Pelagius

Pelagius was a monk, probably of British origin, who was active from around 390 to 418. His ideas about human freedom and grace gave rise to Pelagianism, one of the major theological controversies of the early Church. He matters because his rejection of original sin as an inherited guilt forced the Church to clarify its teaching on grace and free will.

Little is known about his life. He was fluent in Greek and Latin and had a solid theological education, but he never became a priest despite years in monastic life. Around 400 he went to Rome, where he gained a reputation for austerity and grew alarmed at the loosening of Christian morals. He blamed this on a theology of divine grace that seemed to leave little room for personal effort. Augustine later recalled that Pelagius reacted strongly to a line from the Confessions, «give what you command and command what you will», though historians question whether that episode happened. After Alaric sacked Rome in 410 he moved to Carthage and later to Palestine.

Very little of his work survives, mostly in quotations by his opponents. Among the titles known are On the Faith in the Trinity, a collection of excerpts from Scripture, and a commentary on the Pauline epistles. He held that human beings can choose good and keep God's commandments, and that grace consists largely of free will, the law and the teaching of Christ. He rejected the idea that Adam's sin was passed on as a necessary guilt, which put him at odds with Augustine of Hippo.

Augustine, Jerome and Orosius opposed his views. After the synods of Jerusalem and Diospolis in 415 he was acquitted, but pressure from African bishops led Pope Zosimus to condemn him, and a council at Carthage condemned his teachings in 418. For centuries his name served as an insult, but modern scholars have rehabilitated him as a serious theologian, noting that his followers often pushed his ideas further than he did himself.