Note N59 — St. PETER (continued 8)

That the Pelagian Heresy was first condemned by the African Bishops, is a Fact so well attested, that one would think it impossible it should ever have come into any Man’s Thoughts to call it in question. And yet Baronius, upon the Authority of a very doubtful Passage out of St. Prosper, a contemporary Writer, roundly asserts that Heresy to have been first condemned, not by the African Bishops, but by Innocent[1]. The Words of Prosper are:--Pestem subeuntem prima recidit sedes Roma Petri[2]. These Words are variously interpreted by the Learned; but all agree in rejecting the Interpretation of Baronius, as making[3] Prosper contradict a known Truth.