appears from a letter of Possessor, an African bishop, who was then at Constantinople, and who wrote about it to pope Hormisda, A. D. 520, to know his sentiments. Persons of the highest quality, and amongst them Vitalian, and Justinian who was afterwards emperor, desired to hear the opinion of the church of Rome. Hormisda declared himself against Faustus, and referred them for instruction to the books of St. Augustin of predestination and perseverance.

• There was then at Constantinople a monk called Joannes Maxentius, who wrote an answer to the letter of Hormisda, in which he compares the sentiments of Augustin with those of Faustus, and sharply censures Possessor, and those who maintained that the book of Faustus was orthodox. Hence it appears that Possessor was a Semipelagian, and consequently that the African councils had not yet been able to make all the bishops of that church submit to their decisions.

During the heat of the Pelagian controversy the Vandals had seized Afric; and as they were Arians, they expelled a great number of bishops who adhered to the decisions of the Nicene council. Thrasamond, king of the Vandals, banished sixty of them to Sardinia. They were consulted by the Easterns concerning the controversies about grace, rather to obtain a public declaration of their sentiments, than to receive instructions; for they who wrote to those prelates were already listed in a party, and in their letters con

This was severe; but it was paying them in their own coin, and serving them just as they had served other Christians,

demned both the Pelagians and the books of Faustus. Fulgentius answered them in the name of the rest, and delivered the sentiments of St. Augustin in his letter, and also a treatise addressed to Paulus Diaconus. He composed other books on this subject, and seven against Faustus.

'As Hilary and Leontius, archbishops of Arles, had favoured Semipelagianism; Cæsarius, who succeeded Leontius, favoured what the divines of Marseilles called Prædestinatianism, or the sentiments of St. Augustin. Under his direction was held the second council of Orange, A. D. 529, which approved the doctrines of St. Augustin. Soon after this a council was held at Valentia, which condemned Semipelagianism; and Bonifacius II, in the year 531, approved the acts of this council.

'Here endeth the history of Pelagianism and Semipelagianism, which yet was not extinguished in Gaul or in England by so many efforts and so many decrees of the defenders of grace. See the History of Godescalc, written by Usher.

'What can we now conclude from all these things, according to the principles of St. Augustin, but this, that God would not annex the blessing of his irresistible grace to the curses, the confiscations, the deprivations, and the banishments which pious emperors and holy councils made use of against the poor Pelagians?" Le Clerc, Bibl. Univ. viii. 174.

"A PRESBYTER, called Leporius, had fallen F

into the opinion of some ecclesiastics of Treves, who maintained that all men might be without sin, though Jesus Christ alone had been really free from it. This Pelagian retracted his opinions, in Afric, A. D. 425, and his retractation is published in the Opera Sirmondi. So Leporius was absolved, and received again to the peace of the church. The common method in such cases was to oblige a man to sign certain words which they made use of without defining or understanding them.' Le Clerc, Bibl. A. & M. xxviii. 262

THE BISHOP of Meaux accuses Grotius of Sem pelagianism. He must have had a small share of candour and sincerity when he thus presumed to censure and condemn this learned man" for an opinion which is approved, under another name, by the council of Trent, by the court of Rome, and by all the Antijansenists in France. To condemn the sentiments of Jansenius, or of St Augustin, which are one and the same, and to declare one's self against Semipelagianism, is a shameless and absurd inconsistency. They who speak sincerely, acknowledge that the doctrine of Melancthon upon predestination and grace, which the bishop of Meaux calls Semipelagianism, is the very doctrine of the Roman church and of the council of Trent; and they who speak thus, are, to say the least, men of as much erudition

"A man infinitely superior to a hundred Bossuets.

and authority as the bishop, namely cardinal Hosius, who presided at the council of Trent, and the Jesuit Petavius. It is true, indeed, that these men pretend to be of St. Augustin's opinions, though in truth they are not. But in the church of Rome, they who follow not this father are obliged to protest that they reverence and receive his doctrine; and they who receive it must declare that they anathematize the predestinating doctrines of Luther and Calvin, who yet were followers of Augustin.

The bishop also accuses Grotius of ignorance concerning the progress in knowledge which St. Augustin had made, because Grotius had said that Augustin, when he disputed with the Pelagians, talked in a quite different way from his former sentiments. And yet the bishop cannot deny the fact.

• Hence it follows that St. Augustin, whilst he was a presbyter, and in the first years of his episcopacy, knew not the true and orthodox doctrine of predestination and grace, and yet thought himself fully qualified to perform the functions of an ecclesiastic, one of which is to explain the Scriptures. Strange! that doctrines which were to pass for articles of faith, and fundamentals, and which have made such a dreadful noise and confusion in the Christian world, were once so little known! St. Augustin was not only entirely ignorant of these points, but he held the very reverse, as it manifestly appears from the books which he wrote when he was a presbyter, and in which he maintains free-will, just as others did in those days.

He says, indeed, in his book of the predestination of the saints, that whilst he was of another opinion, he had been convinced of his mistake, principally by 1 Cor. iv. 7; and that God had revealed this new doctrine to him. "Dixi hoc apostolico præcipue testimonio etiam me ipsum fuisse convictum, cum hac de re aliter saperem; quam mihi Deus, in hac quæstione solvenda, cum ad episcopum Simplicianum scriberem, revelavit." We see by this, that St. Augustin learned this doctrine, not by hearing others preach it, nor by any instruction that he had received from learned divines or ancient fathers, but by profoundly meditating upon St. Paul whom he understood not. He adds, according to custom, that God had revealed it to him; which excludes all human instruction. And now let the French prelate go and boast of the uniform tradition of the Catholic church, upon an important and essential point, which a famous and a venerable father of the fifth century, who had studied divinity at least for six years from the time of his taking orders, could not know but by revelation! Le Clerc, Bibl.

Chois. v. 341.

I HAVE no inclination to trace the history of this controversy from the sixth century to the eighteenth, but shall only mention a few memorable things relating

ν

▾ To all such pretenders to inspiration Erasmus gives a proper answer; Saltent igitur bonis avibus inter prophetas. Me nondum corripuit iste spiritus. Ubi corripuerit, fortasse dicar et ipse Saul inter prophetas. Epist. 650.