§ 160, VICTORY OF SEMI-AUGUSTINIAXISM. 885
autlior avoids even tlie terva prmdestinatio, and teaches expressly, that Christ died for all men and would have all to be saved , thus rejecting the Augustinian particularism. But, on the other hand, he also rejects the Semi-Pelagian principles, and asserts the utter iiiabilitv of the natural man to do good. He unhesitatingly sets grace above the human will, and represents the whole life of faith, from beginning to end, as a work of unmerited grace. He develops the three thoughts, that God desires the salvation of all men ; that no one is saved by his own merits, but by grace; and that the human understanding cannot fathom the depths of divine wisdom. We must trust in the righteousness of God. Every one of the damned suffera only the righteous punishment of his sins; while no saint can boast himself in his merits, since it is only of pure grace that he is saved. But how is it with the great multitude of infants that die every year without baptism, and without opportunity of coming to the knowledge of salvation? The author feels this difficulty, without, however, being able to solve it. He calls to his help the representative character of parents, and dilutes the Augustinian doctrine of original sin to the negative conception of a mere defect of good, which, of course, also reduces the idea of hereditary guilt and the damnation of unbaptized children. He distinguishes between a general grace which comes to man through the external revelation in nature^ law, and gospel, and a special grace, which eifects conversion add regeneration by an inward impartation of saving power, and which is only bestowed on those that are saved.
Semi-Pelagianism prevailed in Gaul for several decades. ; Under the lead of Faustus of Khegium it gained the victory.' in two synods, at Aries in 472 and at Lyons in 475, wherel Augustine's doctrine of predestination was condemned, though! without mention of his name.
§ 160. Victory of Semi-Augustinianism. Go^mcil of Oram,ge^
A. D. 529.
But these synods were only provincial, and were the cause of a schism. In North Africa and in Rome the Augustiniao
SQQ THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
BvsteiD of doctrine, tliougli in a somewhat softened form, attained the ascendency. In the decree issned by pope Gehisiui in 496 de lihrls recipiendis et non rccijpiendis (the beginning of an Index libroruni prohibitorum), the writings of Augnstine and Prosper Aquitauus are phiced among books ecclesiastically sanctioned, those of Cassian and Faustus of Khegium among the apocryphal or forbidden. Even in Gaul it found in the beginning of the sixth century very capable and distinguished advocates, especially in Avrrus, archbishop of Yienne (490- 523), and Cjesarius, archbishop of Aries (502-542). Associated with these was Fulgentius of Ruspe (f 533), in the name of the sixty African bishops banished by the Yandals and then living in SardiTua.'
The controversy was stirred up anew by the Scythian monks, who in their zeal for the Monophysite theopaschitism, abhorred everything connected with Nestorianism, and urged first pope Hormisdas, and then with better success the exiled African bishops, to procure the condemnation of Semi-Pelagian ism.
These transactions terminated at length in the triumph of a moderate Augustinianism, or of what might be called Semi- Auo-ustinianism, in distinction from Semi-Pela<2;ianism. At the synod of Orange (Arausio) in the year 529, at which Csesarins of Aries was leader, the Semi-Pelagian system, yet without mention of its adh^renis^ \vas condemned in twenty five chapters or canons, and the Augustinian doctrine of sin and grace was approved, without the doctrine of absolute or particularistic predestination." A simihir result was reaclu'd
' He wrote Dc veritate praDdestinatioiiis et gratiae Dei, three libb. against Faustus. He uses in these the expression praedestinatio duplex, but understands by the second praedestinatio the prasdcstination to damnation, not to sin, and censures those who affirmed a predestination to sin. Yet he expressly consigned to damnation all unbapdzed children, even such as die iu tlieir mother's womb. Comp. Wiggers, ii. p. 378.
■^ Comp. the transactions of the Concilium Arausicanun:, the twenty-five Capitula, and the Syrabolum in the Opera Aug. ed. Bened. Appendix to torn. x. 157 sqq. ; iu Mansi, torn. viii. p. 712 sqq. ; and in Hefele, ii. p. 70 1 ff. The Benedictine editoii trace back the several Capitula to their sources in the works of Augustine, Prospei. eoid others.