In the present Letter he not only approves of the Judgment given against Pelagius and Cælestius by the African Bishops, but alleges several Reasons in Confutation of the Doctrines they taught; and concludes, by declaring them cut off from the Communion of the Church, agreeably to the Sentence of the African Bishops, as Men not only unworthy of that Communion, but of human Society, and even of Life[[1470]]. The same things he repeats in his Answer to the Bishops of Numidia; but he seems there to have been sensible, upon a more cool Consideration, that, in his Letter to the Council of Carthage, he had strained his Prerogative too high; and therefore in this he confines to Matters of Faith the general Maxim, which he had laid down, concerning the Obligation of referring all Ecclesiastical Matters, for a final Decision, to the Apostolic See. In the same Letter he endeavours to confute, in particular, the Doctrine of Pelagius, allowing Children, who die without Baptism, to partake of eternal Life[[1471]]. In his Answer to the Five Bishops, he refers them for his real Sentiments, concerning the Doctrine of Pelagius, to the other Two Letters, adding, that he had read the Book of Pelagius, which they had sent him, and found nothing in it that he liked, or rather that he did not dislike[[1472]][[N59]].
[N59]. That the Pelagian Heresy was first condemned by the African Bishops, is a Fact so well attested, that one would think it impossible it should ever have come into any Man’s Thoughts to call it in question. And yet Baronius, upon the Authority of a very doubtful Passage out of St. Prosper, a contemporary Writer, roundly asserts that Heresy to have been first condemned, not by the African Bishops, but by Innocent[[1]]. The Words of Prosper are:--Pestem subeuntem prima recidit sedes Roma Petri[[2]]. These Words are variously interpreted by the Learned; but all agree in rejecting the Interpretation of Baronius, as making[[3]] Prosper contradict a known Truth.
[1]. Bar. ad ann. 412. n. 26.
[2]. Prosp. de Ingratis, l. 1. c. 2.
[3]. Vide Jansenium de Hær. Pelag. p. 16. Merc. t. 1. p. 9.
Cælestius condemned by
the African Bi-
shops, notwithstanding
his Appeal to Rome.
Cælestius had been condemned by a Council held at Carthage in the Year 412. and probably consisting of the same Bishops who composed that of the Year 416. From their Sentence he appealed, as Baronius observes[[1473]], to the See of Rome, summoning his Accuser Paulinus to appear at the same Tribunal. But all we can infer from thence is, that either Innocent did not receive the Appeal, or, if he did, that the African Bishops made no Account of it, since they condemned him anew, without waiting for the Judgment of Innocent, to whom he had appealed.
Innocent’s Letter to
Jerom.