Pelagius

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Pelagius

			Who was Pelagius? (b. 350 AD)

			Paul Johnson's conception of him ...

			Paul Johnson, in The Offshore Islanders, 1972, pp. 15-17, wrote this of the time during which Roman control of Britain was coming to an end, about 390-410 AD: "... Christianity still had a working international infrastructure. This religion, by its very nature, was centralised, universalist, authoritarian, and anti-regional. It was run by a disciplined priestly caste, commanded by bishops based on the imperial urban centres, under the ultimate authority of the Bishop of Rome himself, the spiritual voice of the western Empire. Its doctrines were absolutist, preaching unthinking submission to divine authority: the Emperor and his high priest, the Bishop of Rome, in this world, and a unitary god, who appointed the Emperor, in the next. Man was born in sin, and must accept tribulation a inevitable; he could indeed be redeemed, but only by an authority external to him — God in the next world, the emperor in this. Salvation, now and for ever, lay solely with the Christian Empire. These attitudes and doctrines underlay the political posture of the pro-imperial party in Britain. "They had, however, come under increasing challenge from a theologian who took an altogether less pessimistic view of the human condition, and of the divine dispensation for man. Significantly, this theologian was British. Pelagius was born in Britain, of native stock, about AD 350, and was about thirty when he first travelled to Rome. He had had a good education, in the legal traditions of the Empire, but his outlook had been shaped by the local environment - physical, political and economic - of a distant province, which had never been more than semi-Romanised, and which was a very peripheral factor in imperial policy. Pelagius attacked the prevailing orthodoxy of Roman Christianity. When Adam sinned, he argued, he injured himself only: it was nonsense to pretend his fault was transmitted to every human being, to be effaced only by divine grace; a child was baptised to be united with Christ, not to be purged of original sin. Man was a rational, perfectible creature: he could live without sin if he chose; grace was desirable, but not essential. Man was a free being, with the power to choose between good and evil. He could become the master of his destiny: the most important thing about him was his freedom of will. If he fell, that was his own fault; but by his actions he could rise too. "Pelagianism was the spiritual formula for nationalism, for the independence movements breaking out from a crumbling empire. In the year 410 Pelagius was still in Rome, leaving it just before the city was sacked by the Goths. His work was by no means complete, and had not yet been anathematised by a Church which saw it as a threat to its universalist authority. But his views were already widely known and arousing fierce controversy. They were hotly repudiated by the orthodox political and religious element who saw the re-establishment of the barbarian. But they were eagerly accepted by those who thought that the Empire was already dead, and that individual communities must look to their own defences. Man could save himself by his exertions, and others by his example: in this world as well as in the next. The Empire could not, by a miraculous infusion of grace, turn back the savages from the gates: only organised local resistance could do that. Possibly even the barbarians themselves could be brought within the pale of civilisation, and unite with local citizens in building viable societies to their mutual profit. Pelagius had pointed out that free will existed even among the barbarians; they too were perfectible, could choose freedom and profit from it." "... in 410 the Pelagian nationalist party in Britain took control ..."

			Bill Casey, on Pelagius, the man — 03May11

			James Bennett wrote (19 Sep 08):

			In a conversation with a friend, the question arose as to whether the Pelagian heresey might have made a significant contribution to the development of individualism in England. This is not a question about which I have any particular expertise. My immediate reactions were: 1. We know Pelagius primarily through the writings of his enemies. This is not an entirely reliable guide to his thoughts. 2. English individualism seems to be primarily a development from the pre-Christian cultures of the Germanic peoples who came to Britain. 3. Pelagianism was present as a tendency with in the Romano-British Church of the fifth century. As such it would have had only an indirect influence on the Anglo-Saxon church and culture of later centuries. However, since those were unquestionably influenced by the Celtic churches, there is a possible transmission mechanism. 4. Pelagianism was a strong influence on the Eastern Orthodox Church, whose theology still has Pelagian characteristics. None of the core Eastern Orthodox lands seem to have displayed conspicuously individualistic traits as the term is applied to historical England. This idea was raised by Paul Johnson in one of his works, I believe. But Johnson likes to speculate and play with ideas, and I don't think he intended it to be taken as a theory backed by serious research.

			A friend replied:

			"Augustine saw in Pelagius a form of arrogance, a rebellion against an inscrutable Deity by an undue stress on man's powers." —Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity, pg. 119 (Touchstone Edition, 1995).

			Pelagius may have influenced Ockham, and through him, Wycliffe. See Paul Johnson, The Offshore Islanders, pg. 152.

			Winston Churchill, in A History of the English Speaking Peoples: Vol. I, pg. 55:

			Pelagius, an EF vortex until 1 Aug 11

			.oOo.