On the Proceedings of Pelagius

 1.—Introduction.

 2. [I.]—The First Item in the Accusation, and Pelagius’ Answer.

 3.—Discussion of Pelagius’ First Answer.

 4. [II.]—The Same Continued.

 5. [III.]—The Second Item in the Accusation And Pelagius’ Answer.

 6.—Pelagius’ Answer Examined.

 7.—The Same Continued.

 8.—The Same Continued.

 9.—The Third Item in the Accusation And Pelagius’ Answer.

 10.—Pelagius’ Answer Examined. On Origen’s Error Concerning the Non-Eternity of the Punishment of the Devil and the Damned.

 11.—The Same Continued.

 12. [IV.]—The Fourth Item in the Accusation And Pelagius’ Answer.

 13. [V.]—The Fifth Item of the Accusation And Pelagius’ Answer.

 14.—Examination of This Point. The Phrase “Old Testament” Used in Two Senses. The Heir of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament There Were Heirs of

 15.—The Same Continued.

 16. [VI.]—The Sixth Item of the Accusation, and Pelagius’ Reply.

 17.—Examination of the Sixth Charge and Answers.

 18.—The Same Continued.

 19.—The Same Continued.

 20.—The Same Continued. Pelagius Acknowledges the Doctrine of Grace in Deceptive Terms.

 [VII.] and for the obtaining of which we pray that we may not be led into temptation. This grace is not nature, but that which renders assistance to f

 21. [VIII.]—The Same Continued.

 21. [IX.]—The Same Continued.

 22. [X.]—The Same Continued. The Synod Supposed that the Grace Acknowledged by Pelagius Was that Which Was So Thoroughly Known to the Church.

 23. [XI.]—The Seventh Item of the Accusation: the Breviates of Cœlestius Objected to Pelagius.

 24.—Pelagius’ Answer to the Charges Brought Together Under the Seventh Item.

 25.—The Pelagians Falsely Pretended that the Eastern Churches Were on Their Side.

 26.—The Accusations in the Seventh Item, Which Pelagius Confessed.

 27. [XII.]—The Eighth Item in the Accusation.

 28.—Pelagius’ Reply to the Eighth Item of Accusation.

 29. [XIII.]—The Ninth Item of the Accusation And Pelagius’ Reply.

 30. [XIV.]—The Tenth Item in the Accusation. The More Prominent Points of Cœlestius’ Work Continued.

 31.—Remarks on the Tenth Item.

 32.—The Eleventh Item of the Accusation.

 33.—Discussion of the Eleventh Item Continued.

 34.—The Same Continued. On the Works of Unbelievers Faith is the Initial Principle from Which Good Works Have Their Beginning Faith is the Gift of G

 35.—The Same Continued.

 36.—The Same Continued. The Monk Pelagius. Grace is Conferred on the Unworthy.

 37—The Same Continued. John, Bishop of Jerusalem, and His Examination.

 38. [XV.]—The Same Continued.

 39. [XVI.]—The Same Continued. Heros and Lazarus Orosius.

 40. [XVII.]—The Same Continued.

 41.—Augustin Indulgently Shows that the Judges Acted Incautiously in Their Official Conduct of the Case of Pelagius.

 42. [XVIII.]—The Twelfth Item in the Accusation. Other Heads of Cœlestius’ Doctrine Abjured by Pelagius.

 43. [XIX.]—The Answer of the Monk Pelagius and His Profession of Faith.

 44. [XX.]—The Acquittal of Pelagius.

 45. [XXI.]—Pelagius’ Acquittal Becomes Suspected.

 46. [XXII.]—How Pelagius Became Known to Augustin Cœlestius Condemned at Carthage.

 47. [XXIII.]—Pelagius’ Book, Which Was Sent by Timasius and Jacobus to Augustin, Was Answered by the Latter in His Work “On Nature and Grace.”

 48. [XXIV.]—A Letter Written by Timasius and Jacobus to Augustin on Receiving His Treatise “On Nature and Grace.”

 49. [XXV.]—Pelagius’ Behaviour Contrasted with that of the Writers of the Letter.

 50.—Pelagius Has No Good Reason to Be Annoyed If His Name Be at Last Used in the Controversy, and He Be Expressly Refuted.

 51. [XXVI.]—The Nature of Augustin’s Letter to Pelagius.

 52. [XXVII. And XXVIII.]—The Text of the Letter.

 53. [XXIX.]—Pelagius’ Use of Recommendations.

 54. [XXX.]—On the Letter of Pelagius, in Which He Boasts that His Errors Had Been Approved by Fourteen Bishops.

 55.—Pelagius’ Letter Discussed.

 56. [XXXI.]—Is Pelagius Sincere?

 57. [XXXII.]—Fraudulent Practices Pursued by Pelagius in His Report of the Proceedings in Palestine, in the Paper Wherein He Defended Himself to Augus

 [XXXIII.] But I could not help feeling annoyance that he can appear to have defended sundry sentences of Cœlestius, which, from the Proceedings, it is

 58.—The Same Continued.

 59. [XXXIV.]—Although Pelagius Was Acquitted, His Heresy Was Condemned.

 60. [XXXV.]—The Synod’s Condemnation of His Doctrines.

 61.—History of the Pelagian Heresy. The Pelagian Heresy Was Raised by Sundry Persons Who Affected the Monastic State.

 62.—The History Continued. Cœlestius Condemned at Carthage by Episcopal Judgment. Pelagius Acquitted by Bishops in Palestine, in Consequence of His De

 63.—The Same Continued. The Dogmas of Cœlestius Laid to the Charge of Pelagius, as His Master, and Condemned.

 64.—How the Bishops Cleared Pelagius of Those Charges.

 65.—Recapitulation of What Pelagius Condemned.

 66.—The Harsh Measures of the Pelagians Against the Holy Monks and Nuns Who Belonged to Jerome’s Charge.

51. [XXVI.]—The Nature of Augustin’s Letter to Pelagius.

For my own part, indeed, in my 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 “lord”142    This term corresponds somewhat to our Sir; but Augustin here refers to its more expressive meaning of Master, or Lord.—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 “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 “most longed for,” because I greatly longed to have a conversation with him in person; for I had already heard that he was endeavouring publicly to oppose 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 of the will and his own power,—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.”143    Rom. ix. 16. 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:

CAPUT XXVI.

51. Et ego quidem in epistola mea, quam protulit, non solum ab ejus laudibus temperavi; sed etiam quantum potui, sine ejus commotione quaestionis, de Dei gratia recte sapere admonui. Dixi eum quippe in salutatione, Dominum: quod epistolari more etiam non christianis quibusdam scribere solemus; neque id mendaciter, quoniam omnibus ad salutem, quae in Christo est, consequendam, debemus quodam modo liberam servitutem. Dixi dilectissimum: quod et nunc dico, etsi iratus fuerit, adhuc dicam; quoniam nisi erga eum dilectionem tenuero, illo irascente, ipse mihi magis nocebo. Dixi Desideratissimum; quoniam valde cupiebam cum praesente aliquid colloqui: jam enim audieram contra gratiam, qua justificamur, quando hinc aliqua commemoratio fieret, aperta cum contentione conari. Denique litterarum ipsarum brevis textus hoc indicat: nam cum egissem gratias, quod me scriptis suis exhilarasset, certum faciendo de sua salute ac suorum, quos utique si correctos volumus, etiam corporali salute salvos velle debemus; mox ei bona optavi a Domino retribui, non ad salutem corporis pertinentia, sed ea potius, quae putabat esse, vel forte adhuc putat, in solo arbitrio voluntatis et propria potestate posita, simul optans et propter hoc vitam aeternam. Deinde quia litteris suis, quibus respondebam, talia quaedam in me bona multum benigneque laudaverat; etiam ibi petivi ab eo, ut pro me oraret, quo potius a Domino talis fierem, qualem me esse jam crederet: ut cum sic admonerem, contra quod ille sapiebat, ipsam quoque justitiam, quam in me laudandam putaverat, non esse volentis, neque currentis, sed miserentis Dei (Rom IX, 16). Hoc est totum, quod brevis illa epistola mea continet, eaque intentione dictata est: nam ita se habet:

CAPUT XXVII et XXVIII.