Letter to Demetrias
A long letter of spiritual advice from Pelagius to a young Roman noblewoman who had taken a vow of virginity. It is the fullest surviving statement, in his own words, of what he taught about human nature, free choice and the commandments of God.
Demetrias belonged to the Anician family, one of the greatest in Rome; the letter itself speaks of her “Anician blood”. Pelagius says that he writes at the request of her mother, sent in a letter from across the sea, after the daughter had chosen to remain unmarried. The letter survived because it was copied under other names, including Jerome’s.
It matters because nearly everything else known of Pelagius’s teaching comes through the quotations of his opponents. Here he speaks for himself, to a sympathetic reader, before the controversy had hardened. He begins, as he says he always does, from the goodness and capacity of the nature God made, argues that the power to choose good or evil is itself a gift, and insists that a just God commands nothing impossible. The letter is pastoral exhortation and does not address the questions about Adam and infant baptism on which he was later condemned.
Cited in
- AD 411 to AD 418, estimated date