RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Pelagius
desires of the flesh, which are not without justification when kept within the bounds of nature, stand in opposition to the soul and may become intensified into passions. While reason may oppose these " passions of irrational animals," Pelagius, betraying the influence of the Stoics, was far from failing to recognize the power of sin in the world. Many were made sinful by the example of Adam's disobedience; the very " habit of sin " had attained such power over all the race, that Pelagius could speak of a " necessity " rooted in this habit; though this was created by each man for himself. Since all have sinned, so all die. Adam is the type of them that die, as Christ is the type of them that rise again. Since man had forgotten the law of nature, God had given the law of the letter, which might have been fulfilled to be rewarded with eternal life, but no one had fulfilled it because of the weakness of the flesh. This law knew no forgiveness of sin, though God had from eternity purposed to save them that believed through his Son. When Christ came the time had been fulfilled, since no one could keep the law because of his habit of evil; and now salvation is solely by faith in him.
In answer to the questions what Christ had done and given, Pelagius repeatedly replied in twofold fashion; as when he said (on Rom. iii. 20): " He
giveth remission of sins to them that
4. Christian believe and teacheth how the vices of
Redemption, the flesh ought to be avoided and
pruned by understanding." In this remission of sins Pelagius distinguished between redemption and justification; the former is emphasized only where Paul speaks of redemption, but the latter is continually emphasized by Pelagius. This justification, given through baptism, is secured through faith alone; and Pelagius was the most strenuous representative of solafiducianism previous to Luther. At the same time he held that none should think that faith alone was sufficient to salvation without sanctity of mind and body. If, moreover, the Christian were to remain in a state of justification without the works of faith, his faith would be dead. The faith which is thus associated by Pelagius with justification, though given to each individual by God in so far as each one is called by the divine will to believe, nevertheless lies within the free will of each man. I Pelagius is thus no predestinarian, and he expressly holds (on Rom. xi. 5) that " faith is the election of grace as works are the election of the law"; faith, moreover, is reliance on the promises of God, the " hope of the recompense of good works," without which " none can accomplish virtues " (on Rom. i. 17). While he who is baptized is sanctified, he must hold fast to his sanctification. Sins previous to baptism should distress no one; and every one overtaken by sin should take refuge in penitence. Thus Pelagius leads to the second blessing of Christ, the grace whereby the baptized may learn from Christ's doctrine and example. This doctrine and example teach how to overcome the passions; for it was the distinctive characteristic of the New Testament that Christ taught how to put away not only sin, but even the occasions of offenses. This, in a word,
he teaches by inculcating asceticism: since, " by being born of a poor mother he hath scorned riches; since while he learned not letters he refuteth worldly wisdom; and since, when betrayed he resisted not, he forbiddeth to boast in human bravery " (on I Cor. i. 27).
The commentaries of Pelagius contain all the
erroneous doctrines later alleged against him, with a
single exception. This, however, was the one which
was preeminently to lead to his con-
5. Pedobap- demnation — doubts regarding the baptism, Origi- tism of children for the remission of nal Sin, and sins. He had no occasion to mention Perfection, pedobaptism, for his high estimate
of solafiducian justification evidently concerned only those baptized as adults; but obviously, had he needed to allude to it, he would have condemned it. From this a double conclusion follows: first that Pelagius' doctrines can not have been offensive of themselves to wide circles of the Church of his period; second, infant baptism was to prove fatal to him so soon as it was recognized by the Church for the remission of sins. According to Augustine, the three chief errors of the Pelagians were: their denial of original sin; their view that justifying grace is not given freely, but according to merit; and that they regarded sinless perfection as possible after baptism. The first and third charges were well founded. While recognizing that sin was general almost without exception, Pelagius acknowledged no inherited taint; and the possibility of post-baptismal sinlessness, though rarely realized, followed from his premise that Christians are called to perfection. Yet in neither of these positions was Pelagius without predecessors. The doctrine of original sin was unknown in the Eastern Church, and Pelagius could even claim some degree of support in Lactantius (Divina institutio, iv. 24-25; MPL, vi. 522; Eng. transl., ANF, vii. 125-127). Universal sin was for the Origenistic theology a presupposition of this temporal period. In the Old Testament, Abraham, Noah, Enoch, and Abel were declared " acceptable to God " ; and Athanasius accepted this in the sense of active integrity and regarded also Jeremiah as sinless. The ancient view was wide-spread that it was the duty of the Christian to live sinlessly after baptism, a view expressed by Athanasius and Justin and regarded as entirely possible of realization.
Nevertheless, it would be incorrect to say that the views of Pelagius represented nothing but what was already current in the East. Augustine was wrong in charging that Pelagius held justifying grace
to be conditioned by human merit; for
6. Doctrine one of the cardinal principles of Pelaof Grace, gius was that man is justified in baptism
by faith alone, and not by any merits of his former life. It was only assisting grace of another kind that could be merited according to the system of Pelagius. The error of Augustine is due to the fact that by justification he has in mind something different from the sense of Pelagius. Elsewhere, however, he accurately expressed what he failed to find in Pelagius; namely, the concept of that grace (gratia inspirationis; see Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo, II., § 2) without which,
Pelagius