{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050414.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050414.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050414.htm","text":"Chapter 29 [XIII.]\u2014The Ninth Item of the Accusation; And Pelagius\u2019 Reply.\nThe next objections were urged out of the book of C\u0153lestius, following the contents of each several chapter, but rather according to the sense than the words. These indeed he expatiates on rather fully; they, however, who presented the indictment against Pelagius said that they had been unable at the moment to adduce all the words. In the first chapter, then, of C\u0153lestius\u2019 book they alleged that the following was written: \u201cThat we do more than is commanded us in the law and the gospel.\u201d To this p. 196 Pelagius replied: \u201cThis they have set down as my statement. What we said, however, was in keeping with the apostle\u2019s assertion concerning virginity, of which Paul writes: \u2018I have no commandment of the Lord.\u2019\u201d 1685 Upon this the synod said: \u201cThis also the Church receives.\u201d I have read for myself the meaning which C\u0153lestius gives to this in his book,\u2014for he does not deny that the book is his. Now he made this statement obviously with the view of persuading us that we possess through the nature of free will so great an ability for avoiding sin, that we are able to do more than is commanded us; for a perpetual virginity is maintained by very many persons, and this is not commanded; whereas, in order to avoid sin, it is sufficient to fulfil what is commanded. When the judges, however, accepted Pelagius\u2019 answer, they did not take it to convey the idea that those persons keep all the commandments of the law and the gospel who over and above maintain the state of virginity, which is not commanded,\u2014but only this, that virginity, which is not commanded, is something more than conjugal chastity, which is commanded; so that to observe the one is of course more than to keep the other; whereas, at the same time, neither can be maintained without the grace of God, inasmuch as the apostle, in speaking of this very subject, says: \u201cBut I would that all men were even as I myself. Every man, however, hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.\u201d 1686 And even the Lord Himself, upon the disciples remarking, \u201cIf the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not expedient to marry\u201d (or, as it may be better expressed in Latin, \u201cit is not expedient to take a wife\u201d), 1687 said to them: \u201cAll men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.\u201d 1688 This, therefore, is the doctrine which the bishops of the synod declared to be received by the Church, that the state of virginity, persevered in to the last, which is not commanded, is more than the chastity of married life, which is commanded. In what view Pelagius or C\u0153lestius regarded this subject, the judges were not aware.\nThis \u201cbetter expression,\u201d \u201cnon expedit ducere,\u201d Augustin substitutes for the reading \u201cnon expedit nubere,\u201d as applied to a woman\u2019s taking a husband. The original, \u03b3\u03b1\u03bc\u1fc6\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9 [not \u03b3\u03b1\u03bc\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9], justifies Augustin\u2019s preference.\n196:1688","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Work on the Pro...","type":"page"}