Whose assembly, according to the opportunity of all — whether those who dwell within the Gauls or those within the Five Provinces — I shall constitute in whatever city they shall have chosen, so that, these same men residing and taking cognizance, what custom holds, what belongs to the law, may be judged. For these things, which are to be asserted from books and from the most religious constitutions of our forefathers, those very men can better establish, who know them. As for the rest, we profess that this is our mind and will: that the catholic faith, all dissension being far removed, with all the priests concordant and serving God with one accord, may persevere unharmed and inviolable.
For our arrival apprehended and found some things so defiled and polluted by the stain of wicked men, that, unless our provision and remedy, which came from the fear of the supreme God, had speedily brought aid to them, a huge tearing-apart and ruin would assuredly have arisen, so that the vices could scarcely afterward have been healed once grown together. As for the rest, what crime the Manichaeans have of late been most recently found to admit, let Your Sanctity learn — not from arguments nor from doubtful or uncertain suspicions, but from their own confession brought forth amid the trials — rather from the acts themselves than from our mouth, because things of this kind, not only foul in the doing but even foul to utter, we cannot speak forth without blushing. AND IN THE EMPEROR'S HAND: May the Divinity preserve you through many years.
(41.) THE THIRD LETTER OF SAINT INNOCENT TO FIVE BISHOPS. To his most beloved brethren Aurelius, Alypius, Augustine, Evodius, and Possidius, Innocent. We have received with a most welcome heart the letters of your Fraternity, full of faith and formed with all the vigour of the catholic religion, sent from both councils through our brother and fellow-bishop Julius, because their tenor and their whole framing stands, by sound reasoning, upon the consideration of God's daily grace and upon the correction of those who think contrary to it, so that it may both take away all error from those men, and, by setting forth any fitting example of our law which they ought to follow, may present to them a worthy teacher.
But concerning these matters we have already, I think, said enough above, when, in answering your reports, we wrote back what we judged both of their perfidy and of your opinion. Yet again and again there is at hand and in abundant supply that which may be said against them, nor can there ever be lacking that by which it is overcome, since what is so wretched and impious is the more fully vanquished by the strength of our faith and by truth itself. For he who spurns and despises every hope of life, confounding his own heart with hostile and damnable disputation, when he believes that there is nothing which he receives from God, nor anything left over which he might seek for his own healing—he who has taken this away from himself, what has he left besides?
If therefore there are any whom so great a perversity has bound in its own defence, who give and join themselves to this dogma, hoping that this belongs to catholic doctrine which, shrinking far and deep away, is proven to be its opposite—men led on to fall by the counsels and words with which those others infected them—then, that they may return to the straight track of the way, they will make haste, lest error, besieging their mind longer, invade them as though fed upon their very senses.
For if Pelagius, in whatever place he lingered, deceived by this assertion the minds of those who would believe the disputant easily or naïvely—whether these men are here in the city (which, not knowing, we can neither declare nor deny, since, even if they are here, they lie hidden and never dare either to defend those doctrines while he preaches them, or to boast such things in the presence of any of us, and in so great a multitude of the people no one can easily be caught out nor anywhere recognized), or whether they dwell in any land whatsoever—we believe, by the mercy and grace of our God, that they will easily be corrected once they have heard the condemnation of him who was found to be the stubborn and resisting author of this dogma. Nor does it matter where these men may have been, provided that, wherever they can be found, they may be healed.
Nevertheless we cannot be persuaded that he has been cleared, although records too have been brought to us by some laymen or other, by which he would have us believe that he was given a hearing and acquitted. Whether these things are true we doubt, since they came under no formal proceeding of that council, nor have we received any letters concerning this matter from those before whom this man rendered his account of the case. But if he had been able to feel confident of his own vindication, we rather believe that he would have done what could have been far more truthful—namely, that he would compel by his own letters those who had judged the case to make it known.
But since there are certain things set down in the very records which, when charged against him, he partly suppressed by evasion, and partly confounded in total obscurity by twisting many words back upon themselves, and cleared some things rather by false arguments than by true reasoning—as far as could appear for the moment—by denying some and turning others aside by false interpretation: yet would that (as is much rather to be wished) he might now convert himself from that error of his own path to the true way of the catholic faith, so that he might desire and be willing to be cleared, considering the daily grace of God and acknowledging His help, so that he might be seen, proved, and approved by all as truly corrected by manifest reasoning—not by the evidence of records, but by a heart turned to the catholic faith!
Hence we can neither approve nor blame their judgement, since we do not know whether the records are true, or, if they are true, whether it is established that he rather slipped away than cleared himself with all truth. If he is confident and knows that what he says is not worthy of our condemnation, or that he has already refuted the whole of what he had said, he ought not to be summoned by us, but rather he himself ought to hasten, that he may be absolved: for if he still holds such opinions, when will he commit himself to our judgement, summoned by any letters whatsoever, since he knows he must be condemned? But if he were to be summoned, it would better be done by those who seem to be nearer to him and not separated by a long stretch of lands. Yet care will not be lacking, if he furnishes the material for a remedy;
for he can condemn what he had held, and, by giving letters of his error, ask pardon (as befits one returning to us), most dear brethren. The book, indeed, which was said to be his and was transmitted to us by your Charity, we have unrolled: in it we read that many things have been written against the grace of God, many things blasphemous, and nothing that would please, nothing that would not utterly displease, to be condemned and trampled by anyone—things whose like no one else save he who had written them would admit into his mind or entertain. For in this place we have not deemed it necessary to dispute at greater length concerning the law, as though before Pelagius set present and resisting, since we are conversing with you who know the whole matter and rejoice with an assent equal to our own.
For these examples are better set forth when we treat with those who are known to be ignorant of these matters: for concerning the possibility of nature, and free will, and all the daily grace of God, to whom, if he thinks rightly, is it not most fruitful to dispute? Let him therefore anathematize the things he held, so that those who had been overthrown by his discourses and precepts may recognize what the true faith has at last; for they will more easily be recalled when they perceive these things condemned by their own author. But if he should be willing stubbornly to persist in this impiety, we must act so that at least help may be given to those whom not his own but rather this man's error led astray, lest this medicine be lost for them too, since he admits and seeks no such cure.
AND IN ANOTHER HAND: May God keep you safe and sound, most dear brethren. Given on the sixth day before the Kalends of February, after the consulship of Theodosius Augustus and of Junius Quartus Palladius, most excellent man. (42.) To his most beloved son the presbyter Jerome, Innocent. That contention has never done any good in the Church the Apostle bears witness, and therefore he bids that the corrections of heretics be made among the first things rather than be drawn out in a lasting deliberation. And while this rule is heeded negligently, the evil that ought to be guarded against is not avoided but increased. Yet since your grief and groaning so shake our inmost heart that there is no time for deliberating and taking counsel, I first address the faith of your constancy.
You have often related to many, and we remind you as one well mindful of your own preachings, that anyone may be struck down for the truth's sake by wrong or, as you say, by peril, because he looks for blessedness. Likewise, roused by so great a scene of evils, we hastened to seize the authority of the apostolic see to suppress every wicked deed; but the one against whom we should rise up we have read neither called by name nor charged by any reckoning of crime. What therefore we can, we do: we grieve with you. But if you lay down an open and manifest accusation against certain men, either I shall assign competent judges, or, if anything more urgent and more solicitous can be done by us, I shall not delay, most beloved son.
Nevertheless I have written to my brother, bishop John, that he act more circumspectly, lest anything of such a kind should any longer be done in the Church entrusted to him—the kind of thing which it would be most troublesome even for himself to foresee and to ward off, that it should not happen. (43.) To his most beloved brother John, Innocent. The most noble and holy virgins Eustochium and Paula have lamented that the devil has perpetrated plunderings, slaughters, burnings, and every crime of utmost madness in the places of your church; for they have kept silent the name of the man and the cause. And although it is not in doubt by whom it was committed, it was nevertheless fitting that your Brotherhood should more anxiously watch over the guardianship of that flock, lest anything of this sort should arise which, with peril to others, taxes your own negligence. Add to this:
The flock of the Lord and such lambs—by fire, by arms, and by persecutions? We have heard that, naked and weak, they scarcely live after the slaughters and deaths of their own. Does nothing move that piety of your priesthood, that so great a power of the devil was permitted against you and against yours? Against you, I say: for so great a crime, having been accomplished in the Church, utterly condemns the gravity of a priest. Where were your provisions? Where at least, if such calamities befell, were the aids or consolations, since they say they still fear more than they complain of having suffered? I would judge more highly of it if they had spoken with me somewhat more openly about this affair. See to it.
Brother, keep most watchful against the snares of the ancient enemy and in the spirit of a good ruler, that these things—which have been reported to us by rumour rather than made manifest by accusation—may either be corrected or repelled, lest ecclesiastical law, in the matter of causes undermined, compel him who has not defended it to render account. (44.) To his most beloved brother Aurelius, Innocent. Our fellow-presbyter Jerome has well thought the journey of coming to us the most pious way of showing your affections. We suffer together with a member of our flock, and what we deemed should be done, or were able to do, we have swiftly carried out. Let your Brotherhood, most dear brother, hasten the more quickly to render letters to the aforesaid man. (45.) HERE BEGINS THE COPY OF THE FIRST LETTER OF POPE ZOSIMUS IN DEFENCE OF CAELESTIUS AGAINST THE AFRICAN BISHOPS.
ZOSIMUS to Aurelius and to all the bishops appointed throughout Africa, his most beloved brethren in the Lord, greeting. Great matters demand great weight of examination, so that the scale of judgement be not inferior to the very things that are transacted. To this is added the authority of the apostolic see, to which, in honour of the most blessed Peter, the decrees of the Fathers have sanctioned a certain peculiar reverence. Therefore it must be prayed—and prayed unceasingly—that, by God's continual grace and perennial help, peace may be sent forth from this fountain into the whole world, unclouded by any mists of faith and of catholic holiness.
For charity, which, as it is written, is God, rejoices in the perfect abundance of its fullness, when any suspicion of faith it may have entertained—whether from anxious purpose or a contention drawn out to length—is corrected by amendment. Caelestius the presbyter presented himself to our examination, seeking that those things which had been urged against him before the apostolic see otherwise than they ought, should be cleared.
And although many occupations, with the greater bonds of ecclesiastical business, were distracting our care and solicitude, nevertheless, lest the expectation of your Fraternity concerning the arrival and examination of the aforesaid man should hang longer in suspense, setting all else aside, on the day of the hearing we took our seat in the basilica of Saint Clement—who, imbued with the discipline of the blessed apostle Peter, had under such a master amended his former errors, and had made such progress that the faith which he had learned and taught he even consecrated by martyrdom: namely, that the authority of so great a priest might serve as an example for the present hearing unto a saving chastisement.
All things, therefore, which had first been done, we discussed—as you will learn from the account of the records attached to this letter—and, having admitted Caelestius, we caused the little book which he had given to be read aloud. Nor content with this, we many times explored whether the things which he had written he was speaking with his heart or with his lips, since concerning the hidden things of souls the judgement can belong to our God alone, to whom not only things thought but even things about to be thought are already present. What his utterances contain, we have deemed it more concise for it to be learned by being read by your Holiness. One thing indeed moved us: that, since you had Caelestius present there, nothing was clearly adjudged; the matter was afterward referred to the letters of Heros and Lazarus.
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equidemhocferuorefideipraefestinatumessepromptissimumest. sedcumdehisinterrogaretur, adseruitnullumsibidetalibuscontentionibusumquamcumantedictisfuissesermonemnecantesibi, quamdesescriberent, uisufuissecompertos; Lazarumsaneintransitucognitum, Herotemueroetiamsatisfactioneinterposita, quodsecusdeignotoetabsentesensisset, cumgratiarecessisse. tamcaducoacnullofundaminecriminationisignotaeproculdubioerefuit, ut < de > personatalium, quaetamuentosaetleuisextiterat.
Indeed it is most manifest that this was done prematurely, out of a fervour of faith. But when he was questioned about these things, he asserted that he had never had any conversation with the aforesaid men concerning such disputes, nor had he seen them before they wrote about him; Lazarus indeed he had known in passing, but Heros, even with satisfaction interposed—because he had thought otherwise of an unknown and absent man—had departed with goodwill. From so tottering and worthless a foundation of an unknown accusation, it was without doubt to the purpose that concerning the person of such men, which had proved so windy and light,
an inquiry should be made whether at least the standing of their place and of their life held firm, so that credit ought to have been given, on behalf of the absent against the absent, and so great weight to their letters that they should merit the authority of testimony: it became plain that these unknown foreigners, with the people and clergy paying them no heed and contradicting them, had laid claim to priesthoods within Gaul by irregular ordinations. From these they themselves abdicated by their own sentence, and we—following, besides other things, their own penitence and confession concerning themselves—removed them from the priestly rank and from all communion. It presses strongly enough that a cause proceeded from such men, by letters, into the accusation of one absent, who, being present, defends himself, who sets forth his faith, who challenges his accuser. Never has it caused regret to turn a judgement back to the better.
A youth and executor of the Holy Spirit found Susanna, condemned by the falsehood of the elders, to be innocent: she is led back from execution through a boy, who through aged men is feigned to be unchaste. Not every spirit, therefore, as it is warned, is to be believed, but is to be examined long and more weightily, especially concerning a man's faith, where his standing and his everlasting life are at stake. Nor did the search of truth fail Solomon in the quarrel over the child-bearing: for he did not at once adjudge the pledge to one of the two women wrangling between themselves, but there the arbiter, hesitating, found faith, where he perceived the affection of true piety. It is exceedingly rare that a long and chastened hesitation should not arrive at the couch of truth.
It is the mark of an excellent mind to believe evil with more difficulty; for very often those to whose good confession about themselves faith is too slowly applied are driven by necessity into the precipice of that error, and an incurable wound is inflicted, which is despaired of being healed. Hence in the present cause we have judged nothing precocious or immature, but that our examination concerning the acquitted faith of Caelestius be made known to your Holiness. And even the earlier little book, given by him within Africa, ought to have been a testimony among you, nor should so easy credit have been given to things unexplored and bandied about by rumour.
Wherefore, within a second month, either let those come who may refute him to his face for holding an opinion other than what he wove together in his little books and profession, or let your Holiness know that, after such open and manifest things as he has produced, we have taken our seat with nothing left in doubt.
Caelestius himself, indeed, and whatever priests were then present from various regions, having been admonished that these little snares of questions and inept contentions—which do not build up but rather destroy—flow forth from that contagion of curiosity, while each one abuses the aforesaid things by his own wit and intemperate eloquence (since in this even the writings of great men are sometimes imperilled, together with their very authors, after much misery of time, at the discretion of an interpreter), so that it has divinely come to pass that from much talking sin is not avoided, and holy David rightly asked for a guard about his lips and a watch over his mouth. I admonish your Charity, both by the authority of the apostolic see and by the mutual affection of love.
Would that our talents might suffice for the precepts and observances of all the holy Scriptures, which according to the tradition of the Fathers and of our forefathers have been received! What is there not abundant, what not full of the Spirit and utterances of God? Unless it please each one to trust himself more, and to use his own judgement about himself. Given—copies of the authors being held—in the consulship of Honorius Augustus for the eleventh time and of Flavius Constantius. (46.) ZOSIMUS the bishop to Aurelius and to all the bishops appointed throughout Africa, his most beloved brethren in the Lord, greeting.
After Caelestius the presbyter had been heard by us and had evidently expressed what he thought concerning the faith, and had strengthened the same things which he had set forth in his little book by professions repeated again and again (concerning whose name we have sent you more fully written accounts): behold, we received a letter of Praylius, bishop of Jerusalem, who was ordained bishop in the place of the former Saint John. He intervened as a most earnest supporter of the cause of Pelagius. Pelagius himself likewise sent most abundant letters containing his own vindication, in which he heaped up both the faith of his profession—what he followed and what he condemned—without any disguise, so that the snares of all interpretation might cease. Their public reading took place:
They contained all things equal and formed with the same sense and sentences which Caelestius had earlier set forth. Would that any one of you, most beloved brethren, could have been present at the reading of the letters! What joy there was of the holy men who were present! What admiration of each one! Some could scarcely restrain themselves from weeping and tears, that men even of such absolved faith could have been defamed. Is there any place in which the grace of God or His help is passed over? And whoever can, apart from that same grace, even conceive this in his mind—let him not subject himself to that penalty and sentence which was passed concerning the Holy Spirit, that it be forgiven neither here nor in the age to come. I see that this Pelagius too is defamed by the writings of Heros and Lazarus:
Is it so, most beloved brethren, that it has not reached your ears even by rumour who these whirlwinds and storms of the Church are? Has the life of these men and their condemnation so escaped you? And although the special authority of the apostolic see has removed them from all communion, learn even in this letter, though briefly, the characters of these men. It is an old habit of Lazarus to accuse innocence: through many councils he was found a diabolical accuser against Saint Brictius, our fellow-bishop of the city of Tours; from Proculus of Marseilles, in the synod of the town of Turin, he received the sentence due to a calumniator. By the same Proculus, after many years, he is made a priest of a tyrannical judgement:
When the defender of the city of Aix opposed him, and was struck down, he burst into the very sanctuary and priestly seat, nearly bespattered with the blood of the innocent, and there the shadow of a priesthood stood in him only so long as the phantom of empire stood for the tyrant. In which place, after the destruction of his patron, he stripped himself of his own accord and condemned himself by his own resignation. Concerning Heros, indeed, all is similar: the same tyrant as patron, slaughters, tumults, the bonds and imprisonments of contradicting presbyters, the enslavement of the whole city, a similar penitence over the abdication of the priesthood.
Is it a wonder if these men wished to strike down with false letters a layman striving toward good fruit by long service toward God, seeing that they contrived so much against brethren and fellow-bishops, that they gave back so many storms to the Church? It does not befit the episcopal authority, and especially your prudence, to weigh the writings of trifling whisperers. Behold, Pelagius and Caelestius are present to the apostolic see in their letters and confessions: where is Heros, where is Lazarus, names to be blushed at for their deeds and for so many condemnations? Where are those young men, that is, Timasius and Jacobus, who—as was asserted—[produced] certain writings...? Judge for yourselves.
Whether, when such men confess these things at the apostolic see, one ought to believe those things which have been bandied about concerning the very same men by depraved and trifling authors and by doubtful rumour. Love peace, cherish charity, be zealous for concord! For it is written: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. And who are more neighbours to one another than all of us who ought to be one in Christ? Not every wind that enters our ears is a messenger of truth; and therefore, for a mind set as governor and stationed on watch, there is always need lest everything be permitted to rumour, everything to witnesses. Review the sacred writings and the divine records: for the greatest part, false witnesses have held the field wherever we find either the accusation or the perils of the saints. Do I say the greatest part?
Nay rather, the whole; for against our very Lord and Saviour, the victim of the whole world and the saving High Priest, false witnesses rose up, who feigned that they had heard His blasphemy. Consider then what deceit can henceforth pass by, which made its assault by perjuries against the God of faith—nay, against faith and truth themselves. These things we have therefore written, so that henceforth, if any men, absent and less known, shall lie about anyone out of caprice, your feet may be fixed against the battering-ram of fraud. Whence too that great man beseeches a lantern for his feet and a light for his paths, namely, that amid deceitful shadows our steps be not blind and wandering to us. And in the Gospel: Does our law judge a man unless it first hear from him and know what he does?
And already in the Old Testament: You shall not believe a vain report, nor shall you consent that an unjust witness be made together with the wicked; and lest by chance credit be given to a multitude of detractors before the examination of judgement, he added, saying: You shall not be with the many in malice, nor shall you receive sin through them. And again elsewhere: Before you question, do not blame anyone; and when you have questioned, rebuke justly. And again: What your eyes have seen, speak. And in the Acts of the Apostles, against the chief priests and elders of the Jews demanding the condemnation of the absent apostle Paul, the Gentile Festus the tribune uttered a most just sentence, which it is fitting that we too set before the modesty of those who believe too easily, saying:
It is not the custom of the Romans to condemn any man before he who is accused has his accusers present and receives place to defend himself for the washing away of the charges. If therefore he who was placed outside the enclosure of our faith held to this moderation, an over-ready credulity concerning the absent against the absent burdens the priestly modesty: for how few will be found immune from a wound, if to every blow of the striker a credulous breast is opened? Let earthly moderation teach us, which in secular tribunals and cases first concerns the choosing and rejecting of the very judges. And how great is the delay, how many the interposed postponements? How often the adjournment applied, and, even at the very end of the contest, the judgements extended?
When for an innocent defendant recourse is had to the sea and to documents from overseas, so that the good faith which in the present is very often strangled by narrower straits may at least come from afar. Let all these things be a lie of mine, unless they were devised for the patronage of protected innocence. For it is more tolerable that any innocent man be found somewhat later than that he be quickly condemned in place of a guilty one. It was a grievous thing for Lazarus and Heros to be the lackeys of their own letters. Or did they not know that your Charity would refer the matter to the apostolic see? Hither at least they might have sailed without the shortcut of calumny! When it is a question of canvassing for a bishopric, seas and lands are traversed, and no votes are passed over;
but when the good name of the innocent is struck down, at leisure and in luxury—whether accusers or witnesses (for either name is infamous among deceivers)—in their chambers and on their little couches they abuse letters, and cloud over all Africa and the whole tranquillity of catholic serenity to their own caprice, these two pests. Before the tribunal of Christ we shall all stand; no one there will be able to be absent, nor anywhere to decline the judgement of God, whose immensity intervenes in all places and things.
If it was in the heart of our God, for the sake of the lost sheep, that the Word should become flesh and from the Lord take on the form of one serving, that He might restore the long-intercepted liberty, let it be our joy to recognize that those whom false informers were accusing were never severed from our body and from catholic charity. Assuredly this, which your expectation desired, has shone forth: that they condemned things to be condemned and followed things to be followed. If the father of the family rejoiced at the return of the son who had been dead and lived again, who had perished and was found, and bids that for his use a clean robe—that is, the mark of a bright mind—be brought, and the fatted calf: how much richer is this exultation of faith, that those are neither dead nor perished of whom false things had been noised abroad?
We have therefore sent to your Charity copies of the writings which Pelagius sent, whose reading, we do not doubt, will be to you in the Lord an equal gladness concerning his acquitted faith. Given on the eleventh day before the Kalends of October. (47.) THE LITTLE BOOKS OF THE DEACON PAULINUS AGAINST CAELESTIUS, GIVEN TO BISHOP ZOSIMUS. I implore the justice of your Beatitude, lord Zosimus, venerable pope. Never is the true faith troubled, and most of all in the apostolic Church, in which teachers of a corrupt faith, as they are easily detected, are so truly punished that in them there dies—if they correct themselves—that which they had ill conceived and worse brought forth, and in them [lives] the true faith which the apostles taught and which the Roman Church, with all the teachers of the catholic faith, holds.