Letter 225: Prosper asks Augustine to clarify disputed teaching on predestination and grace for the Massilian controversy.

To Augustine, most blessed father, wonderful beyond words, honored beyond comparison, outstanding patron: Prosper. I am unknown to you by face, but, if you remember, already known to you somewhat in spirit and speech. Through my holy brother, the deacon Leontius, I sent letters and received them. Now too I dare to write to Your Blessedness, not only out of the desire to greet you, as I did then, but out of concern for the faith by which the Church lives. Your watchful care keeps guard for all the members of the body of Christ, and with the strength of truth you fight against the traps of heretical doctrines. So I did not think I should fear being burdensome or untimely in a matter that concerns the salvation of many and therefore your own devotion. Rather, I believed I would be guilty if I did not report to the special patron of the faith matters I understand to be deeply harmful. Many servants of Christ who live in the city of Massilia think that what you wrote against the Pelagian heretics about the calling of the elect according to God's purpose is contrary to the opinion of the fathers and the mind of the Church. For a while they preferred to blame their own slowness rather than criticize what they had not understood, and some wanted to ask Your Blessedness for a clearer and more open explanation. Then, by the merciful ordering of God, when similar questions had stirred some people in Africa, you published the book On Rebuke and Grace, full of divine authority. When it unexpectedly reached us, we thought every complaint of the resisters would be silenced, because all the questions on which Your Holiness needed to be consulted were answered there so fully and decisively that it seemed you had made a special effort to settle the very matters troubling us. After this book of Your Blessedness was read, those who had already followed the holy and apostolic authority of your teaching became much more intelligent and better instructed. But those who were hindered by the darkness of their own persuasion withdrew even more hostile than before. Their sudden dissent must be feared first for their own sake, lest the spirit of Pelagian impiety play tricks on men so clear and so outstanding in every pursuit of virtue; and then for the sake of simpler people, who revere them greatly because of their uprightness and think the safest thing is whatever they hear asserted by men whose authority they follow without judgment. This is their definition and profession. They say that every human being sinned when Adam sinned, and that no one is saved by his own works but by God's grace in regeneration. Yet they also say that the atonement in the sacrament of Christ's blood is set before all human beings without exception, so that whoever wants to come to faith and baptism can be saved. God, before the foundation of the world, foreknew those who would believe and those who would remain in the faith afterward helped by grace, and he predestined for his kingdom those whom he foresaw would be freely called, would be worthy of election, and would depart this life with a good end. Therefore every human being, they say, must be admonished by divine instruction to believe and act, so that no one despairs of laying hold of eternal life, since reward is prepared for voluntary devotion. But they say that the teaching of God's calling purpose, according to which a distinction was made either before the beginning of the world or in the very creation of the human race between those to be chosen and those to be rejected, so that by the Creator's pleasure some are made vessels for honor and others vessels for dishonor, takes away from the fallen the effort to rise and gives the saints an occasion for lukewarmness. In both cases, they argue, labor is useless if the rejected cannot enter by any effort and the chosen cannot fall away by any negligence. However they conduct themselves, nothing else can happen to them except what God has determined; and the race cannot be run with steady hope if the choice of the predestining God has something else in mind and the striving person's effort is empty. All effort is removed and the virtues are taken away, they say, if God's decree precedes human wills. Under the name of predestination a kind of fatal necessity is introduced, or else the Lord is said to be the creator of different natures, if no one can be anything other than what he was made. To state their opinion briefly and fully: everything Your Holiness set before yourself in this book from the viewpoint of objectors, and everything Julian himself objected under this question in the books against him, which you defeated most powerfully, is being shouted insistently by these holy men. When we bring out the writings of Your Blessedness against them, armed with the strongest and innumerable testimonies of the divine Scriptures, and when, following the pattern of your arguments, we ourselves add something to close them in, they defend their stubbornness by age. They claim that the passages from Paul's letter to the Romans used to show divine grace preceding the merits of the elect have never been understood by any church writers in the way they are now understood. When we ask them to explain those passages according to whatever authorities they choose, they admit they have found nothing that satisfies them, and they demand silence about matters whose depth no one has reached. In the end their whole obstinacy comes down to this: they declare our faith contrary to the building up of hearers, and therefore, even if it is true, it should not be brought forward, since things that cannot be understood may be passed over without danger but are taught with ruinous effect if they are not received. Some of them do not turn aside from Pelagian paths even this far. When they are forced to confess the grace of Christ that precedes all human merits, lest it be called grace in vain if it is repaid to merits, they want that grace to belong to the condition of each human being: a condition in which, when he had earned nothing beforehand because he did not yet exist, the Creator's grace established him with free choice and reason, so that by distinguishing good and evil he could direct his will toward knowledge of God and obedience to his commands, and could come to the grace by which we are reborn in Christ through natural capacity, by asking, seeking, and knocking. In this way, they say, he receives, finds, and enters because, by using the good of nature well, he has earned the right to come to saving grace with the help of initial grace. They define the purpose of calling grace entirely in this: God has determined to bring no one into his kingdom except through the sacrament of regeneration, and he calls all human beings universally to this gift of salvation, whether through natural law, written law, or gospel preaching. Those who wish become children of God, and those who do not wish to be faithful are without excuse. God's justice appears in this, that those who do not believe perish; his goodness appears in this, that he excludes no one from life but indifferently wills all people to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. At this point they bring forward testimonies by which the exhortation of the divine Scriptures urges human wills to obey, so that from free choice people either do what is commanded or neglect it. They think it follows that, because the transgressor is said not to have obeyed because he did not wish to, the faithful person too is not to be doubted to have been devoted because he wished to be. Each person has as much ability for good as for evil, and with equal balance the soul can move itself either toward vices or toward virtues; if it seeks good, God's grace supports it, and if it pursues evil, just condemnation receives it. When the countless multitude of infants is set against them, infants who apart from original sin, under which all human beings are born alike in the condemnation of the first man, have as yet no wills and no actions of their own, and yet are separated not without God's judgment, so that before they can distinguish good from evil some are taken from this life through regeneration among the heirs of the heavenly kingdom while others pass without baptism among the debtors of everlasting death, they answer that such infants perish or are saved according to what divine knowledge foresaw they would have become in later years if they had been kept to an age of action. They do not consider that they are subjecting God's grace, which they want to be the companion and not the forerunner of human merits, even to wills that they do not deny have been anticipated by grace according to their own fantasy. They submit God's election to invented merits so completely that, because no past merits exist, they fabricate future merits that will never be future. By a new kind of absurdity, things not going to be done are foreknown, and things foreknown are not done. They think they can support this foreknowledge of human merits, according to which the grace of the caller works, with more reason when they consider the nations left in past ages to walk in their own ways, or even now perishing in the old ignorance of impiety without any light of law or gospel having shone on them. Yet, so far as a door and a way have opened to preachers, the people of the nations who sat in darkness and the shadow of death have seen a great light; those who once were not a people are now the people of God, and those on whom he once had no mercy have now received mercy. The Lord, they say, foresaw that they would believe, and the times and ministries of teachers were dispensed to each nation in such a way as the belief of good wills was going to arise. Nor, they say, is the statement shaken that God wills all people to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth, since those people are without excuse who could have been instructed by natural understanding toward worship of the one true God and who did not hear the gospel because they would not have received it. They also say that our Lord Jesus Christ died for the whole human race, and that absolutely no one is excluded from the redemption of his blood, even if he passes through this whole life with a mind entirely alien from him, because the sacrament of divine mercy belongs to all human beings. Many are not renewed by it because God foreknows that they do not even have the wish to be renewed. As far as God is concerned, eternal life is prepared for everyone; as far as freedom of choice is concerned, it is seized by those who freely believe God and receive the help of grace by the merit of belief. Those whose contradiction offends us have moved especially into preaching this sort of grace, although they had earlier held better views, because if they confessed that all good merits are preceded by grace and are given by grace so that they can exist at all, they would be compelled to concede that God, according to the purpose and counsel of his will, by hidden judgment and visible action makes one vessel for honor and another for dishonor, since no one is justified except by grace and no one is born except in transgression. They shrink from confessing this and fear to ascribe the merits of the saints to God's work. They do not accept that the predestined number of the elect can neither be increased nor diminished, lest among unbelievers and the negligent the incentives of exhortation have no place, and lest the command to effort and labor be useless because its zeal would be frustrated once election is settled. In their view, a person can be called to correction or progress only if he knows he can become good by his own diligence and that his freedom is helped by God for this reason: because he has chosen what God commands. Thus, since in those who have received time for free will there are two things that work human salvation, namely God's grace and human obedience, they want obedience to come before grace. The beginning of salvation is then believed to stand in the one who is saved, not in the one who saves; human will produces the help of divine grace for itself, not grace the subjection of the human will to itself. By God's mercy revealing it and by Your Blessedness teaching us, we know this to be utterly perverse. We can be firm in refusing to believe it, but we are not equal to the authority of those who hold such views. They surpass us greatly in the merits of life, and some of them, having recently received the honor of the highest priesthood, stand above us. Apart from a few fearless lovers of perfect grace, hardly anyone has dared to oppose the arguments of such superiors. From this danger has grown not only for those who hear them, but even for those who are heard. Reverence for them either restrains many in useless silence or leads them into careless agreement, and what is criticized by almost no one's contradiction appears to them most healthy. Therefore, because in these remnants of Pelagian corruption a root of no small poison is being nourished, if the beginning of salvation is wrongly placed in a human being; if human will is impiously preferred to the divine will, so that someone is helped because he has willed, not wills because he is helped; if a person originally evil is wrongly believed to begin the reception of good from himself and not from the highest good; if God is pleased by anything except what he himself has given, then grant us, most blessed father, best father, in this cause, as much as you can with the Lord's help, the diligent care of your devotion. Please open with the clearest explanations what is darker and harder to grasp in these questions. First, show how much danger lies in their persuasion, since many do not think the Christian faith is harmed by this disagreement. Then explain how free choice is not hindered by grace that works beforehand and works together with us. Next, whether God's foreknowledge remains according to purpose in such a way that the things purposed are themselves to be taken as foreknown, or whether these matters vary by kinds of causes and classes of persons: so that, because there are different callings among those who are saved without doing anything, only God's purpose seems to exist, while among those who will do some good, purpose can stand through foreknowledge. Or is it rather one uniform truth: although foreknowledge cannot be divided from purpose by a temporal distinction, foreknowledge is nevertheless supported in a certain order by purpose, and just as there is no matter of any kind that divine knowledge has not preceded, so there is no good that has flowed into our possession unless God is its author? Finally, explain how, by this preaching of God's purpose by which those who have been ordained to eternal life become believers, none of those who should be exhorted is hindered, and they do not take occasion for negligence if they despair of being predestined. We also ask that, patiently bearing our foolishness, you show how to clear up this point: when the opinions of earlier writers on this matter are reviewed, nearly all are found to hold one and the same view, receiving God's purpose and predestination according to foreknowledge. In that view, God made some vessels of honor and others of dishonor because he foresaw each person's end and knew beforehand the will and action in which each would be, even under the help of grace. When these matters have been untied, and many others too, which with deeper insight you can see as more relevant to this cause, we believe and hope not only that our weakness will be strengthened by the support of your arguments, but also that those whom the darkness of this opinion obscures, though they are distinguished by merits and honors, will receive the clearest light of grace. Let Your Blessedness know that one of them, a man of special authority and spiritual interests, the holy Hilary, bishop of Arles, admires and follows your teaching in all other matters, and that on this point, which he turns into a complaint, he has long wanted to confer with Your Holiness by letter. But since it is uncertain whether he will do this, or with what outcome, and since the weariness of us all, under God's grace looking after this present age, breathes again in the strength of your love and knowledge, add instruction for the humble and rebuke for the proud. It is necessary and useful to write even what has already been written, lest a matter seem light because it is not often challenged. They think healthy what does not hurt, and they do not feel the wound because skin has grown over it. But let them understand that what keeps its swelling will come to the knife. May the grace of God and the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ crown you at every time and glorify you forever as you walk from strength to strength, my most blessed father, wonderful beyond words, honored beyond comparison, outstanding patron.

EPISTOLA 225 Scripta a. 428 vel 429. Prosper Augustino, cum "catholicae fidei propugnatorem eximium" vocans (n. 1), et certiorem faciens de Pelagianae haereseos reliquiis inter Massilienses ac referens quorumdam quaerellas de iis quae A. adversus Pelagianos scripsisset de hominum discretione, de vocatione secundum propositum ac praedestinatione electorum (nn. 2-4), de praeveniente gratia deque praefixo electorum numero (nn. 5-6), petens ut quae in istis quaestionibus obscuriora intellectu sint quam lucidissime aperiat (nn. 7-9). DOMINO BEATISSIMO PAPAE, INEFFABILITER MIRABILI, INCOMPARABILITER HONORANDO, PRAESTANTISSIMO PATRONO AUGUSTINO, PROSPER. A. catholicae fidei firmus propugnator. 1. Ignotus quidem tibi facie, sed iam aliquatenus, si reminiscaris, animo ac sermone compertus; nam per sanctum fratrem meum Leontium diaconum misi epistolas et recepi; nunc quoque Beatitudini tuae scribere audeo, non solum salutationis, ut tunc, studio, sed etiam fidei, qua Ecclesia vivit, affectu. Excubante enim pro universis membris corporis Christi 1 vigilantissima industria tua, et adversus haereticarum doctrinarum insidias veritatis virtute pugnante, nullo modo mihi verendum putavi ne onerosus tibi, aut importunus essem in eo quod ad multorum salutem, ac perinde ad pietatem tuam pertinet: cum potius reum futurum esse me crederem, si ea, quae valde perniciosa esse intellego, ad specialem patronum fidei non referrem. Massimilienses monachi cur doctrinam A. reiciant. 2. Multi ergo servorum Christi qui in Massiliensi urbe consistunt, in Sanctitatis tuae scriptis quae adversus Pelagianos haereticos condidisti, contrarium putant patrum opinioni et ecclesiastico sensui, quidquid in eis de vocatione electorum secundum Dei propositum disputasti. Et cum aliquandiu tarditatem suam culpare maluerint, quam non intellecta reprehendere, quidamque eorum lucidiorem super hoc atque apertiorem Beatitudinis tuae expositionem voluerint postulare; evenit ex dispositione misericordiae Dei, ut cum quosdam intra Africam similia movissent, librum de Correptione et Gratia, plenum divinae auctoritatis emitteres. Quo in notitiam nostram insperata opportunitate delato, putavimus omnes querelas resistentium sopiendas; quia universis quaestionibus de quibus consulenda erat Sanctitas tua, tam plene illic absoluteque responsum est, quasi hoc specialiter studueris, ut quae apud nos erant turbata componeres. Recensito autem hoc Beatitudinis tuae libro, sicut qui sanctam atque apostolicam doctrinae tuae auctoritatem antea sequebantur, intellegentiores multo instructioresque sunt facti; ita qui persuasionis suae impediebantur obscuro, aversiores quam fuerant, recesserunt. Quorum tam abrupta dissensio primum propter ipsos metuenda est, ne tam claris tamque egregiis in omnium virtutum studio viris spiritus pelagianae impietatis illudat: deinde ne simpliciores quique, apud quos horum magna est de probitatis contemplatione reverentia, hoc tutissimum sibi aestiment quod audiant eos, quorum auctoritatem sine iudicio sequuntur, asserere. Cur praedestinatio ab A. explanata reiciatur. 3. Haec enim ipsorum definitio ac professio est: Omnem quidem hominem Adam peccante peccasse; et neminem per opera sua, sed per Dei gratiam regeneratione salvari: universis tamen hominibus propitiationem, quae est in Sacramento sanguinis Christi, sine exceptione esse propositam, ut quicumque ad fidem et ad Baptismum accedere voluerint, salvi esse possint. Qui autem credituri sunt, quive in ea fide, quae deinceps per gratiam sit iuvanda, mansuri sunt, praescisse ante mundi constitutionem Deum, et eos praedestinasse in regnum suum 2, quos gratis vocatos, dignos futuros electione, et de hac vita bono fine excessuros esse praeviderit. Ideoque omnem hominem ad credendum et ad operandum divinis institutionibus admoneri, ut de apprehendenda vita aeterna nemo desperet, cum voluntariae devotioni remuneratio sit parata. Hoc autem propositum vocationis Dei, quo vel ante mundi initium, vel in ipsa conditione generis humani, eligendorum et reiiciendorum dicitur facta discretio, ut secundum quod placuit Creatori, alii vasa honoris, alii vasa contumeliae sint creati 3, et lapsis curam resurgendi adimere, et sanctis occasionem teporis afferre; eo quod in utraque parte superfluus labor sit, si neque reiectus ulla industria possit intrare, neque electus ulla neglegentia possit excidere: quoquo enim modo se egerint, non posse aliud erga eos quam Deus definivit, accidere; et sub incerta spe cursum non posse esse constantem, cum, si aliud habeat praedestinantis electio, cassa sit adnitentis intentio. Removeri itaque omnem industriam, tollique virtutes, si Dei constitutio humanas praeveniat voluntates: et sub hoc praedestinationis nomine, fatalem quamdam induci necessitatem; aut diversarum naturarum dici Dominum conditorem, si nemo aliud possit esse quam factus est. Atque ut brevius ac plenius quod opinantur exponam, quidquid in libro hoc ex contradicentium sensu Sanctitas tua sibi opposuit, quidquid etiam in libris contra Iulianum ab ipso sub hac quaestione obiectum, potentissime debellasti; hoc totum ab istis sanctis intentiosissime conclamatur. Et cum contra eos scripta Beatitudinis tuae validissimis et innumeris testimoniis divinarum Scripturarum instructa proferimus, ac secundum formam disputationum tuarum, aliquid etiam ipsi quo concludantur astruimus; obstinationem suam vetustate defendunt: et ea quae de Epistola apostoli Pauli Romanis scribentis 4, ad manifestationem divinae gratiae praevenientis electorum merita proferuntur, a nullo umquam ecclesiasticorum ita esse intellecta, ut nunc sentiuntur, affirmant. Cumque ut ipsi ea exponant secundum quorum velint sensa, deposcimus, nihil se profitentur invenisse quod placeat, et de his taceri exigunt, quorum altitudinem nullus attigerit. Eo postremo pervicacia tota descendit, ut fidem nostram aedificationi audientium contrariam esse definiant, ac sic, etiamsi vera sit, non promendam: quia et perniciose non recipienda tradantur; et nullo periculo, quae intellegi nequeant, conticeantur. Alia sententia multo magis pelagianizans. 4. Quidam vero horum in tantum a pelagianis semitis non declinant, ut cum ad confitendam eam Christi gratiam quae omnia praeveniant merita humana, cogantur, ne si meritis redditur, frustra gratia nominetur; ad conditionem hanc velint uniuscuiusque hominis pertinere, in qua eum nihil prius merentem, quia nec existentem, liberi arbitrii et rationalem gratia Creatoris instituat, ut per discretionem boni et mali 5, et ad cognitionem Dei et ad obedientiam mandatorum eius possit suam dirigere voluntatem, atque ad hanc gratiam qua in Christo renascimur, pervenire, per naturalem scilicet facultatem, petendo, quaerendo, pulsando 6: ut ideo accipiat, ideo inveniat, ideo introeat, quia bono naturae bene usus, ad istam salvantem gratiam, initialis gratiae ope meruerit pervenire. Propositum autem vocantis gratiae in hoc omnino definiunt, quod Deus constituerit nullum in regnum suum, nisi per Sacramentum regenerationis assumere, et ad hoc salutis donum omnes homines universaliter, sive per naturalem, sive per scriptam legem, sive per evangelicam praedicationem vocari: ut et qui voluerint, fiant filii Dei, et inexcusabiles sint qui fideles esse noluerint; quia iustitia Dei in eo sit, ut qui non crediderint, pereant 7; bonitas in eo appareat, si neminem repellat a vita, sed indifferenter universos velit salvos fieri et in agnitionem veritatis venire 8. Iam hic proferunt testimonia quibus divinarum Scripturarum cohortatio ad obediendum incitat hominum voluntates, qui ex libero arbitrio, aut faciant quae iubentur, aut neglegant: et consequens putant ut quia praevaricator ideo dicitur non obedisse, quia noluit, fidelis quoque non dubitetur ob hoc devotus fuisse, quia voluit; et quantum quisque ad malum, tantum habeat facultatis ad bonum; parique momento animum se vel ad vitia, vel ad virtutes movere, quem bona appetentem gratia Dei foveat, mala sectantem damnatio iusta suscipiat. Dei praescientia et futuribilia. 5. Cumque inter haec innumerabilium illis multitudo obicitur parvulorum, qui utique excepto originali peccato, sub quo omnes homines similiter in primi hominis damnatione nascuntur, nullas adhuc habentes voluntates. nullas proprias actiones, non sine Dei iudicio secernuntur; ut ante discretionem boni ac mali de usu vitae istius auferendi, alii per regenerationem 9 inter coelestis regni assumantur haeredes, alii sine Baptismo inter mortis perpetuae transeant debitores: tales aiunt perdi, talesque salvari, quales futuros illos in annis maioribus, si ad activam servarentur aetatem, scientia divina praeviderit Nec considerant se gratiam Dei, quam comitem, non praeviam humanorum volunt esse meritorum, etiam illis voluntatibus subdere, quas ab ea, secundum suam phantasiam, non negant esse praeventas. Sed in tantum quibuscumque commentitiis meritis electionem Dei subiciunt, ut quia praeterita non exstant, futura, quae non sint futura, confingant, novoque apud illos absurditatis genere, et non agenda praescita sint, et praescita non acta sint. Hanc sane de humanis meritis praescientiam Dei, secundum quam gratia vocantis operetur, multo sibi rationabilius videntur astruere, cum ad earum nationum contemplationem venitur, quae vel in praeteritis saeculis dimissae sunt ingredi vias suas 10, vel nunc quoque adhuc in veteris ignorantiae impietate depereunt, nec ulla eis aut Legis aut Evangelii illuminatio coruscavit; cum tamen, in quantum praedicatoribus ostium apertum est et via facta est, gentium populus, qui sedebat in tenebris et in umbra mortis 11, lucem viderit magnam; et qui quondam non populus, nunc autem populus Dei sit; et quorum aliquando non misertus est, nunc autem misereatur 12: praevisos inquiunt a Domino credituros, et ad unamquamque gentem ita dispensata tempora ac ministeria magistrorum, ut exortura erat bonarum credulitas voluntatum: nec vacillare illud, quod Deus omnes homines velit salvos fieri, et in agnitionem veritatis venire 13; quandoquidem inexcusabiles sint qui et ad unius veri Dei cultum potuerint instrui intellegentia naturali, et Evangelium ideo non audierint, quia nec fuerint recepturi. Priorem dicunt hominis oboedientiam quam gratiam. 6. Pro universo autem humano genere mortuum esse Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, et neminem prorsus a redemptione sanguinis eius exceptum, etiamsi omnem hanc vitam alienissima ab eo mente pertranseat; quia ad omnes homines pertineat divinae misericordiae Sacramentum: quo ideo plurimi non renoventur, quia quod nec renovari velle habeant, praenoscantur. Itaque, quantum ad Deum pertinet, omnibus paratam vitam aeternam; quantum autem ad arbitrii libertatem, ab his eam apprehendi, qui Deo sponte crediderint, et auxilium gratiae merito credulitatis acceperint. In istam vero talis gratiae praedicationem hi, quorum contradictione offendimur, cum prius meliora sentirent, ideo se vel maxime contulerunt, quia si profiterentur ab ea omnia bona merita praeveniri, et ab ipsa ut possint esse, donari; necessitate concederent Deum secundum propositum et consilium voluntatis suae, occulto iudicio, et opere manifesto, aliud vas condere in honorem, aliud in contumeliam 14; quia nemo nisi per gratiam iustificetur, et nemo nisi in praevaricatione nascatur 15. Sed refugiunt istud fateri, divinoque adscribere operi sanctorum merita formidant; nec acquiescunt praedestinatum electorum numerum nec augeri posse nec minui, ne locum apud infideles ac neglegentes cohortantium incitamenta non habeant, ac superflua sit industriae ac laboris indictio, cuius studium cessante electione frustrandum sit: ita demum enim posse unumquemque ad correctionem aut ad profectum vocari, si se sciat sua diligentia bonum esse posse, et libertatem suam ob hoc Dei auxilio iuvandam, si quod Deus mandat, elegerit. Ac sic, cum in his qui tempus acceperunt liberae voluntatis, duo sint quae humanam operentur salutem, Dei scilicet gratia et hominis obedientia; priorem volunt obedientiam esse quam gratiam, ut initium salutis ex eo qui salvatur, non ex eo credendum sit stare qui salvat, et voluntas hominis divinae gratiae sibi pariat opem, non gratia sibi humanam subiciat voluntatem. Quam perniciosae pelagianae haereseos reliquiae. 7. Quod cum perversissimum esse, revelante Dei misericordia, et instruente nos tua Beatitudine noverimus; possumus quidem ad non credendum esse constantes, sed ad auctoritatem talia sentientium non sumus pares: quia multum nos et vitae meritis antecellunt, et aliqui eorum, adepto nuper summi sacerdotii honore, supereminent; nec facile quisquam praeter paucos perfectae gratiae intrepidos amatores, tanto superiorum disputationibus ausus est contraire. Ex quo non solum his qui eos audiunt, verum etiam ipsis qui audiuntur, cum dignitatibus crevit periculum; dum et multos reverentia eorum aut inutili cohibet silentio, aut incurioso ducit assensu; et saluberrimum ipsis videtur quod pene nullius contradictione reprehenditur. Unde, quia in istis pelagianae pravitatis reliquiis non mediocris virulentiae fibra nutritur, si principium salutis male in homine collocatur; si divinae voluntati impie voluntas humana praefertur, ut ideo quis adiuvetur quia voluit, non ideo quia adiuvatur, velit; si originaliter malus receptionem boni non a summo bono, sed a semetipso inchoare male creditur; si aliunde Deo placetur, nisi ex eo quod ipse donaverit: tribue nobis in hac causa, papa beatissime, pater optime, quantum iuvante Domino potes, diligentiam pietatis tuae, ut quae in istis quaestionibus obscuriora, et ad percipiendum difficiliora sunt, quam lucidissimis expositionibus digneris aperire. Quaedam magis explicanda. 8. Ac primum, quia plerique non putant christianam fidem hac dissensione violari, quantum periculi sit in eorum persuasione patefacias. Deinde, quomodo per istam praeoperantem et cooperantem gratiam liberum non impediatur arbitrium. Tum, utrum praescientia Dei ita secundum propositum maneat, ut ea ipsa quae sunt proposita, sint accipienda praescita: an per genera causarum et species personarum ista varientur; ut quia diversae sunt vocationes in his qui nihil operaturi salvantur, quasi solum Dei propositum videatur existere; in his autem qui aliquid boni acturi sunt, per praescientiam possit stare propositum: an vero uniformiter, licet dividi praescientia a proposito temporali distinctione non possit, praescientia tamen quodam ordine sit subnixa proposito; et sicut nihil sit quorumcumque negotiorum, quod non scientia divina praevenerit, ita nihil sit boni, quod in nostram participationem non Deo auctore defluxerit. Postremo, quemadmodum per hanc praedicationem propositi Dei, quo fideles fiunt qui praeordinati sunt ad vitam aeternam, nemo eorum qui cohortandi sunt impediatur, nec occasionem neglegentiae habeant, si se praedestinatos esse desperent. Illud etiam qualiter diluatur, quaesumus, patienter insipientiam nostram ferendo demonstres, quod retractatis priorum de hac re opinionibus, pene omnium par invenitur et una sententia, qua propositum et praedestinationem Dei secundum praescientiam receperunt; ut ob hoc Deus alios vasa honoris, alios contumeliae fecerit 16, quia finem uniuscuiusque praeviderit, et sub ipso gratiae adiutorio in qua futurus esset voluntate et actione praescierit. A. fidem catholicam tueatur periclitantem. 9. Quibus omnibus enodatis, et multis insuper, quae altiore intuitu ad causam hanc pertinentia magis potes videre, discussis; credimus et speramus non solum tenuitatem nostram disputationum tuarum praesidio roborandam, sed etiam ipsos quos meritis atque honoribus claros caligo istius opinionis obscurat, defaecatissimum lumen gratiae recepturos. Nam unum eorum praecipuae auctoritatis et spiritalium studiorum virum, sanctum Hilarium Arelatensem episcopum, sciat Beatitudo tua admiratorem sectatoremque in aliis omnibus tuae esse doctrinae; et de hoc quod in querelam trahit, iampridem apud Sanctitatem tuam sensum suum per litteras velle conferre. Sed quia utrum hoc facturus, aut quo fine sit facturus incertum est, et omnium nostrum fatigatio, providente hoc praesenti saeculo Dei gratia, in tuae caritatis et scientiae vigore respirat; adde eruditionem humilibus, adde increpationem superbis. Necessarium et utile est etiam quae scripta sunt scribere, ne leve existimetur quod non frequenter arguitur. Sanum enim putant esse quod non dolet, nec vulnus superductum cute sentiunt: sed intellegant perventurum ad sectionem, quod habuerit perseverantem tumorem. Gratia Dei et pax Domini nostri Iesu Christi coronet te in omni tempore, et ambulantem de virtute in virtutem glorificet in aeternum, domine papa beatissime, ineffabiliter mirabilis, incomparabiliter honorande, praestantissime patrone.