Letter 179: Augustine asks John of Jerusalem to test Pelagius on grace, prayer, and infant baptism.

To John, my most blessed and deservedly venerable brother and fellow bishop: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. I have not had the privilege of receiving letters from Your Holiness, but I do not dare take offense. I would rather believe that no bearer was available than suspect that Your Veneration has ignored me, most blessed lord and deservedly venerable brother. Now that I have learned that Luke, the servant of God through whom I am sending this, will return soon, I will give abundant thanks to the Lord and to your kindness if you think me worthy of a letter. As for our brother Pelagius, your son, whom I hear you love very much, this is the love I ask you to show him: do not let people who know him and have listened to him carefully think that Your Holiness has been deceived by him. Some of his disciples, young men of excellent birth and liberal education, gave up the worldly prospects they had and entered God's service at his urging. Yet when certain things appeared among them that opposed sound teaching, the teaching contained in the Savior's Gospel and declared in the apostolic writings, that is, when they were found arguing against the grace of God by which we are Christians and in which we wait, through the Spirit and by faith, for the hope of righteousness, they began to be corrected by our warnings. They gave me a book which they said was Pelagius's, asking me to answer him directly. When I saw that this was what I had to do, so that this wicked error could be more completely removed from their hearts, I read the book and answered it. In that book he gives the name of God's grace only to nature, by which we were created with free choice. But Scripture, in countless testimonies, commends another grace, teaching that by it we are justified, that is, made righteous, and that in every good work, whether beginning it or completing it, we are helped by God's mercy. The prayers of the saints show this very plainly, because in prayer they ask from the Lord the very things that the Lord commands. This grace he not only passes over in silence; he says many things against it. He maintains, and insists strongly, that human nature, by free choice alone, can be sufficient for itself to work righteousness and keep all God's commands. When anyone reads that book, who does not see how the grace of God is being attacked, the grace of which the apostle says, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord"? No place is left for divine help, for the sake of which we ought to pray, "Do not bring us into temptation." Even the Lord would seem to have said to the apostle Peter for no reason, "I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail," if all this is accomplished in us by the power of the will and without God's help. By these perverse and impious arguments they contradict not only our prayers, in which we ask the Lord for whatever we read and hold that the saints asked for, but even our blessings. When we bless the people we wish and ask that the Lord make them abound in love for one another and for all, that according to the riches of his glory he strengthen them with power through his Spirit, and that he fill them with all joy and peace in believing, so that they may abound in hope and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Why do we ask these things for them, things the apostle asked from the Lord for his people, if our nature, created with free choice, can supply all these things to itself by its own will? Why does the same apostle say, "All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God," if we are led by the spirit of our own nature so as to become God's children? Why does he also say, "The Spirit helps our weakness," if our nature was created so that it needs no help from the Spirit for works of righteousness? Why is it written, "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," if we were already made strong enough, by the powers of free choice, to endure and overcome every temptation? What more should I say before Your Holiness? I can feel that I am becoming burdensome, especially because you hear my letters through an interpreter. If you love Pelagius, let him also love you, or rather let him love himself, and let him not deceive you. When you hear him confess the grace of God and the help of God, you suppose he means what you mean, since you think according to the Catholic rule, because you do not know what he has written in his book. For that reason I have sent the book itself and my reply to it. From these Your Venerability may see what grace or help of God he means when he is charged with contradicting God's grace and help. Therefore show him, by teaching him, exhorting him, and praying for his salvation, which must be in Christ, that he should confess the grace of God which the saints of God are proved to have confessed when they asked from the Lord the very things he commanded them to do. They would not have been commanded unless our will were being summoned; they would not have been asked for unless the weakness of the will needed help from the one who commanded. Let him be asked openly whether he approves of praying to the Lord that we not sin. If that displeases him, let the apostle be read in his hearing: "We pray to God that you may do no evil." If it does please him, let him openly proclaim the grace by which we are helped, so that he himself may not do great evil. By this grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord all are delivered, whoever are delivered, because no one can be delivered in any other way. For this reason it is written, "As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive," not because no one will be condemned, but because no one will be delivered otherwise. Just as no one becomes a child of man except through Adam, so no one becomes a child of God except through Christ. All children of human beings can come only through Adam, and all of those who become children of God can become so only through Christ. Let him also state plainly what he thinks about this: whether he agrees that even infants, who cannot yet will or refuse righteousness, are nevertheless delivered by Christ's grace because of the one man through whom sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so passed to all people, in whom all sinned; and whether he believes that Christ's blood was poured out for them too, because of original sin, since that blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins. These are the points on which we especially want to know what he believes, what he holds, and what he surely confesses and teaches. Other charges against him, even if he is convicted of error, may be endured more tolerably until he is corrected. I also ask that you be willing to send us the ecclesiastical proceedings by which he is said to have been cleared. I ask this because many bishops with me are troubled by uncertain report about this matter. I write alone only because I did not want to miss the opportunity of a hurried bearer, whom I heard could return to us soon. Instead of sending any part of those proceedings, Pelagius has already sent us a defensive statement he wrote, saying that he had answered charges brought by men of Gaul. In that defense, to omit other things, when he replied to the charge that he had said a person could be without sin and keep God's commands if he wished, he said: "We did say this, for God gave him this possibility. We did not say that anyone is found from infancy to old age who has never sinned, but that someone converted from sins, by his own labor and helped by God's grace, can be without sin, and that this does not make him unable to change afterward." In that reply of Pelagius Your Reverence sees that he confessed the earlier life of a human being, the life that begins in infancy, is not without sin, but that a person can be converted to a sinless life by his own labor and with the help of God's grace. Why then, in the book to which I replied, does he say that Abel lived in such a way that he committed absolutely no sin? These are his words from that book: "This can rightly be said of those about whom Scripture records neither good nor evil. But of those whose righteousness it records, it would certainly have recorded their sins if it had perceived any." He continues: "Suppose that at other times Scripture concealed people's sins because of the size of the crowd. At the very beginning of the world, when there were only four people, why did it not choose to mention all their deeds? Was it because of a vast multitude, which did not yet exist? Or because it mentioned only those who had committed sin, and could not mention the one who had committed none? Certainly, at the first moment Adam and Eve, from whom Cain and Abel were born, are reported to have been only four people. Eve sinned; Scripture disclosed it. Adam also sinned; the same Scripture did not keep silent. Cain too sinned; Scripture itself bears witness. It records not only their sins but even the types of sins they committed. If Abel had sinned, it would certainly have said so. If it did not say so, then he did not sin." I took these words from his book. Your Holiness will be able to find them in the volume itself, so that you may understand how much trust should be put in him when he denies the rest. Unless perhaps he says that Abel himself did not commit any sin, but was not without sin and could not be compared to the Lord, who alone in mortal flesh was without sin, because in Abel there was original sin drawn from Adam, not a sin he himself had committed. If only he would at least say this, so that meanwhile we might hold a certain judgment from him about infant baptism. Or perhaps, because he said "from infancy to old age," he says Abel did not sin because Abel is not shown to have grown old. But his words do not point that way. He said the earlier life is spent in sins, and the later life can be without sin. For when he says "converted from sins," he shows that the earlier life is lived in sins. Let him therefore admit that Abel sinned, since Abel's first life was in this world, and Pelagius admits that first life is not free from sins. Let him look back at his book, where he is known to have said the very thing he says in this defense, "We did not say." If he denies that this book is his, or that this passage is in his book, I have suitable witnesses, honorable and faithful men, and undoubtedly men who love him. By their testimony I can clear myself, because they gave me that book, because this passage is read there, and because they said it was Pelagius's. That is enough for me, so that he cannot say it was written or falsified by me. Let each person choose between us whom he believes; it is not my part to argue longer about this. We ask that you at least pass these points on to him if he denies that he holds the opinions charged against him, opinions hostile to the grace of Christ. His defense is so wrapped up that, if it does not deceive your holy prudence by any ambiguity of words, you who do not know his other writings, we will rejoice with great gladness. We care little whether he never held those perverse and impious views, or corrected himself from them at some point.

EPISTOLA 179 Scripta a. 416. Augustinus Ioanni, episcopo Hierosolymitano, retegens Pelagii haeresim quae continebatur in ipsius libro (nn. 1-4), quem ipsi transmittit una cum libro De natura et gratia a se contra illum elaborato rogans ut interroget Pelagium utrum Christi gratiam an naturam vel voluntatem pro gratia confiteatur (nn. 5-6), petens vicissim ut mittat gesta ecclesiastica (Diospolitanae Synodi) quibus Pelagius purgatus esse perhibetur (n. 7) eo magis quod ille multa dicit contra illa quae antea dixerat quadam sua defensione qua obiectis Gallorum respondit (nn. 8-10). DOMINO BEATISSIMO, AC MERITO VENERABILI FRATRI ET COEPISCOPO IOANNI, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM. Caveat ne a Pelagio decipiatur. 1. Quod tuae Sanctitatis scripta non merui, nihil audeo succensere: melius enim perlatorem credo defuisse, quam me suspicor a tua Veneratione contemptum, domine beatissime, et merito venerabilis frater. Nunc vero quoniam servum Dei Lucam, per quem ista direxi, cito comperi esse rediturum, agam Domino, et tuae benignitati uberes gratias, si me litteris fueris visitare dignatus. Pelagium vero fratrem nostrum, filium tuum, quem audio quod multum diligis, hanc illi suggero exhibeas dilectionem, ut homines qui eum noverunt et diligenter audierunt, non ab eo tuam Sanctitatem existiment falli. Pelagio liber quidam contra gratiam adscriptus. 2. Nam quidam ex discipulis eius adolescentes honestissime nati, et institutis liberalibus eruditi, spem quam habebant in saeculo, eius exhortatione dimiserunt, et se ad Dei servitium contulerunt. In quibus tamen cum apparuissent quaedam sanae doctrinae adversantia, quae Salvatoris Evangelio continetur, et apostolicis sermonibus declaratur, id est cum invenirentur contra Dei gratiam disputare, propter quam christiani sumus, et in qua spiritu ex fide spem iustitiae exspectamus 1, et admonitionibus nostris inciperent emendari; dederunt mihi librum, quem eiusdem Pelagii esse dixerunt, rogantes ut ei potius responderem: quod posteaquam vidi me facere debere, ut eo modo error ipse nefarius de cordibus eorum perfectius auferretur, legi atque respondi. A Pelagio voluntas hominis extollitur. 3. In hoc libro ille Dei gratiam non appellat nisi naturam, qua libero arbitrio conditi sumus. Illam vero, quam innumerabilibus testimoniis sancta Scriptura commendat, ea nos iustificari, hoc est, iustos fieri docens, et in omni opere bono, sive agendo, sive perficiendo, Dei misericordia iuvari; quod etiam orationes sanctorum apertissime ostendunt, quibus ea petuntur a Domino, quae praecipiuntur a Domino: hanc ergo gratiam non solum tacet, sed ei contraria multa loquitur. Affirmat enim, vehementerque contendit, per solum liberum arbitrium sibi humanam sufficere posse naturam ad operandam iustitiam et omnia Dei mandata servanda. Unde quis non videat, cum eumdem librum legerit, quemadmodum oppugnetur gratia Dei, de qua dicit Apostolus: Miser ego homo! quis me liberabit de corpore mortis huius? Gratia Dei per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum 2; et nullus locus divino adiutorio relinquatur, propter quod orantes dicere debeamus: Ne nos inferas in tentationem 3; sine causa etiam Dominus apostolo Petro dixisse videatur: Rogavi pro te, ne deficiat fides tua 4, si hoc totum in nobis nullo auxilio Dei, sed potestate voluntatis impletur? Orationis ac benedictionum necessitas. 4. His itaque disputationibus perversis et impiis, non solum contradicitur orationibus nostris, quibus a Domino petimus quidquid sanctos petiisse legimus et tenemus; verum etiam benedictionibus nostris resistitur, quando super populum dicimus, optantes eis et poscentes a Domino, ut eos abundare faciat in caritate invicem, et in omnes 5, et det eis secundum divitias gloriae suae virtute corroborari per Spiritum eius 6; et impleat eos omni gaudio, et pace in credendo, et abundent in spe, et potentia Spiritus Sancti 7. Utquid eis ista petimus, quae populis a Domino petiisse Apostolum novimus, si iam natura nostra, creata cum libero arbitrio, omnia haec sibi potest sua voluntate praestare? utquid etiam dicit idem ipse Apostolus: Quotquot enim Spiritu Dei aguntur, hi filii sunt Dei 8; si spiritu naturae nostrae agimur, ut efficiamur filii Dei? utquid dicit similiter: Spiritus adiuvat infirmitatem nostram 9; si natura nostra sic creata est, ut Spiritu ad opera iustitiae non indigeat adiuvari? utquid scriptum est: Fidelis autem Deus, qui non permittet vos tentari super id quod potestis, sed faciet cum tentatione etiam exitum, ut possitis sustinere 10; si iam ita conditi sumus, ut viribus liberi arbitrii universas tentationes sustinendo superare possimus? Liber ille Pelagii eiusque refutatio legatur. 5. Quid pluribus agam apud Sanctitatem vestram? quandoquidem me onerosum sentio; maxime quia per interpretem audis litteras meas. Si diligitis Pelagium, diligat vos etiam ipse, imo magis seipsum; et non vos fallat. Cum enim auditis eum confiteri gratiam Dei et adiutorium Dei, putatis hoc eum dicere quod et vos qui catholica regula sapitis, quoniam quid in libro suo scripserit ignoratis. Propter hoc, ipsum librum misi, et meum quo ei respondi; unde perspiciat Venerabilitas vestra, quam gratiam vel adiutorium Dei dicat, quando illi obicitur quod gratiae Dei et adiutorio contradicat. Proinde ostende illi docendo, et hortando, et pro eius salute, quae in Christo esse debet, orando, ut eam Dei gratiam confiteatur, quam probantur sancti Dei fuisse confessi, cum a Domino ea ipsi peterent quae illis iubebat ut facerent: quoniam neque iuberentur, nisi ut nostra voluntas ostenderetur; neque peterentur, nisi ut voluntatis infirmitas ab illo qui iusserat, iuvaretur. Pelagius interrogetur de oratione ac baptismo pro parvulis. 6. Aperte interrogetur utrum ei placeat orandum esse a Domino ne peccemus. Quod si ei displicet, legatur in auribus eius Apostolus dicens: Oramus autem ad Deum, ne quid faciatis mali 11: si autem placet, aperte praedicet gratiam qua iuvamur, ne ipse faciat multum mali. Hac enim gratia Dei per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum omnes liberantur, quicumque liberantur: quoniam nemo, praeter ipsam, quolibet alio modo liberari potest. Propter hoc scriptum est: Sicut in Adam omnes moriuntur, sic et in Christo omnes vivificabuntur 12: non quia nemo damnabitur; sed quia nemo aliter liberabitur. Quia sicut nulli nisi per Adam filii hominis, ita nulli nisi per Christum filii Dei. Omnes itaque filii hominis nonnisi per Adam, et omnes ex eis filii Dei nonnisi per Christum fieri possunt. Aperte itaque etiam hinc exprimat quid sentiat; utrum placeat ei etiam parvulos qui nondum iustitiam possunt velle vel nolle, tamen propter unum hominem, per quem peccatum intravit in mundum, et per peccatum mors, et ita in omnes homines pertransiit, in quo omnes peccaverunt 13, per Christi gratiam liberari: utrum etiam pro ipsis fusum credat sanguinem Christi propter originale peccatum, qui utique in remissionem fusus est peccatorum 14. De his maxime ab illo volumus nosse quid credat, quid teneat, quid certe confiteatur et praedicet. In aliis autem quae illi obiciuntur, etiamsi errare convincitur, tamen donec corrigatur, tolerabilius sustinetur. A. petit concilii Diospolitani Acta. 7. Peto etiam nobis transmittere, quibus perhibetur esse purgatus, ecclesiastica Gesta digneris. Quod ex multorum episcoporum desiderio peto, quos mecum de hac re fama incerta perturbat: sed ideo solus hoc scripsi, quia occasionem perlatoris festinantis a nobis, quem cito ad nos audivi posse remeare, praetermittere nolui. Pro quibus Gestis iam nobis misit non quidem ullam partem Gestorum, sed quamdam a se conscriptam velut defensionem suam, qua se dixit obiectis respondisse Gallorum. In qua, ut alia omittam, cum ad illud responderet, quod ei obiectum est, eum dixisse posse hominem esse sine peccato, et mandata Dei custodire si velit: Diximus, inquit; hanc enim illi Deus possibilitatem dedit. Non diximus, quoniam inveniatur quis ab infantia usque ad senectam, qui numquam peccaverit; sed quoniam a peccatis conversus labore proprio, et gratia Dei adiutus potest absque peccato esse, nec propter hoc in posterum erit inconvertibilis. Quod P. defensione quadam affirmat, negat illo libro. 8. In hac Pelagii responsione cernit Reverentia tua hoc eum fuisse confessum, priorem hominis vitam, quae est ab infantia, sine peccato non esse, sed eum ad vitam quae sine peccato sit, labore proprio et adiuto per gratiam Dei posse converti. Cur ergo in hoc libro, cui respondi, vel ita hic vixisse dicit, ut nihil omnino peccaverit? Nam eius de hac re ista sunt verba: "Hoc, inquit, recte dici potest de his quorum neque bonorum, neque malorum Scriptura sit memor: de illis vero quorum iustitiae meminit, et peccatorum sine dubio meminisset, si qua eos peccasse sensisset. Sed esto, inquit, aliis temporibus turbae numerositate omnium dissimulaverit peccata contexere; in ipso statim mundi primordio, ubi nonnisi quatuor homines erant, quid, inquit, dicimus, cur non omnium voluerit dicta memorare? Utrumne ingentis multitudinis causa, quae nondum erat? an quia illorum tantum, qui commiserant, meminit, illius vero qui nulla commiserat, meminisse non potuit? Certe, inquit, primo in tempore Adam et Eva, ex quibus Cain et Abel nati sunt, quatuor homines tantum fuisse referuntur 15. Peccavit Eva; Scriptura hoc prodidit 16: Adam quoque deliquit; eadem Scriptura non tacuit 17: sed et Cain peccasse ipsa quoque Scriptura testata est 18. Quorum non modo peccata, verum etiam peccatorum indicat qualitatem. Quod si et Abel peccasset, inquit, et hoc sine dubio Scriptura dixisset: si non dixit, ergo nec ille peccavit". P. negat Abelem peccatorem fuisse. 9. Haec verba de libro eius decerpsi, quae in ipso quoque volumine tua Sanctitas poterit invenire; ut intellegatis quemadmodum et caetera neganti credere debeatis. Nisi forte dicat ipsum Abel nihil peccasse; sed ideo non fuisse sine peccato, et ideo non posse Domino comparari, qui in carne mortali solus sine peccato fuit, quia erat in Abel originale peccatum, quod de Adam traxerat, non in seipso ipse commiserat: utinam saltem hoc dicat, ut interim eius de baptismo parvulorum certam sententiam tenere possimus! Aut si forte, quoniam dixit ab infantia usque ad senectutem, ideo dicat Abel non peccasse, quia nec senuisse monstratur. Non hoc indicant verba eius: ab initio priorem vitam dixit peccatricem; posteriorem vero posse esse sine peccato. Ait enim non se dixisse: "quoniam inveniatur quis ab infantia usque ad senectutem, qui non peccaverit; sed quoniam a peccatis conversus labore proprio, et gratia Dei adiutus potest absque peccato esse". Cum enim dicit: "a peccatis conversus", ostendit priorem vitam in peccatis agi. Fateatur ergo quod peccaverit Abel, cuius prima vita fuit in saeculo, quam fatetur non carere peccatis, et respiciat librum suum, ubi eum dixisse constat, quod ait in hac defensione: "Non diximus". A. demonstrare potest librum illum Pelagii esse. 10. Si autem et hunc librum, vel hunc in eo libro locum esse negaverit suum; ego quidem idoneos testes habeo honestos et fideles viros, et eius sine dubio dilectores, quibus attestantibus purgare me possum, quod eumdem librum ipsi mihi dederint, et ibi hoc legatur, eumque Pelagii esse dixerint, ut saltem hoc mihi sufficiat, ne dicat a me fuisse sive conscriptum, sive falsatum. Iam inter illos eligat quisque cui credat; meum non est de hac re diutius disputare. Rogamus ut certe transmittas ipsi, si negaverit se ista sentire, quae illi obiciuntur inimica gratiae Christi. Tam quippe operta est eius defensio, ut si vestram sanctam prudentiam, qui eius alia scripta non nostis, nulla verborum ambiguitate fefellerit, magno gaudio gratulabimur; non multum curantes utrum illa perversa et impia numquam senserit, an se ab eis aliquando correxerit.