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Rh ger pray for one another, and he founded this opinion on the apocryphal book of Esdras. Fifth He condemned public Vigils in the churches. Sixth—He reprobated the custom of sending alms to Jerusalem. Seventh.—He totally condemned monastic life, and said that it was only making ourselves useless to our neighbours, if we embraced it. This sect was not condemned by any council, it had but few followers, and soon became extinct.

ON THE HERESEY OF PELAGIUS

5. was born in Great Britain, and his parents were so poor that in his youth he scarcely received any instruction in letters; he became a monk, but nothing more than a mere lay monk, and that was all the dignity he ever arrived at. He lived a long time in Rome, and was respected for his virtues by very many persons; he was loved by St. Paulinus(1); and esteemed by St. Augustin. He was looked on as a learned man, as he composed some useful books, to wit, three books on the Trinity, and a collection of passages of the Scripture on Christian Morality. He, unhappily, however, fell into heresy, while he sojourned at Rome, in regard to grace: and he took his doctrines from a Syrian priest, called Rufinus, (not Rufinus of Aquilea who disputed with St. Jerome). This error was already spread through the East ; for Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia, had already taught the same errors as Pelagius; and deduced them from the same sources, the principles of Origen. This Rufinus, then coming to Rome, about the year 400, in the reign of Pope Anastasius, was the first introducer there of that heresy; but, as he was a cautious man, he did not publicly promulgate it himself, not to bring himself into trouble, but availed himself of Pelagius, who, about the year 405, began to dispute against the Grace of Jesus Christ. One day in particular, a bishop having quoted the words of St. Augustin, in his Confessions: "Lord, grant us what thou orderest, and order what thou wishest:" Pelagius could not contain himself, and inveighed against the author. He concealed his errors for a time, however, and only communicated them to his disciples’ to see how they would be received, and to approve or reject them afterwards,