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"Why? For what reasons?" In spite of myself, in spite of the fact that I knew
nothing of this Pelagius, I
felt dismayed by this last statement of Picus's. "If, as you say, everyone
thinks Augustine is a saintly man, your Pelagius runs a very real risk of
being thought a madman, or a trouble-maker."
We had almost completed a circuit of the camp by now, and I saw Picus's great
standard come into view again in the distance. Picus was still talking very
seriously. "Quite so," he said. "But it is bigger than that. Augustine is the
champion of the theory of divine grace. He is a man of God. A bishop. But in
his youth he was a notorious womanizer."
"A womanizer? Really?" I found that intriguing, but not surprising. "Was he a
priest at the time?"
Picus shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Anyway, he has a prayer that has
become notorious. He used to pray that God would send him the grace to find
chastity ...but not yet!"
I laughed, but Picus went right on over my laughter.
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"Augustine believes that man is incapable of finding or winning redemption
without divine help. He believes that man is born damned, in mortal sin. Only
baptism will wash away that sin, and only divine grace can enable man to stay
away from sin thereafter. He believes that all of life is a temptation and
that man should spend his life in prayer, abandoning himself to God's mercy in
bestowing grace upon him."
I nodded. "That, my young friend, is the view one tends to get from an
ecclesia. That's what all the priests say. There's nothing new in what you've
told me, except the saintly bishop's own example ... And you say Pelagius
finds fault with this?" He nodded. "How?"
"Totally. Pelagius believes that the entire concept of grace is a man-made
device invented by the Church to keep all men in bondage."
"Hah! Come on now, your friend Pelagius is beginning to sound like one of
those old women who sees a rapist behind every bush. How can divine help keep
men in bondage?"
"It works by making men forget that they are made in the image of God Himself,
and therefore able to determine between right and wrong."
I saw the flaw immediately. "But that's not possible. Your man mad! Men have
known the difference is between right and wrong since Eve ate the apple. The
knowledge of good and evil. Men have always
known the difference."
"Exactly, Uncle. That's what Pelagius says." I felt myself frowning in
confusion as Picus went on, "Pelagius argues that man, made in the image of
God, knows the difference between good and evil, and has the ability to choose
between them, and has always done so, even before the time of the Christ. Even
barbarians have their moral laws, unwritten though they may be. Pelagius sees
this divine grace as an instrument of men, designed to keep all other men in
subjugation and reliant on the Church as the only intermediary between God and
man. He sees Original Sin as an invention foisted upon men by other men to
make all men guilty at birth, and therefore incapable of freedom of choice
from the outset. If we are born guilty in sin before we begin to live, how can
we live in freedom with free will?"
I was holding my breath by this time, beginning to get an idea of the size of
this disagreement.
"Hold on, Picus," I said, holding up my hand to stem the flow of his words and
his enthusiasm. "Too much good fodder will founder a bullock! You had better
let me think about that for a minute, lad." We were approaching his tent. "Can
you pour your old uncle a drink?"
We dismounted and moved into the coolness of the tent, and he sent his steward
to fetch a jug of wine.
When we were seated comfortably he went back at it again, right where he'd
finished off.
"Do you see what I mean, Uncle, why I am so concerned with this question? The
whole thing goes far beyond the premise of Original Sin and baptism. It digs
far deeper. It comes down all the way to personal responsibility. Carried to
its logical conclusion, the concept of divine grace destroys the basis of law.
Who could punish a criminal, believing that the man only fell from
righteousness because God did not provide him with the grace to resist
temptation? That's reducing it to the absurd, but that is exactly what it all
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