A British monk came to Rome, saw how corrupt church life had become, went looking for the cause, and came upon a prayer — and so began a controversy that has not stopped in sixteen hundred years.
The issue
Why were so many Christians in the church living immoral lives and growing indifferent to purity and obedience?
Claim
Pelagius's diagnosis: the problem lay in a theology. He was dismayed when he read the prayer in Augustine's Confessions — “give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.” His reasoning: if people are already convinced that they cannot control themselves unless God gives them grace, then living as they please can hardly be blamed. What he wanted to restore was human responsibility for one's own actions.
Counterclaim
The answer from Augustine's side: a sense of responsibility cannot save anyone. Humanity has been totally depraved in Adam; if a person could be made righteous by nature and free will, then “Christ died in vain”.
Aftermath
⚠ This controversy began not with metaphysical speculation but with a pastoral observation — keep that in mind, and every later step makes sense. ⭐ A deep irony: what Pelagius used against Augustine was the very On Free Will that Augustine himself had written as a young man against the moral determinism of the Manichaeans.