PELA'GIUS, a celebrated heresiarch of the 5th c., author or systematizer of the doc trine known as Pelagianism (q.v.). Of his life little is known. IIe was probably born about or before the middle of the 4th c., in BritaLL or, according to some, in Bretagne, his name being supposed to be a Greek rendering (Pelagios, of or belonging to the sea) of the Celtic appellative Morgan, or sea-horn. He was a monk, but the time and place of his entering that state are unknown; it is certain, however, that he never entered into holy orders. He settled in Rome, and at. the end of the 4th c. he had already acquired a considerable reputation for sanctity and for knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and the spiritual life. Pelagius does not appear to have himself been a very active propagandist; but lie had attached to his views a follower of great energy, and a bold and ardent tem. per, named Celestius, who is generally supposed to have been a Scot, which, in the vocabulary of that age, means a native of Ireland. At Rome, however, they attracted but little notice, although they began to make their doctrine public about 405; and in 410, after the sack of the city by the Goths, they withdrew to Africa. After some time Pelagius made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he met St. Jerome, and for a time enjoyed the regard and confidence of that eminent but hot-tempered scholar. His opin ions, however, becoming known, Jerome withdrew from this association. Celestius having remained at Carthage, and sought to lie admitted to ordination, his doctrines became the subject of discussion, and in a synod several opinions ascribed to him were condemned. He appealed to Rome, but leaving Carthage without prosecuting the appeal, he passed to Ephesus; and the proceedings taken in Carthage regarding him arc chiefly important as first introduced St. Augustine into the controversy. Meanwhile Pelagius remained at Jerusalem, and news of the proceedings at Carthage having been carried to Palestine, Pelagius, in 415, was accused of heresy before the synod of Jerusa lem by a Spaniard named Orosius. The impeachment failed, probably from the fact that Oroslus.was unable to speak Greek, the language of the synod; and in the synod subsequently held at Diospolis in the same year, Pelagius evaded condemnation by accepting the decrees of the synod of Carthage already referred to, and even obtained from the synod an acknowledgment of his orthodoxy. The west, however, was more sharp-sighted or less indulgent. A synod of Carthage, in 416, condemned Pelagius and Celestius, and wrote to pope recitiesting his approval of the sentence, with which request Innocent complied by a letter which is still extant. On the death of
Innocent, Celestius came to Rome in person, and Pelagius at the same time addressed a letter to Zosimus, the successor of Innocent; and in a council which Zosimus held, Celestius gave such explanations that the pope was led to believe that the doctrines of Pclagius had been misunderstood, and wrote to call the African bishops to Rome. A council of 214 bishops, however, was held in Carthage, in which the doctrines of Pela gius were formally condemned in nine canons, which were sent to Rome with full explanations; and on receipt of these decrees Zosimus reopened the cause, cited and condemned Celestius and Pelagius, and published a decree, called Epistola Trattoria, adopting the canons of the African council, and requiring that all bishops should sub, scribe them, under pain of deposition. Nineteen Italian bishops refused to accept these canons, and were deposed. Their leader, and the person who may be regarded as the greatest theological advocate of PelagiuS in the ancient controversy, was the celebrated Julian, bishop of Eelanum, near Beneventum, who is well known to every reader of his great antagonist, St. Augustine. Pelagius himself was banished from Rome, in 418, by the emperor Honorius. From this date Pelagius disappears. Of his after life nothing is known in detail. Orosius gives an unfavorable account of his later career, but in a period of such excitement we may not accept implicitly the judgment of an adversary. The controversy, considered as an exercise of intellectual energy, is the most remarkable in the ancient history of the church. But. the most important of the writings on the Pelagian side have been lost.. Julian is chiefly known through the replies of Augustine.
Pelagius's Fourteen Rooks of a Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, his Epistle to Demetrius, and his Memorial to Pope Innocent have escaped destruction probably from their being included by collectors in the works of St. Jerome. They are much mutilated, but yet almost certainly genuine. All his other works have been lost, except some further por tions, chiefly fragmentary, which (with the .above) have been published under the title of Appendic Augustinianu. After hi.s banishment Pelagins is supposed to have returned to his native country, and to have died there. Others, however, represent him as having died in Palestine. Of his doctrines in detail an account will be found under PELA GIANISM. •