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Pelagianism: Britain and the Continent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

R. A. Markus
R. A. Markus
Affiliation:
Department of History, The University, Nottingham NG7 2RD
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Extract

The debate about the social and political attitudes associated with Pelagian theology has exercised a stranglehold on the discussion of Pelagianism in Britain in recent years. Edward Thompson's new book on Saint Germanus and the end of Roman Britain prompts a re-examination of the nature of Pelagianism, a re-examination in which its fate in Britain must take a key part. It will not be necessary to recall here the interesting views on Pelagianism and the end of Roman Britain associated with Dr J. N. L. Myres and the late Dr John Morris which, as Gerald Bonner has rightly remarked, have ‘always appealed to historians of Roman Britain rather than to church historians who approached Pelagianism as a Christian movement of the Mediterranean region’. I do not want to take sides between the historians of Roman Britain and the church historians; and from the debate aroused by Myres and Morris I want to stand aside. In this paper I pursue the implications of thoughts which have germinated in the course of reading Thompson's fascinating book.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 1986 , pp. 191 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 Thompson, E. A., Saint Germanus of Auxerre and the End of Roman Britain (Studies in Celtic history 6), Bury St Edmunds 1984.Google Scholar

2 Myres, J. N. L., ‘Pelagius and the end of Roman rule in Britain’, JRSl (1960), 21–36Google Scholar ; Morris, J., ‘Pelagian literature’, JTS, NS xvi (1965), 26–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; ‘The literary evidence’, in Christianity in Britain 300-700, ed. Barley, M. W. and Hanson, R. P. C., Leicester 1968, 55–73Google Scholar.

3 Bonner, G., Augustine and Modern Research on Pelagianism (The Augustine Lecture, 1970), Villanova 1972, 10.Google Scholar

4 See Nottingham Mediaeval Studies xxix (1985), 115–22.Google Scholar

5 , Prosper, Chronicle, 1301.Google Scholar

6 , Thompson, Si Germanus, 50.Google Scholar

7 Ibid. 81-2.

8 Ibid. 7.

9 Ibid. 20-1.

10 Ibid. 27.

11 Vila Sancti Germani, 26 ; see , Thompson, St Germanus, 12Google Scholar.

12 Thompson, op. cit. 32.

13 Ibid. 38.

14 Ibid. 31.

15 Ibid. 32.

16 Vita Sti Germani, 25.

17 , Thompson, St Germanus, 23.Google Scholar

18 Vita Sti Germani, 26, 27.

19 Thompson, E. A., ‘Gildas and the history of Britain’, Britannia x (1979), 203-26, at p. 211.Google Scholar

20 , Thompson, St Germanus, 22–3.Google Scholar

21 Thomas, C., Christianity in Roman Britain, London 1981, 56, 301.Google Scholar

22 See above, n. 2.

23 See Liebeschuetz, W., ‘Did the Pelagian movement have social aims?’, Historia xii (1963), 227–41Google Scholar ; and ‘Pelagian evidence on the last period of Roman Britain’, Latomus xxvi (1967), 436–47Google Scholar.

24 The pioneering study is Marrou, H. I., ‘Les attaches orientales du pélagianisme’, CRAI (1968), 459–72.Google Scholar The important studies by Bonner, G., ‘Rufinus the Syrian and African Pelagianism’, Augustinian Studies i (1970), 31–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar and his Augustine and Modern Research on Pelagianism (see above, n.3) have brought much further clarification of Rufinus' part in the development of Pelagianism. TeSelle, E., ‘Rufinus the Syrian, Caelestius, Pelagius: explorations in the prehistory of the Pelagian controversy’, Augustinian Studies iii (1972), 61–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar has, further, discussed the problem in relation with the Origenist controversy. That Augustine knew Rufinus' work has been convincingly argued by Refoule, F., ‘Datation du premier concile de Carthage contre les Pélagiens et le Libellus fidei de Rufin’, Revue des Études Augustiniennes ix (1963), 41–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 For an excellent summary see Bonner, G., Augustine of Hippo. Life and controversies, London 1963, 323–4Google Scholar , who rightly emphasises the significance of Augustine's appealing to Cyprian and the African tradition. Further, n.30 below.

26 Sermo, 294.

27 , Augustine, De natura el gratia, 1. 1. Cf. De gestis Pelagii, 23. 47.Google Scholar Cf. De peccatorum mentis et remissione 3. 1. 1.

28 E.g. Ep. 186. 8. 29.

29 On the events see Wermelinger, O., Rom und Pelagius (Päpste und Papsttum 7), Stuttgart 1975.Google Scholar The chronology remains obscure.

30 In his two marvellous papers , ‘Pelagius and his supporters: aims and environment’, JRS li (1961), 1–11Google Scholar and ‘The patrons of Pelagius: the Roman aristocracy between East and West’, JTS, NS xxi (1970), 56–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar (both repr. in Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine, London 1972, 183-207 and 208–26)Google Scholar , Peter Brown has explored the nexus of these relationships and shown their importance in this connection. I cannot, however, accept the exclusion of theology (especially on pp. 217-18) from the explanation.

31 Brown, Peter, Augustine of Hippo, London 1967, 383.Google Scholar

32 E.g. , Augustine, Contra lulianum opus imperfectum i. 72, 73, etc.Google Scholar

33 See Bonner, G., ‘Les origines africaines de la doctrine augustinienne sur la chute et le péché originel’, Augustinus, ed. Oroz-Reta, I., Madrid 1967, i. 97–116.Google Scholar On the divergence between Africa and Italy, see his Augustine and Modern Research (n. 3 above), 36. This is also noted by Plinval, G. de, Pélage: ses ēcrits, sa vie et sa réforme, Paris 1943, 401, 408Google Scholar ; and the indifference of other provinces, pp. 335, 380-4. See also , TeSelle, ‘Rufinus the Syrian…’ (above, n.24), 73–6.Google Scholar On the hospitality of much Greek theology to Pelagian ideas, see the luminous last pages of Marrou's ‘Les attaches orientales’ (n.24 above).

34 Mansi, iv. 1021.

35 See Brown, P., ‘Religious dissent in the Later Roman Empire: the case of North Africa’, History xlvi (1961), 83–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar , repr. in Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (see above, n.30), 161-82: ‘The issue at stake is not the protest of a particularist group, but the autonomy of a provincial tradition of Christianity in a universal and parasitic Empire’ (p. 255). See also his review of Donatisten und Kathotiken by Tengström, E., JRS lv (1965), 281–3Google Scholar , repr. Religion and Society, 335-8; and my studies on North African Christianity collected in From Augustine to Gregory the Great, London 1983, vi–ix, esp. viiiGoogle Scholar.

36 Cf. , Myres, ‘Pelagius and the end of Roman rule’, 36.Google Scholar

37 , Prosper, Chronicle, n. 1301.Google Scholar

38 , Thompson, St Germanus, 22.Google Scholar

39 , Augustine, Ep. 101, of 408–9.Google Scholar

40 Mercator, Marius, Comm., PL xlviii. 132.Google Scholar

41 , Prosper, Chronicle, 1301.Google Scholar

42 For the attractive suggestion that the Passio Albani is to be seen as an anti-Pelagian work and the cult at the shrine associated with the mission of Germanus, see Wood, I., ‘The end of Roman Britain: Continental evidence and parallels’, in Gildas: new approaches, eds. Lapidge, M. and Dumville, D. (Studies in Celtic History 5), Bury St Edmunds 1984, 1-25, at 12–13Google Scholar.

43 Morris, ‘Pelagian literature’ (above, n. 2), 57. His discussion of Gildas, De Excidio 38 on p. 36 is an important part of the argument. On this cf. also Thompson, St Germanus, 22–23, 31, and ‘Gildas’ (above, n. 19), 211f.