Pelagius - Beginnings

Beginnings

Pelagius was born about 354. While his exact birthplace is not known, the Encyclopedia of World Biography states that "widespread evidence indicates that he came originally from the British Isles", although a few sources suggest he may have been born in Brittany in modern France. He was a Culdee Monk and wore the moon shaped tonsure of that ascetic Celtic Johannine Christian Order. He became better known c. 380 when he moved to Rome to write and teach about his ascetic practices. There, he wrote a number of his major works: "De fide Trinitatis libri III" ("On Faith in the Trinity: Three Books"), "Eclogarum ex divinis Scripturis liber primus" ("Excerpts out of Divine Scriptures: Book One"), and "Commentarii in epistolas S. Pauli" ("Commentary on the Epistles of Saint Paul"). Unfortunately, most of his work survives only in the quotations of his opponents. Only in the past century have works attributable to Pelagius been identified as such. Pelagius's commentary on Romans is currently available in English, as translated by Theodore De Bruyn (Clarendon Press, 2002), as well as a collection of other writings by Pelagius himself, translated into English by B. R. Rees (The Boydell Press, 1998).

In Rome, Pelagius became concerned about the moral laxity of society. He blamed this laxity on the theology of divine grace preached by Augustine, among others.

Around 405, it is said that Pelagius heard a quotation from Augustine's Confessions: "Give me what you command and command what you will". This verse concerned Pelagius because it seemed that Augustine was teaching doctrine contrary to traditional Christian understandings of grace and free will, turning man into a mere automaton.

When Alaric sacked Rome in 410, Pelagius and his close follower Caelestius fled to Carthage where he continued his work and briefly encountered St. Augustine in person. He was subsequently in the Holy Land as late as 418.