1. Heresy! Part Four Heresies about the Church, salvation, and morality
Cathedral Church of St Peter
6 April 2017

2. A few words of introduction
We have left behind the domain of creedal heresies.
By my original definition, the heresies we’ll consider today don’t actually count as heresies.
But tough.

3. Persecution and its aftermath
Diocletian ( )
The severity of the persecution depended on several factors.
The situation in Northern Africa:
A relatively weak church
An efficient imperial administration
A culture of martyrdom
Mensurius, Bishop of Carthage, and his archdeacon Caecilianus took a stand against the hardliners.

4. The crisis point
February 303: Christian leaders were ordered to hand over their books to be burned.
Those who did so were called traditores. (Traditor = “one who hands over something.”)
Some accused Mensurius of being a traditor.

5. The 310s were a rough decade
What do we do with the traditores?
Mensurius was lenient, but some wanted the traditores expelled.
Mensurius dies in 311.
You have two factions: the hardliners (Numidian bishops) and the moderates
The moderates got wind that the hardliners were up to no good.
They elected and consecrated Caecelianus before the Numidians arrived.

6. The 310s were a rough decade
One of the consecrators was Felix, Bishop of Aptunga, a traditor.
The Numidians refused to recognize the election. They deposed Caecilianus and replaced him with Majorinus.
Majorinus died in 313 and was replaced by Donatus the Great.
Eventually Constantine got involved in support of the party of Caecilian.
The North African church split into two parties: the Donatists and the Catholics.

7. What is Donatism all about?
Cyprian of Carthage: “There is no salvation outside the church.”
So if you step outside the church (by schism or lapse), you can no longer administer sacraments.
But what if you repent?
Donatists say that once you’re out, you’re out.
Catholics say that if you repent, you’re back in.

8. Simmering schism
As far as the Donatists are concerned, the Catholics have no bishops and no sacraments.
The schism simmers for quite a while.
There are clearly ethnic and political tensions mixed up in all this.

9. Enter Augustine
Augustine is consecrated Catholic Bishop of Hippo in 396.
He relies extensively on the Gospel according to Matthew to make his case against Donatism.
Consider the parable of the net and the fish in Matthew 13:47-50.

10. The parable of the wheat and the weeds
Matthew 13:24-31

11. The threshing floor
Matthew 3:11-12

12. Augustine’s ecclesiology
The church is not a country club for smug saints but a hospital for repentant sinners.
The church is a corpus permixtum.
The church is holy because Christ, who is holy, is sanctifying the church.
The efficacy of the sacraments depends on Christ, not on the bishop or priest.
The problem with the Donatists is that they make salvation depend on us rather than on God. That’s wrong for two reasons.

13. Are today’s schismatics Donatists?
Who are today’s schismatics, and why might one think they are Donatists?
In the strictest sense, the answer is no.
But in a broader sense, you could say that many of them are neo-Donatists.

14. XXVI. Of the Unworthiness of the Ministers, which hinders not the effect of the Sacraments.
Although in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good, and some-times the evil have chief authority in the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments, yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name, but in Christ’s, and do minister by his commission and authority, we may use their Ministry, both in hearing the Word of God, and in receiving the Sacraments.

15. Article XXVI
Neither is the effect of Christ’s ordinance taken away by their wickedness, nor the grace of God’s gifts diminished from such as by faith, and rightly, do receive the Sacraments mini-stered unto them; which be effectual, because of Christ’s institution and promise, although they be ministered by evil men.

16. Article XXVI
Nevertheless, it appertaineth to the discipline of the Church, that inquiry be made of evil Ministers, and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their offences; and finally, being found guilty, by just judgment be deposed.

17. Pelagianism
A quick definition: Pelagianism is the view that human beings retain the freedom necessary to lead a morally good life without divine grace.
Pelagius (c. 355-c. 435) was a British monk who taught in Rome in the late 4th and early 5th centuries.
He is a convenient villain for some, an unfairly maligned hero for others.

18. Why the revisionism about Pelagius?
Hostility to Augustine
The interest in Celtic spirituality
Philip Newell argues that Pelagius was criticized for (a) “his practice of teaching women to read the Bible” and (b) “his conviction that in the newborn child the image of God is to be seen.”
The “It’s all about politics” crowd
Newell again: “the forces which moved against him [in 418] were primarily political.”

19. What really happened?
Pelagius was primarily a moral reformer, not a theologian.
He thought all Christians should be held to the highest moral standards because all Christians are capable of living up to the highest moral standards.
He found an ally in Celestius, another native of Britain teaching in Rome.

20. The teaching of Celestius
Adam’s sin harmed only himself, not the human race as a whole, except insofar as Adam set a bad example.
Children are born in the same state as Adam before his fall. There is no original sin transmitted from parents to children.
We can, by our own free choice, resist sin and choose to act righteously.

21. Pelagius, “Letter to Demetrias”
“We cry out at God and say, ‘This is too hard! This is too difficult! We cannot do it! We are only human, and hindered by the weakness of the flesh!’ What blatant presumption! By doing this, we accuse the God of knowledge of a twofold ignorance: ignorance of his own creation and ignorance of his own commands God has not willed to command anything impossible, for God is righteous; he will not condemn people for what they cannot help doing.”

22. Enter Augustine (again)
Augustine made a sharp distinction between human nature as originally created and human nature as it is after Adam’s fall.
For Augustine, sin is a sexually transmitted disease.
Grace is necessary if we are to use our freedom rightly.

23. More on Augustine
Augustine thought Pelagius was theologically naïve; Pelagius thought Augustine was morally lax.
For Augustine, Pelagianism goes wrong in much the same way that Donatism goes wrong.

24. Article IX, Of Original or Birth-Sin
Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk;) but it is the fault and corruption of the Nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit

25. Article X, Of Free-Will
The condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith; and calling upon God. Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.

26. Collect for Proper 23
Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

27. Some theological issues
Does human choice contribute anything at all to salvation? (aka “Everyone needs to be a little bit Pelagian somewhere”)
Peter Abelard ( ) and the doctor analogy
What about “synergy”?
Accusing people of Pelagianism is cheap and easy.
The one thing I’m sure about is that Calvinism is false.

28. Heresy! Part Four Heresies about the Church, salvation, and morality
Cathedral Church of St Peter
6 April 2017