Annotatio CCXXXV
”The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream.” — Jeremiah 23:28
Jerome, in book 4 on Jeremiah, from the interpretation of this clause fell into these words:1 “Heretics are wont always to promise prosperous things, and to throw open the kingdoms of heaven to sinners, so that they say, ‘The kingdoms of heaven are prepared for thee: thou canst imitate the majesty of God, so that thou be without sin; for thou hast received the power of free choice, and the knowledge of the law, through which thou mayst attain what thou wilt’ — and they deceive the wretched by flatteries, and especially poor little women laden with sins, who are carried about with every wind of doctrine.” This pericope, as is conjectured from the Collectanea of Bodius, the Lutherans usurp, to show that we are heretics — [we] who teach that man received the power of free choice, so that, by divine grace favoring, he can abstain from every deadly fault. Know that Jerome by these words does not reject this our Catholic opinion concerning free will — which everywhere he proclaims, and excellently defends2 — but condemns the proud and insolent dogma of Pelagius: who, the aid of divine grace being excluded, asserted that man, from the knowledge of the law and from the strength of his own will, could become altogether impeccable in imitation of God, and the possessor also of eternal felicity. And to this especially looks that which Jerome noted against Origen above, Annotation 159.