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415 - Pelagianism

Pelagianism was an influential school which sprang up early in the fifth century, and which derived its appellation from its founder Pelagius. Its distinctive feature was the denial of original sin and its consequences. The exact time and place of his birth are uncertain. There is no historical ground for the belief that Pelagius resided in early life in Eastern Europe, or that he is to be identified with a monk of the same name whom St. Chrysostom alludes to as having gone astray [Chryeost. Ep. iv. torn. iii. p. 667] ; it seems to have been based on his acquaintance with the Greek language, his oriental tone of thought, and the intellectual rather than practical character of the heresy, all of which may be only proofs of the intimate connection which early existed between the British and Eastern Churches.

Towards the close of the fourth century he left Britain for Italy, and took up his quarters at Rome, where he became acquainted with several of the leading ecclesiastics of the time; among them the saintly Paulinus, afterwards Bishop of Istola [AD 409-421]; Eusinus of Aquileia ; Caelestius, variously described as an Italian or a Scotchman, his future companion in thought and travel, and almost equally famous with himself. In the year 411, after the sack of Rome by the Goths under Alaric, Pelagius and Caelestius left Italy in company for Africa, where, after a very few years together, Felagius left his companion encountering the strong opposition of the African prelates, and took up his abode in Palestine, where he first found a friend and then a foe in Jerome, at that time resident in Bethlehem.

Pelagius had by this time acquired both a fame for his learning and a reputation for his piety. This is frequently and candidly admitted by St. Augustine, and is attested by the fact that he was requested by Juliana, a noble Roman lady of the Anician family, then an exile in Africa, to write a letter to her daughter Demetrias on her profession of virginity. In this letter, which is extant among Jerome's works, he for the first time expressed his views in print in such, a manner as to cause letters of remonstrance and confutation to be composed by St. Augustine, and Alypius, Bishop of Tagaste.

Soon afterwards [AD 415], he was publicly accused of heresy by Paulus Orosius, a young Spanish ecclesiastic sent into Palestine by St. Augustine, nominally to study under Jerome, but in reality to raise opposition against the teaching of Pelagius. The synod before which the charge was investigated was held at Jerusalem, and presided over by its bishop John, who was extremely partial, if not friendly to the accused, and inclined to resent the vehement conduct of Orosius. Much difficulty was caused by the inability of Orosius to speak Greek and of the Council to speak Latin, while Pelagius, who was acquainted with both languages, was placed in a position of advantage. It was eventually resolved to refer the whole controversy to Pope Innocent I, which was tantamount to shelving it at least for the present. But it was not to sleep.

About this time Jerome published his three books against Pelagianism, in the form of dialogues between Atticus and Critobulus, the former a Catholic and the latter a Pelagian. A fresh accusation was laid against him within the same year, at the instance of Heros of Aries and Lazarus of Aix (Aqua1), two deposed Gallican bishops, before Eulogius, metropolitan of Cseearea. A synod of fourteen bishops was held at Diospolis (Lydda) for its investigation - the Synodue Miserabilis of Jerome [Epist. 79, edit. Vellars]. Neither of the accusers appeared, pleading illness as an excuse. Orosius also was absent, and Pelagius, skilled in controversial tactics, succeeded in securing his own acquittal on consenting to disavow the opinions held by Caelestius, and condemned at the Synod of Carthage [AD 412]. Even this he did in an equivocal manner. In the first place, he would only find fault with them as foolish instead of erroneous ; in the second place, he adopted hypothetical language, "whether these are Caelestius' sayings or not, let them look to it that say they are his. I never held so, and I do anathematize any one that so holds." Pelagius was very pleased with this result ; he wrote exultingly to announce it to St. Augustine, and was encouraged to bring out his work on Free-will.

But the African Church was not content with the verdict of the small assemblage of Diospolis. Several synods were convoked, one at Carthage attended by sixty-eight bishops, another at Milevurn by sixty-one bishops ; at both, in consequence mainly of information afforded by Orosius, Pelagius was condemned, and Pope Innocent I, on being appealed to by such leading prelates as St. Augustine of Hippo, Alypius of Tagaste, and Aurelius of Carthage, yet without asking or receiving any explanation from the Pelagian party, confirmed their verdict.

But in the next year Innocent died [AD 417], and was succeeded on the papal chair by Zosinius. Colestius forthwith appeared at Rome with letters in his favour from Prayllius. who had lately succeeded John in the see of Jerusalem, and Pelagius. He was granted several private interviews, at which he tried to persuade the new pope that certain of Pelagius' views about original sin were mere superfluous speculations [St. Aug. Opp. vol. x. app. p. 97],and in proof of whose orthodoxy he presented a long creed, the two last clauses of which are here quoted, to prove in how nearly orthodox language the Pelagians were ready to express their views on free-will, and how humble an attitude they were ready to assume before a favorable pope.

The Pelagian party thus fortified, and with this professed readiness to anathematize all that was condemned by the papal see, succeeded in carrying their point. Zosimus declared their orthodoxy unimpeachable, and addressed a circular letter to the whole African episcopate, demanding either that their accusers should appear personally at Rome within two months or that the charges should be abandoned. But the dogma of papal infallibility having not yet been invented, the decree of Zosimus did not meet with unquestioning acquiescence or respect. In the East, Theodotus, liishop of Antioch, held a synod at Jerusalem, to which Pelagius was cited, and where his views were condemned. In Africa, Aurelias, Bishop of Carthage, refused to comply ;th the directions of Zosimus, and was supported in this course not only by two local synods but also by a third and provincial council, attended by two hundred and fourteen bishops, who, after asserting their independence of Italy, proceeded to pass nine canons in condemnation.

When news of these various proceedings reached Rome, whither also the Carthaginian canons had been despatched, the papal policy changed, and both the civil and ecclesiastical authorities combined in condemnation of Pelagius. Several edicts were issued by the Emperor, apparently at the request of the North African bishops, one of them being addressed to Aureliua himself. Theodosius and Honorius agreed to publish a joint rescript banishing Pelagius and Coelestius and all who held their views. Zosimus, too, excommunicated them, not without being justly taunted for his tergiversation by the condemned party, and ineffectually whitewashed by the more orthodox writers. The majority of the Italian bishops acquiesced in this decision, but nineteen who refused to subscribe the papal document were deposed from their sees, among them one who became a leading controversialist on the Pelagian side, Julian, Bishop of Eclanum1, against whom Augustine wrote six books, and whose remonstrance against the arbitrary character of these proceedings is still partially extant in the form of a letter addressed ?? him to Rufinus, Bishop of Thessalonica.

The ejected party next demanded, but unsuccessfully, a general council to decide the question, in a letter declaratory of their faith, composed by Julian, and addressed to the Pope. Baffled on this point they appealed for sympathy in more distant places, Constantinople, Ephesus, Thessalonica, but were everywhere condemned, especially at a synod held in Cilicia [AD 423], and presided over by Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia [a.d. 392-428]. The latter appears, however, betöre his death to have inclined to Pelagian views, and to have been the author of a book, of which an abstract is given by Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople [AD 858-891], entitled, "Against them that say men sin by nature and not by will," and from a careful analysis of whose system Neandcr proves its identity in many points with Pelagianism.

Pelagianism received its "coup de grace" at the third General Council of Ephesus [A.D. 431], being alluded to in the Synodical Letter prefixed to the acts of that assembly, and in the first and fourth canons, the latter of which runs thus : " The holy Synod gives it in charge that all who fall away, and either publicly or privately adhere to the opinions of Nestorius and Ccelestius, be deposed." Throughout the remainder of this century occasional allusions are found to the continued existence of the views thus condemned.

Nothing is known with certainty of the time or place or manner of the death of Pelagius himself. By some that event is placed in AD 418, by others a few years later, while others maintain that he lingered on for a long time after his excommunication in obscurity. There seems to be no historical ground for the vague expression of Sianda and other lexicographers, "miserabiliter decessit." It has been supposed that he revisited Britain, but this rests only on the slender ground that Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, Bishop of Troyes, were sent over to England [AD 429] to combat the growing tendency to Pelagianism [Bede, Eccl. Hint. üb. i. 17].