Jerome and Pelagius

Published on: Author: tthornt4@uoregon.edu

Pelagius believed that there was not a need for divine aid in performing good works. He also believed that the only thing necessary to receive grace was a declaration of the law. Pelagius believed that to be true since he did not think that all of humanity was wounded by the sins of Adam and Eve. The denial of humanities original sin put Pelagius at odds with Augustine. He also believed that humans are capable of their own free will of choosing between good and evil. Jerome strongly disagrees with Pelagius on many of these issues. Jerome compares Pelagius to many other heretics in the history of Christianity. Jerome saw many of these heretics seek to put more emphasis on human action and downplay divine acts. Jerome takes very harsh views towards these so-called heretics including calling them liars and “torturous interpretation of the scripture (Ehrman 201). Jerome links heretics to women in his arguments as well. He links these two topics by saying that women have been behind every infamous heresiarch. Jerome believes people who believe God gave us the ability of free will to choose between good and evil are speaking blasphemy straight from the devil. His reasoning for this is if God gave us this power of free will then we no longer require his assistance in our lives. Jerome also believes that it is impossible for humans to live completely free of sin in their lives. The reasoning for this is because humans are naturally born with sin because of Adam and Eve. Also committing sins is natural to humans and we need to repent to God and do divine works with his help.