32.—Why the Pelagians Deemed Prayers to Be Necessary. The Letter Which Pelagius Despatched to Pope Innocent with an Exposition of His Belief.

Now I will say nothing at present about the works of Cœlestius, or those tracts of his which he produced in those ecclesiastical proceedings,83    Augustin again mentions a short treatise by Cœlestius produced by him at Rome in some proceedings of the church there, below, in ch. 36 (xxxiii.), and also in his work De Peccato Originali, chs. 2 and 5 (ii., v.), etc. Those acts of the Roman church were drawn up (as Augustin testifies in his Contra duas Epistolas Pelagianorum, ii. 3, “when Cœlestius was present to answer charges laid against him”) in the time of Pope Zosimus, A.D. 417. copies of the whole of which we have taken care to send to you, along with another letter which we deemed it necessary to add. If you carefully examine all these documents, you will observe that he does not posit the grace of God, which helps us whether to avoid evil or to do good, beyond the natural choice of the will, but only in the law and teaching. Thus he even asserts that their very prayers are necessary for the purpose of showing men what to desire and love. All these documents, however, I may omit further notice of at present; for Pelagius himself has lately forwarded to Rome both a letter and an exposition of his belief, addressing it to Pope Innocent, of blessed memory, of whose death he was ignorant. Now in this letter he says that “there are certain subjects about which some men are trying to vilify him. One of these is, that he refuses to infants the sacrament of baptism, and promises the kingdom of heaven to some, independently of Christ’s redemption. Another of them is, that he so speaks of man’s ability to avoid sin as to exclude God’s help, and so strongly confides in free will that he repudiates the help of divine grace.” Now, as touching the perverted opinion he holds about the baptism of infants (although he allows that it ought to be administered to them), in opposition to the Christian faith and catholic truth, this is not the place for us to enter on an accurate discussion, for we must now complete our treatise on the assistance of grace, which is the subject we undertook. Let us see what answer he makes out of this very letter to the objection which he has proposed concerning this matter. Omitting his invidious complaints about his opponents, we approach the subject before us; and find him expressing himself as follows.

32. Nam ut de Coelestii opusculis interim taceam, vel libellis ejus, quos judiciis ecclesiasticis allegavit , quae vobis omnia, cum aliis quas necessarias existimavimus litteris, mittenda curavimus, quibus omnibus diligenter inspectis, possitis advertere, non eum ponere Dei gratiam, qua juvamur, vel ad declinandum a malo, vel ad faciendum bonum, praeter naturale arbitrium 0376 voluntatis, nisi in lege atque doctrina; ita ut ipsas quoque orationes ad hoc asserat necessarias, ut ostendatur homini quid concupiscat et diligat: ut ergo haec interim omittam, nempe ipse Pelagius et litteras nuper et libellum Romam fidei suae misit, scribens ad beatae memoriae papam Innocentium, quem defunctum esse nesciebat. In his ergo litteris dicit, «Esse de quibus eum homines infamare conantur: unum, quod neget parvulis Baptismi sacramentum, et absque redemptione Christi aliquibus coelorum regna promittat; aliud, quod ita dicat posse hominem vitare peccatum, ut Dei excludat auxilium, et in tantum libero confidat arbitrio, ut gratiae repudiet adjutorium.» Sed de Baptismo parvulorum, quamvis eis dandum esse concedat, quam perverse contra fidem christianam et catholicam sentiat veritatem, non hic locus est ut diligentius disseramus: nunc enim de adjutorio gratiae quod instituimus peragendum est. Unde ad id quod proposuit, quid etiam hinc respondeat videamus. Ut enim omittamus ejus invidiosas de suis inimicis querelas, ubi ad rem ventum est, ita locutus est.