This Condemnation, so solemn and general, was attended with the wished for Effect. It greatly lessened the Reputation of Pelagius and Cælestius, staggered many of their Followers, and deterred others from embracing their Doctrines. Of this both Pelagius and Cælestius were well apprised; and, at the same time, sensible, that the only means of retrieving their Credit, and maintaining the Ground they had gained, was to justify themselves either to the Bishops of Africa, or to the Bishop of Rome, they chose the latter, thinking it more easy to gain over one than many. Besides, in Africa they knew St. Austin, who was in great Reputation there, and swayed all the Councils as he pleased, to be their declared and irreconcileable Enemy; whereas they had many Friends at Rome; and, among the rest, the Presbyter Sixtus, who was afterwards raised to that See[[1495]]. In order, therefore, to persuade the Bishop of Rome, as Pelagius had done the Bishops of Diospolis, that they had been falsly and maliciously accused, Pelagius writ a Letter to Innocent, whose Death he had not yet heard of, while Cælestius, trusting to his Eloquence, and depending on the Favour which the Bishops of Rome had always shewn to those who recurred to them, undertook a Journey to that City. He had fled from Carthage to Ephesus, as I have related above. On his Arrival in that City he was well received by the Bishop of the Place, and even preferred, after he had staid some time there, to the Priesthood. |Cælestius is driven
from Ephesus and
Constantinople.| But, in the mean time, his Doctrine giving Offence to some, while it was embraced by others, great Disturbances arose; and he was, in the End, driven out of the City. Being thus expelled from Ephesus, he repaired to Constantinople; but he no sooner began to discover his Sentiments there, than Atticus, who then held that See, and kept a watchful Eye over him, commanded him forthwith to depart the City[[1496]]. |Repairs to Rome and
presents himself be-
fore Zosimus.| From Constantinople he went strait to Rome; and, finding that Innocent was dead, he presented himself before his Successor Zosimus, declaring, that he was come to Rome, to defend his oppressed Innocence at the Tribunal of the Apostolic See; not doubting but he should make it appear before so knowing and unprejudiced a Judge, and confute the many groundless Aspersions with which his Enemies had strove to blast his Reputation in the Eyes of the whole Church: he complained of the Judgment given against him by the African Bishops about Six Years before; and, pretending that his Accuser Paulinus, conscious of his Innocence, and his own Guilt, had declined the Judgment of the Apostolic See, he summoned him anew to appear, and make good the Charge which he had brought against him. |He delivers his Con-
fession of Faith to
Zosimus;| At the same time he presented to Zosimus a Request, containing a Confession of his Faith, with long Descants on the Articles of the Apostolic Symbol, concerning which his Orthodoxy had never been questioned. But as to Grace and Original Sin, he said, they were not Matter of Faith; but that he was, nevertheless, ready to acquiesce, even with respect to them, in the Judgment of the Roman See[[1497]].
Zosimus had at this Time some Affairs of the greater Importance on his Hands[[1498]]; but, highly pleased with the pretended Submission of Cælestius, and thinking this a favourable Opportunity of extending his Authority, and drawing to the Tribunal of the Apostolic See Appeals in Causes that had been judged and decided elsewhere, he postponed the other Affairs to attend to this alone, in his Opinion, the most important of all. A Day was appointed, without Loss of Time, for Cælestius to appear in the Church of St. Clement, and there give an Account of his Faith. He appeared accordingly; and the Confession being read, which he had delivered to Zosimus, he owned that, and no other, to be his Faith. In that Confession he did not deny Original Sin, but declared, in the clearest Terms, that he was in Doubt about it; and that the Belief of Original Sin was no Article of the Catholic Faith. |which is approved
by him.| And yet such a Confession was approved by Zosimus as Catholic; which was approving, if not the Doctrine, at least the Doubts which Cælestius entertained of Original Sin[[1499]]. |The Roman Catholic
Divines strive in vain
to excuse Zosimus.| The Roman Catholic Divines have taken great Pains to clear Zosimus from this Imputation; but have been attended with no better Success than St. Austin was before them. For that Father, unwilling to condemn one of his Brethren, pretended that Zosimus, in approving the Confession of Cælestius, did not declare his Doctrine to be Catholic, but only the Disposition of his Mind to condemn whatever should be found amiss in his Doctrine; for such a Disposition, says he, makes a true Catholic[[1500]]: he might have added, if sincere, and not feigned; for it was certainly feigned in Cælestius; and consequently Zosimus was no less mistaken in declaring his Disposition of Mind to be Catholic, than if he had made such a Declaration with respect to his Doctrine. St. Austin himself was sensible of the Weakness of his Plea, and therefore immediately added; But, allowing the Doctrine of Pelagius and Cælestius to have been approved by the Roman Church, all we can infer from thence is, that the Roman Clergy was guilty of Prevarication[[1501]]; an Inference which he seems to be no-way solicitous about, though he could not have admitted it without giving up the Question, if he had thought the Pope infallible.
His Haughty Letter
to the African
Bishops in favour
of Cælestius.
Zosimus, however prejudiced in favour of Cælestius, did not take upon him to restore him to the Communion of the Church, from which he had been cut off by the Bishops of Africa Six Years before, or to come to any farther Resolution till he had imparted the Affair to them. He writ accordingly to Aurelius of Carthage, and to the other African Bishops; not that he stood in need of their Advice, or wanted to be directed by them, as he let them know in his Letter, but because he was willing to hear what they had to object against one who had been first accused at their Tribunal. He upbraids those Prelates, and with great Bitterness and Acrimony, as if they had acted with too much Haste and Precipitation in an Affair that required the most mature Deliberation. As for Heros and Lazarus, the two great Opposers of Pelagius and Cælestius, he inveighs against them with the most abusive Language that an implacable Rage could suggest. He lets the African Bishops know, that if the Accusers of Cælestius did not appear at Rome in Two Months, to make good their Charge against him, he would declare him innocent, and admit him as a true Catholic to his Communion. He styles all such Inquiries, that is, Inquiries concerning Grace and Original Sin, empty Speculations, and trifling Disputes, owing to a criminal Curiosity, and an immoderate Desire of speaking and writing; in which perhaps he was not much to blame: he closes his Letter with exhorting them not to trust to their own Judgment, but to adhere in every thing to the Scripture and Tradition[[1502]].
The Characters of
Heros, Lazarus, and
Patroclus.
As for Heros and Lazarus, against whom Zosimus chiefly vented his Spleen, while he favoured Cælestius; St. Prosper gives us, in his Chronicle, the following Account of the former: “Heros, says he, was Bishop of Arles, a holy Man, and the Disciple of St. Martin. However, he was driven from his See by his own People, though quite innocent, and not even accused of any Fault. In his room was placed one Patroculus[Patroculus], an intimate Friend of Count Constantius, who at that Time, bore a great Sway in the Empire, and whose favour they courted, and hoped to earn by that Violence.” This happened in 412. All we know of Lazarus is, that he was ordained Bishop of Aix in Provence, by Proculus Bishop of Marseilles, a Prelate of extraordinary Merit, as appears from the high Commendations bestowed on him by the Council of Turin[[1503]], by St. Jerom[[1504]], and by Tiro Prosper in his Chronicle. Patroclus, who was intruded in the room of Heros, is painted by Tiro Prosper, a Writer no-ways prejudiced against the Pelagians, or their Friends, as a Man of a most abandoned Life, and one who turned the Episcopacy into a Trade, and sold the Priesthood to all who had Money to purchase it[[1505]]. Baronius interprets the violent Death, which he suffered in 426. when he was barbarously murdered by a Military Tribune, as a Punishment from Heaven for his criminal Intrusion[[1506]]. Such were the Characters of Heros, Lazarus, and Patroclus; and yet of the latter, who favoured the Pelagians, Zosimus entertained the highest Opinion, and often commends him in his Letters as a Man of great Merit and Virtue. |Heros and Lazarus
falsly charged with
many Crimes by
Zosimus.| But the Two former, who had distinguished themselves above the rest in opposing the Pelagians, he most outrageously abuses, styling them, in his Second Letter to the African Bishops, Two Plagues, who, with their nonsensical Whims, disturbed the Peace and Tranquillity of the whole Church; Whirlwinds and Storms, that could suffer none to enjoy any Quiet. He adds, that he was not at all surprised at their wickedly attempting to defame with false Depositions, and lying Evidences, a Layman, meaning Pelagius, who had served God so long with an untainted Reputation, and shining Virtues, since they had raised so many Storms in the Church, had contrived so many Plots, employed so many Engines, to compass the Ruin of their Brethren and Collegues in the Episcopacy[[1507]]. No Mention is made by the Historians of those Times of any other Storms or Disturbances in the Churches of Gaul, but such as were occasioned by the Expulsion of Heros, and the Intrusion of Patroclus; and these Patroclus probably exaggerated beyond Measure, laying the whole Blame on Heros. For Patroclus was in Rome at the very Time Zosimus writ his Letter to the African Bishops, fraught with Invectives against Heros and Lazarus[[1508]]. In the same Letter Zosimus charges the Two Prelates with several other Crimes; viz. that they had both been ordained against the Canons, and against the Will of the People as well as the Clergy, whom, however, they had forced by Chains, Prisons, Confiscations, and the Favour of the Tyrant, meaning, no doubt, the Usurper Constantine, to consent in the End to their Election; that Lazarus had ascended the Episcopal Throne, while his Hands were still reeking with innocent Blood, &c. But, had they been guilty of such Excesses, would Prosper, who lived at this very Time, and all the other Historians, have passed them over in Silence? Would he have styled Heros an holy Man? Would St. Austin have called them both his holy Brethren[[1509]]? Would the Fathers of the Council of Carthage in 416. have acknowleged them for their Fellow-Labourers and Collegues in the Priesthood[[1510]]? Would Proculus of Marseilles, one of the most illustrious Prelates at that Time in Gaul, have ordained Lazarus, while his Hands were still reeking with innocent Blood? We may therefore, upon the Whole, agree here with Baronius[[1511]], and ascribe the Crimes, of which the two Prelates were arraigned by Zosimus, to the Suggestions of their Enemies, especially of Patroclus, in whom Zosimus reposed an intire Confidence. |They are both de-
graded and excommunicated
by Zosimus.| However that be, Zosimus, highly incensed against both, not only declared them deposed, as Men unworthy of the Episcopal Dignity, but cut them off from his Communion, for many Reasons, says he, and, among the rest, because they had deposed themselves[[1512]].
The injustice of this
Sentence.
This Sentence he pronounced in their Absence, without even acquainting them with the Crimes laid to their Charge; not reflecting, in the Height of his Passion, that he was, at that very Time, complaining of the African Bishops for having condemned Cælestius in his Absence, reproaching them with too much Haste and Precipitation, and laying it down as a Rule never to be swerved from, that no Man ought to be condemned before he is heard, let the Crimes laid to his Charge be ever so great. As for their deposing themselves, or voluntarily abdicating their Dignity, it is very certain, if Prosper is to be credited, that Heros did not abdicate, but was violently driven from his See. If Lazarus abdicated (for Cardinal Noris[[1513]] and others[[1514]] are of Opinion he did not), that ought not to have been imputed to him as a Crime, any more than it was to Nazianzen Bishop of Constantinople, and many others, who were not even censured by their Enemies on that Account. |The other Bishops
make no Account of
the Anathemas of
Zosimus.| The other Bishops seem to have made no Account of the Anathemas of Zosimus; for they still continued to communicate with them, and acknowlege them for their Collegues[[1515]]; the Name of Heros was inserted into the Diptychs of the Church of Arles after his Death; and Lazarus was, according to some, even restored to his See[[1516]].
Pelagius transmits
to Zosimus a
Confession of his Faith;
Not long after Zosimus had written the Letter, which I have mentioned above, to the Bishops of Africa in favour of Cælestius, he received one from Praylius Bishop of Jerusalem, warmly recommending to him the Cause of Pelagius; and another from Pelagius himself, in his own Vindication, and with it a Confession of his Faith. These Letters were directed to Innocent; but he being dead before they reached Rome, they were delivered to Zosimus. In the Confession of Faith Pelagius owned, that Baptism ought to be administered to Children as well as to the Adult; and that, notwithstanding our Free-will, we want the Assistance of Grace[[1517]]. Neither of these Propositions was inconsistent with, or repugnant to, his Doctrine; for though he denied Original Sin, he allowed Baptism to be administred even to Children, but only for their Sanctification. He admitted the Necessity of Grace, but not Grace as that Word was understood by St. Austin, and the other Bishops who opposed him; for by Grace he meant no more than the Remission of Sins, Instruction, the Example of Christ. In this Confession he did not disown any of his Tenets; but, not thinking it safe or adviseable openly to own them, he industriously declined explaining himself more distinctly on either of the above-mentioned Heads. |which he approves of,| Zosimus, however, fully satisfied with his Confession, and quite astonished (to use his own Words) at the rash Proceedings of the African Bishops, in condemning, as Heretics, Men whose Doctrine was so sound and orthodox, immediately transmitted to Aurelius of Carthage, and his Collegues in Africa, the Confession as well as the Letter which had been sent him by Pelagius. On this Occasion he writ himself a second Letter to the African Bishops, which we may justly style a Panegyric on Pelagius and Cælestius, and a bitter Invective against their Accusers, Heros and Lazarus. |and censures the
African Bishops for
condemning him.| This Letter he concludes with exhorting the Bishops of Africa to the Love of Peace and Unity, and condemning, as guilty of an Injustice unknown even to the Pagan Romans, those who gave Judgment in the Absence of the Persons accused, what Crimes soever were laid to their Charge[[1518]], as I have observed above.