Read an account of the proceedings of the synod held at
Carthage[169] in the great church, while Faustus[170] Honorius was
emperor of the West, against Pelagius[171] and Coelestius.[172] The
president was Aurelius, bishop of Carthage and Dotianus of Telepte,
chief prelate of the province of Byzacena, supported by distinguished
Church dignitaries from different provinces, to the number of 224.
This synod excommunicated those who asserted that Adam was created
mortal, and that he did not suffer death as a punishment for his
sin; also those who declared that infants newly born had no need of
baptism, because they were not liable to original sin from Adam;
also those who affirmed that there was a place midway between hell
and paradise, to which infants dying unbaptized were removed, there
to live in a state of blessedness. Six other similar articles, which
hold the first place in the heresies of Pelagius and Coelestius, were
also anathematized.
The emperors Theodosius and Honorius also wrote to bishop Aurelius
condemning these same heretics. After this Constantius, the husband
of Placidia and the father of Valentinian the Younger, sent a decree
to Volusianus, praefect of the city, ordering that Coelestius should
be banished. [This Volusianus, uncle of Saint Melena (Melania),[173]
at the time was a heathen, but when threatened with death he became
converted to the true faith and was baptized by Proclus[174] of
Constantinople, where he had been sent on an embassy. Perhaps at the
same time he met that holy woman, who had come from Jerusalem to
the queen-city.][175] Leo of Rome[176] also wrote in regard to the
converted Pelagians that, if they desired to be received into the
Church again, they should anathematize their heresy in writing. In
the letter of Coelestine, bishop of Rome,[177] to Nestorius the same
heretics are condemned. Coelestine also wrote to the bishops of Gaul
in defence of the teaching of St. Augustine and against those who
were emboldened to speak rashly by the licence allowed to the heresy.
Jerome the priest[178] also wrote to Ctesiphon[179] in refutation of
those who held the idea of impassibility (in other words, against
Pelagius). This Pelagius was a monk and Coelestius was his pupil.