rienced ascetics in Egypt, during a seven years' sejourn there. In this work, especially in the thirteenth Colloquy,' he rejects decidedly the errors of Pelagius,' and affirms the uni versal sinfulness of men, the introduction of it by the fall of Adam, and the necessity of divine grace to every individual act. But, with evident reference to Augustine, though without naming him, he combats the doctrines of election and of the irresistible and particular operation of grace, which were in conflict with the church tradition, especially with the Oriental theology, and with his own earnest ascetic legalism. In opposition to both systems he taught that the divine image and human freedom were not annihilated, but only weakened, by the fall; in other words, that man is sick, but not dead, that he cannot indeed help himself, but that he can desire the help of a physician, and either accept or refuse it when offered, and that he must co-operate with the grace of God in his salvation. The question, which of the two factors has the initiative, he answers, altogether empirically, to this effect: that sometimes, and indeed usually, the human will, as in the cases of the Prodigal Son, Zacchæus, the Penitent Thief, and Cornelius, determines itself to conversion; sometimes grace anticipates it, and, as with Matthew and Paul, draws the resisting will-yet, even in this case, without constraint to God.' Here, therefore, the gratia præveniens is manifestly overlooked. These are essentially Semi-Pelagian principles, though capable of various modifications and applications. The De protectione Dei. In Migne's edition of Cass. Opera, vol. i. pp. 397-934. 'He calls the Pelagian doctrine of the native ability of man “profanam opinionem" (Coll. xiii. 16, in Migne's ed. tom. i. p. 942), and even says: "Pelagium pæne omnes impietate [probably here equivalent to "contempt of grace," as Wiggers, ii. 20, explains it] et amentia vicisse" (De incarn. Dom. v. 2, tom. ii. 101). "Nonnumquam," says he, De institut, cœnob. xii. 18 (Opera, vol. ii. p. 456, ed Migne), "etiam inviti trahimur ad salutem." This is, however, according to Cassian, a rare exception. The general distinction between Semi-Pelagianism and the Melanch thonian synergism may be thus defined, that the former ascribes the initiative in tize work of conversion to the human will, the latter to divine grace, which involver also a different estimate of the importance of the gratia præveniens or præparans. church, even the Roman church, has rightly emphasized the necessity of prevenient grace, but has not impeached Cassian, who is properly the father of the Semi-Pelagian theory. Leo the Great even commissioned him to write a work against Nestorianism,' in which he found an excellent opportunity to establish his orthodoxy, and to clear himself of all connection with the kindred heresies of Pelagianism and Nestorianism, which were condemned together at Ephesus in 431. He died after 432, at an advanced age, and though not formally canonized, is honored as a saint by some dioceses. His works are very extensively read for practical edification. Against the thirteenth Colloquy of Cassian, PROSPER AQUITANUS, an Augustinian divine and poet, who, probably on account of the desolations of the Vandals, had left his native Aquitania for the South of Gaul, and found comfort and repose in the doctrines of election amid the wars of his age, wrote a book upon grace and freedom,' about 432, in which he criticises twelve propositions of Cassian, and declares them all heretical, except the first. He also composed a long poem in defence of Augustine and his system,' and refuted the "Gallic slanders and Vincentian imputations," which placed the doctrine of predestination in the most odious light.* But the Semi-Pelagian doctrine was the more popular, and made great progress in France. Its principal advocates after 'De incarnatione Christi, libri vii. in Migne's ed. tom. ii. 9–272. Found in the works of Prosper, Paris, 1711 (tom. li. in Migne's Patrol.), and also in the Appendix to the Opera Augustini (tom. x. 171-198, ed. Bened.), under the title Pro Augustino, liber contra Collatorem. Comp. Wiggers, ii. p. 138 ff. 'Carmen de ingratis. He charges the Semi-Pelagians with ingratitude to Augustine and his great merits to the cause of religion. • These Responsiones Prosperi Aquitani ad capitula calumniantium Gallorum and Ad capitula objectionum Vincentianorum (of Vincentius Lirinensis) are also found in the Appendix to the 10th vol. of the Benedictine edition of the Opers Augustini, f. 198 sqq. and f. 207 sqq. Among the objections of Vincentius are. e. g., the following: 3. Quia Deus majorem partem generis humani ad hoc creet, ut illam perdat in eternum. 4. Quia major pars generis humani ad hoc creetur a Deo, ut non Dei, sed diaboli faciat voluntatem. 10. Quia adulteria et corruptelæ virginum sacrarum ideo contingant, quia illes Deus ad hoc prædestinavi: ut caderent. Cassian are the following: the presbyter-monk VINCENTIUS of Lerinum, author of the Commonitorium, in which he developed the true catholic test of doctrine, the threefold consensns, in covert antagonism to the novel doctrines of Augustinianism (about 434);' FAUSTUS, bishop of Rhegium (Riez), who at the council of Arles (475) refuted the hyper-Augustinian presbyter Lucidus, and was commissioned by the council to write a work upon the grace of God and human freedom;' GENNADIUS, presbyter at Marseilles (died after 495), who continued the biographical work of Jerome, De viris illustribus, down to 495, and attributed Augustine's doctrine of predestination to his itch for writing;' ARNOBIUS the younger; and the much discussed anonymous tract Prædestinatus (about 460), which, by gross exaggeration, and by an unwarranted imputation of logical results which Augustine had expressly forestalled, placed the doctrine of predestination in an odious light, and then refuted it." 1 Comp. above, § 118; also Wiggers, ii. p. 208 ff., and Baur, 1. c. p. 185 ff., who likewise impute to the Commonitorium a Semi-Pelagian tendency. This is beyond doubt, if Vincentius was the author of the above-mentioned Objectiones Vincentianæ. Perhaps the second part of the Commonitorium, which, except the last chapters, has been lost, was specially directed against the Augustinian doctrine of predestination, and was on this account destroyed, while the first part acquired almost canonical authority in the Catholic church. * De gratia Dei et humanæ mentis libero arbitrio (in the Biblioth. maxima Patrum, tom. viii.). This work is regarded as the ablest defence of Semi-Pelagianism written in that age. Comp. upon it Wiggers, ii. p. 224 ff. 'De viris illustr. c. 88, where he speaks in other respects eulogistically of Augustine. He refers to the passage in Prov. x. 19: "In multiloquio non fugies peccatum." Comp. respecting him Wiggers, ii. 850 ff. and Neander, Dogmengeschichte, i. p. 406. His works are found in Migne's Patrol. vol. 58. In his Commentarius in Psalmos, written about 460, especially upon Ps. cxxvii.: "Nisi Dominus ædificaverit domum." Some, following Sirmond, consider him as the author of the next-mentioned treatise Prædestinatus, but without good ground. Comp. Wiggers, ii. p. 348 f. • “Prædestinatus, seu Prædestinatorum hæresis, et libri S. Augustino temere adscripti refutatio." The hæresis Prædestinatorum is the last of ninety heresies, and consists in the assertion: "Dei prædestinatione peccata committi." This work was first discovered by J. Sirmond and published at Paris in 1643 (also in Gallandi, Biblioth. tom. x. p. 359 sqq., and in Migne's Patrol. tom. liii. p. 587 sqq., together with Sirmond's Historia Prædestinatiana). It occasioned in the seventeenth century a lively controversy between the Jesuits and the Jansenists, as to whether Avere had existed a distinct sect of Prædestinarians. The author, however, merely The author of the Prædestinatus says, that a treatise had fallen into his hands, which fraudulently bore upon its face the name of the orthodox teacher Augustine, in order to smuggle in, under a Catholic name, a blasphemous dogma, pernicious to the faith. On this account he had undertaken to transcribe and to refute this work. The treatise itself consists of three books; the first, following Augustine's book, De hæresibus, gives a description of ninety heresies from Simon Magus down to the time of the author, and brings up, as the last of them, the doctrine of a double predestination, as a doctrine which makes God the author of evil, and renders all the moral endeavors of men fruitless; the second book is the pseudo-Augustinian treatise upon this ninetieth heresy, but is apparently merely a Semi-Pelagian caricature by the same author; the third book contains the refutation of the thus travestied pseudo-Augustinian doctrine of predestination, employing the usual Semi-Pelagian arguments. A counterpart to this treatise is found in the also anonymous work, De vocatione omnium gentium, which endeavors to commend Augustinianism by mitigation, in the same degree that the Prædestinatus endeavors to stultify it by exaggeration." It has been ascribed to pope Leo I. († 461), of whom it would not be unworthy; but it cannot be supposed that the work of so distinguished a man could have remained anonymous. The feigned such a sect to exist, in order to avoid the appearance of attacking Augus tine's authority. See details in Wiggers, ii. p. 329 ff.; Neander, Dogmengeschichte, i. 399 ff.; and Baur, p. 190 ff. The latter says: "The treatise [more accurately the second book of it; the whole consists of three books] is ascribed to Augustine, but as the ascription is immediately after declared false, both assertions are evidently made with the purpose of condemning Augustine's doctrine with its consequences (only not directly in his name), as one morally most worthy of reprobation." Neander ascribes only the first and the third book, Baur also the second book, to a Semi-Pelagian. The first book has also been reprinted in the Corpus hæreseolog. ed. F. Oehler, tom. i. Berol. 1856, pp. 233–268. 'Just as the Capitula Gallorum and the Objectiones Vincentianæ exaggerate Augustinianism, in order the more easily to refute it. It is found among the works of Leo I. and also of Prosper Aquitanus, but deviates from the views of the latter. Comp. Quesnel's learned Dissertationes da auctore libri de vocatione gentium, in the second part of his elition of Leo's works, and also Wiggers, ii. p. 218 ff. author avoids even the term prædestinatio, and teaches expressly, that Christ died for all men and would have all to be saved, thus rejecting the Augustinian particularism. But, on the other hand, he also rejects the Semi-Pelagian principles, and asserts the utter inability of the natural man to do good. He unhesitatingly sets grace above the human will, and represents the whole life of faith, from beginning to end, as a work of unmerited grace. He develops the three thoughts, that God desires the salvation of all men; that no one is saved by his own merits, but by grace; and that the human understanding cannot fathom the depths of divine wisdom. We must trust in the righteousness of God. Every one of the damned suffers only the righteous punishment of his sins; while no saint can boast himself in his merits, since it is only of pure grace that he is saved. But how is it with the great multitude of infants that die every year without baptism, and without opportunity of coming to the knowledge of salvation? The author feels this difficulty, without, however, being able to solve it. He calls to his help the representative character of parents, and dilutes the Augustinian doctrine of original sin to the negative conception of a mere defect of good, which, of course, also reduces the idea of hereditary guilt and the damnation of unbaptized children. He distinguishes between a general grace which comes to man through the external revelation in nature, law, and gospel, and a special grace, which effects conversion and regeneration by an inward impartation of saving power, and which is only bestowed on those that are saved. Semi-Pelagianism prevailed in Gaul for several decades. Under the lead of Faustus of Rhegium it gained the victory in two synods, at Arles in 472 and at Lyons in 475, where Augustine's doctrine of predestination was condemned, though without mention of his name. § 160. Victory of Semi-Augustinianism. Council of Orange, A. D. 529. But these synods were only provincial, and were the cause of a schism. In North Africa and in Rome the Augustinian |