A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians.

Translated by ANF/NPNF editors

Public domainServed

Begin reading

About this edition

(English) · Translated by ANF/NPNF editors

Contents 131 sections

Title Page.Front matter
Extract from Augustin’s Retractations.
Book I
Introduction: Address to Boniface.
Why Heretical Writings Must Be Answered.
Why He Addresses His Book to Boniface.
The Calumny of Julian,—That the Catholics Teach that Free Will is Taken Away by Adam’s Sin.
Free Choice Did Not Perish With Adam ’s Sin. What Freedom Did Perish.
Grace is Not Given According to Merits.
He Concludes that He Does Not Deprive the Wicked of Free Will.
The Pelagians Demolish Free Will.
Another Calumny of Julian,—That 'It is Said that Marriage is Not Appointed by God.'
The Third Calumny,—The Assertion that Conjugal Intercourse is Condemned.
The Purpose of the Pelagians in Praising the Innocence of Conjugal Intercourse.
The Fourth Calumny,—That the Saints of the Old Testament are Said to Be Not Free from Sins.
The Fifth Calumny,—That It is Said that Paul and the Rest of the Apostles Were Polluted by Lust.
That the Apostle is Speaking in His Own Person and that of Others Who Are Under Grace, Not Still Under Law.
He Sins in Will Who is Only Deterred from Sinning by Fear.
How Sin Died, and How It Revived.
'The Law is Spiritual, But I Am Carnal,' To Be Understood of Paul.
How the Apostle Said that He Did the Evil that He Would Not.
What It is to Accomplish What is Good.
In Me, that Is, in My Flesh.
No Condemnation in Christ Jesus.
Why the Passage Referred to Must Be Understood of a Man Established Under Grace.
What It is to Be Delivered from the Body of This Death.
He Concludes that the Apostle Spoke in His Own Person, and that of Those Who are Under Grace.
The Sixth Calumny,—That Augustin Asserts that Even Christ Was Not Free from Sins.
The Seventh Calumny,—That Augustin Asserts that in Baptism All Sins are Not Remitted.
In What Sense Lust is Called Sin in the Regenerate.
Many Without Crime, None Without Sin.
Julian Opposes the Faith of His Friends to the Opinions of Catholic Believers. First of All, of Free Will.
Secondly, of Marriage.
Thirdly, of Conjugal Intercourse.
The Aprons Which Adam and Eve Wore.
The Shame of Nakedness.
Whether There Could Be Sensual Appetite in Paradise Before the Fall.
Desire in Paradise Was Either None at All, or It Was Obedient to the Impulse of the Will.
Julian’s Fourth Objection, that Man is God’s Work, and is Not Constrained to Evil or Good by His Power.
The Beginning of a Good Will is the Gift of Grace.
The Power of God’s Grace is Proved.
Julian’s Fifth Objection Concerning the Saints of the Old Testament.
The Sixth Objection, Concerning the Necessity of Grace for All, and Concerning the Baptism of Infants.
The Seventh Objection, of the Effect of Baptism.
He Rebuts the Conclusion of Julian’s Letter.
Book II
Introduction; The Pelagians Impeach Catholics as Manicheans.
The Heresies of the Manicheans and Pelagians are Mutually Opposed, and are Alike Reprobated by the Catholic Church.
How Far the Manicheans and Pelagians are Joined in Error; How Far They are Separated.
The Two Contrary Errors.
The Calumny of the Pelagians Against the Clergy of the Roman Church.
What Was Done in the Case of Cœlestius and Zosimus.
He Suggests a Dilemma to Cœlestius.
The Catholic Faith Concerning Infants.
He Replies to the Calumnies of the Pelagians.
Why the Pelagians Falsely Accuse Catholics of Maintaining Fate Under the Name of Grace.
The Accusation of Fate is Thrown Back Upon the Adversaries.
What is Meant Under the Name of Fate.
He Repels the Calumny Concerning the Acceptance of Persons.
He Illustrates His Argument by an Example.
The Apostle Meets the Question by Leaving It Unsolved.
The Pelagians are Refuted by the Case of the Twin Infants Dying, the One After, and the Other Without, the Grace of Baptism.
Even the Desire of an Imperfect Good is a Gift of Grace, Otherwise Grace Would Be Given According to Merits.
The Desire of Good is God’s Gift.
He Interprets the Scriptures Which the Pelagians Make Ill Use of.
God’s Agency is Needful Even in Man’s Doings.
Man Does No Good Thing Which God Does Not Cause Him to Do.
According to Whose Purpose the Elect are Called.
Nothing is Commanded to Man Which is Not Given by God.
Book III.
Statement.
The Misrepresentation of the Pelagians Concerning the Use of the Old Law.
Scriptural Confirmation of the Catholic Doctrine.
Misrepresentation Concerning the Effect of Baptism.
Baptism Puts Away All Sins, But It Does Not at Once Heal All Infirmities.
The Calumny Concerning the Old Testament and the Righteous Men of Old.
The New Testament is More Ancient Than the Old; But It Was Subsequently Revealed.
All Righteous Men Before and After Abraham are Children of the Promise and of Grace.
Who are the Children of the Old Covenant.
The Old Law Also Given by God.
Distinction Between the Children of the Old and of the New Testaments.
The Old Testament is Properly One Thing—The Old Instrument Another.
Why One of the Covenants is Called Old, the Other New.
Calumny Concerning the Righteousness of the Prophets and Apostles.
The Perfection of Apostles and Prophets.
Misrepresentation Concerning Sin in Christ.
Their Calumny About the Fulfilment of Precepts in the Life to Come.
Perfection of Righteousness and Full Security Was Not Even in Paul in This Life.
In What Sense the Righteousness of Man in This Life is Said to Be Perfect.
Why the Righteousness Which is of the Law is Valued Slightly by Paul.
That Righteousness is Never Perfected in This Life.
Nature of Human Righteousness and Perfection.
There is No True Righteousness Without the Faith of the Grace of Christ.
There are Three Principal Heads in the Pelagian Heresy.
He Shows that the Opinion of the Catholics is the Mean Between that of the Manicheans and Pelagians, and Refutes Both.
The Pelagians Still Strive After a Hiding-Place, by Introducing the Needless Question of the Origin of the Soul.
Book IV
The Subterfuges of the Pelagians are Five.
The Praise of the Creature.
The Catholics Praise Nature, Marriage, Law, Free Will, and the Saints, in Such Wise as to Condemn as Well Pelagians as Manicheans.
Pelagians and Manicheans on the Praise of the Creature.
What is the Special Advantage in the Pelagian Opinions?
Not Death Alone, But Sin Also Has Passed into Us by Means of Adam.
What is the Meaning of ‘In Whom All Have Sinned’?
Death Passed Upon All by Sin.
Of the Praise of Marriage.
Of the Praise of the Law.
The Pelagians Understand that the Law Itself is God’s Grace.
Of the Praise of Free Will.
God’s Purposes are Effects of Grace.
The Testimonies of Scripture in Favour of Grace.
From Such Scriptures Grace is Proved to Be Gratuitous and Effectual.
Why God Makes of Some Sheep, Others Not.
Of the Praise of the Saints.
The Opinion of the Saints Themselves About Themselves.
The Craft of the Pelagians.
The Testimonies of the Ancients Against the Pelagians.
Pelagius, in Imitation of Cyprian, Wrote a Book of Testimonies.
Section 119 — Further References to Cyprian.
Section 120 — Further References to Cyprian.
The Dilemma Proposed to the Pelagians.
Cyprian’s Testimonies Concerning God’s Grace.
Further Appeals to Cyprian’s Teaching.
Cyprian’s Testimonies Concerning the Imperfection of Our Own Righteousness.
Cyprian’s Orthodoxy Undoubted.
The Testimonies of Ambrose Against the Pelagians and First of All Concerning Original Sin.
The Testimonies of Ambrose Concerning God’s Grace.
The Testimonies of Ambrose on the Imperfection of Present Righteousness.
The Pelagian’s Heresy Arose Long After Ambrose.
Opposition of the Manichean and Catholic Dogmas.
The Calling Together of a Synod Not Always Necessary to the Condemnation of Heresies.

Available to read online.