Part 52 (2/2)

If any one, either a deserter or one who has never served as a soldier, signs any private person with the military mark, would not he who has signed be punished as a deserter, when he has been arrested, and so much the more severely as it could be proved that he had never at all served as a soldier, and at the same time along with him would not the most impudent giver of the sign, be punished if he have surrendered him? Or perchance he takes no military service, but is afraid of the military mark [_character_] in his body, and he betakes himself to the clemency of the Emperor, and when he has poured forth prayers and obtained forgiveness, he then begins to undertake military service, when the man has been liberated and corrected is that mark [_character_] ever repeated, and not rather is he not recognized and approved? Would the Christian sacraments by chance be less enduring than this bodily mark, since we see that apostates do not lack baptism, and to them it is never given again when they return by means of penitence, and therefore it is judged not possible to lose it.

(_g_) Augustine, _Contra epistulam Manichi_, ch. 4 (5). (MSL, 42:175.) _Cf._ Mirbt, n. 132.

Authority of the Catholic Church.

This work, written in 396 or 397, is important in this connection as showing the place the Catholic Church took in the mind of Augustine as an authority and the nature of that authority.

Not to speak of that wisdom which you [the Manichans] do not believe to be in the Catholic Church, there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom. The consent of people and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of Peter the Apostle, to whom the Lord after His resurrection gave it in charge to feed His sheep down to the present episcopate. And so lastly does the name itself of Catholic, which not without reason, amid so many heresies, that Church alone has so retained that, though all heretics wish to be called Catholics, yet when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church meets no heretic will venture to point to his own basilica or house. Since then so many and so great are the very precious ties belonging to the Christian name which rightly keep a man who is a believer in the Catholic Church no one shall move me from the faith which binds my mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian religion.

Let us see what Manichus teaches us; and in particular let us examine that treatise which you call the Fundamental Epistle in which almost all that you believe is contained. For in that unhappy time when we read it, we were called by you enlightened. The epistle begins: Manichus, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the providence of G.o.d the Father. These are wholesome words from the perennial and living fountain. Now, if you please, patiently give heed to my inquiry. I do not believe that he is an apostle of Christ. Do not, I beg of you, be enraged and begin to curse.

You know that it is my rule not to believe without consideration anything offered by you. Wherefore I ask, who is this Manichus? You reply, An apostle of Christ. I do not believe it. Now you are at a loss what to say or do; for you promised to give me knowledge of the truth, and you force me to believe something I do not know. Perhaps you will read the Gospel to me, and from it you will attempt to defend the person of Manichus. But should you meet with a person not yet believing the Gospel, what could you reply to him if he said to you: I do not believe? For my part I should not believe the Gospel except the authority of the Catholic Church moved me. So then I have a.s.sented to them when they say to me, Believe the Gospel; why should I not a.s.sent to them saying to me: Do not believe the Manichans?

84. The Pelagian Controversy

The Pelagian controversy, in which the characteristic teaching of Augustine found its best expression, may be divided into three periods. In the first period, beginning about 411, Pelagius and Clestius, who had been teaching at Rome unmolested since 400 and had come to Carthage, probably on account of the barbarian attack upon Rome, are opposed at Carthage, and six propositions attributed to Clestius are condemned at a council there, where he attempted to be ordained. Clestius leaves for the East and is ordained at Ephesus, 412, and Pelagius soon after follows him.

In the second period, 415-417, the controversy is in the East as well as in the West, as Augustine by letters to Jerome gave warning about Pelagius, and councils are held at Jerusalem and Diospolis, where Pelagius is acquitted of heresy. This was probably due as much to the general sympathy of the Eastern theologians with his doctrine as to any alleged misrepresentation by Pelagius. But in North Africa synods are also held condemning Pelagius, and their findings are approved by Innocent of Rome.

But Pelagius and Clestius send confessions of faith to Zosimus (417-418), Innocents successor, who reproves the Africans and acquits Pelagius and Clestius as entirely sound. In the third period, 417-431, the attack on Pelagius is taken up at Rome itself by some of the clergy, and an imperial edict is obtained against the Pelagians. Zosimus changes his opinion and approves the findings of a general council called at Carthage in 418, in which the doctrines of original sin and the need of grace are a.s.serted.

The last act of the controversy in its earlier form, after the deposition of the leading Pelagians, among them Julian, of Eclanum, their theologian, is the condemnation of Pelagius at the Council of Ephesus, in 431. _V.

infra_, 89.

Additional source material: See A. Bruckner, _Quellen zur Geschichte des pelagianischen Streites_ (in Latin), in Krgers _Quellenschriften_, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1906. The princ.i.p.al works of Augustine bearing on the Pelagian controversy may be found in PNF, ser. I, vol. V.

(_a_) Augustine, _Ep. 146, ad Pelagium_. (MSL, 33:596.)

This was probably written before the controversy. As to its use later, see Augustine, _De gestis Pelagii_, chs. 51 (26) _f._ (PNF)

I thank you very much that you have been so kind as to make me glad by your letter informing me of your welfare. May the Lord recompense you with those blessings that you forever be good and may live eternally with Him who is eternal, my lord greatly beloved and brother greatly longed for.

Although I do not acknowledge that anything in me deserves the eulogies which the letter of your benevolence contains about me, I cannot, however, be ungrateful for the good-will therein manifested toward one so insignificant, while suggesting at the same time that you should rather pray for me that I may be made by the Lord such as you suppose me already to be.

(_b_) Augustine. _De Peccatorum Meritis et Remissione et de Baptismo Parvulorum_. (MSL, 44:185, 188.)

Augustines testimony as to the character of Pelagius.

This work was written in 412, after the condemnation of Clestius at Carthage. It was the first in the series of polemical writings against the teaching of Pelagius. The first book is especially important as a statement of Augustines position as to the nature of justifying grace.

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