having the
opportunity of seeing how things work in the long run, and on a large
scale. We must regret that Augustine seemed in any way to countenance
such means; but even although he erred in some measure as to this, we
may be sure that he would have abhorred the cruelties which have since
been done under pretence of maintaining the true religion, and of
bringing people to embrace it.

While some of the Donatists were thus brought over to the Church, others
became more outrageous than ever. Many of them grew desperate, and made
away with themselves. One of their bishops threatened that, if he were
required by force to join the Catholics, he would shut himself up in a
church with his people, and that they would then set the building on
fire and perish in the flames. There were many among the Donatists who
would have been mad enough to do a thing of this kind; but it would seem
that the bishop was not put to the trial which he expected.

The Donatists dwindled away from this time, and were little heard of
after Augustine's days, although there were still some in Africa two
hundred years later, as we learn from the letters of St. Gregory the
Great.

PART VI.

Of all the disputes in which Augustine was engaged, that with the
Pelagians was the most famous. The leader of these people, Pelagius, was
a Briton. His name would mean, either in Latin or in Greek, a _man of
the sea_; and it is said that his British name was Morgan--meaning the
same as the Greek or Latin name. Pelagius was the first native of our
own island who gained fame as a writer or as a divine; but his fame was
not of a desirable kind, as it arose from the errors which he ran into.
He was a man of learning, and of strict life; and at Rome, where he
spent many years, he was much respected, until in his old age he began
to set forth opinions which brought him into the repute of a heretic. At
Rome he became acquainted with a man named Celestius, who is said by
some to have been an Italian, while others suppose him an Irishman. It
is not known whether Celestius learnt his opinions from Pelagius, or
whether each of them had come to think in the same way before they knew
one another. But, however this may be, they became great friends, and
joined in teaching the same errors.

Augustine, as we have seen, had passed through such trials of the spirit
that he thoroughly felt the need of God's gracious help in order to do,
or even to will, any good thing. Pelagi