testifies that contention never did any good to the Church."]
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