Concerning the common opinion and condemnation of both heretics. 1. Now, in the very accusation of the chapters which were then objected against the same Pelagius, this also was contained, among other detestable things which his disciple Coelestius held: that is, 'Infants, even if they are not baptized, have eternal life.' 2. That chapter too, which is set down above, we have recorded as being held by Coelestius and as being agreeable to the doctrine of his master, that is, 'That the Law sends to the kingdom of heaven, just as the Gospel'; this Pelagius in certain of his writings openly confirms and proclaims. 3.
Finally, there is a little book of his, which we have in our hands, addressed to a certain widow Livania, containing a hortatory discourse, in which it stands thus: 'It becomes the handmaid of Christ,' he says, 'to follow simplicity—not that which is folly rather than simplicity, but that of which it is written: Blessed is every simple soul (Prov. 11:27, according to the Septuagint); Scripture saying elsewhere: Cursed is every man who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them (Deut. 27:26). Hence,' he says, 'it is shown that the true simplicity is not that which despises the commandments of God with senseless security, but that which keeps the precepts of the law with a wise fear;
for since it is said that he is cursed who does not continue in those things which are written, conversely he does not wish him to be blessed who has not kept all the precepts. And if every simple person is blessed, then he is the simple one who would fulfill all the precepts of the law.' 4. That this man asserts that which has so often been said above, namely 'That the books of Moses send to the kingdom of heaven, just as the Gospel,' no Catholic who has read this chapter doubts, nor will he, in understanding it, be able to bear any difficulty. And because in that same most impious chapter he named the law indiscriminately, if he openly attempts to draw us into Judaism by the Mosaic law, of which he set down the testimony of the curse;
But if, to cover himself by a deception, he should say that he called the Gospel by the name of the Law, then indeed in this—that he calls the Law 'Gospel'—he does not err. Yet in this he is impious, that he does not fear to place us who are under the Gospel under a like and equal curse, equating the grace of the Gospel with the law of circumcision and with all Judaism. Hence also his disciple Coelestinus openly dared to declare: 'The Law sends to the kingdom of heaven just as the Gospel does.' 5. For it is manifest that, according to Pelagius, if we are still under the same or a like bond even under the time of the Gospel;
and if, as men, we have erred in anything, or have failed to fulfil even one of the precepts of the Gospel, then we are accursed. But if it be so—which God forbid, yet granting it to be said as he wishes—then the Gospel has been equated with the old Law; and where then will stand the saying of the Apostle Paul: 'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written (Deut. 27:26): Cursed is every man who does not abide in all the things that are written in the book of the law, to do them' (Gal. 3:10). 6. Moreover, descending further, he pursues this very same sense at greater length in the same discourse of this little book, and at greater length commends it. For after many things he there says:
'To hate, to curse, to envy, to lie, to slander, and to believe slanderers, is reckoned a slight sin or none at all; but those who think this have forgotten that we read that those guilty even of a slight precept are to be delivered over to hell. For it is manifest,' he says, 'that the Lord has said: Whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou fool, or Raca, shall be liable to hell-fire.'