§ 160. VICTOEY OF SEMI-AUGUSTINIANISM. 860
1. Tlirougli the fall free will lias been so weakened, that without prevenient grace no one can love God, believe on Him, or do good for God's sake, as he ought {sictit ojportuit^ implying that he may in a certain measure).
2. Through the grace of God all may, by the co-operation of God, perform what is necessary for their soul's salvation.
3. It is by no means our faith, that any have been predestinated by God^to sin {ad malum), but rather: if there are people who believe so vile a tiling, we condemn them with utter abhorrence {cum omni detestatione).^
4. In every good work the beginning proceeds nor. from us, but God inspires in us faith and love to Him without merit precedent on our part, so that we desire baptism, and after baptism can, with His help, fulfil His will,
5. Because this doctrine of the fathers and the synod is alsc salutary for the laity, the distinguished men of the laity also, M'ho have been present at this solemn assembly, shall subscribe these acts.
In pursuance of this requisition, besides the bishops, the Praefectus prsetorio Liberius, and seven other viri illustres, signed the Acts. This recognition of the lay element, in view of the hierarchical bent of the age, is significant, and indicates an inward connection of evangelical doctrine with the idea of the universal priesthood. And they were two laymen, we must remember. Prosper and Hilarius, who first came forward in Gaul in energetic opposition to Semi-Pelagianism and in advocacy of the sovereignty of divine grace.
The decisions of the council were sent by Caesarius tOj Rome, and were confirmed by pope Boniface II. in 530. Boniface, in giving his approval, emphasized the declaration, that even the beginning of a good will and of faith is a gift of
placuit ut earn etiam illustres ac magnifici viri, qui nobiscum ad praefatam festivitatem convenerunt, propria manu subscriberent."
Then follow the names of fourteen l)ishops (headed by Ccesarius) and eight laymet (headed by Petrus MarceDinus Felix Liberius, vir clarissimus et illustris Praefectus Prsetorii Galllarum atque Patricius).
' This undoubtedly takes for granted, that Augustine did not teach this ; and it fact he taught only a predestination of the wicked to perdition, not a predestination tc sin.
870 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
prevenient grace, while Seini-Pelagianism left open a waj U Christ without grace from God. And beyond question, the church was fully warranted in affirming the pre-eminence of grace over freedom, and the necessity and importance of the gratia py^ceveniens.
Notwithstanding this rejection of the Senii-Pelagiau teachings (not teachers), they made their way into the church again, and while Augustine was universally honored as a canonized saint and standard teacher, Cassian and Faustus of Rhegium remained in grateful remembrance as saints in France.'
At the close of this period Gregory the Great represents the moderated Augustinian system, with the gratia prcBveniens^ but without the gratia irresistihilis and without a particularistic decretum ahsolutum. Through him this milder Augustiuianism exerted great influence upon the mediaeval theology. Yet the strict Augustinianism always had its adherents, in such men as Bede, Alcuin, and Isidore of Seville, who taught a gemi/na prcedestinatio, sive electorum ad saluteni, sive reproborum ad mortem; it became prominent again in the Gottschalk controversy in the ninth century, was repressed by scholasticism and the prevailing legalism ; was advocated by the precursors of the Reformation, especially by Wiclif and Huss ; and in the Reformation of the sixteenth century, it gained a massive acknowledgment and an independent development in Calvinism, which, in fact, partially recast it, and gave it its most consistent form.
' Comp. respecting the further history of anthropology Wiogkrs: Schicksale del augustinisehen Anthropologic von der Verdainmung des Somipelagianismus auf den Synoden zu Orange und Valence, 529, bis zur Reaction des Miiuchs Gottsclialk fiii den Augustinismus, in Nieduer's "Zeitschrift Air hist. Theologie,"' 1854, f . 1 flL