Massilians

Massilians a school of theologians in Southern Gaul, who, about the year 425, with John Cassian of Marseilles (Massilia), a pupil of Chrysostom, at their head, asserted the necessity the the cooperation of divine grace and the human will, maintained that God works differently in different men, and rejected the doctrine of predestination as a vain speculation of mischievous tendency. They were called at first Massilians; afterwards, by scholastic writers, Semi-Pelagians; although, far from taking that name themselves, they rejected all connection with Pelagianism. Cassian recognized the universal corruption of human nature as a consequence of the first transgression, and recognized grace as well as justification in the sense of St. Augustine, whom he opposed on the question of election. See Riddle, Eccl. Chron.; Eden, Theol. Dict.; Neander, Hist. of the Christian Religions and Church, 2:261, 627-630; Schaff, Ch. Hist. 3:859 sq.; Wiggers, Gesch. des Semi-Pelagianismus, 2:7 sq.; Guericke, Ch. Hist. 1:391 sq.; Neander, Hist. of Christian Dogmas, 2:375; Hagenbach, Hist. of Doctr. vol. 1. SEE SEMI-PELAGIANS and SEE CASSIANUS.