Julian of Eclanum

380-c.455. Pelagian theologian. Son of Memorius, bishop of Eclanum, he was ordained on the death of his wife and succeeded his father as bishop. He was very learned in Latin. Greek, logic, and theology. He became a supporter of Pelagius* and in 418 attacked the Epistola Tractoria in which Pope Zosimus had condemned Pelagius and Celestius. He was deposed and expelled from Italy. He traveled in the East and was received by Theodore of Mopsuestia and Nestorius. Returning to Sicily, he taught there until his death. Julian was Pelagianism's “most systematic exponent”; he defined freedom of the will as “the possibility of committing sin or abstaining from it.” He reduced grace to simple, protective divine assistance and denied the solidarity of the human race in Adam's sin. He defended marriage against asceticism, and the innocence of the sexual impulse. Augustine* answered him in three works.