Pelagius was born around 350 in Britannia and died sometime after 418 in Palestine after a second trial for heresy. His crime? Pelagius promoted the heretical idea of original sin-lessness. He did not buy into the "original sin" concept that posits that a tiny baby, if she/he dies un-baptized is going straight to hell. He said, "Who can be so impious as to deny to an infant of any age, the common redemption of the human race?" Once he started, it kept going. If we aren't born with original sin, then what is baptism for? Couldn't you live a really, really good life and get to heaven even without the water treatment from the church? And if you can, then why do we need to finance all these priests? That did it.

Pelagius referred to himself as a monk, but he wasn't. Originally, he went to Rome as a moralist - to call attention to the big differences he saw in what the church preached and what they practiced. Some of these church guys were living the high life-- not walking their talk-- and Pelagius decided to point that out. (a rather common temptation for a heretic) . The first guy he really ticked off was Jerome in 393. Jerome was a rather outspoken overconfident monk (a real one) who loved dogma. He praised the virtues of celibacy to the point where he believed that marriage was only for those who don't "pursue the higher course of celibacy." Jerome was disgusted that Pelagius even talked to women and worse, considered women worthy of theological dialogue. Around 390, a 14-year-old girl, Demetrias received letters of advice from both Jerome and Pelagius before she took her vows. Jerome basically suggested that she not bother her pretty head with theology while Pelagius stressed that she consider importance of human will in choosing between right and wrong and the "natural sanctity" of human beings. His letter encouraged her to self-examination. Pelagius wanted people to take more responsibility for their actions and viewed the original sin concept as an opportunity to cop-out. If we are all hopeless sinners, why try?

Some say that Pelagius was simply promoting the ideas of a Syrian named Rufinus. Several authors mention this in a way that makes me wonder if Rufinus might have duped Pelagius into being the front man for his own ideas - convinced him to take the heat. It is possible that Pelagius became a heretic out of ignorance, (I know I did). Yet, the important issue is that he continued his work even after he realized the risk involved. He knew what he was risking. He was put on trial for heresy and barely escaped.

Jerome was a nasty adversary, but everyone knew he was hot-headed. Jerome degraded his own credibility when he wrote of Pelagius that "the huge bloated Alpine dog"...must be "battered with the club of the spirit." Nice. Calling your adversary "fat boy" certainly sets the level of discussion. Attack was Jerome's favorite form of defense and he had many enemies. Often, he went too far. He accused Pelagius of denying that God's grace was essential to redemption. A bit of a stretch, and easily discounted when Pelagius said that grace is a part along with actions and intentions. Jerome was a loose cannon whose bark was worse than his bite. People who spit when they talk aren't taken too seriously. It was when Augustine of Hippo got involved, that Pelagius had real trouble. Jerome and Augustine may not have liked each other much, but they found common ground when it came to disliking Pelagius.

Augustine was a supreme logician. Calm, cool, brilliant, he had written Pelagius a letter in 413 and called him "brother." He might have even meant it...at the time. Yet, during Pelagius' first trial for heresy in 415 Augustine said that he had been wary of Pelagius as early as 412 and that letter he wrote was full of hidden warnings. Warnings that were apparently well hidden enough for Pelagius to think he could use Augustine's letter as a character reference in his defense. Yes, Augustine was smooth.

Augustine made his career writing about predestination, and grace as the only hope against the base wickedness of human nature. He didn't care for Pelagius' erosion of his tidy, packaged "Truth According to Augustine." Augustine wrote a Doctrine of Grace in response to Pelagius' On Nature and On Free Will. Pelagius answered his accusations with quotes from Augustine himself. Now, that ticked him off. Jerome, Augustine, and Pelagius continued in an "Is SO!-Is NOT!" fashion for a quite a while. Augustine referred to Pelagius as a "certain psuedo-monk who under the pretence of defending freedom of will, disputes the grace of God and endeavors to overthrow the foundation of the Christian faith." (Christian faith or Christian Church?) Jerome called Pelagius a "pagan Originist" (as bad as calling someone a communist in the '50s). Finally Jerome and Augustine conspired a second trial in 418. Miraculously, Pelagius was acquitted, despite Jerome's shrill objections. Pelagius died soon after, at about 68 years of age. Augustine and Jerome argued with his dead body at least until 431 A.D. The argument continues today.

In a way, Pelagius "won" -heretics of that time didn't usually fare so well. He was acquitted twice, died of natural causes and his words survive and influence us even today. That's not a bad run.