Pelagius ( ; 354–418) was a Christian theologian known as an ascetic monk and promoting a system of doctrines (termed Pelagianism by the Catholic Church) which emphasized human choice in salvation and denied original sin. Pelagius especially stressed the freedom of human will. Very little is known about the personal life and career of Pelagius, although he was thought to be of British-Celtic or possibly Romano-British origin and fluent in Latin before arriving in Rome and later North Africa.

Beginnings

Pelagius was active between about 390 and 418. Jerome apparently thought that Pelagius was Irish, suggesting that he was "stuffed with Irish porridge" (). He was tall in stature and portly in appearance. Pelagius was also highly educated, spoke and wrote Latin and Greek with great fluency, and was well versed in theology. His name has traditionally been understood as a Graecized form (from , "sea") of the Welsh name Morgan ("sea-born"), or another Celtic equivalent.

Pelagius became better known around 380 when he moved to Rome. There he enjoyed a reputation of austerity; he also corresponded with Paulinus of Nola. Twenty-five years after the fact, Augustine related that Pelagius had reacted strongly to the statement from Augustine's Confessions (397–401) "Give what you command and command what you will", as he believed that it undermined human responsibility. However, this incident's historicity is questioned by scholars.

When Alaric sacked Rome in 410, Pelagius and his follower Caelestius fled to Carthage, where he continued his work.

thumb|left|Pelagius, as depicted in the [[Nuremberg Chronicle]]

Teachings

Manichaeism stressed that the spirit was God-created, while material substance was corrupt and evil. Theologian Gerald Bonner felt that Pelagius's purported views were in part an "over-reaction" to Manicheanism. Pelagius held that everything created by God was good, therefore, he "could not see" how God had made humans fallen creatures. The Pelagians accused Augustine of bringing Manichaean theology into the Christian church, which Augustine himself denied.

The view that mankind can avoid sinning, and that humans can freely choose to obey God's commandments, is held to have stood at the core of Pelagian teaching. Pelagius stressed human autonomy and freedom of the will; an illustration of Pelagius' views on man's "moral ability" not to sin can be found in his Letter to Demetrias.

For Pelagius, "grace" consisted of the gift of free will, the Law of Moses, and the teachings of Jesus. According to Augustine, Pelagians saw baptism of infants as useless because they had no sin. Celestius, who was a disciple of Pelagius, also was to have denied original sin and the necessity of infant baptism for salvation.

Pope Zosimus

Seeking to undo his condemnation, Pelagius wrote a letter and statement of belief to Pope Zosimus, Innocent I's successor, arguing that he was orthodox. In these he articulated his beliefs so as not to contradict what the synods condemned. Zosimus was persuaded by Celestius to reopen the case, but opposition from the African bishops and Emperor Honorius forced Zosimus to condemn and excommunicate Celestius and Pelagius in 418.

Belief in Pelagianism and Semipelagianism was common for the next few centuries, especially in Britain, Palestine and North Africa. St Germanus visited Britain to combat Pelagianism in or around 429 AD. In Wales, Saint David was credited with convening the Synod of Brefi and the Synod of Victory against the followers of Pelagius in the sixth century.

Evaluation

Because of the fifth-century condemnations of him, Pelagius became known as "a heresiarch of the deepest dye". Evaluation of him changed after the publication of a 1943 biography by and more recent scholars have viewed him as an orthodox Christian theologian who was a victim of denunciation. His Pauline commentaries were popular during the Middle Ages but frequently claimed to be the work of other authors. Ronald Hutton describes him as "a first-rate theologian".

The theologian Carol Harrison commented that Pelagius presented "a radically different alternative to Western understandings of the human person, human responsibility and freedom, ethics and the nature of salvation" which might have come about if Augustine had not been victorious in the Pelagian controversy. According to Harrison, "Pelagianism represents an attempt to safeguard God's justice, to preserve the integrity of human nature as created by God, and of human beings' obligation, responsibility and ability to attain a life of perfect righteousness." However, this is at the expense of downplaying human frailty and presenting "the operation of divine grace as being merely external". According to the scholar Rebecca Weaver, "what most distinguished Pelagius was his conviction of an unrestricted freedom of choice, given by God and immune to alteration by sin or circumstance."

In 1956, John Ferguson wrote:

Writings

Of his surviving works, only few are known in full. These are:

  • ("On Faith in the Trinity: Three Books")
  • ("Excerpts out of Divine Scriptures: Book One")
  • ("Commentary on the Epistles of Saint Paul")

Most of his work survives only in the quotations of his opponents. Only in the twentieth century have works attributable to Pelagius been identified as such.

Other writings include On Nature, parts of which are quoted in Augustine's On Nature and Grace, and Defense of the Freedom of the Will, quoted in Augustine's On the Grace of Christ. Also surviving are his letter to Demetrias, along with fragments of other letters, and the written statement of faith which was received by Pope Zosimus.

See also

  • Julian of Eclanum

References

Sources

Further reading

Translations

  • Pelagius's Commentary on St Paul's Epistle to the Romans (translated with introduction and notes by Theodore de Bruyn), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993
  • Pelagius's Expositions of the Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul (edited by A. Souter) Texts and Studies; 9, 3 vols. in 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922–1931 1: Introduction 2: Text – 3: Pseudo-Jerome interpolations

Other works

  • Bonner, Ali, The Myth of Pelagianism, Oxford University Press, 2018.
  • Brinley Rees, Pelagius A Reluctant Heretic, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1988.
  • Brinley Rees (ed.), Pelagius: Life and Letters, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge: 1989, 1991. Translation of 18 letters, including Epistle to Demetrias, and minor treatises attributed at various times to Pelagius or his followers.
  • Nelson, Eric, The Theology of Liberalism: Political Philosophy and the Justice of God, Harvard University Press, 2019
  • Robert Van de Weyer (ed.), The Letters of Pelagius: Celtic Soul Friend, Little Gidding books, Evesham: Arthur James, 1995.
  • Pelagius, Epistula ad Demetriadem. Brief an Demetrias, Einleitung, Edition und Übersetzung von Gisbert Greshake, [Fontes Christiani], Band 65, Herder, Freiburg, 2015
  • Squires, Stuart. The Pelagian Controversy: An Introduction to the Enemies of Grace and the Conspiracy of Lost Souls. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2019.
  • Yamada, N. (2020). Pelagius' View of Ideal Christian Women in his Letters, Scrinium, 1–22.
  • The Patristics in English Project provides English translations of several of Pelagius's writings.
  • "Pelagius: To Demetrias", an analysis of the letter and a brief biography by Deacon Geoffrey Ó Riada.