Memorandum against Caelestius (complete)

I beseech the justice of your beatitude, lord Zosimus, venerable pope. The true faith is never disturbed, and above all not in the apostolic church, in which the leaders of perverse faith are as truly punished as they are easily detected; so that in them, if they correct themselves, what they had wrongly conceived and worse brought forth may die, and in them may be the true faith which the apostles taught and which the Roman church holds together with all the teachers of the catholic faith. But if, like the other authors of heresy who were long ago judged by the apostolic see or by the fathers, were put outside the bosom of the mother catholic church, and perished by perpetual death, those too who have now been detected, or are being detected, persist in their faithlessness, let them be handed over to the spiritual sword, that they may be slain by it: as now Pelagius and Caelestius, who were condemned by your beatitude's predecessor, Pope Innocent of blessed memory, if they reject the right faith and persist in their perverse teaching.

Following his sentence, your beatitude, when Caelestius was heard by the apostolic see, among other things put it to him in these words: "Do you then condemn all the things contained in the booklet of Paulinus?", that is, concerning the Questions. And in another place: "Do you know what letters the apostolic see gave to our brothers and fellow bishops of the African province?" And it was added: "Do you condemn all that we have condemned, and hold what we hold?" And again: "Do you condemn all the things that have been spread abroad about your name?" And again: "Or the things Paulinus set out in his booklet?" And when he said that I could be shown to be a heretic from the things charged against him, you, filled with the Holy Spirit, by apostolic authority rejected and checked the words of the raving slanderer, pronouncing a sentence by which I myself was approved as catholic, while you would cure him, if he wished to be healed. It was this: "I do not want you to lead us round in circles; do you condemn all the things charged against you by Paulinus, or spread by rumour?" For whom is this sentence not enough? Who else would reject so salutary, so acceptable, so pious a sentence, except one who has strayed from the faith? And he, who had earlier professed that he would condemn whatever had been charged against him if you judged it contrary to the faith, hears "Condemn," and not only does not condemn, but contends to the injury of so great a see. Hence the Roman church is no longer ignorant of its defendant, who with so bold a spirit dared to contradict, and not to condemn what your beatitude decreed should be condemned.

I, however, give thanks to God and to Christ the Lord that he willed the cause of his church to be conducted in such a way that the apostolic see, by which it was fitting that the heresy be condemned through the mouth of two of its pontiffs, ordered those things to be condemned which I had charged against Caelestius. I have always desired, and still desire, not his condemnation but his correction. His case now lies not with me but with the whole church of God, as the writings of the African bishops sent to your beatitude testify, since he strives to go against the apostolic teaching by denying original sin, which passed into all men and holds until the end of the world the inheritance of that Adam who first sinned; and unless it is remitted in infants through the sacrament of baptism, they cannot have eternal life and the eternal kingdom. Even his master Pelagius contends against these views of his, since in the Eastern trial he condemned the very things this man is trying to establish before the assembly of the apostolic see. He has against him also very many ancient catholic teachers of the churches, Eastern and Western, of the south and of the north, who in their books can teach him about original sin, if he desires to be healed. He has the blessed martyr Cyprian, the blessed confessor Ambrose, Gregory of Nazianzus, blessed Pope Innocent. He has also men still in the body to contend with him, if indeed he judges himself fit for so great a contest; or at least men he ought to follow, if he wishes rather to learn what is right than to teach what is wrong. He has, what comes first, your beatitude, whose sentence he ought to have obeyed when he heard "Condemn." He has, finally, the nursing infants themselves, on whom he ought to have pity if he will not have it on himself; to whom, to use the martyr's words, not their own sins but another's are remitted.

Therefore I pray your blessed apostleship to order this booklet of mine to be received, by which I return thanks to so great a see, and for the most just sentences given on my side. I sent it for this reason: the subdeacon Basiliscus, sent by your beatitude with the Acts of the apostolic see, summoned me at Carthage, though only by word of mouth, on the fourth day before the Nones of November, to appear before the apostolic see and the judgment of your holiness, which it was alleged I had fled, and to promise that I would not fail to appear, as though the sentence had been given against me and not for me. I could do nothing there at that time, because the one who had appealed to the apostolic see was absent; he certainly ought to have established the merits of his appeal, especially since, when the appellant does nothing, the one who won always prevails, even by human laws. For what concern was it of mine now to appear even before your reverence as a party in the matter of his perverse teaching? I could have rejoiced with him if, by condemning the things I had charged against him, he had so strengthened the judgment of the apostolic see as to deserve absolution, and had not allowed himself to be ordained before being cleared.

But the little fox has always been given to tricks; he does not know how to change his nature. He did not believe he could be caught, since he always put his confidence in holes, in which he tries to hide the sunken head of his conscience. This could no longer lie hidden, but, made known more openly, is cut off by the spiritual sword through your beatitude, so that the Lord's flock, which you, the good shepherd, guard with anxious and wakeful care, may no longer be torn apart by the teeth of wild beasts. I have sent this booklet to your beatitude through Marcellinus, subdeacon of the church of Carthage. Given on the sixth day before the Ides of November.