Answer to the Pelagians IV (Vol. I/26) (The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century)

"Though these four works are clearly related to the anti-Pelagian works of Augustine, they do not themselves directly deal with the Pelagians. Rather, they reply to a series of problems which various Catholic monks of Africa and Gaul found with Augustine s doctrine of grace and predestination.

The first two works, Grace and Free Choice and Rebuke and Grace, respond to the problems at Hadrumetum where a group of monks thought that Augustine s teaching on grace destroyed free choice and human merits and eliminated the possibility of anyone, but especially of a monastic superior, giving rebukes and exhortations.

The second two works, The Predestination of the Saints and The Gift of Perseverance, reply to the letters of Prosper of Aquitaine and Hilary, a devoted disciple of Augustine who is known only by this letter to Augustine. These ardent supporters of Augustine reported to him the objections which stemmed from various persons in monastic groups in Gaul who admitted that the grace of God is not given on the basis of any good works, but held that our initial will to believe should not to be included among such good works. Hence, they held that the beginning of faith and the initiative for salvation came from the human will. These monks also rejected Augustine s doctrine that divine predestination and the grace of final perseverance are utterly gratuitous gifts of God.

Since the four works in this volume were written in response to two similar, but different problems in two different geographical areas, the introduction deals first with the two works written for the monks at Hadrumetum and then with the two works written for the monks of Provence."
From the Introduction