that Stephen had with him the majority. He says to the Donatists, that after having been condemned by the council of Rome, they had one resource left — an appeal to the plenary or œcumenical council.[1] It thus appears that he did not regard the sentence of the Pope, even given in council, as final and without appeal.
It must be remarked, moreover, that in the case of the Pelagians, St. Augustine only once mentioned a sentence from Rome — in the first text quoted. In the second text, and everywhere else, he only speaks of a judgment given by all the bishops; particularly those of the East,[2] This, then, is St. Augustine's argument: "You have been condemned everywhere — in the East and in the West — why then appeal to the Church in council, when all the churches unanimously condemn you?" The Pelagians relied on a sentence in their favour given by Pope Zosimus, Innocent's successor. How does Augustine answer them? "If I should concede (what is not true) that the Roman Church passed this judgment upon Celestius and Pelagius, and that she approved their doctrines, it would only follow that the Roman clergy were prevaricators.[3]" This answer of St. Augustine overthrows the whole theory that the Ultramontanes would build upon this enlarged and distorted text. He did not exclude Rome in the judgment given against the Pelagians, because that church is Apostolic and a part of the Church Catholic; yet his argument is wholly summed up in the following words: "Where will you go?" he says to the Pelagians. "Do you not see, wherever you turn, the army of Jesus Christ arrayed against you the world over; at Constantinople quite as much as in Africa and in the most remote lands?"[4]
Beside all this, another proof that even at Rome as well as elsewhere in the church, the sentence of Innocent I.
