I have read from certain articles that Saint Pelagius theology is being revived among some circles just like theologians' inclination towards New Perspective on Paul and Molinism. It is believed that Pelagius was deliberately condemned as heretic by Augustin who failed to convict him of the charges against Synods of Jerusalem and Diospolis in the year 415, but later successfully convicted him as heretic.
http://silouanthompson.net/2010/02/pelagius-to-demetrias
The views of Pelagius on the nature of sin and soteriology are very similar to the theology of 16th century Luis Molina of Molinism; read this to understand Molinism under Scientia Media heading.
Since his writings are not available for us to study, we can only make our best guesses on such quotes by scholars who have read some portions of his writings. I doubt that Pelagius had literally meant the faith-alone idea in that quoted statement; it could have meant faith-itself too. God forgives all sins based on faith itself. This does not mean faith is the only criteria of salvation. This still does not overrule the forgiveness received by some who have repented and turned to righteousness apart from the conscious knowledge of revelation; there are some who receive providential forgiveness and atonement of Christ. They are among the vast number of human population unevangelized and misinformed of the revelation; and all those who are born before Christ in all the nations. However the number of such people receiving providential salvation may differ in views of different proponents of Pelagianism or Molinism. I believe if you want to study Pelagianism then study Molinism.
The main issue of difference between Pelagius and Augustin theology is the denial of monergism or total depravity of man. Children are born innocent and they go to heaven if they die apart from faith or baptism. Pelagius might have affirmed infant baptism saying we would not deny anyone of the baptism even the infants, but it must be in context of giving a clever answer to acquit himself of the mainstream leaders charges during the hearing. He would not have actually believed that children are born sinners like the other leaders did.
We should consider the theologian's arguments that Pelagius has been misrepresented by his enemies and that we have only fraction of his records surviving. I would love to read all the online resources that shares his commentary on Romans and any other letters that have been recently discovered.
I like to use Romans 2:13-15 as the best evidence for Pelagius theology; and the doctrines of free-will. Many early leaders prior to Augustine had very same interpretation of free-will and nature of sin as Pelagius. Following are some of those quotes:
Irenaeus
Chap. XXXVII. — Men Are Possessed of Free Will, and Endowed with the
Faculty of Making a Choice. It Is Not True, Therefore, That Some Are
by Nature Good, and Others Bad.
This expression [of our Lord], “How often would I have gathered thy children together, and thou wouldest not,” (Mat 23:37) set forth the
ancient law of human liberty, because God made man a free [agent] from
the beginning, possessing his own power, even as he does his own soul,
to obey the behests (ad utendum sententia) of God voluntarily, and not
by compulsion of God. For there is no coercion with God, but a good
will [towards us] is present with Him continually. And therefore does
He give good counsel to all. And in man, as well as in angels, He has
placed the power of choice (for angels are rational beings), so that
those who had yielded obedience might justly possess what is good,
given indeed by God, but preserved by themselves. On the other hand,
they who have not obeyed shall, with justice, be not found in
possession of the good, and shall receive condign punishment: for God
did kindly bestow on them what was good; but they themselves did not
diligently keep it, nor deem it something precious, but poured
contempt upon His super-eminent goodness. Rejecting therefore the
good, and as it were spuing it out, they shall all deservedly incur
the just judgment of God, which also the Apostle Paul testifies in his
Epistle to the Romans, where he says, “But dost thou despise the
riches of His goodness, and patience, and long-suffering, being
ignorant that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But
according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest to
thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the
righteous judgment of God.” “But glory and honour,” he says, “to every
one that doeth good.” (Rom 2:4, Rom 2:5, Rom 2:7) God therefore has
given that which is good, as the apostle tells us in this Epistle, and
they who work it shall receive glory and honour, because they have
done that which is good when they had it in their power not to do it;
but those who do it not shall receive the just judgment of God,
because they did not work good when they had it in their power so to
do.
But if some had been made by nature bad, and others good, these latter would not be deserving of praise for being good, for such were
they created; nor would the former be reprehensible, for thus they
were made [originally]. But since all men are of the same nature, able
both to hold fast and to do what is good; and, on the other hand,
having also the power to cast it from them and not to do it, — some do
justly receive praise even among men who are under the control of good
laws (and much more from God), and obtain deserved testimony of their
choice of good in general, and of persevering therein; but the others
are blamed, and receive a just condemnation, because of their
rejection of what is fair and good. And therefore the prophets used to
exhort men to what was good, to act justly and to work righteousness,
as I have so largely demonstrated, because it is in our power so to
do, and because by excessive negligence we might become forgetful, and
thus stand in need of that good counsel which the good God has given
us to know by means of the prophets.
For this reason the Lord also said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and glorify your Father who is
in heaven.” (Mat 5:16) And, “Take heed to yourselves, lest perchance
your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and
worldly cares.” (Luk 21:34) And, “Let your loins be girded about, and
your lamps burning, and ye like unto men that wait for their Lord,
when He returns from the wedding, that when He cometh and knocketh,
they may open to Him. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He
cometh, shall find so doing.” (Luk 12:35, Luk 12:36) And again, “The
servant who knows his Lord’s will, and does it not, shall be beaten
with many stripes.” (Luk 12:47) And, “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and
do not the things which I say?” (Luk 6:46) And again, “But if the
servant say in his heart, The Lord delayeth, and begin to beat his
fellow-servants, and to eat, and drink, and to be drunken, his Lord
will come in a day on which he does not expect Him, and shall cut him
in sunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites.” (Luk 12:45,
Luk 12:46; Mat 24:48, Mat 24:51) All such passages demonstrate the
independent will151 of man, and at the same time the counsel which God
conveys to him, by which He exhorts us to submit ourselves to Him, and
seeks to turn us away from [the sin of] unbelief against Him, without,
however, in any way coercing us.
Chap. XXXIX. — Man Is Endowed with the Faculty of Distinguishing Good
and Evil; so That, Without Compulsion, He Has the Power, by His Own
Will and Choice, to Perform God’s Commandments, by Doing Which He
Avoids the Evils Prepared for the Rebellious.
Man has received the knowledge of good and evil. It is good to obey God, and to believe in Him, and to keep His commandment, and this is
the life of man; as not to obey God is evil, and this is his death.
Since God, therefore, gave [to man] such mental power (magnanimitatem)
man knew both the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience, that
the eye of the mind, receiving experience of both, may with judgment
make choice of the better things; and that he may never become
indolent or neglectful of God’s command; and learning by experience
that it is an evil thing which deprives him of life, that is,
disobedience to God, may never attempt it at all, but that, knowing
that what preserves his life, namely, obedience to God, is good, he
may diligently keep it with all earnestness. Wherefore he has also had
a twofold experience, possessing knowledge of both kinds, that with
discipline he may make choice of the better things. But how, if he had
no knowledge of the contrary, could he have had instruction in that
which is good? For there is thus a surer and an undoubted
comprehension of matters submitted to us than the mere surmise arising
from an opinion regarding them. For just as the tongue receives
experience of sweet and bitter by means of tasting, and the eye
discriminates between black and white by means of vision, and the ear
recognises the distinctions of sounds by hearing; so also does the
mind, receiving through the experience of both the knowledge of what
is good, become more tenacious of its preservation, by acting in
obedience to God: in the first place, casting away, by means of
repentance, disobedience, as being something disagreeable and
nauseous; and afterwards coming to understand what it really is, that
it is contrary to goodness and sweetness, so that the mind may never
even attempt to taste disobedience to God. But if any one do shun the
knowledge of both these kinds of things, and the twofold perception of
knowledge, he unawares divests himself of the character of a human
being.
How, then, shall he be a God, who has not as yet been made a man? Or how can he be perfect who was but lately created? How, again, can
he be immortal, who in his mortal nature did not obey his Maker? For
it must be that thou, at the outset, shouldest hold the rank of a man,
and then afterwards partake of the glory of God. For thou dost not
make God, but God thee. If, then, thou art God’s workmanship, await
the hand of thy Maker which creates everything in due time; in due
time as far as thou art concerned, whose creation is being carried
out.154 Offer to Him thy heart in a soft and tractable state, and
preserve the form in which the Creator has fashioned thee, having
moisture in thyself, lest, by becoming hardened, thou lose the
impressions of His fingers. But by preserving the framework thou shalt
ascend to that which is perfect, for the moist clay which is in thee
is hidden [there] by the workmanship of God. His hand fashioned thy
substance; He will cover thee over [too] within and without with pure
gold and silver, and He will adorn thee to such a degree, that even
“the King Himself shall have pleasure in thy beauty.” (Psa 45:11) But
if thou, being obstinately hardened, dost reject the operation of His
skill, and show thyself ungrateful towards Him, because thou weft
created a [mere] man, by becoming thus ungrateful to God, thou hast at
once lost both His workmanship and life. For creation is an attribute
of the goodness of God but to be created is that of human nature. If
then, thou shalt deliver up to Him what is thine that is, faith
towards Him and subjection, thou shalt receive His handiwork, and
shall be a perfect work of God.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02042.htm
Second Century - Theophilus, bishop of Antioch- Letter to Autolycus
Book 2- Chapter XXVII (27).—The Nature of Man. But some one will say
to us, Was man made by nature mortal? Certainly not. Was he, then,
immortal? Neither do we affirm this. But one will say, Was he, then,
nothing? Not even this hits the mark. He was by nature neither mortal
nor immortal. For if He had made him immortal from the beginning, He
would have made him God. Again, if He had made him mortal, God would
seem to be the cause of his death. Neither, then, immortal nor yet
mortal did He make him, but, as we have said above, capable of both;
so that if he should incline to the things of immortality, keeping the
commandment of God, he should receive as reward from Him immortality,
and should become God; but if, on the other hand, he should turn to
the things of death, disobeying God, he should himself be the cause of
death to himself. For God made man free, and with power over himself.
603 That, then, which man brought upon himself through carelessness
and disobedience, this God now vouchsafes to him as a gift through His
own philanthropy and pity, when men obey Him. 604 For as man,
disobeying, drew death upon himself; so, obeying the will of God, he
who desires is able to procure for himself life everlasting. For God
has given us a law and holy commandments; and every one who keeps
these can be saved, and, obtaining the resurrection, can inherit
incorruption. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02042.htm
Theophilus To Autolycus (Theophilus of Antioch) > Book III Chapter
9. Christian Doctrine of God and His Law.
Now we also confess that God exists, but that He is one, the creator,
and maker, and fashioner of this universe; and we know that all things
are arranged by His providence, but by Him alone. And we have learned
a holy law; but we have as lawgiver Him who is really God, who teaches
us to act righteously, and to be pious, and to do good. And concerning
piety He says, "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not
make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth: you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve
them: for I am the Lord your God." Exodus 20:3 And of doing good He
said: "Honour your father and your mother; that it may be well with
you, and that your days may be long in the land which I the Lord God
give you." Again, concerning righteousness: "You shall not commit
adultery. You shall not kill. You shall not steal. You shall not bear
false witness against your neighbour. You shall not covet your
neighbour's wife, you shall not covet your neighbour's house, nor his
land, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his
beast of burden, nor any of his cattle, nor anything that is your
neighbour's. You shall not wrest the judgment of the poor in his
cause. Exodus 23:6 From every unjust matter keep you far. The innocent
and righteous you shall not slay; you shall not justify the wicked;
and you shall not take a gift, for gifts blind the eyes of them that
see and pervert righteous words." Of this divine law, then, Moses, who
also was God's servant, was made the minister both to all the world,
and chiefly to the Hebrews, who were also called Jews, whom an
Egyptian king had in ancient days enslaved, and who were the righteous
seed of godly and holy men— Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. God, being
mindful of them, and doing marvellous and strange miracles by the hand
of Moses, delivered them, and led them out of Egypt, leading them
through what is called the desert; whom He also settled again in the
land of Canaan, which afterwards was called judæa, and gave them a
law, and taught them these things. Of this great and wonderful law,
which tends to all righteousness, the ten heads are such as we have
already rehearsed.
Chapter 10. Of Humanity to Strangers. Since therefore they were
strangers in the land of Egypt, being by birth Hebrews from the land
of Chaldæa,— for at that time, there being a famine, they were obliged
to migrate to Egypt for the sake of buying food there, where also for
a time they sojourned; and these things befell them in accordance with
a prediction of God—having sojourned, then, in Egypt for 430 years,
when Moses was about to lead them out into the desert, God taught them
by the law, saying, "You shall not afflict a stranger; for you know
the heart of a stranger: for yourselves were strangers in the land of
Egypt." Exodus 22:21
Chapter 11. Of Repentance. And when the people transgressed the law
which had been given to them by God, God being good and pitiful,
unwilling to destroy them, in addition to His giving them the law,
afterwards sent forth also prophets to them from among their brethren,
to teach and remind them of the contents of the law, and to turn them
to repentance, that they might sin no more. But if they persisted in
their wicked deeds, He forewarned them that they should be delivered
into subjection to all the kingdoms of the earth; and that this has
already happened them is manifest. Concerning repentance, then, Isaiah
the prophet, generally indeed to all, but expressly to the people,
says: "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is
near: let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord his God, and he will find
mercy, for He will abundantly pardon." Isaiah 55:6 And another
prophet, Ezekiel, says: "If the wicked will turn from all his sins
that he has committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is
right in My sight, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his
transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be mentioned unto
him; but in his righteousness that he has done he shall live: for I
desire not the death of the sinner, says the Lord, but that he turn
from his wicked way, and live." Ezekiel 18:21 Again Isaiah: "You who
take deep and wicked counsel, turn, that you may be saved." Isaiah
31:6 And another prophet, Jeremiah: "Turn to the Lord your God, as a
grape-gatherer to his basket, and you shall find mercy." Jeremiah 6:9
Many therefore, yea rather, countless are the sayings in the Holy
Scriptures regarding repentance, God being always desirous that the
race of men turn from all their sins.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02043.htm
John Chrysostom (347-407, undefiled by gnostic Augustine writes in
Homily V. Romans i. 28. "For not only is it possible without hearing
to be a doer, but even with hearing not to be so. Which last thing he
makes plainer, and that with a greater advantage over them, when he
says, “Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?” (Rom.
2. 21.) But here he is still making the former point good. Rom. 2.14. “For when the Gentiles,” he says, “which have not the law, do by
nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are
a law unto themselves.” I am not, he means, rejecting the Law, but
even on this score I justify the Gentiles. You see how when
undermining the conceit of Judaism, he giveth no handle against
himself as villifying the Law, but on the contrary by extolling it and
showing its greatness he so makes good his whole position. But
whenever he saith “by nature,” he means by the reasonings of nature.
And he shows that others are better than they, and, what is more
better for this, that they have not received the Law, and have not
that wherein the Jews seem to have an advantage over them. For on this
ground he means they are to be admired, because they required not a
law, and yet exhibited all the doings of the Law, having the works,
not the letters, graven upon their minds. For this is what he says,
Rom. 2.15. “Which show the work of the Law written in their hearts,
their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the
meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.” Rom. 2.16. “In the
day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according
to my Gospel.” See how he again puts that day before them, and brings
it close to them, battering down their conceit, and showing, that
those were to be the rather honored who without the Law strove
earnestly to fulfil the things of the Law. But what is most to be
marvelled at in the discretion of the Apostle, it is worth while to
mention now. For having shown, from the grounds given, that the
Gentile is greater than the Jew; in the inference, and the conclusion
of his reasoning, he does not state it, in order not to exasperate the
Jew. But to make what I have said clearer, I will give the very words
of the Apostle. For after saying, that it is not the hearers of the
Law, but the doers of the Law, that shall be justified, it followed to
say, “For when the Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by nature the
things contained in the Law,” they are much better than those who are
instructed by the Law. But this he does not say, but he stays at the
encomium of the Gentiles, and does not yet awhile carry on his
discourse by way of comparison, that so at least the Jew may receive
what is said. And so he does not word it as I was doing, but how? “For
when the Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by nature the things
contained in the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law unto
themselves; which show the work of the Law, written in their hearts,
their conscience also bearing witness.” For the conscience and reason
doth suffice in the Law’s stead. By this he showed, first, that God
made man independent, so as to be able to choose virtue and to avoid
vice. And be not surprised that he proves this point, not once or
twice, but several times....."
Ver. 15. Which show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile
accusing or else excusing one another. Ver. 16. In the day when God
shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my
Gospel. See how he again puts that day before them, and brings it
close to them, battering down their conceit, and showing, that those
were to be the rather honored who without the Law strove earnestly to
fulfil the things of the Law. But what is most to be marvelled at in
the discretion of the Apostle, it is worth while to mention now. For
having shown, from the grounds given, that the Gentile is greater than
the Jew; in the inference, and the conclusion of his reasoning, he
does not state it, in order not to exasperate the Jew. But to make
what I have said clearer, I will give the very words of the Apostle.
For after saying, that it is not the hearers of the Law, but the doers
of the Law, that shall be justified, it followed to say, For when the
Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by nature the things contained in
the Law, they are much better than those who are instructed by the
Law. But this he does not say, but he stays at the encomium of the
Gentiles, and does not yet awhile carry on his discourse by way of
comparison, that so at least the Jew may receive what is said. And so
he does not word it as I was doing, but how? For when the Gentiles,
which have not the Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law,
these, not having the Law, are a law unto themselves; which show the
work of the Law, written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing witness. For the conscience and reason does suffice in the
Law's stead. By this he showed, first, that God made man independent,
so as to be able to choose virtue and to avoid vice. And be not
surprised that he proves this point, not once or twice, but several
times. For this topic was very needful for him to prove owing to those
who say, Why ever is it, that Christ came but now? And where in times
before was the (most manuscripts this mighty) scheme of Providence?
Now it is these that he is at present beating off by the way, when he
shows that even in former times, and before the Law was given, the
human race (Gr. nature) fully enjoyed the care of Providence. For that
which may be known of God was manifest in them, and they knew what was
good, and what bad; by means whereof they judged others, which he
reproaches them with, when he says, wherein you judge another, you
condemn yourself. But in the case of the Jews, besides what has been
mentioned, there was the Law, and not reason or conscience only. And
why does he put the words accusing or else excusing?— for, if they
have a Law written, and show the work of it in them, how comes reason
to be able to accuse them still? But he is not any longer speaking of
those only who do well, but also of mankind (Gr. the nature)
universally. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210205.htm