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 PELAQIUS

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PELAOinS

pronounced against Pelagius and Calestius, until both had confessed the necessity of interior grace for all salutary thoughts, words, and deeds. At last Zosimus came to a halt. By a rescript of 21 March, 418, he assured them that he had not yet pronounced definitively, but that he was transmitting to Africa all documents bearing on Pelagianism in order to pave the way for a new, joint investigation. Pursuant to the papal command, there was held on 1 May, 418, in the presence of 200 bishops, the famous Council of Carthage, which again branded Pelagianism as a heresy in eight (or nine) canons (Denzinger, " Enchir.", 10th ed., 1908, 101-8). Owing to their importance they may be summarized: (1) Death did not come to Adam from a physical necessity, but through sin. (2) New-born children must be baptized on account of original sin. (3) Justifying grace not only avails forthe forgiveness of past sins, but dlso gives assistance for the avoidance of future sins. C4) The grace of Christ not only discloses the knowledge of God's commandments, but also imparts strength to will and execute them (5) \\'ithout God's grace it is not merely more difficult, but absolutely impossible to perform good works. (G) Not out of humility, but in truth must we confess ourselves to be sinners. (7) The saints refer the peti- tion of the Our Father, "Forgive us our trespasses", not only to others, but also to themselves. (8) The saints pronounce the same supplication not from mere humilit.v, but from truthfulness. Some codices con- tain a ninth canon (Denzinger, loc. cit., note 3): Chil- dren dying without baptism do not go to a "middle place" {medius locus), since the non-reception of bap- tism excludes both from "the kingdom of heaven" and from "eternal life". These clearly-worded canons, which (except the last-named) afterwards came to be articles of faith binding the universal Church, gave the death-blow to Pelagianism; sooner or later it would bleed to death.

Meanwhile, urged by the Africans (probably through a certain Valerian, who as comes held an influential position in Ravenna), the secular power also took a hand in the dispute, the Emperor Honorius, by rescript of 30 April, 418, from Ravenna, banishing all Pelagians from the cities of Italy. Whether Cseles- tius evaded the hearing before Zosimus, to which he was now bound, "by fleeing from Rome^ (St. Augus- tine, "Contra duas epist. Pelag.", II, 5), or whether he was one of the first to fall a victim to the imperial decree of exile, cannot be satisfactorily settled from the sources. With regard to his later life, we are told that in 421 he again haunted Rome or its vicinity, but was expelled a second time bv an imperial rescript (cf . P. L., XLV, 1750). It is further related that in 425 his petition for an audience with Celestine I was an- swered by a third banishment (cf. P. L., LI, 271). He then sought refuge in the Orient, where we shall meet him later. Pelagius could not have been in- cluded in the imperial decree of exile from Rome. For at that time he undoubtedly resided in the Orient, since, as late as the summer of 418, he communicated with Pinianus and his wife Melania, who lived in Palestine (cf. Card. RampoUa, "Santa Melania giu- niore", Rome, 1905). But this is the last information we have about him; he probably died in the Orient. Having received the Acts of the Council of Carthage, Zosimus sent to all the bishops of the world his famous "Epistola tractoria" (418) of which unfortunately only fragments have come down to us. This papal encyclical, a lengthy document, gives a minute ac- count of the entire "causa Caelestii et Pelagii", from whose works it quotes abundantly, and categorically demands the condemnation of Pelagianism as a her- esy. The assertion that every bishop of the world was obliged to confirm this circular by his own signature, cannot be proved, it is more probable that the bishops were required to transmit to Rome a written agree- ment; if a bishop refused to sign, he waa deposed from

his office and banished. A second and harsher re- script, issued by the emperor on 9 June, 419, and addressed to Bishop Aurelius of Carthage (P. L., XLV, 1731), gave additional force to this measure. Augustine's triumph was complete. In 418, drawing the balance, as it were, of the whole controversy, he wrote against the heresiarchs his last great work, "De gratia Christi et de peccato originah" (P. L., XLIV, 359 sqq.).

IV. — The Dispute of St. Augustine with Julian OF EcLANU.M (419-28). — Through the vigorous meas- ures adopted in 418, Pelagianism was indeed con- demned, but not crushed. Among the eighteen bishops of Italy who were exiled on account of their refusal to sign the papal decree, Julian, Bishop of Eclanum, a city of Apulia now deserted, was the first to protest against the "Tractoria" of Zosimus. Highly educated and skilled in philosophy and dialectics, he assumed the leadership among the Pelagians. But to fight for Pelagianism now meant to fight against Augustine. The literary feud set in at once. It was probably Julian himself who denounced St. Augustine as dam- nator nupliarum to the influential comes Valerian in Ravenna, a nobleman, who was very happily married. To meet the accusation, Augustine wrote, at the be- ginning of 419, an apology, "De nuptiis et concu- piscentia libri II" (P. L., XLIV, 413 sqq.) and ad- dressed it to Valerian. Immediately after (419 or 420), Julian published a reply which attacked the first book of Augustine's work and bore the title, "Libri IV ad Turbantium". But Augustine refuted it in his famous rejoinder, written in 421 or 422, "Contra luhanum libri VI" (P. L., XLIV, 640 sqq.). When two Pelagian circulars, written by Julian and scourg- ing the " Manichsan views" of the Antipelagians, fell into his hands, he attacked them energetically (420 or 421) in a work, dedicated to Boniface 1, "Contra duas epistolas Pelagianorum libri IV" (P. L., XLIV, 549 sqq.). Being driven from Rome, Julian had found (not later than 421) a place of refuge in Cilicia with Theodore of Mopsuestia. Here he employed his leis- ure in elaborating an extensive work, "Libri VIII ad Florum", which was wholly devoted to refuting the second book of Augustine's "De nuptiis et concu- piscentia". Though composed shortly after 421, it did not come to the notice of St. Augustine until 427. The latter's reply, which quotes Julian's argumenta- tions sentence for sentence and refutes them, was completed only as far as the sixth book, whence it is cited in patristic literature as "Opus imperfectum contra lulianum" (P. L., XLV, 1049 sqq.). A com- prehensive account of Pelagianism, which brings out into strong relief the diametrically opposed views of the author, was furnished by Augustine in 428 in the final chapter of his work, "De ha;resibus" (P. L., XLII, 21 sqq.). Augustine's last writings published before his death (430) were no longer aimed against Pelagianism, but against Semipelagianism.

After the death of Theodore of Mopsuestia (428), Julian of Eclanum left the hospitable city of Cilicia and in 429 we meet him unexpectedly in company with his fellow exiles Bishops Florus, Orontius, and Fabius, at the Court of the Patriarch Nestorius of Constanti- nople, who willingly supported the fugitives. It was here, too, in 429, that Cselestius emerged again as the protege of the patriarch ; this is his last appearance in history; for from now on all trace of him is lost. But the exiled bishops did not long enjoy the protection of Nestorius. When Marius IVlercator, a layman and friend of St. Augustine, who was then present in Con- stantinople, heard of the machinations of the Pela- gians in the imperial city, he composed towards the end of 429 his " Coramonitorium super nomine Cae- lestii" (P. L., XLVIII, 63 sqq.), in which he exposed the shameful life and the heretical character of Nesto- rius' wards. The result was that the Emperor Theo- dosius II decreed their banishment in 430. When the