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

But now if Pelagius thinks of God, if he is not ungrateful for His mercy in having brought him before this tribunal of 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 our book, 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?

50. At nunc si Pelagius Deum cogitat, si non est ingratus ejus misericordiae, qui eum ad episcoporum judicium propterea perduxit, ut haec anathemata defendere postea non auderet, jamque detestanda et abjicienda cognosceret, gratius accipiet litteras nostras, quando expresso nomine ulcus sanandum potius aperimus, quam illas , ubi cum dolorem facere timeremus, tumorem, quod nos poenitet, augebamus. Si autem mihi fuerit iratus, quam inique irascatur attendat, et ut vincat iram, tandem aliquando Dei postulet gratiam, quam in hoc judicio confessus est singulis nostris actibus necessariam; ut veram consequatur, illo adjuvante, victoriam. Quid enim ei prosunt tantae ejus laudes in epistolis episcoporum, quas pro se commemorandas, vel etiam legendas atque allegandas putavit; quasi eum haec perversa sentire, omnes qui vehementes et quodam modo ardentes ad bonam 0349 vitam exhortationes ejus audiebant, facile scire potuerint?