A Man Called Pelagius

Fifteen-hundred years ago, what came to be known as the "Pelagian Controversy," raged on for seventeen years. Its eventual outcome has had an impact on our contemporary world. The notorious pedophilia scandal that has shaken the Catholic Church is merely an obvious example, in my opinion.

While some theologians have called the "controversy" a struggle for the soul of the church, it seems to me to have been principally a battle between human freedom and despotism. Freedom lost, and we can still see the results almost 2,000 years later.

Except perhaps for some theologians and historians specializing in this area, Pelagius is part of a little known historical episode, full of turgid, theological minutiae, but of more than passing significance.

He was most likely born somewhere in Great Britain, then part of the Roman Empire. He was a monk and not a member of the official Catholic clergy. He was educated, fluent in Greek, and spent most of his adult life in Italy and north Africa.

Pelagius first makes an appearance in 411 or 412. We know this primarily because of one man, Aurelius Augustinus: His position in western civilization is enormous, and some historians consider him as important as Plato and Aristotle, in terms of the intellectual development of the west.

He was best known as Saint Augustine, one of the pillars of the Roman Catholic Church. Augustinus was born in the year 354 in Tagaste, Numidia, which is now Souk-Ahras, Algeria. He became the Bishop of Hippo in north Africa.

At this time many of the doctrines and the rituals of the Christian church had not been firmly established. Arguments and debates were spirited and sometimes physically dangerous. This was especially true in places like Numidia and some of the eastern provinces. Christianity in these areas was much harsher, and never stressed love and mercy.

Hardly any of Pelagius' writings or those of his followers exist. But there are some. On the other hand, the theological views and justifications of Augustine--a prolific writer--have been carefully preserved over the centuries. His two most famous works are the Confessions and The City of God. If history is written by the winners, then Augustine's victory was certainly decisive.

Pelagius and Augustine may have met at least one time at a conference in Carthage, probably around 412. Augustine was at this point the Bishop of Hippo, a staunch defender of the established order, and had recently succeeded in getting the Vatican to declare another Christian sect ( the Donatists ) a heresy, meaning it was now a crime against the state. Pelagius' theology was decidedly different, and his views were spreading throughout north Africa. It wasn't long before Augustine went after Pelagius for heresy.

During Augustine's battle against the Donatists, his views of humankind had become far more dark and pessimistic. He was now talking about the impossibility of life without sin, that humanity couldn't escape from this "original" sin, and the curse of concupiscence.

It inevitably led to a vision that nothing makes much difference in this life, judgment would come in the next life, and the church and the clergy were absolutely essential to explain the "truth."

Pelagius, by contrast, believed humans could freely choose good or evil, and were responsible for those choices. He denied that man was tainted by original sin or predestined to eternal damnation. Pelagius declared that humankind was capable of obtaining the lofty ideals of virtue. And, unlike Augustine, Pelagius considered sexuality normal, very much part of being human, and not sinful.

The struggle between Pelagius and Augustine continued for several years, with each side presenting its case to church officials and the Pope. But in 418, Augustine was again successful and the Vatican declared Pelagianism a heresy. The Pelagians fought on for another ten or eleven years, now led by the exiled bishop Julian of Eclanum, but they too were ultimately defeated. By the beginning of the seventh century all traces of Pelagianism had vanished throughout what had been the old Roman Empire.

For someone living in a developed nation in the twenty-first century, it's virtually impossible to comprehend the mind of a person dwelling in the early fifth century.

Yet, as I learned more about Pelagius and Augustine, and the times in which they lived, I found it impossible not to think about suicide bombers, martydom, and religious fascism in our present century. Would those in the Middle East today more readily understand someone like the third century Christian writer Tertullian, who said, "Happy is the man whom God has devoured. The blood of Christians is seed!"

What if Pelagius had succeeded? Would there have been the Inquisition, virulent anti-Semitism, religious superstition and intolerance? Would the Reformation have taken place? Would we have had the Crusades? And would our attitudes regarding human sexuality and the role of women been any different?

I for one believe it was civilization's loss when Pelagianism was defeated. Augustine said human nature was enslaved by sin. Pelagius said we humans possessed a will to choose the good. Augustine believed nature was only human nature. Pelagius declared nature to exist in the broadest sense; it was everywhere. Tragically, the good guys lost.