Letter 176: The Council of Milevis asks Innocent I to help stop Pelagian teaching on grace and baptism.

To the Most Blessed lord Innocent, deservedly venerable and honored in Christ as pope: Silvanus, Senex, Valentinus, Aurelius, Donatus, Restitutus, Lucianus, Alypius, Augustine, Placentinus, Severus, Fortunatus, Possidius, Novatus, Secundus, Maurentius, Leo, Faustinianus, Cresconius, Malcus, Litorius, Fortunatus, Donatus, Ponticanus, Saturninus, Cresconius, Honorius, Cresconius Lucius, Adeodatus, Processus, Secundus, Felix, Asiaticus, Rufinus, Faustinus, Servus, Terentius, Cresconius, Sperantius, Quadratus, Lucillus, Sabinus, Faustinus, Cresconius, Victor, Gignantius, Possidonius, Antoninus, Innocentius, Felix, Antonius, Victor, Honoratus, Donatus, Peter, Praesidius, Cresconius, Lampadius, and Delphinus, from the Council of Milevis, send greetings in the Lord. Because the Lord, by the special gift of his grace, has placed you in the apostolic see, and has given you to our times in such a way that it would count against us as negligent if we kept silent before Your Veneration about matters that should be brought forward for the church, rather than that you could receive them with disdain or carelessness, we ask you to apply pastoral diligence to the grave dangers threatening Christ's weak members. A new and very destructive heresy is trying to rise up, belonging to enemies of Christ's grace, who by impious arguments even try to take the Lord's Prayer away from us. The Lord taught us to say, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." But these people say that in this life, once the commandments of God are known, a human being can reach such perfect righteousness without the help of the Savior's grace, by the free choice of the will alone, that he no longer needs to say, "Forgive us our debts." And what follows, "Do not lead us into temptation," they do not understand as though we ought to ask divine help so that when tempted we do not fall into sin. Rather, they say that this lies in our own power, and that the human will alone is enough to accomplish it. On their view the apostle spoke in vain when he said, "It depends not on the one who wills or runs, but on God who shows mercy," and again, "God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation will also make a way out, so that you can endure it." The Lord too would have spoken in vain when he said to the apostle Peter, "I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail," and to all his own, "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation," if all this were simply within human power. They also contend, with wicked presumption, that little children will have eternal life even if they are renewed by none of the sacraments of Christian grace. In doing so they empty out what the apostle says: "Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death passed through all people, in whom all sinned"; and elsewhere, "As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive." So, to pass over many other things they argue against the holy Scriptures, for now we bring these two matters to your apostolic heart, because they try to overturn absolutely everything on which our Christian identity rests: that God need not be asked to help us against the evil of sin and in the doing of righteousness, and that the sacrament of Christian grace does not help little children to obtain eternal life. We do not need to say much or enlarge such impiety with words. It will without doubt move you in such a way that you cannot leave these people uncorrected while they creep more widely and contaminate many, or rather destroy them, by making them under the name of Christ utterly alien from the grace of Christ. The authors of this most destructive error are said to be Pelagius and Celestius. We would rather that they be healed in the church than cut off from the church as hopeless, unless some necessity compels it. One of them, Celestius, is even said to have reached the presbyterate in Asia; Your Holiness is better informed from the church of Carthage about what was done concerning him a few years ago. Pelagius, as letters sent by some of our brothers report, is staying at Jerusalem and is said to deceive some people there. Many more, however, who have been able to examine his views more carefully, are fighting against him for the grace of Christ and the truth of the catholic faith; among them especially your holy son, our brother and fellow presbyter Jerome. We think, with the help of the mercy of the Lord our God, who may deign both to guide you as you consult and to hear you as you pray, that those who hold such perverse and deadly opinions will more easily yield to the authority of Your Holiness, drawn from the authority of the holy Scriptures. Then we may rejoice over their correction rather than grieve over their destruction. Whatever they themselves choose, Your Venerability sees that urgent and swift provision must be made for others, the very many whom they can entangle in their snares if they are ignored. We have directed this letter to Your Holiness from the council of Numidia, imitating the church of Carthage and our fellow bishops of the province of Carthage, whom we have learned have written to the apostolic see, which you blessedly adorn, about this matter. In another hand: Remember us; may you increase in God's grace, Most Blessed lord, deservedly venerable and honored in Christ, holy pope.

EPISTOLA 176 Scripta a. 416. Concilii Milevitani Patres innocentio, Romano Pontifici, significantes quam funesta sit pelagiana haeresis, quae salutem in libero arbitrio ponit negans precationis ac baptismi pro parvulis necessitatem (nn. 1-3); obsecrant autem ut certiorem se faciat de haereseos auctoribus ut eos ad catholicam adducat veritatem sua auctoritate, de sanctae Scripturae auctoritate deprompta (nn. 4-5). DOMINO BEATISSIMO MERITOQUE VENERABILI, ET IN CHRISTO HONORANDO PAPAE INNOCENTIO, SILVANUS, SENEX, VALENTINUS, AURELIUS, DONATUS, RESTITUTUS, LUCIANUS, ALYPIUS, AUGUSTINUS, PLACENTIUS, SEVERUS, FORTUNATUS, POSSIDIUS, NOVATUS, SECUNDUS, MAURENTIUS, LEO, FAUSTINIANUS, CRESCONIUS, MALCUS, LITORIUS, FORTUNATUS, DONATUS, PONTICANUS, SATURNINUS, CRESCONIUS, HONORIUS, CRESCONIUS LUCIUS, ADEODATUS, PROCESSUS, SECUNDUS, FELIX, ASIATICUS, RUFINUS, FAUSTINUS, SERVUS, TERENTIUS, CRESCONIUS, SPERANTIUS, QUADRATUS, LUCILLUS, SABINUS, FAUSTINUS, CRESCONIUS, VICTOR, GIGNANTIUS, POSSIDONIUS, ANTONINUS, INNOCENTIUS, FELIX, ANTONIUS, VICTOR, HONORATUS, DONATUS, PETRUS, PRAESIDIUS, CRESCONIUS, LAMPADIUS, DELPHINUS, EX CONCILIO MILEVITANO, IN DOMINO SALUTEM. Tacenda non esse quae Ecclesiae prosint. 1. Quia te Dominus gratiae suae praecipuo munere in Sede apostolica collocavit, talemque nostris temporibus praestitit, ut nobis potius ad culpam neglegentiae valeat, si apud tuam Venerationem, quae pro Ecclesia suggerenda sunt, tacuerimus, quam ea tu possis vel fastidiose vel neglegenter accipere; magnis periculis infirmorum membrorum Christi pastoralem diligentiam, quaesumus, adhibere digneris. Salutem Pelagiani in libero arbitrio ponunt. 2. Nova quippe haeresis et nimium perniciosa tentat assurgere inimicorum gratiae Christi, qui nobis etiam dominicam orationem impiis disputationibus conantur auferre. Cum enim Dominus docuerit ut dicamus: Dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris 1; isti dicunt posse hominem in hac vita, praeceptis Dei cognitis, ad tantam perfectionem iustitiae sine adiutorio gratiae Salvatoris, per solum liberum voluntatis arbitrium pervenire, ut ei non sit iam necessarium dicere: Dimitte nobis debita nostra. Illud vero quod sequitur: Ne nos inferas in tentationem 2, non ita intellegendum, tamquam divinum adiutorium poscere debeamus ne in peccatum tentati decidamus; sed hoc in nostra esse positum potestate, et ad hoc implendum solam sufficere voluntatem hominis: tamquam frustra Apostolus dixerit: Non volentis neque currentis, sed miserentis est Dei 3; et: Fidelis Deus, qui non permittet vos tentari super id quod potestis; sed faciet cum tentatione etiam exitum, ut possitis sustinere 4. Frustra etiam Dominus dixerit apostolo Petro: Rogavi pro te, ne deficiat fides tua 5; et omnibus suis: Vigilate, et orate, ne intretis in tentationem 6; si hoc totum est potestatis humanae. Pueros quoque parvulos, etsi nullis innoventur christianae gratiae Sacramentis, habituros vitam aeternam, nequam praesumptione contendunt, evacuantes quod dicit Apostolus: Per unum hominem peccatum intravit in mundum, et per peccatum mors, et ita in omnes homines pertransiit, in quo omnes peccaverunt 7; et alio loco: Sicut in Adam omnes moriuntur, sic et in Christo omnes vivificabuntur 8. Orationem ac baptisma pro parvulis Pelagiani respuunt. 3. Ut ergo alia omittamus quae contra sanctas Scripturas plurima disserunt; haec interim duo, quibus omnino totum quod christiani sumus nituntur evertere, quae fidelia corda sustineant, non esse rogandum Deum ut contra peccati malum atque ad operandam iustitiam sit noster adiutor, et non opitulari parvulis ad consequendam vitam aeternam christianae gratiae Sacramentum: haec insinuantes apostolico pectori tuo, non opus habemus multa dicere, et tantam impietatem verbis exaggerare, cum procul dubio te ita permoveant, ut ab eis corrigendis, ne latius serpant, multosque contaminent, vel potius interimant, dum eos sub nomine Christi, a gratia Christi penitus alienant, omnino dissimulare non possis. Qui sint haeresis auctores qui gratiae defensores. 4. Huius autem perniciosissimi erroris auctores esse perhibentur Pelagius et Celestius, quos quidem in Ecclesia sanari malumus, quam desperata salute ab Ecclesia resecari, si necessitas nulla compellat. Quorum unus, id est Celestius, etiam ad presbyterium in Asia dicitur pervenisse: de quo ante paucos annos quid gestum fuerit, Sanctitas tua de Carthaginensi Ecclesia melius instruitur. Pelagius vero, sicut a quibusdam fratribus nostris missae loquuntur epistolae, Ierosolymis constitutus nonnullos fallere asseritur: verumtamen multo plures, qui eius sensus diligentius indagare potuerunt, adversus eum pro gratia Christi et catholicae fidei veritate confligunt; sed praecipue sanctus filius tuus, frater et compresbyter noster Hieronymus. Innocentius errantes apostolica auctoritate corrigat 5. Sed arbitramur, adiuvante misericordia Domini Dei nostri qui te et regere consulentem, et orantem exaudire dignetur, auctoritati Sanctitatis tuae, de sanctarum Scripturarum auctoritate depromptae, facilius eos qui tam perversa et perniciosa sentiunt, esse cessuros, ut de correctione potius eorum congratulemur, quam contristemur interitu. Quodlibet autem ipsi eligant, certe vel aliis, quos plurimos possunt, si ab eis dissimuletur, suis laqueis implicare, cernit Venerabilitas tua instanter et celeriter providendum. Haec ad Sanctitatem tuam de concilio Numidiae scripta direximus, imitantes Carthaginensem ecclesiam et Carthaginensis provinciae coepiscopos nostros, quos ad Sedem apostolicam, quam beatus illustras, de hac causa scripsisse comperimus. Et alia manu: Memor nostri, in Dei gratia augearis, domine beatissime meritoque venerabilis, et in Christo honorande sancte Papa.