Letter 183: Innocent I confirms the African bishops' judgment against Pelagian teaching.
Innocent I→Aurelius, Alypius, Augustine, Evodius, and Possidius|c. 417 AD|Augustine of Hippo|From Rome|AI-assisted
pelagianismgracepapacycouncilschurch discipline
Source-visible Augustine letter absent from the New Advent/NPNF English index; modern English is a first-time Roman Letters translation from Latin.
To the dearly loved brothers Aurelius, Alypius, Augustine, Evodius, and Possidius, bishops: Innocent sends greetings.
We received with a very grateful spirit the letters of Your Fraternity, full of faith and strengthened by the whole vigor of catholic religion, sent from two councils through our brother and fellow bishop Julius. The whole tenor and texture of those letters rests on a sound account of God's daily grace and on the correction of those who think otherwise. It can take every error away from them, and, by offering any example from our law, can provide a worthy teacher for them to follow. But about these matters I think we have already said enough above, when in answer to your reports we wrote what we thought both about their faithlessness and about your judgment. Yet again and again there rises against them, and is supplied, something that can be said; nor can anything ever be lacking that wins the argument, when what is so wretched and impious is overcome by the power of our faith and by the fullness of truth itself. For the person who has rejected and despised every hope of life, confusing his heart with a hostile and damnable argument because he believes there is nothing he receives from God and nothing left for him to ask for his healing: what has he left himself after taking this away?
If, then, there are any whom such perversity has bound in its defense, who devote themselves to this doctrine and join themselves to it, hoping that what is in fact proven to be abhorrent and utterly opposed belongs to catholic teaching, people infected by their warnings and words so that they slip, they should hasten back to the right path. Otherwise error, sitting too long in their minds and feeding on their senses, will take them over. If Pelagius, wherever he resisted, deceived the minds of those who easily or simply believed him as he argued by this assertion, whether they are in this city, though we cannot identify or deny them since if they are here they lie hidden and never dare either defend him as he proclaims these things or boast such things in the presence of any of us, and in such a crowd of people someone could not easily be detected or recognized anywhere, or whether they live in any part of the earth, by the mercy and grace of our God we believe they will be easily corrected once they hear the condemnation of the man found to be the stubborn and resistant author of this doctrine. Nor does it matter where they are, provided that wherever they can be found, they are healed.
Still, we cannot be persuaded that he has been cleared, although records have been brought to us by unknown laypeople by which he might think he had been heard and absolved. We doubt whether they are genuine, because they did not come with any communication from that council, and we have received no letters about this matter from those before whom he presented his case. If he could have trusted in his own clearing, we believe he would rather have done the more truthful thing: compelled those who judged him to indicate this by their letters. But in those records there are some things placed as objections which he partly evaded and suppressed, partly confused by turning many words back on himself in complete obscurity; and some things he cleared, so far as could seem possible for the moment, more by false arguments than by true reasoning, denying some and twisting others by false interpretation.
Would that, as is more to be desired, he might now turn from the error of his path to the true way of the catholic faith, and desire and will to be cleared, considering God's daily grace and recognizing his help, so that he may seem true and be approved by everyone as corrected by evident reason, not by the evidence of records but by a heart turned to catholic faith. Therefore we can neither blame nor approve their judgment, since we do not know whether the records are genuine; and if they are genuine, it is clear that he escaped rather than cleared himself by the whole truth. If he trusts and knows that he is not worthy of our condemnation, because he says that he has now rejected everything he had said, he should not be summoned by us; he ought rather to hurry on his own so that he can be absolved. But if he still thinks in this way, when will he commit himself to our judgment by any letters received, since he knows he is to be condemned? If he had to be summoned, it would better be done by those who are nearer and do not seem separated by a long distance of lands. But care will not be lacking if he supplies matter for healing. He can condemn what he had thought, and by sending letters ask pardon for his error, as is fitting for a return to us, dearest brothers.
We have unrolled the book said to be his, which Your Charity sent to us. In it we read many things written against God's grace, many blasphemous things, nothing pleasing, and almost nothing that should not be utterly displeasing, condemned and trampled by anyone. No one other than the writer of such things could take their like into mind and think them. At this point we did not think it necessary to dispute more widely about the law as though Pelagius were present and resisting us, since we are speaking with you, who know the whole matter and rejoice in the same agreement with us. Such examples are better set forth when we deal with people known to be ignorant of these matters. For on the possibility of nature, on free choice, on all God's grace and daily grace, who that thinks rightly does not have abundant room to argue? Therefore let him anathematize the things he thought, so that those who had collapsed through his speeches and instructions may at last know what the true faith holds. They will be more easily called back when they perceive these things condemned by their own author. But if he chooses to persist stubbornly in this impiety, action must be taken so that help may at least be given to those whom not their own error but rather his has led astray, lest this medicine be lost for them too when he neither admits nor asks for such care. In another hand: May God keep you safe, dearest brothers. Given on the sixth day before the Kalends of February.
EPISTOLA 183
Scripta VI Kal. Februarias a. 417.
Innocentius, Romanus Pontifex, respondet epistolae 177 a quinque episcopis ipsi datae, confirmans haeresis pelagianae damnationem (n. 1), ut Pelagii asseclae resipiscant (n. 2); cum autem dubitet utrum vera sint ecclesiastica gesta orientalia, si vera sunt, constet Pelagium potius subterfugisse quam se tota veritate purgasse (n. 3), ille damnandus est nisi fidem catholicam confiteatur (n. 4) et errores libri, qui illi adscribitur, retractaverit (n. 5).
DILECTISSIMIS FRATRIBUS AURELIO, ALYPIO, AUGUSTINO, EVODIO ET POSSIDIO EPISCOPIS, INNOCENTIUS, SALUTEM.
Pontifex episcoporum relationem adprobat.
1. Fraternitatis vestrae litteras, plenas fidei, totoque religionis catholicae vigore firmatas, a duobus missas conciliis per fratrem et coepiscopum nostrum Iulium pergrato suscepimus animo, quod earum tenor omnisque contextio in consideratione quotidianae gratiae Dei, et in eorum correctione qui contra sentiunt, integra ratione consistit; ut et illis omnem tollere possit errorem, et idoneum, dato quovis nostrae legis exemplo, quem sequi debeant dignum possint praebere doctorem. Sed de his iam satis, ut opinor, supra diximus, cum vestris relationibus respondentes rescripsimus quid vel de illorum perfidia, vel de vestra sententia sentiremus. Sed subinde contra eos subvenit et suppeditat quod dicatur, nec potest aliquando deesse quod vincat, cum tam miserum impiumque sit quod nostrae fidei virtute et ipsa plenius veritate vincatur. Qui enim omnem vitae spem respuit atque contempsit, inimica damnabilique cor suum disputatione confundens, cum credit nihil esse quod a Deo accipiat, nec aliquid superesse quod petat ad sanandum se; qui sibi hoc abstulit, ulterius quid reliquit?
Pelagio damnato eius asseclae facilius corrigentur.
2. Si ergo sunt aliqui, quos in sui defensionem perversitas tanta devinxit, qui huic se dogmati dedant atque coniungant, sperantes hoc ad catholicam pertinere doctrinam, quod abhorrens longius et penitus approbatur adversum, infecti illorum et monitis et verbis ut laberentur inducti, quatenus ad rectum viae tramitem redeant festinabunt, ne diutius mentem obsidens velut eorum sensibus pastus error invadat. Nam si Pelagius quocumque restitit loco, eorum animos qui facile vel simpliciter crederent disputanti, hac affirmatione decepit: seu hac illi in urbe sint (quos nescientes nec manifestare possumus nec negare, cum et si sunt lateant, nec aliquando audeant vel illum praedicantem ista defendere, vel talia aliquo nostrorum praesente iactare, nec in tanta populi multitudine deprehendi aliquis facile, nec alicubi possit agnosci), sive in quovis terrarum loco degant; Dei nostri misericordia gratiaque credimus quod facile corrigantur, audita eius damnatione qui fuerit pertinax et resistens huius dogmatis auctor inventus; nec interest ubi isti fuerint, dum ubicumque inveniri potuerint sint sanandi.
De Diospolitanis Gestis deque Pelagii fide ambigitur.
3. Nobis tamen nec persuaderi potest eum esse purgatum, quamvis ad nos a nescio quibus laicis sint Gesta perlata, quibus ille et auditum se crederet et absolutum: quae utrum vera sint dubitamus, quod sub nulla illius concilii prosecutione venerunt, nec eorum aliquas accepimus de hac re litteras, apud quos istius rei iste praestitit causas. Quod si de sua ille potuisset purgatione confidere, hoc magis credimus quod egisset, quod multo verius esse potuerat, ut illos cogeret epistolis suis, qui diiudicaverunt, indicare. Verum cum sint aliqua in ipsis posita Gestis, quae obiecta partim ille vitando suppressit, partim multa in se verba retorquendo tota obscuritate confudit; aliqua magis falsis argumentis quam vera ratione, ut ad tempus poterat videri, purgavit, negando alia, alia falsa interpretatione vertendo.
Pelagius damnandus nisi scripto haeresim eiuret.
4. Sed utinam, quod optandum magis est, iam se ille ad veram catholicae fidei viam ab illo sui tramitis errore convertat, ut cupiat velitque purgari, considerans quotidianam Dei gratiam, adiutoriumque cognoscens, ut videatur verum, et approbetur ab omnibus manifesta ratione correctus, non Gestorum indicio, sed ad catholicam fidem corde converso! Unde non possumus illorum nec culpare nec approbare iudicium, cum nesciamus utrum vera sint Gesta; aut si vera sunt, illum constet magis subterfugisse, quam se tota veritate purgasse. Qui si confidit novitque non se nostra dignum esse damnatione, quod dicat iam totum hoc se refutasse quod dixerat, non a nobis accersiri, sed ipse debet potius festinare, ut possit absolvi. Nam si adhuc taliter sentit, quando se nostro iudicio quibusvis acceptis litteris, cum sciat damnandum se esse, committet? Quod si accersiendus esset, ab iis melius fieret, qui magis proximi et non longo terrarum spatio videntur esse disiuncti. Sed non deerit cura, si medicinae praebeat ille materiam. Potest enim damnare quae senserat, ac, datis litteris, erroris sui, ut regressum ad nos decet, veniam postulare, fratres carissimi.
Pelagio damnandi sui libri errores.
5. Librum sane, qui eius esse diceretur, nobis a vestra Caritate transmissum evolvimus: in quo multa contra Dei gratiam legimus esse conscripta, multa blasphema, nihil quod placeret, et nihil pene quod non penitus displiceret, a quovis damnandum atque calcandum; cuius similia, nisi qui ista scripserat, nemo alter in mentem reciperet atque sentiret. Nam hoc loco latius de lege disputare, velut coram posito repugnanteque Pelagio, necessarium esse non duximus, cum vobiscum totam scientibus parique nobiscum assensione gaudentibus colloquamur. Tunc enim melius haec exempla ponuntur, quando cum iis quos harum constat rerum imprudentes esse, tractamus. Nam de naturae possibilitate, de libero arbitrio, et de omni Dei gratia, et quotidiana gratia, cui non sit recte sentienti uberrimum disputare? Anathematizet ergo ista quae sensit, ut illi qui eius sermonibus fuerant praeceptisque collapsi, quid tandem habeat fides vera, cognoscant. Facilius enim revocari poterunt, cum ista a suo senserint auctore damnari. Quod si ille pertinaciter in hac voluerit impietate persistere, agendum est quatenus vel iis possit subveniri, quos non suus, sed huius magis error induxit; ne et illis haec medicina pereat cuius iste talem non admittit nec postulat curam. (Et alia manu): Deus vos incolumes custodiat, fratres carissimi. Data VI Kalendas Februarias.
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To the dearly loved brothers Aurelius, Alypius, Augustine, Evodius, and Possidius, bishops: Innocent sends greetings.
We received with a very grateful spirit the letters of Your Fraternity, full of faith and strengthened by the whole vigor of catholic religion, sent from two councils through our brother and fellow bishop Julius. The whole tenor and texture of those letters rests on a sound account of God's daily grace and on the correction of those who think otherwise. It can take every error away from them, and, by offering any example from our law, can provide a worthy teacher for them to follow. But about these matters I think we have already said enough above, when in answer to your reports we wrote what we thought both about their faithlessness and about your judgment. Yet again and again there rises against them, and is supplied, something that can be said; nor can anything ever be lacking that wins the argument, when what is so wretched and impious is overcome by the power of our faith and by the fullness of truth itself. For the person who has rejected and despised every hope of life, confusing his heart with a hostile and damnable argument because he believes there is nothing he receives from God and nothing left for him to ask for his healing: what has he left himself after taking this away?
If, then, there are any whom such perversity has bound in its defense, who devote themselves to this doctrine and join themselves to it, hoping that what is in fact proven to be abhorrent and utterly opposed belongs to catholic teaching, people infected by their warnings and words so that they slip, they should hasten back to the right path. Otherwise error, sitting too long in their minds and feeding on their senses, will take them over. If Pelagius, wherever he resisted, deceived the minds of those who easily or simply believed him as he argued by this assertion, whether they are in this city, though we cannot identify or deny them since if they are here they lie hidden and never dare either defend him as he proclaims these things or boast such things in the presence of any of us, and in such a crowd of people someone could not easily be detected or recognized anywhere, or whether they live in any part of the earth, by the mercy and grace of our God we believe they will be easily corrected once they hear the condemnation of the man found to be the stubborn and resistant author of this doctrine. Nor does it matter where they are, provided that wherever they can be found, they are healed.
Still, we cannot be persuaded that he has been cleared, although records have been brought to us by unknown laypeople by which he might think he had been heard and absolved. We doubt whether they are genuine, because they did not come with any communication from that council, and we have received no letters about this matter from those before whom he presented his case. If he could have trusted in his own clearing, we believe he would rather have done the more truthful thing: compelled those who judged him to indicate this by their letters. But in those records there are some things placed as objections which he partly evaded and suppressed, partly confused by turning many words back on himself in complete obscurity; and some things he cleared, so far as could seem possible for the moment, more by false arguments than by true reasoning, denying some and twisting others by false interpretation.
Would that, as is more to be desired, he might now turn from the error of his path to the true way of the catholic faith, and desire and will to be cleared, considering God's daily grace and recognizing his help, so that he may seem true and be approved by everyone as corrected by evident reason, not by the evidence of records but by a heart turned to catholic faith. Therefore we can neither blame nor approve their judgment, since we do not know whether the records are genuine; and if they are genuine, it is clear that he escaped rather than cleared himself by the whole truth. If he trusts and knows that he is not worthy of our condemnation, because he says that he has now rejected everything he had said, he should not be summoned by us; he ought rather to hurry on his own so that he can be absolved. But if he still thinks in this way, when will he commit himself to our judgment by any letters received, since he knows he is to be condemned? If he had to be summoned, it would better be done by those who are nearer and do not seem separated by a long distance of lands. But care will not be lacking if he supplies matter for healing. He can condemn what he had thought, and by sending letters ask pardon for his error, as is fitting for a return to us, dearest brothers.
We have unrolled the book said to be his, which Your Charity sent to us. In it we read many things written against God's grace, many blasphemous things, nothing pleasing, and almost nothing that should not be utterly displeasing, condemned and trampled by anyone. No one other than the writer of such things could take their like into mind and think them. At this point we did not think it necessary to dispute more widely about the law as though Pelagius were present and resisting us, since we are speaking with you, who know the whole matter and rejoice in the same agreement with us. Such examples are better set forth when we deal with people known to be ignorant of these matters. For on the possibility of nature, on free choice, on all God's grace and daily grace, who that thinks rightly does not have abundant room to argue? Therefore let him anathematize the things he thought, so that those who had collapsed through his speeches and instructions may at last know what the true faith holds. They will be more easily called back when they perceive these things condemned by their own author. But if he chooses to persist stubbornly in this impiety, action must be taken so that help may at least be given to those whom not their own error but rather his has led astray, lest this medicine be lost for them too when he neither admits nor asks for such care. In another hand: May God keep you safe, dearest brothers. Given on the sixth day before the Kalends of February.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
EPISTOLA 183
Scripta VI Kal. Februarias a. 417.
Innocentius, Romanus Pontifex, respondet epistolae 177 a quinque episcopis ipsi datae, confirmans haeresis pelagianae damnationem (n. 1), ut Pelagii asseclae resipiscant (n. 2); cum autem dubitet utrum vera sint ecclesiastica gesta orientalia, si vera sunt, constet Pelagium potius subterfugisse quam se tota veritate purgasse (n. 3), ille damnandus est nisi fidem catholicam confiteatur (n. 4) et errores libri, qui illi adscribitur, retractaverit (n. 5).
1. Fraternitatis vestrae litteras, plenas fidei, totoque religionis catholicae vigore firmatas, a duobus missas conciliis per fratrem et coepiscopum nostrum Iulium pergrato suscepimus animo, quod earum tenor omnisque contextio in consideratione quotidianae gratiae Dei, et in eorum correctione qui contra sentiunt, integra ratione consistit; ut et illis omnem tollere possit errorem, et idoneum, dato quovis nostrae legis exemplo, quem sequi debeant dignum possint praebere doctorem. Sed de his iam satis, ut opinor, supra diximus, cum vestris relationibus respondentes rescripsimus quid vel de illorum perfidia, vel de vestra sententia sentiremus. Sed subinde contra eos subvenit et suppeditat quod dicatur, nec potest aliquando deesse quod vincat, cum tam miserum impiumque sit quod nostrae fidei virtute et ipsa plenius veritate vincatur. Qui enim omnem vitae spem respuit atque contempsit, inimica damnabilique cor suum disputatione confundens, cum credit nihil esse quod a Deo accipiat, nec aliquid superesse quod petat ad sanandum se; qui sibi hoc abstulit, ulterius quid reliquit?
Pelagio damnato eius asseclae facilius corrigentur.
2. Si ergo sunt aliqui, quos in sui defensionem perversitas tanta devinxit, qui huic se dogmati dedant atque coniungant, sperantes hoc ad catholicam pertinere doctrinam, quod abhorrens longius et penitus approbatur adversum, infecti illorum et monitis et verbis ut laberentur inducti, quatenus ad rectum viae tramitem redeant festinabunt, ne diutius mentem obsidens velut eorum sensibus pastus error invadat. Nam si Pelagius quocumque restitit loco, eorum animos qui facile vel simpliciter crederent disputanti, hac affirmatione decepit: seu hac illi in urbe sint (quos nescientes nec manifestare possumus nec negare, cum et si sunt lateant, nec aliquando audeant vel illum praedicantem ista defendere, vel talia aliquo nostrorum praesente iactare, nec in tanta populi multitudine deprehendi aliquis facile, nec alicubi possit agnosci), sive in quovis terrarum loco degant; Dei nostri misericordia gratiaque credimus quod facile corrigantur, audita eius damnatione qui fuerit pertinax et resistens huius dogmatis auctor inventus; nec interest ubi isti fuerint, dum ubicumque inveniri potuerint sint sanandi.
De Diospolitanis Gestis deque Pelagii fide ambigitur.
3. Nobis tamen nec persuaderi potest eum esse purgatum, quamvis ad nos a nescio quibus laicis sint Gesta perlata, quibus ille et auditum se crederet et absolutum: quae utrum vera sint dubitamus, quod sub nulla illius concilii prosecutione venerunt, nec eorum aliquas accepimus de hac re litteras, apud quos istius rei iste praestitit causas. Quod si de sua ille potuisset purgatione confidere, hoc magis credimus quod egisset, quod multo verius esse potuerat, ut illos cogeret epistolis suis, qui diiudicaverunt, indicare. Verum cum sint aliqua in ipsis posita Gestis, quae obiecta partim ille vitando suppressit, partim multa in se verba retorquendo tota obscuritate confudit; aliqua magis falsis argumentis quam vera ratione, ut ad tempus poterat videri, purgavit, negando alia, alia falsa interpretatione vertendo.
Pelagius damnandus nisi scripto haeresim eiuret.
4. Sed utinam, quod optandum magis est, iam se ille ad veram catholicae fidei viam ab illo sui tramitis errore convertat, ut cupiat velitque purgari, considerans quotidianam Dei gratiam, adiutoriumque cognoscens, ut videatur verum, et approbetur ab omnibus manifesta ratione correctus, non Gestorum indicio, sed ad catholicam fidem corde converso! Unde non possumus illorum nec culpare nec approbare iudicium, cum nesciamus utrum vera sint Gesta; aut si vera sunt, illum constet magis subterfugisse, quam se tota veritate purgasse. Qui si confidit novitque non se nostra dignum esse damnatione, quod dicat iam totum hoc se refutasse quod dixerat, non a nobis accersiri, sed ipse debet potius festinare, ut possit absolvi. Nam si adhuc taliter sentit, quando se nostro iudicio quibusvis acceptis litteris, cum sciat damnandum se esse, committet? Quod si accersiendus esset, ab iis melius fieret, qui magis proximi et non longo terrarum spatio videntur esse disiuncti. Sed non deerit cura, si medicinae praebeat ille materiam. Potest enim damnare quae senserat, ac, datis litteris, erroris sui, ut regressum ad nos decet, veniam postulare, fratres carissimi.
Pelagio damnandi sui libri errores.
5. Librum sane, qui eius esse diceretur, nobis a vestra Caritate transmissum evolvimus: in quo multa contra Dei gratiam legimus esse conscripta, multa blasphema, nihil quod placeret, et nihil pene quod non penitus displiceret, a quovis damnandum atque calcandum; cuius similia, nisi qui ista scripserat, nemo alter in mentem reciperet atque sentiret. Nam hoc loco latius de lege disputare, velut coram posito repugnanteque Pelagio, necessarium esse non duximus, cum vobiscum totam scientibus parique nobiscum assensione gaudentibus colloquamur. Tunc enim melius haec exempla ponuntur, quando cum iis quos harum constat rerum imprudentes esse, tractamus. Nam de naturae possibilitate, de libero arbitrio, et de omni Dei gratia, et quotidiana gratia, cui non sit recte sentienti uberrimum disputare? Anathematizet ergo ista quae sensit, ut illi qui eius sermonibus fuerant praeceptisque collapsi, quid tandem habeat fides vera, cognoscant. Facilius enim revocari poterunt, cum ista a suo senserint auctore damnari. Quod si ille pertinaciter in hac voluerit impietate persistere, agendum est quatenus vel iis possit subveniri, quos non suus, sed huius magis error induxit; ne et illis haec medicina pereat cuius iste talem non admittit nec postulat curam. (Et alia manu): Deus vos incolumes custodiat, fratres carissimi. Data VI Kalendas Februarias.