the whole matter
be fully inquired into there, the controversy being one affecting the West
and not the East. To enable the Bishop to form an opinion on the views of
Pelagius, they sent him a copy of one of his books, with the worst
passages marked. Innocent, the Bishop of Rome, gladly received this
request, treating it as a request for his authoritative verdict, which it
was not. He replied in three letters dated January 27, 417. He began each
with a strong assertion of the supreme authority of his see, and many
expressions of his satisfaction that the controversy had been referred to
him for final decision. The Bishop was clearly not to the manner born.
These were not the sayings of unconscious dignity, of unquestionable
authority. He did protest too much. The book of Pelagius forwarded to him
he pronounced unhesitatingly to be blasphemous and dangerous; and he gave
his judgement that Pelagius, Coelestius, and all abettors of their views,
ought to be excommunicated.

Nothing could be more clear. But, unfortunately for the consistency of
official infallibility, Innocent died six weeks after writing these
letters, and Zosimus succeeded him. Coelestius and Pelagius between them
were too much for Zosimus. Coelestius came to Rome. He argued with Zosimus
that the points in dispute lay outside the limits of necessary articles of
faith, and declared his adherence to the Catholic faith in all points.
Pelagius did not come, but he wrote to Zosimus. Zosimus declared the
letter and creed of Pelagius to be thoroughly Catholic, and free from all
ambiguity; and the Pelagians to be men of unimpeachable faith, who had
been wrongly defamed. Augustine appears to imply that in his opinion
Zosimus had allowed himself to be deceived by the specious and subtle
admissions of the heretics.

Zosimus did not rest satisfied with that. He wrote to the African bishops,
vehemently upbraiding them with their readiness to condemn, and declaring
that Pelagius and his followers had never really been estranged from
Catholic truth. Far from accepting his decision or his rebukes, the
Africans, who enjoyed a successful tussle with a Pope, sent a subdeacon
with a long reply. Zosimus, in acknowledging their letter, wrote in
extravagant terms of the dignity of his own position as the supreme judge
of religious appeals, and, quaintly enough, hinted at the possibility of
reconsidering his decision. The Africans did not wait. They met in synod,
214 bishops or