Saturday, February 17, 2024

William A. Jurgens on Caelestius and Zosimus

  

Caelestius, when charged with heresy, had presented a libellus or booklet to Pope Zosimus, in which he not only declared his faith but listed points in which he was till in doubt about which he wished Zosimus to instruct him. Among these latter matters was the existence of original sin. Pope Zosimus said that his booklet was Catholic, meaning that his humble attitude of submission to magisterial authority was a properly Catholic attitude. In Caelestius, as a matter of fact, it was a feigned attitude; and he gave it out that Zosimus had declared the booklet, with its doubts and heresies, of Catholic content. (William A. Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 vols. [Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1979], 3:142 n. 8)