further, that the children of Adam were born naturally good and were in no
need of a Redeemer. Christ’s act of redemption was thus reduced to
providing lofty teaching and virtuous example, while forgiveness of sin
through faith meant forgiveness from punishment, not renewal in grace. If
the children of Adam kept good company and directed their wills and
ordinary powers to live a sinless and holy life, they could achieve eternal
beatitude through their own natural efforts. This many had done, not only
since Christ, but also before. Pelagianism thus descended to pure
naturalism, and was an unmistakable reproduction of the Stoic ideal of
virtue.
Pelagius’ errors found a partial vacuum in which to disseminate, as the
Church, absorbed by the controversies concerning the Incarnation, had not
developed in detail the doctrines concerning man’s fall, renewal, grace and
freewill. Though meeting sporadic opposition in Rome, Carthage and in the
East, it was St. Augustine of Hippo as the “Doctor of Grace” who rose to
combat Pelagianism with his powerful pen: “They (the Pelagians) contend
that in this life there are or have been righteous men having no sin at all. By
this presumption they most clearly contradict the Lord’s Prayer, in which
all the members of Christ cry aloud with true heart these words to be said
each day: ‘Forgive us our debts.’”¹ For the self-confident Pelagian, the
Lord’s Prayer served only as a profession of humility, not a statement of
fact.
St. Augustine drew on the parable of the vine and the branches (St. John
15:1) to strike at Pelagianism and expose it as a novelty contrary to the
teachings of Christ. Only when the vital union between Christ (the vine)
and His members (the branches) is established is it possible to bring forth
supernatural fruit: for “without me you can do nothing” (St. John 15:5). St.
Augustine also presented this particular thought: “Could we bring together
here in living form all the saints of both sexes and question them whether
they were without sin, would they not exclaim unanimously: ‘If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’?”² Before
1
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4, 10, 27 (420 AD).
2
On Nature and Grace 36 (415 AD); cf. 1 John 1:8.
 |
 |
 |