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St Photius the Great, tr. Freese, 1920; selections
Codex 53: Acts of the Synod of Carthage, 412 or 411, Against the Pelagians
Read an account of the proceedings of the synod held at Carthage1 in the great church, while Faustus2 Honorius was emperor of the West, against Pelagius3 and Coelestius.4 The president was Aurelius, bishop of Carthage and Dotianus of Telepte, chief prelate of the province of Byzacena, supported by distinguished Church dignitaries from different provinces, to the number of 224. This synod excommunicated those who asserted that Adam was created mortal, and that he did not suffer death as a punishment for his sin; also those who declared that infants newly born had no need of baptism, because they were not liable to original sin from Adam; also those who affirmed that there was a place midway between hell and paradise, to which infants dying unbaptized were removed, there to live in a state of blessedness. Six other similar articles, which hold the first place in the heresies of Pelagius and Coelestius, were also anathematized.
The emperors Theodosius and Honorius also wrote to bishop Aurelius condemning these same heretics. After this Constantius, the husband of Placidia and the father of Valen-tinian the Younger, sent a decree to Volusianus, praefect of the city, ordering that Coelestius should be banished. [This Volusianus, uncle of Saint Helena (Melania),5 at the time was a heathen, but when threatened with death he became converted to the true faith and was baptized by Proclus6 of Constantinople, where he had been sent on an embassy. Perhaps at the same time he met that holy woman, who had come from Jerusalem to the queen-city.]7 Leo of Rome also wrote in regard to the converted Pelagians that, if they desired to be received into the Church again, they should anathematize their heresy in writing. In the letter of Coelestine, bishop of Rome,8 to Nestorius the same heretics are condemned. Coelestine also wrote to the bishops of Gaul in defence of the teaching of St. Augustine and against those who were emboldened to speak rashly by the licence allowed to the heresy. Jerome the priest also wrote to Ctesiphon9 in refutation of those who held the idea of impassibility (in other words, against Pelagius). This Pelagius was a monk and Coelestius was his pupil.
Notes
- 412 or 411.
- If Faustus be taken with Honorius, it will be an epithet corresponding to Felix; others render “in the great church of Faustus.”
- c. 370-440. According to some, he was; a Hibernian; according to others, a Welsh monk named Morgan (“sea-born” = Pelagius). He resided in Rome, Africa, and Palestine, where he is said to have died. The Pelagians rejected the doctrine of original sin, but believed in the Trinity and the personality of Christ.
- Coelestius, a native of Ireland, pupil of Pelagius, younger and more vigorous than his master. It is to him that the influence of Pelagianism was chiefly due. Some authorities make him an Italian.
- There were two holy women of this name: the elder (350-410), and the younger (383-439). The latter is here referred to. She was born at Rome, but early in life retired to Hippo in Africa, where she became acquainted with St. Augustine, and afterwards to Jerusalem, where she embraced the monastic life and died.
- Patriarch of Constantinople (434-447).
- Bekker states that this paragraph is an addition by a later hand.
8 Leo the “Great,” pope 440-461. - 422-432.
10 St. Jerome. - Supposed to have been a Roman, to whom Jerome wrote from Palestine, in reply to his request for advice concerning Pelagianism.