Pelagianism
Pelagianism was a fifth-century heresy that arose from the musing of a Rome based, British unordained monk named Morgan (from the Welsh, Sea Born), known by the Greek translation of his name: Pelagius. Although not a widespread, long-lasting heresy, Pelagianism was a significant problem for the church because it placed responsibility for each individual’s fate squarely in their own hands- removing the need for the intercession of Christ or his clergy.
Pelagius denied that humanity was tainted with sin from events in the Garden of Eden. Instead, he claimed people were born morally neutral. It was the world that made them sin. Worse still from the church’s perspective, Pelagius claimed Christ’s death absolved no one of his or her misdeeds in life. However, his life did serve as an example of how to live a good life. Primarily it was up to the individuals to use their own free will to make the right choices and so save themselves.
Pelagius’s philosophy developed after he settled in Rome in 400AD. The British monk was distressed to observe what he regarded as the moral laxity of Roman Christians. He believed this situation was made worse by the local Bishops who preached the doctrine of divine grace whereby people were saved by the will of God alone. Pelagius felt this absolved people of any responsibility for their behavior. So he began to write, recording his solutions to these problems in works such as ‘On the Trinity,’ ‘On Testimonies’ and ‘On the Pauline Epistles.’
Pelagius’s met and converted the first of his followers, Celestius, an Irish Scot lawyer and in 409 AD, the pair left Rome for north Africa, to escape the Visigoth invasion and spread their beliefs to the eastern empire. However, the couple found themselves hotly opposed by Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo who attacked Pelagius’s doctrine of free will. The pair split, with Celestius remaining in Carthage to seek ordination and write while Pelagius set off for Jerusalem where in 415AD, local bishops charged him with heresy.
Pelagius managed to avoid conviction by giving thoughtful answers that supported the role of the church as a guiding authority. However, in 416AD, back in North Africa, he damned himself with his own words when he wrote the treatise “On Free Will.” He and Celestius were found guilty of heresy. In 417, Pope innocent I excommunicated them, and by 418 AD, Pelagius had vanished from history. However, his belief system continued, nurtured by the Julian of Eclanum, an Italian bishop who systemized Pelagianism theology. However, Julian’s death and the council of Ephesus in 431AD finally ended the movement. Julian’s teachings were lost, and Pelagianism dwindled away.
Our next heresy arose accidentally due to a deliberate misunderstanding.