Pelagius/Pelagian Writers on Oaths

Pelagius, Expositions of Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul

Written in 409 CE.

Source: "Pelagius's expositions of Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul: II Text and Apparatus Criticus”, Ed.: Alexander Souter. Cambridge (1926).

• On Rom. 7:19 [Souter, p. 59]

Non enim quod uolo [bonum, hoc] facio, sed quod nolo malum, hoc ago.

Sicut, uerbi gratia, si quis iam diu iurare consueuit, etiam cum non optat incurrit.

• On 1 Cor 15: 31 [Souter, p. 220]

Per uestram gloriam.

'Per' non semper significatio iuramenti est: nam si dicam: 'Per puerem misi,' non satim per puerem iurasse recte putabor.

• On 2 Cor 11:31 [Souter, p. 296-297]

Deus et Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi scit, qui est benedictus in sæcula, quod non mentior. Damasci praepositus gentis [princeps] Aret[h]ae regis custodiebat ciuitatem Damascenorum, ut me conprehenderet, et per fenestram in sporta[m] sum missus [non] per murum et sic effugi manus eius.

Rem quasi [difficilem] dicturus, quod Iudaei contra eum etiam principes gentium concitassent, ante implorat testimonium dei, ne uere hoc iactantiae putaretur, quod aduersus eum etiam regna surrexerint et nihil potuerint praeualere. Haec autem [omnia] idcirco enumerat, ut ostendat quid sit inter ueros et falsos apostolos. ['Damasci praepositus.'] Praepositus gentis illius erat ubi regnabat Ar[a]etha.

• On 1 Thess. 5:27 [Souter, p. 437-438]

Adiuro uos per Dominum ut legatur epistula [haec] [c]om[mu]nibus sanctis fratribus.

Adiurare permittitur, non iurare.

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Letter to Celantia, 19

Written 5th century (Rees suggests c. 414 CE) by a Pelagian author (Rees suggests Pelagius). Originally attributed to Jerome.

Source: Rees, Brinley Roderick. Pelagius: Life and Letters, Letters p. 137-138. Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1988.

19. But let your tongue know nothing of how to lie and to swear an oath. and let there be such love of the truth in you that you consider everything you say to have been said on oath. On this subject the Saviour says to his disciples: But I say to you, Do not swear at all. And, a little later: Let what you say be simply, 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil (Mt.5.34,37).' Therefore in every deed and every word let your mind be kept quiet and calm, and let the presence of God always come to your thoughts; let your soul be humble and gentle and aroused only against vices; never let it be exalted with pride or twisted by greed or carried away by anger. For nothing should be quieter, nothing purer, nothing in a word more lovely than a mind which has to be made ready for the habitation of God, who delights not in temples gleaming with gold or altars picked out with jewels but in a soul adorned with virtues. That too is why the hearts of the holy are called the temple oftod, on the testimony of the apostle, who says: If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are (1 Cor.3.17).

Pelagius, To Demetrias, 19.3-4

Written c. 413 CE. Probably penned or assisted by an assistant of Pelagius. Many have attributed it to Jerome, however, it was attributed to Pelagius by Augustine.

Source: Rees, Brinley Roderick. Pelagius: Life and Letters, Letters p. 57-58. Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1988.

19.3. We have said too little about the need for you to refrain not only from disparagement yourself but even from at any time believing another's disparagement; this practice of disparagement is a very grave fault, because it makes another appear worthless, and you are to avoid defamation with the ears no less than the tongue. Be mindful of the scripture, when it says: Do not agree with those who disparage a neighbour, and you will not take a burden of sin on yourself on his account (Lev.19.16,17?), and elsewhere: See that you fence in your ears with thorns and listen to no evil tongue (Sir.28.24—6). For the listener, who makes the detractor what he is, is the real accuser, and if he but avert his ears, tighten the muscles of his face and check the movement of his eyes by refusing to look, he can then prove the detractor to be guilty of slanderous talk, so that the latter learns not to be so ready to say what he has now found to be not readily listened to. Hence the saintly James asserts that 'he is a perfect man' who 'makes no mistakes in what he says' (Jas.3.2), and the scripture says: Death and life are in the power of the tongue. But let not your tongue know how to lie, slander and swear oaths, because a lying mouth kills the soul (cf. Wis. 1.11); and according to the apostle: Revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6.10).

19.4. And Christ himself forbade swearing, when he said: But I say to you, Do not swear at all; and again: Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil (Mt.5.34,37). The apostle, briefly disposing of the vices of the mouth, says: Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only such as is good for edifying faith, that it may impart grace to those who hear (Eph.4.29). And let a virgin's speech be discreet, unassuming and infrequent and esteemed not so much for its eloquence as for its modesty. Let all marvel at your modesty, while you stay silent, and at your discretion, when you speak; let your utterance be always gentle and calm; let it be adorned by sweetness mingled with dignity, by wisdom mixed with modesty; let it be firm and balanced, most acceptable as being appropriate to itself, and let there be due proportion of silence and talk. Nor should the virgin's mouth speak at all when it were better to have been silent; she should speak with great caution as one who must avoid not only evil speech but also speech which is superfluous.

Pelagius, On Virginity, 7

Variously ascribed to Jerome, Athanasius, Hilary and Sulpicius Severus. It is Pelagian in nature. Most now attribute it to Pelagius, due to similarity of style, identical passages to known works and similar use of Biblical quotations. If by Pelagius, it should be dated to around 405 CE.

Source: Rees, Brinley Roderick. Pelagius: Life and Letters, Letters p. 76-77. Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1988.

7.1. But, as we began to remark, it is not enough for a Christian to abstain from evil, unless he has also fulfilled his obligations in the matter of good works. This is proved most of all by the testimony in which the Lord threatens that those who have not done all that is good shall be condemned to everlasting fire, though they have done no evil, when he says: Then the King will say to those at his left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink (Mt.25.41,42). He did not say: Depart from me, you cursed, because you have committed murder, adultery or theft; for they are condemned not for having done evil but for not having done good, not for committing forbidden acts but for not being willing to fulfil the commandments, and that is why they ate also given up to the punishments of eternal hell. Hence we must give heed to the question of what hope they can have who are still doing something which is prohibited, when they are also condemned to the eternal fire for not having done the things which are commanded.

7.2. For I do not want you to flatter yourself on not having done some things simply because there are things which you have done, since it is written: Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it (Jas.2.I 0). Adam sinned once and died; do you suppose that you can live, when you are frequently committing the very act which killed another, though he had perpetrated it only once? Or do you suppose that he had committed a great crime and that this is the reason why he was deservedly condemned to undergo a more severe punishment? Let us then see what it was that he really did: he ate of the fruit of the tree contrary to the commandment given to him. What then? Did God sentence a man to death because of fruit from a tree? No, not because of fruit from a tree but because of rejection of a commandment. Therefore, it is not a question of the nature of the sin but of the Fact of having disobeyed an order.

7.3. And he who told Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree has himself ordered you not to slander, not to lie, not to detract, not to listen to the detractor, not to swear an oath at all, not to lust, not to envy, not to be lukewarm, not to be greedy, not to return evil for evil to anyone, to love your enemies, to bless those who curse you, to pray for false accusers and persecutors, to turn the other cheek to the man who strikes you, not to engage in a dispute in a secular court, to let your property go joyfully, if someone wants to take it from you, to admit into your breast neither the evil of anger nor that of jealousy nor that of envy, to avoid the crime of greed, to beware of the evil of all pride and boasting, and to live, humble and gentle by the example of Christ, shunning the company of evil men to the extent that you do not even take any food with fornicators or the greedy or slanderers or the envious or detractors or drunkards or the grasping. If you reject him in any respect, then he will spare you also - if he spared Adam! Indeed there would have been greater reason for him to spare Adam, who was still ignorant and inexperienced and did not have the example of anyone who had previously sinned and died for his sin to deter him; but in your case, if you are willing to sin after receiving such lessons, after the law, after the prophets, after the gospels, I do not know how pardon can possibly be given to you.