each of our actions," — " seeing that a man can be without sin, and keep God's commandments easily if he wishes."
CHAP. 62. — THE HISTORY CONTINUED. CCELESTIUS CONDEMNED AT CARTHAGE BY EPISCOPAL JUDG- MENT. PEL.AGIUS ACQUITI'ED BY BISHOPS IN PAL- ESTINE, IN CONSEQUENCE OF HIS DECEPTIVE AN- SWERS; BUT YET HIS HERESY WAS CONDEMNED BY THEM.
After this heresy had deceived a great many persons, and was 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 sentence of the bishops.' Then, a few years afterwards, Pelagius, who was said to have been this man's instructor, having fi been accused of holding his heresy, found also his way before an episcopal tribunal.^ The indictment was prepared against him by the Galilean bishops, Heros and Lazarus, who were, however, not present at the proceedings, and were excused from attendance owing to the illness of one of them. After all the charges were duly recited, and Pelagius had met them by his answers, the fourteen bishops of the province of Palestine pronounced him, in accordance with his answers, free from the perversity of this heresy; while yet without hesitation condemning the heresy itself. They approved indeed of his answer to 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; '"3 but yet they disapproved of this knowledge of the law being that grace of God concerning which the Scripture says: " Who shall deliver me from.the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord."-* 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 good.
Man, however, when sinning, is himself in fault, as being under the direction of his free will." 5 They approved, moreover, of his statement, that " in the day of judgment no forbearance will be shown to the ungodly and sinners, but they will j be punished in everlasting fires; " because in i his defence he said, " that he had made such an assertion in accordance with the gospel, in which it is written concerning sinners, ' These shall go ' This trial was held at Carthage, before the Bishop Aiirelius (to whom Augustin dedicated the present treatise), at the beginning of the year 412, as appears from the letter to Innocentius among Augustm's E/>istles, 175, Nos. i and 6.
2 This happened in the year 415, in the month of December, at Diospolis.
^ Isa. viii. 20. See above, 2.
away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.'"^ But he did not say, a/i sinners are reserved for eternal punishment, for then he would evidently have run counter to the apostle, who distinctly states that some of them will be saved, " yet so as by fire." ' When also Pelagius said 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 shall take the kingdom of the Most High."^ They understood him, in this statement of his, to mean by the term " Old Testament," not simply the Testament 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 be without sin, if he wishes," was not approved by the bishops in the sense which he had evidently meant it to bear in his book 9 — as if this was solely in a man's power by free will (for it was contended that he must have meant no less than this by his saying: " if he wishes"), — 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 be 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 SAME CONTINUED. THE DOGMAS OF CCELESTIUS LAID TO THE CHARGE OF PELA- GIUS, AS HIS MASTER, AND CONDEMNED.
Of the opinions which Ccelestius has said or written, and which were objected against Pelagius, on the ground that they were the dogmas of his disciple, 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 Ccelestius 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 cleansed from every spot and wrinkle, and that in this purity the Lord would have her continue." Respecting that statement <> Matt. XXV. 46. See above, 9. ^ Dan. vii. 18. See above, 13. '° See above, 26.
Chap. 65.]
21 1 of Ccfilestius: " That we do more than is commanded us in the law and the gospel," Pelagius urged in his own vindication,' that "he spoke: concerning virginity," of which Paul says: "I have no commandment of the lx>n\." ^ Another objection alleged that Ccelestius had maintained ^ that '• every individual has the ability to possess all powers and graces," thus annulling that " diversity of gifts " which the apostle sets forth. ^ Pelagius, however, answered, 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 gave the Apostle Paul."
CHAP. 64. — HOW THE BISHOPS CLEARED PELAGIUS OF THOSE CHARGES.
These four dogmas, thus connected with the name of Ccelestius, were therefore not approved by the bishops in their judgment, in the sense in which Ccelestius was said to have set them forth, but in the sense which Pelagius gave to them in his reply. For they saw clearly enough, that it is one thing to be without sin, and another thing to live holily and righteously, as Scripture testifies that some lived even before the coming of Christ. And that although the Church here on earth is not without spot or wrinkle, she is yet both 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. And that the perpetual virginity, which is not commanded, is unquestionably more than the purity of wedded life, which is commanded — although virginity is persevered in by many persons, who, notwithstanding, are not without sin. And that all those graces which he enumerates in a certain passage were possessed by the Apostle Paul; and yet, for all that, either they could quite understand, in regard to his having been worthy to receive them, that the merit was not according to his works, but rather, in some way, according to predestination ( for the apostle says himself: " I am not meet to be called an apostle;") '* or else their attention was not arrested by 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. — RECAPITULATION OF WHAT PELAGIUS CONDEMNED.
Let us now, by a like recapitulation, bestow a little more attention on those subjects which the bishops said he rejected and condemned as " con- ^ I Cor. vii. 25.
3 See above, 32.
trary; " for herein especially lies 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 he denied having ever inserted in any of his writings, or ever given utterance to, and he anathematized all who held the opinions in question not indeed as heretics, but as fools.' The following are the wild thickets of this heresy, which we are sorry to see shooting out buds, nay growing into trees, day by day: — " That '' Adam was made mortal, and would 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 to the kingdom; that new-born infants are in the same condition that Adam was before the transgression; 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 again 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 7 God's grace and assistance are not given for single actions, but reside in free will, and in the law and teaching; that the grace of God is bestowed according to our merits, so tliat grace really lies in the will of man, 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 forgetfulness and ignorance do not come under sin, as they do not happen through the will, but of necessity; that there is no free will, if it needs the help of God, inasmuch as every one has his proper will either to do something, or to abstain from doing it; that our victory comes not from God's help, but from free will; that from what Peter says, that ' we are partakers of the divine nature,' ^ it must follow that the soul has the power of being without sin, just in the way that God Himself has." For 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 Ccelestius, — expressed in these words: " 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 same nature, and to have asserted that the soul is part of God; for thus they understood that he meant that the soul partakes of the 6 See above, 24.
7 See above, 30.
[Chap. 66.
same condition and power as God. Moreover, in the last of the 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." Now all these dogmas, and the arguments which were advanced in support of them, were repudiated and anathematized 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 PELA- GUNS AGAINST THE HOLY MONKS AND NUNS WHO BELONGED TO JEROME'S CHARGE.
Certain followers of Pelagius are said to have carried their support of his cause after these judicial proceedings to an incredible extent of perverseness and audacity. They are said ' to have most cruelly beaten and maltreated the servants and handmaidens of the Lord who lived under the care of the holy presbyter Jerome, ' 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."
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 sug' gest. 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 rather by your name than by my own, and through your care and diligence receiving a wider circulation.
A TREATISE ON THE GRACE OF GHRIST, AND ON ORIGINAL SIN.
Book II. Chap. 50, "DE GRATIA CHRISTI, ET DE PECCATO ORIGINALI."
" After the conviction and condemnation ' of tlie Pelagian heresy with its authors by the bishops of the Church of Rome, — first Innocent, and then Zosimus, — with tlie co-operation of letters of African councils, I wrote two books against them: one On the Grace of Christ, and ' From this it follows that we must refer his books On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin to the year 418; for it was in this year that the Pelagian heresy was condemned by the pope Zosimus. Somewhat earlier there was held a general council of the bishops of Africa at Carthage, to take measures against the heresy, — the precise date of which council is May ist of this year 418. Augustin, on account of this council, was detained at Carthage, and his stay in that city was longer than usual, as one may learn from the g4th canon of the council, or from the Codex Cajtomtin of the Church of Africa, canon 127, as well as from his epistle (193, sec. i) to Mercator. And it was in this interval of time, before lie started for Mauritania the other Oji Oy-iginal Sin. The work began with the following words: ' How greatly we rejoice on account of your bodily, and, above all, because of your spiritual welfare.' " Csesariensis, that he wrote these two books for Albina, Pinianus, and Melania; accordingly, in his Retractations, he places them just previous to the time of his proceedings with Emeritus, which were concluded at Csesarea on the 20th of September in this very year 418. Julianus, in his work addressed to Turbanlius. calumniously attacked a passage in the book On the Grace of Christ; the passage is defended by Augustin in his work against Julianus, iv. 8. 47, where he mentions this first book, addressed to the holy Pinianns, as he calls him, and gives its title as " Concerning Grace, in opposition to Pelagius." [Albina, with her son-in-law Pinianus, and her daughter Melania, by whose questions Augustin was led to write this work, constituted an interesting family of ascetics, which had formerly lived in Africa, but at this time were in Palestine; Pinianus at the head of a monastery, and his wife an inmate of a convent. — W.]
CONTENTS OF THE TREATISE "ON THE GRACE OF CHRIST.
AND ON ORIGINAL SIN."
1. Introductory 217 2. Suspicious character of Pelagius' confession as to the necessity of grace for every SINGLE act of OURS 2l8 3. Grace according to the Pelagians 218 4. Pelagius' system of faculties 218 5. Pelagius' own account of the faculties, quoted 218 6. Pelagius and Paul of different opinions 219 7. Pelagius posits God's aid only for our "capacity" 219 8. Grace, according to the Pelagians, consists in the interImal and manifold illumination OF the mind 220 9. The law one thing, grace another. The utility of the law 220 10. What purpose the law subserves 221 11. Pelagius' definition of how God helps us: "He promises us future glory" 221 12. The same continued: "He reveals wisdom" 222 13. Grace causes us to do 222 14. The righteousness which is of God, and the righteousness which is of the law...222 15. He who has keen taught by grace actually comes to Christ 223 16. We need divine aid in the use of our powers. Illustration from sight 223 17. Does Pelagius designedly refrain from openly saying that all good action is from God? 224 18. He discovers the reason of Pelagius' hesitation so to say 224 19. The two roots of action, love and cupidity; and each brings forth its own fruit.. 224 20. How a man makes a good or a bad tree. 224 21. Love the root of all good things; cupidity, of all evil ones 225 22. Love is a good will 225 23. Pelagius' double dealing concerning the ground of the conferrence of grace...225 24. Pelagius places free will at the basis of all turning to God for grace 226 25. God by His wonderful power works in our hearts good dispositions of our will.. 226 26. The Pelagian grace of "capacity" exploded. The Scripture teaches the need of God's help in doing, speaking, and thinking, alike 227 27. What true grace is, and wherefore given. Merits do not precede grace 227 28. Pelagius teaches that Satan may be resisted without the help of the grace of God, 228 29. When he speaks of God's help, he means it only to help us do what without it we still could do 22S 30. What Pelagius thinks is needful for ease of performance is really necessary for THE performance 228 31. Pelagius and Ccelestius nowhere really acknowledge grace 228 32. Why the Pelagians deemed prayers to be necessary. The letter which Pelagius despatched to Pope Innocent with an exposition of his belief 228 33. Pelagius professes nothing on the subject of grace which may not be understood of the law and teaching.. 229 34. Pelagius says that grace is given according to men's merits. The beginning, however, of merit is FAITH; AND THIS IS A GRATUITOUS GIFT, NOT A RECOMPENSE FOR OUR MERITS, 229 35. Pelagius believes that infants have no sin to be remitted in baptism 230 36. Ccelestius openly declares infants to have no original sin 230 37. Pelagius nowhere admits the need of divine help for will and action 230 38. A definition of the grace of Christ by Pelagius 230 39. A letter of Pelagius unknown to Augustin 231 40. The help of grace placed by Pelagius in the mere revelation of teaching 231 41. Restoration of nature understood by Pelagius as forgiveness of sins 231 42. Grace placed by Pelagius in the remission of sins and the example of Christ...231 43. The forgiveness of sins and example of Christ held by Pelagius enough to save the most hardened sinner 232 44. Pelagius once more guards himself against the necessity of grace 232 45. To WHAT purpose Pelagius thought prayers ought to be offered 232 46. Pelagius professes to respect the catholic authors 233 47. Ambrose most highly praised by Pelagius 233 48. Ambrose is not in agreement with Pelagius 233 2i6 CONTENTS.
49. Ambrose teaches with what eye Christ turned and looked upon Peter 234 50. Ambrose teaches that all men need God's help 234 51. Amkrose teaches that it is God that does for man what Pelagius attributes to free WILL 234 52. If Pelagius agrees with Ambrose, Augustin has no controversy with him 235 53. In what sense some men may be said to live without sin in the present life...235 54. Ambrose teaches that no one is sinless in this world 235 55. Ambrose witnesses that perfect purity is impossible to human nature 236 1. Caution needed in attending to Pelagius' deliverances on infant baptism 237 2. Cgelestius, on his trial at Carthage, refuses to condemn his error; the written statement which he gave to Zosimus 237 3. Part of the proceedings of the council of Carthage against Ccelestius 237 4. Ccelestius concedes baptism for infants, without affirming original sin...238 5. Ccelestius' book which was produced in the proceedings at rome 238 6. Ccelestius the disciple is in this work bolder than his master 239 7. Pope Zosimus kindly excuses him 239 8. Ccelestius condemned by Zosimus 239 9. Pelagius deceived the council in Palestine, but was unable to deceive the church at ROME 239 10. The judgment of Innocent respecting the proceedings in Palestine 240 11. How that Pelagius deceived the synod of Palestine 240 12. A portion of the proceedings of the synod of Palestine in the cause of Pelagius.. 240 13. Ccelestius the bolder heretic; Pelagius the more subtle 241 14. He shows that, even after the synod of Palestine, Pelagius held the same opinions AS Ccelestius on the subject of original sin 241 15. Pelagius by his mendacity and deception stole his acquittal from the synod in Palestine 242 16. Pelagius' fraudulent and crafty excuses 242 17. How Pelagius deceived his judges 242 18. The condemnation of Pelagius 243 19. Pelagius' attempt to deceive the Apostolic See; he inverts the bearings of the controversy 243 20. Pelagius provides a refuge for his falsehood in ambiguous subterfuges 244 21. Pelagius avoids the question as to why baptism is necessary for infants 244 22. Another instance of Pelagius' ambiguity 244 23. What he means by our birth to an "uncertain" life 244 24. Pelagius' long residence at rome 245 25. The condemnation of Pelagius and Ccelestius 245 26. The Pelagians maintain that raising questions about original sin does not endanger the faith 245 27. On questions outside the faith — what they are, and instances of the same...246 28. The heresy of Pelagius and Ccelestius aims at the very foundations of our faith.. 246 29. The righteous men who lived in the time of the law were for all that not under the law, but under grace. The grace of the New Testament hidden under the Old 247 30. Pelagius and Ccelestius deny that the ancient saints were saved by Christ...248 31. Christ's incarnation was of avail to the fathers, even though it had not yet happened 248 32. He shows by the example of Abraham that the ancient saints believed in the incarnation OF Christ 248 33. How Christ is our mediator 249 34. No man ever saved save by Christ 249 35. Why the circumcision of infants was enjoined under pain of so great a punishment. 249 36. The Platonists' opinion about the existence of the soul previous to the body rejected 250 37. In what sense Christ is called "sin"..• 250 38. Original sin does not render marriage evil 250 39. Three things good and laudable in matrimony 251 40. Marriage existed before sin was committed. How God's blessing operated in our FIRST parents "i.. 25I 41. Lust and travail come from sin. Whence our members became a cause of shame.. 252 42. The EVIL of lust ought not to be ascribed to marriage. The three good results of THE nuptial ordinance: offspring, chastity, and the sacramental union 252 43. Human offspring, even previous to birth, under condemnation at the very root. Uses of matrimony undertaken for mere pleasure not without venial fault 252 44. Even the children of the regenerate born in sin. The effect of baptism 253 45. Man's deliverance suited to the character of his captivity 253 46. Difficulty of believing original sin. Man's vice is a beast's nature 254 47. Sentences from Ambrose in favour of original sin 254 48. Pelagius rightly condemned and really opposed by Ambrose 255 J A TREATISE ON THE GRACE OF CHRIST. AND ON ORIGINAL SIN.
BY A UR ELI US AUGUSTIN, BISHOP OF HIPPO; In Two Books, WRITTEN AGAINST PELAGIUS AND CCELESTIUS IN THE YEAR A.D. 418.
WHEREIN HE SHOWS THAT PELAGIUS IS DISINGENUOUS IN HIS CONFESSION OF GRACE, INASMUCH AS HE PLACES GRACE EITHER IN NATURE AND FREE WILL, OR IN LAW AND TEACHING; AND, MOREOVER, ASSERTS THAT IT IS MERELY THE " POS-SIBILITY" (as he CALLS it) OF WILL AND ACTION, AND NOT THE WILL AND ACTION ITSELF, WHICH IS ASSISTED BY DIVINE GRACE; AND THAT THIS ASSIST-ING GRACE, TOO, IS GIVEN BY GOD ACCORDING TO MEN's MERITS; WHILST HE FURTHER THINKS THAT THEY ARE SO ASSISTED FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF BEING ABLE THE MORE EASILY TO FULFIL THE COMMANDMENTS. AUGUSTIN EXAMINES THOSE PASSAGES OF HIS WRITINGS IN WHICH HE BOASTED THAT HE HAD BESTOWED EXPRESS COMMENDATION ON THE GRACE OF GOD, AND POINTS OUT HOW THEY CAN BE INTERPRETED AS REFERRING TO LAW AND TEACHING, IN OTHER WORDS, TO THE DIVINE REVELATION AND THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST WHICH ARE ALIKE INCLUDED IN "THE TEACHING," — OR ELSE TO THE REMISSION OF SINS; NOR DO THEY AFFORD ANY EVIDENCE WHATEVER THAT PELAGIUS REALLY ACKNOWLEDGED CHRISTIAN GRACE, IN THE SENSE OF HELP RENDERED FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF RIGHT ACTION TO NATURAL FACULTY AND INSTRUC-TION, BY THE INSPIRATION OF A MOST GLOWING AND LUMINOUS LOVE; AND HE CONCLUDES WITH A REQUEST THAT PELAGIUS WOULD SERIOUSLY LISTEN TO AMBROSE, WHOM HE IS SO VERY FOND OF QUOTING, IN HIS EXCELLENT EULOGY IN COMMENDATION OF THE GRACE OF GOD.
How greatly we rejoice on account of jour bodily, and, above all, your spiritual welfare, my most sincerely attached brethren and beloved of God, Albina, Pinianus, and Melania," we cannot express in words; we therefore leave all this to ' [See note to the passage from \\\^ Retractations above; and for full accounts, see Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography, under these names. — W. j your own thoughts and belief, in order that we may now rather speak of the matters on which you consulted us. We have, indeed, had to compose these words to the best of the ability which God has vouchsafed to us, while our messenger was in a hurry to be gone, and amidst many occupations, which are much more absorbing to me at Carthage than in any other place whatever.
ai7 2l8 [Book I.
ai7 2l8 [Book I.
CHAP. 2 [ll.] — SUSPICIOUS CHARACTER OF PELA- GIUS' CONFESSION AS TO THE NECESSITY OF GRACE FOR EVERY SINGLE ACT OF OURS.