6th–9th centuries

Moderate Augustinianism after Orange: Gregory the Great and the Drift toward Merit

Augustine's teaching on sin and grace was accepted as the anthropology of the Western Church, but, according to Berkhof, in a very moderate form: the principle of "grace alone" prevailed, but predestination was set aside and irresistible grace was displaced by the sacramental grace of baptism. Gregory the Great, whom González calls the "filter" through which the Middle Ages read Augustine, taught that God predestined to salvation those whom he knows will persevere in faith and good works, and that grace is not irresistible. Pelikan writes that after Orange Western theology wavered between the sovereignty of grace and its mediation through the church, with a return of merit and human initiative; its whole history would be a "series of footnotes" to Augustine. McGrath adds that the canons of Orange were unknown to medieval theologians, and for more than a thousand years the church gave no authoritative ruling on justification.