The first principle of Pelagianism is a theory which affirms the freedom of the will, in the sense that in each volition and at each moment of life, no matter what the previous career of the in dividual has been, the will is in equipoise, able to choose good or evil. We are born characterless (non pleni), and with no bias towards good or evil (ut sine virtute, ita et sine vitio). It follows that we are uninjured by the sin of Adam, save in so far as the evil example of our predecessors misleads and influences us (non propagine sed exemplo). is, in fact, no such thing as original sin, sin being a thing of will and not of nature ; for if it could be of nature our sin would be chargeable on God the creator. This will, capable of good as of evil, being the natural endowment of man, is found in the heathen as well as in the Christian, and the heathen may therefore perfectly keep such law as they know. But, if all men have this natural ability to do and to be all that is required for perfect righteousness, what be comes of grace, of the aid of the Holy Spirit, and, in a word, of Christianity? Pelagius appears to have confused the denial of original sin (in the sense of inherited guilt) with the denial of inherited nature or disposition of any kind. Hence he vacillates considerably in his use of the word "grace." In his most careful statements he appears to allow to grace everything but the initial determining movement towards salvation. He ascribed to the unassisted human will power to accept and use the proffered salvation of Christ. It was at this point his departure from the Catholic creed could be made apparent: Pelagius maintains, ex pressly and by implication, that it is the human will which takes the initiative, and is the determining factor in the salvation of the individual; while the Church maintains that it is the divine will that takes the initiative by renewing and enabling the human will to accept and use the aid or grace offered. This was the position most strongly contested by Augustine (q.v.). The result
was the rise of Semipelagianism, which was an attempt to hold a middle course between the harshness of Augustinianism and the obvious errors of Pelagianism. It appeared simultaneously in North Africa and in southern Gaul. In the former Church, which naturally desired to adhere to the views of its own great theo logian, the monks of Adrumetum found themselves either sunk to the verge of despair or provoked to licentiousness by his pre destinarian teaching. When this was reported to Augustine he wrote two elaborate treatises to show that when God ordains the end He also ordains the means, and if any man is ordained to life eternal he is thereby ordained to holiness and zealous effort. But meanwhile some of the monks themselves had struck out a via media which ascribed to God sovereign grace and yet left intact man's responsibility. A similar scheme was adopted by Cassian of Marseilles (hence Semipelagians are often spoken of as Mas silians), and was afterwards ably advocated by Vincent of Lerins and Faustus of Rhegium. The differentia of Semipelagianism is the tenet that in regeneration and all that results from it, the divine and the human will are co-operating (synergistic) coefficient factors. Pelagius was familiar with the Greek language and the ology, and frequented Rufinus, upholder of Greek theology.
BIBLI0GRAPHY.—See F. Wiggers, Darstellung des Augustinismus and Pelagianismus (2 vols., Berlin, 1831-32 ; Eng. trans. of vol. i., by R. Emerson, Andover, 1840) ; J. L. Jacobi, Die Lehre d. Pelagius (Leip zig, 1842) ; F. Klasen, Die innere Entwickelung des Pelagianismus (Freiburg, 5882) ; B. B. Warfield, Two Studies in the History of Doctrine (New York, 1893) ; A. Harnack, History of Dogma, Eng. trans. v. 168-202 ; F. Loofs, Dogmengeschischte and art. in Hauck Herzog, Realencyklopddie; and art. "Pelagianism" in Hastings, Ency clopedia of Religion and Ethics. See also art. AUGUSTINE.