Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T10:48:49.110Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Pelagianism and the Papacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2022

D. L. d'Avray
Affiliation:
University College London
Get access

Summary

That papal responses about Pelagianism belong to a specifically legal domain is a secondary conclusion of the chapter. The primary conclusion can be integrated with a central argument about the origins of the first papal jurisprudence, viz., that it was demand-driven, and that the demand was driven by uncertainty. We should not be surprised at uncertainty in late Antiquity about grace and free will when modern scholars write in such different terms about Augustine. Many modern people prefer Pelagius, but Augustine’s understanding of grace won the assent of intellectuals like Gottschalk in the ninth century, Bradwardine in the fourteenth, and Luther and Calvin in the sixteenth, and it continued to have adherents within Catholicism, even after the Council of Trent. Self-evident the solution to the argument was not. Given the violently opposed views, in this apparently purely Western controversy, it is not surprising that the apostolic see was asked for a response. Baffled by the paradox of divine omnipotence and human free will, it did what it would do in subsequent centuries: step back from acceptance of Augustine’s late views, without breathing a word of criticism against him.

Type
Chapter
Information
Papal Jurisprudence, 385–1234
Social Origins and Medieval Reception of Canon Law
, pp. 96 - 105
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Pelagianism and the Papacy
  • D. L. d'Avray, University College London
  • Book: Papal Jurisprudence, 385–1234
  • Online publication: 10 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108595292.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Pelagianism and the Papacy
  • D. L. d'Avray, University College London
  • Book: Papal Jurisprudence, 385–1234
  • Online publication: 10 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108595292.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Pelagianism and the Papacy
  • D. L. d'Avray, University College London
  • Book: Papal Jurisprudence, 385–1234
  • Online publication: 10 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108595292.010
Available formats
×