{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050409.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050409.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050409.htm","text":"Chapter 24.\u2014Pelagius\u2019 Answer to the Charges Brought Together Under the Seventh Item.\nThe following, as the proceedings testify, was Pelagius\u2019 own answer to these charges against him: \u201cConcerning a man\u2019s being able indeed to be without sin, we have spoken,\u201d says he, \u201calready; concerning the fact, however, that before the Lord\u2019s coming there were persons without sin, we say now that, previous to Christ\u2019s advent, some men lived holy and righteous lives, according to the teaching of the sacred Scriptures. The rest were not said by me, as even their testimony goes to show, and for them, I p. 194 do not feel that I am responsible. But for the satisfaction of the holy synod, I anathematize those who either now hold, or have ever held, these opinions.\u201d After hearing this answer of his, the synod said: \u201cWith regard to these charges aforesaid, Pelagius has in our presence given us sufficient and proper satisfaction, by anathematizing the opinions which were not his.\u201d We see, therefore, and maintain that the most pernicious evils of this heresy have been condemned, not only by Pelagius, but also by the holy bishops who presided over that inquiry:\u2014that \u201cAdam was made mortal;\u201d (and, that the meaning of this statement might be more clearly understood, it was added, \u201cand he would have died whether he had sinned or not sinned;\u201d) that his sin injured only himself and not the human race; that the law, no less than the gospel, leads us to the kingdom of heaven; that new born infants are in the same condition that Adam was before the fall; that the entire human race does not, on the one hand, die through Adam\u2019s death and transgression, nor, on the other hand, does the whole human race rise again through the resurrection of Christ; that infants, even if they die unbaptized, have eternal life; that rich men even if baptized, unless they renounce and give up all, have, whatever good they may seem to have done, nothing of it reckoned to them, neither can they possess the kingdom of God;\u201d\u2014all these opinions, at any rate, were clearly condemned in that ecclesiastical court,\u2014Pelagius pronouncing the anathema, and the bishops the interlocutory sentence.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Work on the Pro...","type":"page"}