St. Alphonsus On The Errors Of Pelagius

St. Alphonsus, The History Of Heresies & Their Refutation, Chap. 5, Article II On Pelagius: “The errors of Pelagius were the following: First, that Adam and Eve were created mortal, and that their sin only hurt themselves and not their posterity. Second, infants are now born in the same state that Adam was before his fall. Third, children dying without baptism do not indeed go to heaven, but they possess eternal life. Such, St. Augustine testifies, were the errors of Pelagius. The principal error of Pelagius and his followers was concerning grace and free will; for he asserted that man, by the natural force of his free-will, could fulfill all the Divine precepts, conquer all temptations and passions, and arrive at perfection without the assistance of grace. When he first began to disseminate this pernicious error, which saps the whole system of our faith, St. Augustine says that the Catholics were horrified and loudly exclaimed against him. Thus he and his disciples searched every way for a loop-hole to escape from the consequences, and to mitigate the horror excited by so dreadful a blasphemy.”