Pelagius

Prosper calls Pelagius a Briton (Prosper, Chronicle 1252 (AD 413)). The synod in Palestine, in the verdict that Augustine of Hippo quotes, calls him a monk (Augustine, On the Proceedings of Pelagius 44, 62), and Augustine says that he first heard of him as a man much praised at Rome (Augustine, On the Proceedings of Pelagius 46). His letter to Demetrias, the fullest of his surviving writings, teaches that human nature was created good, that the power to choose between good and evil is God’s gift, and that a just God has commanded nothing impossible (Pelagius, Letter to Demetrias 2–3, 16). In a work quoted by Augustine he distinguished the ability to do good, which comes from God, from the will and the deed, which are our own (Augustine, On the Grace of Christ and on Original Sin 1.5).

He passed through Africa and went on to Palestine, where a synod of fourteen bishops accepted his answers and declared him in communion with the church (Augustine, On the Proceedings of Pelagius 46) (Augustine, On the Proceedings of Pelagius 44, 62). The African bishops judged his teaching otherwise, and in 418 it was condemned at Carthage and, Prosper says, throughout the world (Council of Carthage (418) canons 109–113) (Prosper, Chronicle 1266 (AD 418)). See Augustine and Pelagius Dispute over Grace.