A Treatise on the grace of christ, and on original sin, by aurelius augustin, bishop of hippo; In Two Books, written against pelagius and coelestius in the year a.d. 418
Chapter 18 [XVII.]—The Condemnation of Pelagius
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This being the case, you of course feel that episcopal councils, and the Apostolic See, and the whole Roman Church, and the Roman Empire itself,1943 which by God's gracious favour has become Christian, has been most righteously moved against the authors of this wicked error, until they repent and escape from the snares of the devil. For who can tell whether God may not give them repentance to discover, and acknowledge, and even proclaim His truth,1944 and to condemn their own damnable error? But whatever may be the bent of their own will, we cannot doubt that the merciful kindness of the Lord has sought the good of many persons who followed them, for no other reason than because they saw them associated in communion with the catholic Church.
Notes
- 1943
Possidius, in his Life of Augustin, ch. 18, says: "Even the most pious Emperor Honorius, upon hearing that the weighty sentence of the catholic Church of God had been pronounced against them, in pursuance of the same, determined that they should be regarded as heretics, under condemnation by his own laws." These enactments are printed by the Benedictine editors in the second part of their Appendix.
- 1944
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Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Volume 5, ed. Philip Schaff (1886–89). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.