English text used: Pelagius, Commentaries on the Thirteen Epistles of Paul with the Libellus Fidei (trans. Thomas P. Scheck; Ancient Christian Writers 76; New York: The Newman Press, 2022), hereafter “Scheck”
Latin text consulted: Alexander
Souter, Pelagius's Exposition of Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul, II: Text and
Apparatus Criticus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926), hereafter
“Souter”
Gal 1:19
“But
I saw none of the other apostles.” Lest he should seem to have learned [even]
from them. “Except James the brother of the Lord.” This goes against those who
say that blessed Mary had other children (Contra eos qui dicunt beatam Mariam
alios filios habuisse). For we read that there were two apostles named James,
one of Alphaeus [cf. Matt 10:3] and one of Zebedee [cf. Matt 4:21]. There were
none of Mary and Joseph, but they are called brethren of the Lord from their
affinity. (Scheck, 229; Souter, 311)
Gal 2:20
In
faith alone, since I owe nothing to the law (In
sola fide, quia nihil debeo legi). (Scheck, 232; Souter, 317)
Gal 4:19
“My
little children.” Born into the light of truth [and justice] throughout the
gospel [cf. 1 Cor 4:15]. “For whom I am in labor again.” You have caused me to
suffer pain and groaning again. He is showing that a person can be
reborn through repentance (ostendit hominem per paenitentiam posse renasci)
[cf. John 3:5]. (Scheck, 237-38; Souter, 327)
Gal 5:24
“But
they that are Christ’s have crucified their flesh with its passions and
desires.” If all vices have been simultaneously crucified, and the flesh does
not lust, as if it were hanging on the tree, what is the law to us, which he
was given to hold the vices in check? At the same time the following should be
noted, that he said that they are Christ’s who have crucified the flesh
with the vices and lusts. This contradicts those who think that faith alone
suffices for salvation (hoc cotra illos qui solam fidem sufficere arbitrantur).
(Scheck, 243; Souter, 338)
At
the beginning of the fifth century, there existed in the Western church a
number of errors that presented salvation as more or less independent of good
works. Pelagius does not specifically identify the source of these errors, but
we learn from Augustine as well as that they affected the Christian faithful. Thus,
in spite of Pelagius’s remarkable and sustained insistence that justification
is by faith alone, he nevertheless balances this view with the repeated
affirmation that salvation is not by faith alone! (Scheck, 399 n. 46,
emphasis added)
