Insights from the fall of Rome inform the environmental justice fight for a cooler climate and healthier ecosystems
The fall of Rome did not occur at the hands of an enemy. There was no battle of Waterloo. To employ more soldiers and laborers, Rome was compelled to form federations with various tribes, including the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and Franks, who settled within Roman borders. The decline began within its vast territory when women no longer spun spindles, blacksmith hammers ceased to fall, and people refused to endure the lash of indentured servitude. A fall date is attributed to September 4, 476 AD, when Odoacer, a general of Roman legions composed of Germanic people, deposed the eleven-year-old emperor, Romulus Augustulus. Odoacer was labeled a barbarian because he believed that Jesus was more mortal and not coeternal with God. He also had a “barbarian moustache.” The fall began earlier with the most misrepresented Christian teacher of all time.
Pelagius (ca. 360-430) was a Celtic Christian from Wales who argued with St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) about separating people from nature and consolidating Caesar’s rule over Mediterranean Christians. The church responded to Pelagius’s critique indirectly with three misrepresentations. They said none of Pelagius's writings are available, so scholars must rely on Augustine’s account of what he wrote. Pelagius was a one-off heretic, rather than one with the vision at the heart of the Celtic mission. Third, Pelagius preached that we do not need grace and that humanity has the capacity to save itself. He was also criticized for eating too much “Scottish porridge,” which was said to make him stupid.
The radical priest was a noteworthy teacher and a spiritual advisor to some of the church's prominent families in Rome. The first complaint involved Pelagius teaching women how to read and interpret the scriptures, as imperial Christianity relegated women to work on “spindles and wickerwork.” Celtic Christians celebrate the sacredness of women and honor their role in the study of wisdom.
Pelagius seized on imperial religion’s greatest fear when consolidating power through his hairstyle. The Roman clerical tonsure involved shaving the top of the head, leaving a ring of hair to symbolize where the crown of thorns had been placed on Jesus. Pelagius opted for the Celtic tonsure, featuring long hair on top with the sides and back shaved to reflect the placement of the crown of thorns. Drawing on pre-Christian Celtic customs, Pelagius appeared to be a pagan because he seemed to wear the Druid tonsure.
Pelagius's primary criticism was his belief that in the face of a newborn child, we see the face of God freshly born among us. The dignity of human nature is profound, and our sacredness overrides our sinfulness. What is deepest in us is of God, not opposed to God.
According to Pelagius, Adam chose to leave the Garden of Eden as an act of free will. Adam was mortal, innocent, and not created holy. Without a moral compass, Adam could not sin. Eve and Adam needed a garden of their own to raise a family. Eventually, they would die physically regardless of whether they ever sinned. “Sin is not born with man but is committed afterwards by man. It is not the fault of nature, but of free will." Truth is not dispensed from above; it is mined from within in conversation with others.
Meanwhile, in 413, Augustine formalized a religion that suited imperial power through the doctrine of original sin: at birth, we are corrupted, not sacred. Instead of honoring people's divine dignity, their worth was assessed by baptism and allegiance. Disobey, and you’ll be thrown out of the garden.
In 415, Augustine had Pelagius tried for heresy in Palestine, where he taught. Two church synods examined Pelagius’s teachings and found him innocent because they were in line with Eastern Christian beliefs. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates human nature as sacred and blessed at birth.
The following year, with Augustine preaching in northern Africa, two African synods found Pelagius guilty of heresy. The bishop of Rome was petitioned to have Pelagius excommunicated. Zosimus found Pelagius innocent. With a Greek name and likely influenced by Eastern Orthodox perspectives, he wrote to Augustine: “Love peace, prize love, strive after harmony.”
Thwarted by the church, Augustine went to the emperor and had Pelagius banned from the empire on a charge of disturbing the peace. A few months later, Zosimus died, and the new pope promptly excommunicated Pelagius.
Far from Roman control in Wales and Ireland, Pelagius continued writing. With a Celtic sense of humor, he often wrote under the name Augustine to enable his pieces to circulate freely throughout the empire.
Pelagius had been disturbing the peace with his teachings on the sacredness of nature and humanity. The bread and wine of the Eucharist, the grace of God, are shared widely. So too should the bounty of the earth be shared equitably. “A person who is rich,” he said, “and yet refuses to give food to the hungry may cause far more deaths than even the cruelest murderer.”
Nature is sacred. “Narrow shafts of divine light pierce the veil that separates heaven from earth.” Divine light emanates from within every creature, every life-form, every human being.” God’s spirit is in all things, he said, “and if we look with God’s eyes, nothing on the earth is ugly.”
Pelagius taught the sacredness of compassion. Like Christ, we must feel another’s pain as if it were our own. “When Jesus commands us to love our neighbors, he does not only mean our human neighbors; he means all the animals and birds, insects and plants, amongst whom we live.” Pelagius called on the Roman Empire to treat the body of the earth and its resources with reverence and to ensure they are equitably shared.
Rome was not pleased. In 421, an imperial edict banned followers of Pelagius from coming within 100 miles of Rome. Still threatened, in 428, another edict prevented followers from being anywhere in Italy. One hundred years later, in 529, another church council condemned Pelagius’s teachings, lest there be any doubt. Finally, the bishop of Rome in a papal encyclical of 640 complained that Pelagius’s “pernicious” teachings were still rampant in Ireland and demanded the Irish “expel the venom of this wicked superstition” from among them.
Today, in our secular society, the white robes of sacrament have been exchanged for the black robes of academia. Instead of a Bible, something is considered true if it is published in the most esteemed science journals. Scientists who publish in top-tier journals are the first to receive federal funding. There are financial incentives to cleave to publishers' beliefs and not challenge their understanding of the truth.
Often, only the Abstract is publicly accessible. Since science is a language foreign to the ordinary person, those outside the ivory tower cannot fully know the researchers' findings, only the spin put on by publishers. For example, a paper on the global temperature rise above 1.5 degrees Kelvin in 2023 reported in the abstract that “best-guess estimates of known drivers fell short by about 0.2 Kelvin in explaining the temperature rise” and that “a record-low planetary albedo was the primary factor bridging the gap.”
The researchers' findings are different, but are presented in a convoluted manner that obscures their meaning. Changing cloud cover contributes to most of the abrupt global warming observed in 2023, with the rise in carbon dioxide accounting for only 10% (0.2 kelvin) of the warming. Water vapor was responsible for more than 80% of the warming. Climate scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies have found that the world’s cloud cover has shrunk by a small, yet significant degree on a global average over the past two decades. Cumulus clouds that once reflected light away now allow more light to warm the Earth and enhance global warming. A global cumulus cloud cover reduction of 1% from slightly more than 50% to slightly less would tip the balance and alter the climate.
We are told that burning fossil fuels is the greatest sin. Yet, the science is clear. Cloud formation depends on bacteria and fungi aerosols released by plants in water vapor that condense. Landowners who convert vegetation and soils into impervious hard surfaces are eight times more responsible for the rise in global temperatures. In New England, we suffer from terrible floods caused by torrents of stormwater overflow. While the annual rainfall has not increased, it is the profits for developers that prevent rainwater from infiltrating the ground where it falls. Instead, municipalities are burdened with the costs of sewage-laden stormwater abatement while people in the miasmic lowlands suffer.
Pelagius gives us hope that, despite the odds and the preponderance of power, people can overcome with time. However, his question remains: Will Christians awaken to the sacredness of the earth and of all people, regardless of gender, race, and religion, and act responsibly with compassion?
Cited reference
1. H. F. Goessling, T. Rackow, T. Jung, Recent global temperature surge intensified by record-low planetary albedo. Science 387 (6729), 68–73 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq7280