Concerning the doctrine of Pelagius, of what sort it is known to be from his own writings. 1. Now, that Pelagius too might be condemned together with him equally, this is the reason. The aforesaid man dared, before the devastation of the city of Rome, to compose commentaries on the apostle Paul, and to publish these to those upon whose friendship he presumed; and he thought to expound each of the Apostle's words or meanings. Therefore, in the Epistle which is to the Romans, when he had come to that place where the vessel of election thus speaks: 'Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, and so death passed over to all men' (Rom. 5:12), he believed it should thus far be expounded.
That book of his we have, and we produce it to convict his hostile error. 2. Thus then he says: 'Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death: He used,' he says, 'an example or image, because, just as there was no sin, it crept in through Adam; so also, when righteousness had not remained with anyone, life was restored through Christ.' 3. 'And death passed over to all men: Since,' he says, 'they sin in like manner and so die; for death did not pass over either to Abraham, or to Isaac, or to Jacob, of whom the Lord says: To Him all these live' (Luke 20:38).
But here, he says, he calls all dead for this reason, because, by the multitude of sinners, the few righteous are not excepted, just as also elsewhere he says: There is none that does good, no, not one (Ps. 52:2-4 [53:1,3]). And again he says this: Every man is a liar (Ps. 115:11 [116:11]); or assuredly it passed over to all those, he says, who lived after the manner of men, not of heaven. 4. And after a little: 'But death reigned from Adam unto Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam' (Rom. 5:14):
'Either when there was no one,' he says, 'who could discern between the just and the unjust, death thought it ruled over all; or over those who transgressed the commandment like Adam, that is, of the sons of Noah, to whom it was commanded that they should not eat the life in the blood, and of the sons of Abraham, to whom circumcision was commanded; but [also] over those who, apart from the commandment, had despised the natural law.' 5. 'Who is the figure of him that was to come' (ibid.): 'Because,' he says, 'just as Adam was formed by God apart from intercourse, so also Christ proceeded from the Virgin, the Holy Spirit fashioning Him; or, as some say, a figure by contrary, that is [as that one was the head of sin, so also
this one is the head of righteousness] He is.' 6. 'But not as the offense, so also the gift' (ibid. 15): 'Lest,' he says, 'an equality should be supposed in the figure.' 7. 'For if by the transgression of one many died, much more the gift and grace of God by one man, Christ, has abounded unto many' (ibid.). 'The grace,' says the Apostle, 'prevailed more in giving life than sin in killing: because Adam slew not himself alone, but also his posterity; whereas Christ delivered both those who were then in the body and those who were afterward to be.' 8. Here let the careful Catholic reader note what he says, that 'Adam harmed not himself alone, but also his posterity.' Hold fast his earlier definition:
for here he says 'posterity' not as meaning all men everywhere and altogether wholly harmed by that sin of his, but only those who, through imitation, like Adam, became guilty of transgression by their own similar sins and proper deeds; who, without doubt, are found to be his very own descendants and posterity. 9. 'But these,' he says, 'who hold the view of the transmission (traduce) of sin, sharply attempt to assail those who defend the transmission: If the sin of Adam,' they say, 'harmed even those who do not sin, then also the righteousness of Christ profits even those who do not believe; since the Apostle says that, in like manner, indeed more, more are delivered through one than had before perished through one.' Then they say:
'If baptism cleanses that ancient and inveterate sin, those who are born of two baptized persons ought to be free of this sin; for they will not be able to transmit to their posterity what they themselves did not have at all.' To this they add: 'Since, if the soul is not from transmission (traduce)—as indeed it is not, but only the flesh has the transmission of sin—the flesh alone also deserves the penalty: for it is unjust that a soul born today, not from the mass of Adam, should bear so ancient an alien sin; nay, it is reasonable that God, who remits one's own sins, should not impute an alien one.' 10. And again in another discourse of his, the same Pelagius:
'If a sinner,' he says, 'begot a sinner, so that in his little one original sin should be loosed in the reception of baptism, then a righteous man ought to beget a righteous one. If parents,' he says, 'after their conversion do not harm themselves by their own sins, much more will they not be able to harm their children through themselves. If it befell the first man to be the cause of death, then through the coming of Christ it ought no longer to be necessary to die. If through the sin of Adam death had arisen, we should never, after the remission of sins which He, having freed us, has granted, die. Therefore the sin of Adam prevailed more in killing absolutely all men, than the grace of Christ in saving, which profited not all, but only believers: