more, and passed nine canons, anathematizing the Pelagian
views. The Emperors Honorius and Theodosius banished Pelagius and
Coelestius from Rome. What was Pope Zosimus to do, under these singularly
trying circumstances? These men, thus banished from Rome, he had declared
to be men of unimpeachable faith, wrongly defamed, never estranged from
Catholic truth. He dealt with the matter in this way. He wrote a circular
letter, declaring that the Popes inherit from St. Peter a divine authority
equal to that of St. Peter, derived from the power which our Lord bestowed
on him; so that no one can question the Pope's decision. He then proceeded
to censure, as contrary to the Catholic faith, the tenets of Pelagius and
Coelestius, specially censuring some of Pelagius's comments on St. Paul
which had been laid before him since his former decision. He ordered all
bishops, in the churches acknowledging his authority, to subscribe to the
terms of his letter on pain of deprivation. In Italy itself, Rome's own
Italy, eighteen bishops protested against this change of front, and were
deprived of their sees under the authority of the civil power.

Of course all men, however exalted their position, are liable to these
sudden changes, whether pressed by external circumstances or impelled by
inward conviction. And men who have themselves known what it is to be
tried in any such way, on however humble a scale, are inclined rather to
feel with them than sharply to condemn them; especially when, as in this
case, their second thoughts are best. But if they are to be treated thus,
with kindly judgement not unmixed with sympathy, they must not herald
their change of view with statements that they have a divine authority,
equal to that of St. Peter, and that no one can question their
contradictory decisions.

To come nearer home after this long digression, which yet is not really a
digression from the British point of view. The views of Pelagius had
considerable success in Gaul, and gave a good deal of trouble there. In
Britain their success was alarmingly great. The bishops and clergy were
unable to make head against the wave of heresy. Whether there was
anything, in the independence of the position claimed by Pelagius for man,
which specially appealed to the nature of the Britons and their Celtic
congeners; anything in the claim of each individual to be good enough in
himself, if he pleases to be good enough; which harmonised with the
opinion those