Libellus Adversus Coelestium

I beseech your Beatitude’s justice, Lord Zosimus, venerable Pope. True faith is never disturbed, and especially not in the apostolic Church, where leaders of depraved faith, as soon as they are detected, are so truly punished: so that in them that may die, if they correct what they had wrongly conceived and more wickedly brought forth; and in them the true faith may exist, which the Apostles taught and the Roman Church, together with all teachers of the Catholic faith, holds. But if, like the other authors of heresy, who have long since been judged by the apostolic see or by the Fathers, and having been cast out of the bosom of the mother Catholic Church, have perished in perpetual death, even those who have now been detected, or are being detected, should they persist in their perfidy, let them be handed over to be slain by the spiritual sword: so that now Pelagius and Coelestius, who were condemned by your Beatitude’s predecessor of blessed memory, Pope Innocent, if they reject the right faith and persist in their perverse doctrine, may be condemned.

Your Beatitude, following that judgment, when Coelestius was being heard by the apostolic see, among other things commanded him in these words: "Do you therefore condemn all those things which are contained in the booklet of Paulinus?" that is, concerning the Questions. And in another place: "Have you learned what letters the apostolic see has sent to the brothers and fellow bishops of the African province?" And it was added: "Do you condemn all those things which we have condemned, and hold what we hold?" And again: "Do you condemn all those things which have been cast up concerning your name?" And again: "Or those things which Paulinus has set forth in his booklet?" And when I said that from those things which were objected to him, he could be proven a heretic: filled with the Holy Spirit, with apostolic authority you rejected and repressed the words of the raving and calumniating man, pronouncing a sentence of this kind, by which I myself would be approved as Catholic, and you would cure him, if he wished to be healed; which sentence is of this sort: "I do not wish you to lead us in a circle; do you condemn all those things which have been objected to you by Paulinus, or which have been cast up by rumor?" Who would not be satisfied with that sentence? Who else but one who is deviant from the faith would reject this so salutary, so embraceable, so pious a sentence? And he, who had previously professed that he would condemn whatever had been objected to him, if you judged it to be against the faith, hears "Condemn"; and not only does he not condemn, but he contends to the injury of so great a see.

Thus the Roman Church now knows its defendant, who with such a bold spirit dared to contradict and not condemn what Your Beatitude decreed should be condemned. Nevertheless, I give thanks to God and to the Lord Christ that He wished the cause of His Church to be conducted in such a way that the apostolic see, from which it was fitting that heresy be condemned by the mouth of two of its pontiffs, ordered condemned those things which had been objected by me to Coelestius: for him I have always desired and still desire not condemnation, but correction; with whom now the case lies not with me, but with the whole Church of God, as the letters sent to Your Beatitude by the African bishops testify; since he strives to come against the apostolic sentence by denying original sin, which has passed into all men and holds the inheritance of that Adam who first sinned until the end of the world: which in infants, unless it is remitted through the sacrament of Baptism, they cannot have eternal life and the eternal kingdom. Against these things even his own master Pelagius contends, who in the Eastern judgment condemned those very things which this man tries to assert in the assembly of the apostolic see. He also has against him very many ancient Catholic doctors of the Churches, both Eastern and Western, of the southern part and of the northern, who in their books can teach him about original sin, if he desires to be healed. He has the blessed martyr Cyprian, the blessed confessor Ambrose, Gregory Nazianzen, the blessed Pope Innocent.

He also has those who might wrestle with him in the flesh, if indeed he judges himself fit for such a contest; or certainly those whom he ought to follow, if he wishes to learn what is right rather than teach what is crooked. He has, which is foremost, Your Beatitude, whose sentence he ought to have obeyed when he heard, "Condemn." Finally, he has the very infants themselves, whom he ought to pity, if not for his own sake; for them, to use the words of the Martyr, not their own sins, but those of others, are remitted. Therefore I beseech Your blessed apostolate to order that this little book of mine be received, by which I may render thanks to so great a see and for the most just sentences delivered on my behalf. I have sent it because, although in speech, the subdeacon Basiliscus, sent by Your Beatitude with the Acts of the apostolic see, met me at Carthage on the fourth day before the Nones of November, so that I might appear before the apostolic see and the judgment of Your Holiness, to which it was suggested that I had fled, and to promise that I would not be absent, if the sentence had been pronounced against me, and not for me. There, at that time, I could do nothing, because the one who had appealed to the apostolic see was absent; he whom it was certainly necessary to support the merits of his appeal, especially since, with the appellant doing nothing, according even to human laws, the one who had prevailed is always the superior.

What, after all, did it matter to me that I should also appear before your reverence as an adherent of his depraved doctrine? I could have rejoiced if, after he had condemned those things which I had objected to him, the judgment of the apostolic see had so strengthened him that he had deserved to be absolved, and had not allowed himself to be ordained before being purged. But the little fox has always been devoted to fraud; he does not know how to change his nature. He did not believe he could be detected, because he has always placed his confidence in the pits in which he strives to hide his submerged head of conscience. This could no longer remain hidden, but, having been more openly published, is cut away by the spiritual sword of your blessedness, lest the Lord's flock be further torn into parts by his bestial teeth—the flock which the good shepherd guards with solicitous and ever-watchful care. I have directed this little book to your blessedness through Marcellinus, subdeacon of the church of Carthage. Given on the 6th day before the Ides of November.