PELA'GIANISM. A fifth-century Western heresy, which originated with the monk Pelagius (q.v.), who denied the dependence of the human will upon grace, in opposition to Augustine's doe trine of the necessity of divine assistance, and minimized the consequences of Adam's fall, thus denying the doctrine of original sin. The views commonly called Pelagian arc not foreign to Greek Christianity. The later Origenists, who are generally thought of only as interested in the Christologieal discussions, had much sympathy with the teaching of Pelagius. So, for instance, Theodore of Nopsuestia, to whom Nestorianism was largely indebted, held that Adam's trans gression wrought no special injury to his de scendants, It has been suggested that 'the Nes torian Christ' would be the 'fitting Saviour for the Pelagian man.' (See NESTOR' Us. ) he other hand, it has often been charged by the Pelagians and their apologists that their oppo nents hem the Manielnean view of the matter, and that it influenced their conception of original sin, as if the physical body were itself essentially evil. See INIAxicihmsAr.
Pelagins spent some time in Paine, in high re pute, before raising the issue which was so deeply to agitate the Western Church. About the year 405 he openly objected to a prayer contained in Augustine's Confessions,, "Give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt," on the ground that it tended to destroy all sense of responsibility. lie was soon joined by an able Cielestins, who had been trained as an advocate, and whose subsequent history is bound up with the Pelagian cause. Fleeing before the Gothic invasion (410), the two friends made their way to Africa, where Augustine was then engaged in his controversy with the Donatists (q.v.). Here Pelagius taught that infant baptism was administered not to re move the stain of sin, because infants had none, but rather to sanctify and admit them to the kingdom of heaven. This was not An.:mstine's view at all, and as soon as the Donatist dispute permitted he turned to deal with the new foe. By that time, however, Pelagius had left Africa for Palestine. but Cculestius remained and was seeking ordination as a presbyter. Objection was raised by one Panliting, a deacon from Milan, who charged Cielestins with error. Ile was ex amined before a synod (412) and condemned for teaching that Adam would have died even if he had not sinned; that Alum's transgression in jured only himself; that infants are horn into the state in which Adam was before the fall; that unbaptized infants, dying in infancy, have eternal life; that men may attain heaven through a righteous life (keeping the law), as well as through the Gospel; that some men have lived without sin, and others may: and that men can easily live without sin. if they will. In opposi tion to these views Augustine maintained that Adam's sin affected the race, involving all man kind in guilt; that physical death is the penalty of sin; that infants are baptized for the remis sion of original (inherited) sin; and that the only sinless man in the world was Jesus Christ. Most of these ideas are found in his earliest anti Pelagian work, The Deserts of Sins and Their Re mission (written in 412).
The arrival of Pelagius in Palestine opened the first chapter in the Eastern history of the contro versy. Not a few Origenists sympathized with his views, and none of them openly opposed him. Put Jerome (q.v.), and a little later the Spanish presbyter ()rosins, promptly opened the attack. A synod was summoned by John, Bishop of Jeru salem, to consider the question (415). and to it ()rosins reported the action of the African clergy in the case of Cmlcstius. During the examina tion of Pelagius his Latin and the synod's Greek seem to have occasioned some misunderstanding,. but he finally consented to anathematize any one who taught "that man can ever become perfect without God's aid." and this so far satisfied the synod that it dissolved without condemning him. Orosius, however, and some others, felt that the Bishop had not been impartial in his conduct of the inquiry. At the more important synod of Diospolis, presided over by Etdogius, of Ca-sarea (415), Pelagius either disavowed or explained away the heretical opinions with which he WAS' charged, and was thereupon pronounced orthodox —a result which angered Jerome, and caused Augustine afterwards to declare that Pelagius had deceived his judges. Pelagius now proceeded
to issue his treatise On Free Will, which was presently supported by Theodore of Mopsuestia, who attacked Jerome's idea that "men sin by nature, not by will." Upon Orosius's return to Carthage, a synod was held (416). reaffirming the adverse judg ment of the African Church and appealing to innocent, Bishop of Rome, to aid in opposing Pelagianism with "the authority of the Apostolic See." A similar appeal was made by the Synod of Mileve, in Numidia. Innocent replied as they had hoped he would. saying that Pelagians must be excluded from the Church. Two months later he was succeeded by Zosimus, a Creek, who proved more friendly to the Pelagians than his predecessor. To him Ccelestius appealed in per son, and after examination. in which he denied the heretical opinions charged against him and made a formal profession of faith, the Pope re fused to condemn him, although he cautioned him to abstain from pursuing further his tin profitable speculations. Soon after this Zosimus received from Pelagius a written statement of belief, similar to that of C•elestius, on the strength of which he too escaped condemnation. The African clergy were greatly disturbed at the Pope's action, reversing as it did the policy of Innocent. hut they were not to be turned from their position. Another large synod reaffirmed (Thee more the condemnation of Pelagianism, and urged upon Zosimus a reconsideration of the whole case. Their action, coupled with the fact that at this juncture the Emperor Honoring issued a strong anti-Pelagian decree, aroused the Pope to action. lie reversed his judgment. and now wrote a circular letter to the bishops, upon them to assent to the condemnation of Pelagius and Crelestius. and setting forth in Augustinian terms the true dbetrine of sin and grace. This document is known as the Epistola Tructoria, and its date is 418. \\That may be re garded as the final collective action in the West was taken by a great national synod, held the same year in Carthage, whose decrees anathe matize Pelagianism in clear and unmistakable terms. Soon afterwards Augustine wrote his two works, On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin, in which lie argues that all man's righteous Bess comes from God, who is the ultimate prin ciple of goodness, back of every impulse of the human heart. Here one may find the uncom promising doctrine of the necessity of divine grace which is characteristic of Augustinianism. And here, too, is that last resort to which Au gustine more than once was driven by the logic of his opponents, the inscrutability of God's deal ings with llis creatures, exilressed in the words of Saint Paul, "0 the depth of the riches. both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!" (Rom. xi. 33). Augustine had indeed reached the boundaries of knowledge.
But Augustinianism was not yet victorious. Eighteen Italian bishops refused their assent to the Trattoria of Zosimus, among them Julian of Eclanum, one of the best debaters on the Pe lagian side. These bishops were promptly excom but Julian headed a schism which lasted for several years and gave the Church no little trouble. The took refuge in the East, where, among others, the patriarch Nesto rius showed them favor. But their partial al liance with hint proved disastrous in the end, for at the Third Ecumenical Council ( Ephesus, 431) both Nestorius and were condemned. This result was largely due to the untiring ef forts of Marius "Mercator, a layman from the West, to whom we owe much of our information on the subject. Pelagian views did not at once disappear, either in the East or in the West : for their subsequent history, see SEMI-PELAGIANISM. Besides the works referred to under PELAGIUS. con sult: Hefele, History of the Councils), vol. ii. (Eng. trans., Edinburgh, 1876) ; Harnack, His tory of Dogma, vol. v. (Eng. trans., London, ISM); Rainy, The Ancient Catholic Church (New York, 1902).