Collective Letter to Thessalonica
Julian of Eclanum (c. 386–c. 455) was bishop of Eclanum in southern Italy until 418, when he was deposed and exiled for refusing to condemn Pelagius. The most learned Pelagian controversialist, he pursued Augustine across a decade of pamphlet war.
None of Julian's works survives directly; what remains is preserved in the long quotations of Augustine, who answered him book by book. Reconstructed from those hostile pages, Julian emerges as a formidable defender of free will, marriage, and the goodness of creation.
This volume gathers the surviving arguments: the six books To Florus with the earlier fragments and letter material, each with its source locator.
© 2026 SaneApps. This translation is free to share and adapt, even commercially, as long as you credit SaneApps. Draft translation, prepared with AI assistance and not yet independently reviewed. Verify against the original before citing.
Augustine reports that Julian and several fellow bishops sent this letter to Thessalonica. They sought the…§§2.1.1–2.9.19
2.1.1Augustine reports that Julian and several fellow bishops sent this letter to Thessalonica. They sought the Eastern bishops’ support “for the catholic faith against Manichaean impiety.” They condemned people who abandon the faith, have a seared conscience, forbid marriage, abstain from foods they consider unclean, and do not believe that everything was created by God (1 Timothy 4:1–4). Their position was that every creature of God is good, and that the supreme God made every substance except God himself, who was not made by anyone.
2.3.5The Roman clergy were so frightened by an order that they were not ashamed to commit the crime of betrayal. In their earlier judgment, their recorded proceedings had supported catholic teaching; afterward, contrary to that judgment, they declared that human nature is evil.
2.5.9In introducing his answer to the letter’s brief accusations, Augustine identifies the disputed claims as these: that Adam’s sin destroyed free will in human nature; that God is not the creator of newborn human beings, or that marriage was instituted by the devil rather than by God; and that what his side calls grace is really fate.
2.5.10Under the name of grace they assert fate: they say that unless God breathes into an unwilling and resisting person a desire for good—even imperfect good—that person can neither turn away from evil nor take hold of good.
2.5.10We confess that baptism is necessary at every age, and that grace also helps each person’s good purpose, but does not plant the pursuit of virtue in someone who resists, because there is no partiality with God (Colossians 3:25; Romans 2:11).
2.6.11Augustine says that the authors deny that infants inherit original sin needing remission in baptism. They nevertheless affirm, and indeed proclaim, that the washing of rebirth adopts them from being children of human beings into being children of God (Titus 3:5; John 1:12–13; Romans 8:15).
2.7.15Augustine attributes this explanation to the authors: “Jacob was loved because of the future works that God knew beforehand he would do” (Malachi 1:2–3; Romans 9:11–13).
2.9.19Augustine reports that the authors read the saying “It is for a human being to prepare the heart, and the Lord gives the tongue’s answer” as meaning that preparing the heart—that is, beginning something good—belongs to a human being without the help of God’s grace (Proverbs 16:1).
They say that the law of the Old Testament was not given to justify those who obeyed it, but to become a…§§3.2.2–4.1.1
3.2.2They say that the law of the Old Testament was not given to justify those who obeyed it, but to become a cause of more serious sin.
3.3.4They also claim that baptism does not truly make people new: that is, that it does not grant full remission of sins. They insist that people become partly children of God but remain partly children of this world—that is, of the devil. (Luke 20:34; possible further echo: 1 John 3:10.)
3.4.6They say that “the Holy Spirit was not a helper of virtue under the Old Testament.”
3.5.14They define all the apostles and prophets as not fully holy, but say that they were less evil by comparison with worse people. They say this is the righteousness to which God bears witness: just as the prophet says that Sodom was justified by comparison with the Jews, so they say that the saints showed some virtue by comparison with criminals (Ezekiel 16:46–52).
3.6.16Augustine reports that the letter accused his side of saying that Christ “lied under the compulsion of the flesh.”
3.7.17They say that after the resurrection there will be such progress that people will begin there to fulfill the commandments of God that they were unwilling to fulfill here.
3.10.26They defend the transmission of souls by descent together with the transmission of sin by descent.
4.1.1Through Adam, death has passed to us, not wrongdoing (Romans 5:12).
God is the creator of those who are born, and the children of human beings are God’s work. Every sin comes…§§4.2.2–4.2.2
4.2.2God is the creator of those who are born, and the children of human beings are God’s work. Every sin comes from the will, not from nature.
4.2.2Baptism is necessary at every age, so that the creature may be adopted among the children of God, not because it inherits anything from its parents that must be cleansed by the washing of rebirth (Titus 3:5; John 1:12–13; Romans 8:15).
4.2.2They affirm that “the Lord Christ was touched by no stain of sin, as far as his infancy is concerned.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) (1 Peter 2:22)
Augustine reports their explanation as follows: Christ’s flesh was entirely free from the contamination of sin because he shared the nature found in all infants, rather than because of a distinctive excellence and a unique grace.
4.2.2Augustine says that the letter raises the question of the soul’s origin and maintains that all infants’ souls, like Christ’s soul, are unstained by sin.
4.2.2Nothing evil has passed from Adam to everyone else except death (Romans 5:12). Death is not always an evil, since for martyrs it is a cause of rewards. What makes death good or bad is not the dissolution of bodies, which will be raised in every class of human beings (possible echo: John 5:28–29), but the difference in people’s deserts, which arises from human freedom.
4.2.2The Lord says in the Gospel: “He who made them in the beginning made them male and female” (Matthew 19:4; Genesis 1:27). And he said: “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). “Therefore, what God has joined together, let no human being separate” (Matthew 19:6).
4.2.2The old law, which according to the apostle is just, holy, and good, was able to grant everlasting life to those who kept its commandments and lived rightly through faith, as the prophets, patriarchs, and all the saints did (Romans 7:12).
4.2.2Free will has not been lost, since the Lord says through the prophet: “If you are willing and listen to me, you will eat the good things of the land; if you are unwilling and do not listen, the sword will eat you” (Isaiah 1:19–20). Accordingly, grace also helps each person’s good purpose, but does not plant the pursuit of virtue in someone who resists, because there is no partiality with God (Romans 2:11; Colossians 3:25).
Baptism makes people completely new. The apostle is a witness to this, for he testifies that through the…§§4.2.2–4.8.20
4.2.2Baptism makes people completely new. The apostle is a witness to this, for he testifies that through the washing of water the church gathered from the nations is made holy and spotless (Ephesians 5:26–27).
The Holy Spirit also helped good minds in ancient times, as the prophet says to God: “Your good Spirit will lead me on a straight path” (Psalm 143:10; LXX Psalm 142:10).
All the prophets, apostles, and saints, both of the New Testament and of the Old, to whom God bears witness, were righteous by the standard of virtue, not by comparison with criminals.
In the time to come there is recompense for good deeds and for bad ones. But no one can fulfill there the commandments that they disregarded here, because the apostle said: “We must appear before Christ’s judgment seat, so that each person may receive what belongs to the body, according to what they have done, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
4.4.4The good God is the creator of those who are born; through him all things were made, and the children of human beings are his work (John 1:3).
4.4.5Augustine says that the authors defend Christ’s flesh as “real” and affirm that “the soul itself was touched by no stain of sin.”
4.4.7Augustine reports that in the apostle’s words, “Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death, and so it passed to all human beings,” the authors understand death, rather than sin, as what passed to everyone (Romans 5:12).
4.5.10We acknowledge that the old law too, according to the apostle, is just, holy, and good. It was able to grant everlasting life to those who kept its commandments and lived rightly through faith, as the prophets, patriarchs, and all the saints did (Romans 7:12).
4.7.18All the prophets, apostles, and saints, both those of the Gospel and those of ancient times, to whom God bears witness, were righteous by the standard of virtue, not by comparison with criminals.
In the time to come there is recompense for good deeds and for bad ones, and no one is commanded to fulfill there the commandments that they disregarded here.
4.8.20Their enemies have adopted Augustine’s statements out of hatred for the truth. Throughout the entire West, a doctrine as foolish as it is impious has been accepted. Signatures confirming it have been extorted from unsuspecting bishops who remained in their own places, without a synod being assembled.