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From Norman Davies: Pelagius.
Pelagius (ca. 360 -420 c.e.) was a Welshman or at least a Celt from the
British Isles. His name Pelagius is a Graeco-Roman form of his surname, Morgan,
meaning "Son of the Sea". His friends called him "Brito". . At the Council of
Carthage (after 410 ce) six cardinal errors of Pelagius and his friend Celestius,
were condemned:
1. That Adam would have died even if he had not sinned.
2. That Adam injured himself not the human race.
3. That newborn children like Adam himself are without sin.
4. That the human race does not die through Adam's sin.
5.That the Law as well as the Gospel gives entrance to heaven.
6. That there were men without sin even before Christ's coming.
Source: Norman Davies, "Europe. A History", NY 1996.
PELAGIUS c.355 - c.435
http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/11604a.htm.
British Theologian Pelagius was a monk from Britain. He went to Rome where he
was distressed by the moral decay of many Roman Christians. He blamed Rome's
moral laxity on the doctrine of divine grace promulgated by Augustine. Pelagius
reasoned that if a man were not himself responsible for his good or evil deeds,
there was nothing to restrain him from indulgence in sin. Pelagius held that the
human will is free to do good or evil, and that divine grace only facilitates
what the will can do itself. After the fall of Rome to the Visigoths Pelagius
went first to Africa, and then to Palestine. After attacks from Augustine and
Jerome, Pelagius was condemned as a heretic .
Pelagius and
Pelagianism
Selected Extracts from: Catholic Encyclopedia
Pelagius and Pelagianism
Pelagianism received its name from Pelagius and designates a heresy
of the fifth century, which denied original sin as well as Christian grace. Life
and Writings of Pelagius Apart from the chief episodes of the Pelagian
controversy, little or nothing is known about the personal career of Pelagius.
It is only after he bade a lasting farewell to Rome in A. D. 411 that the
sources become more abundant; but from 418 on history is again silent about his
person. As St. Augustine (De peccat. orig., xxiv) testifies that he lived in
Rome "for a very long time", we may presume that he resided there at least since
the reign of Pope Anastasius (398-401). But about his long life prior to the
year 400 and above all about his youth, we are left wholly in the dark. Even the
country of his birth is disputed. While the most trustworthy witnesses, such as
Augustine, Orosius, Prosper, and Marius Mercator, are quite explicit in
assigning Britain as his native country, as is apparent from his cognomen of
Brito or Britannicus, Jerome (Praef. in Jerem., lib. I and III) ridicules him as
a "Scot" (loc. cit., "habet enim progeniem Scoticae gentis de Britannorum
vicinia"), who being "stuffed with Scottish porridge" (Scotorum pultibus
proegravatus) suffers from a weak memory. Rightly arguin that the "Scots" of
those days were really the Irish, H. Zimmer ("Pelagius in Ireland", p.20,
Berlin, 1901) has advanced weighty reasons for the hypothesis that the true home
of Pelagius must be sought in Ireland, and that he journeyed through the
southwest of Britain to Rome. Tall in stature and portly in appearance (Jerome,
loc. cit., "grandis et corpulentus"), Pelagius was highly educated, spoke and
wrote Latin as well as Greek with great fluency and was well versed in theology.
Though a monk and consequently devoted to practical asceticism, he never was a
cleric; for both Orosius and Pope Zosimus simply call him a "layman". In Rome
itself he enjoyed the reputation of austerity, while St. Augustine called him
even a "saintly man", vir sanctus: Six theses of Caelestius [friend and pupil of
Pelagius ] - perhaps literal extracts from his lost work "Contra traducem
peccati" - were branded as heretical. These theses ran as follows:
1. Even if Adam had not sinned, he would have died.
2. Adam's sin harmed only himself, not the human race.
3. Children just born are in the same state as Adam before his fall.
4. The whole human race neither dies through Adam's sin or death, nor rises
again through the resurrection of Christ.
5. The (Mosaic Law) is as good a guide to heaven as the Gospel.
6. Even before the advent of Christ there were men who were without sin.
On account of these doctrines, which clearly contain the quintessence of
Pelagianism, Caelestius was summoned to appear before a synod at Carthage (411);
but he refused to retract them. But the heresy continued to smoulder in the West
and died our very slowly. The main centres were Gaul and Britain. About Gaul we
are told that a synod, held probably at Troyes in 429, was compelled to take
steps against the Pelagians. It also sent Bishops Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus
of Troyes to Britain to fight the rampant heresy, which received powerful
support from two pupils of Pelagius, Agricola and Fastidius. Almost a
century later, Wales was the centre of Pelagian intrigues. In Ireland also
Pelagius's "Commentary on St. Paul", described in the beginning of this article,
was in use long afterwards, as is proved by many Irish quotations from it. Even
in Italy traces can be found, not only in the Diocese of Aquileia, but also in
Middle Italy; for the so-called "Liber Praedestinatus", written about 440
perhaps in Rome itself, bears not so much the stamp of Semipelagianism as of
genuine Pelagianism
JOSEPH POHLE Transcribed by Anthony A. Killeen The Catholic
Encyclopedia,
Volume XI 1911 by Kevin Knight
From the Web:
Coming to Rome c. 380, Pelagius, though not a priest, became a highly
regarded spiritual director for both clergy and laymen, his closest
collaborator was a lawyer named Celestius. After the fall of Rome to the
Visigoth chieftain Alaric in 410, Pelagius and Celestius went to Africa. There
they encountered the hostile criticism of Augustine, who published several
denunciatory letters concerning their Doctrine ?Pelagius left for Palestine c.
412.. "The great German theologian Karl Barth a few years ago described British
Christianity as "incurably Pelagian." The rugged individualism of the Celtic
monk, his conviction that each person is free to choose between good and evil.
And his insistence that faith must be practical as well as spiritual remain
hallmarks of Christians in Britain.. The British imagination has remained rooted
in nature, witnessed by the pastoral poetry and landscape panting in which
Britain excels, indeed that peculiar British obsession with gardening is Celtic
in origin. Visitors to the British Isles are often shocked at how few people
attend church each Sunday. Yet to the Britons, church-goers as well as
absentees, the primary test of faith is not religious observance, but daily
behavour towards our neighbours and towards one's pets, livestock and
plants." A.G.H.
http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/Pelagius.html
Brit-Am Comment:
Some sources say that Pelagius was Welsh others say he was
Scottish. The notion that Pelagius was Irish is a modern one based on the fact
that in those times the term "Scot" could also refer to someone from Ireland.
The Scots had moved from Ireland to Scotland. There was a movement of peoples
between Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in many ways
were one cultural unity in the time of Pelagius. Pelagius and his friend
Celestius apparently believed that the Mosaic Law was equally as good as the
Christian one for the purposes of salvation. The doctrine of Pelagius remained
strong in Celtic Gaul, in Wales and in Ireland. Pelagius may not have originated
this doctrine but rather brought it with him from Britain. The doctrine may be
seen as reflecting British reality. According to Gildas (500s CE) the Celts were
identified with the Ancient Israelites. We saw that there is some evidence
supporting the tradition that some of the Celts of Britain and Ireland had
practiced some aspects of the Mosaic Law before becoming Christians. We also saw
that after they became Christians the Celts of Britain in some areas continued
to practice in part the Laws of Moses. Pelagius saw the Law of Moses as being
equal to Chritianity and he may have been reflecting the general attitude of his
countrymen in parts of Britain at that time.
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