Cap. II: Prosper & Hilary on Massilians — Semipelagian close before Scholastics
These Semipelagians are clearest in the letters of Prosper and Hilary to Augustine — both prefixed to Augustine's On the Predestination of the Saints. Prosper reports their definition: God foresaw before the world's founding who would believe, or who would stay in the faith later helped by his grace, and predestined to his kingdom those he foresaw, once called by grace, would be worthy of election and would leave this life with a good end. Hilary: the Massilians say it undermines preaching to speak of some as elect according to purpose, and so on. A few lines later: they claim that by the merit of each person's willing and believing, one can be healed of disease and gain both the increase of that faith and the full effect of one's holiness. In short, they put the reason for elect or reject in this: each is paired with the merit of his own will. They grant God does not elect anyone's works in foresight of gifts he himself will give; yet they affirm he elects faith in foresight — so that whom he foresaw would believe, he elected, and to him gives the Holy Spirit so that by good works he may reach eternal life. Finally they hold that no one is given such perseverance that falling away is impossible; and so they deny any fixed number of those to be elected and rejected. I thought this worth quoting a little more fully, so you may see how near they stand to the Pelagians or Semipelagians who in our own age try to explode Augustine's teaching — rooted in Scripture and long confirmed by the catholic Church's witness.
Latin
Sed horum Semipelagianorum sententia clarissime intelligi potest ex Epistola Prosperi & Hilarii ad Augustinum, quae ambae praefiguntur libro quem inscripsit Augustinus De praedestinatione sanctorum. De istis sic scribit Prosper, Haec ipsorum definitio est; Qui credituri sunt, quive in ea fide, quae deinceps per Dei gratiam sit juvanda, mansuri sunt, praescisse ante mundi constitutionem Deum, & eos praedestinasse in regnum suum, quos gratis vocatos, dignos futuros electione, & de hac vita bono fine excessuros praeviderit. Et Hilarius, Massilienses inutile esse praedicationi dicant, quod quidam secundum propositum eligendi dicantur, &c. Et pauculis interjectis, Asserunt eo merito, quo voluerit & crediderit unusquisque, a suo morbo se posse sanari, & ipsius fidei augmentum, & totius sanctitatis suae consequi effectum. De compendio, putant rationem reddi electorum vel rejectorum in eo, quod unicuique meritum propriae voluntatis adjungitur. Concedunt Deum non eligere opera cujusquam in praescientia quae ipse donaturus est; sed affirmant, fidem eligere in praescientia, ut quem crediturum esse praescivit, ipsum elegerit, cui spiritum sanctum donet, ut bene operando aeternam vitam consequeretur. Denique, nemini dari talem perseverantiam putant, a qua non permittitur praevaricari; atque idcirco non admittunt eligendorum & rejiciendorum esse numerum definitum. Haec paulo latius recitanda putavi, ut videatis, quam prope absint a Pelagianis aut Semipelagianis, qui nostro hoc saeculo Augustini doctrinam, in sacris Scripturis fundatam, & catholicae Ecclesiae testimonio olim confirmatam, explosum eunt.