Chapter 19

Pope Honorius also wrote to the Irish, whom he learned to be in error about the observance of Easter, as I mentioned earlier. He earnestly warned them not to imagine that their little community, isolated at the uttermost ends of the earth, had a wisdom exceeding that of all churches ancient and modern throughout the world, and he urged them not to keep a different Easter, contrary to paschal calculations and the synodical decrees of all the bishops of the world.

Similarly John [IV], who succeeded Severinus, successor to Honorius, while still pontiff elect, sent them authoritative and learned letters to correct this error, showing clearly how Easter Day must be sought between the fifteenth and twenty-first days of the moon, as was agreed at the Council of Nicaea. In this letter he particularly warned them to beware of and suppress the heresy of Pelagius, which, he learned, was reviving among them. The letter begins as follows:

‘To our well-beloved and holy Tomianus,¹ Columbanus. Cromanus, Dimnaus, and Baithanus, bishops: to Cromanus, Ernianus, Laistranus, Scellanus, and Segenus, priests: to Saranus and the other Irish teachers and abbots. Greetings from Hilarus, arch-priest and guardian (during its vacancy) of the holy Apostolic See: John, deacon and (Pope) elect in the Name of God: John, first secretary and guardian of the holy Apostolic See: and John, servant of God, counsellor of the Apostolic See.

‘Certain letters addressed to Pope Severinus, of blessed memory, remained unanswered at the time of his death. Therefore, lest any pressing matters should remain long unconsidered, we opened them and learned that certain persons in your province are attempting to revive a new heresy from an old one, contrary to the orthodox faith, and that in the dark cloud of their ignorance they refuse to observe our Easter on which Christ was sacrificed, arguing that it should be observed with the Hebrew Passover on the fourteenth day of the moon.’

From the beginning of this letter it is evident that this heresy had arisen in very recent times and that the error was restricted to a limited number of persons in the nation. Having therefore explained the proper calculation of Easter, they add this on Pelagianism:

‘We learn also that the pernicious Pelagian heresy has once again revived among you, and we strongly urge you to expel the venom of this wicked superstition from your minds. You cannot be unaware that this detestable heresy has already been condemned; for not only has it been suppressed these two hundred years, but it is daily laid under the ban of our perpetual anathema. We therefore beg you not to rake up the ashes of controversies long since burned out. For who can do other than condemn the insolent and impious assertion that man can live without sin of his own free will and not of God’s grace? In the first place, it is blasphemous folly to say that any man is sinless; for no one can be sinless save the one mediator between God and man, the Man Jesus Christ, who was conceived and born without sin. All other men are born in original sin and bear unmistakable evidence of Adam’s fall, even when they are innocent of actual sin. For, as the prophet says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”’