Orosius: Great Defender of Christianity Against the Pagans

"He is best known for his work Seven Books of History Against the Pagans (circa 418), in which he argued that the sack of Rome 410 CE by Alaric I, King of the Goths (reign 394-410), had nothing to do with the Roman adoption of Christianity, a claim popularly supported among the pagans of the day. He was encouraged to undertake the work by Augustine, whose book was inspired by the same event."

"In 414, he was forced to leave his home in Hispania quickly (for unknown reasons) and booked passage on a ship to Hippo in North Africa to meet Saint Augustine. He seems to have made a good impression on the older cleric because, the next year, Augustine sent him to Jerusalem to debate with the heretic Pelagius, author of the Pelagian heresy, which claimed that man was capable of individual salvation without the church's intercession."

"In Jerusalem, Orosius conferred with Saint Jerome and John, Bishop of Jerusalem, and faced Pelagius at a synod called to discuss the heresy. The outcome was inconclusive, but in the official report sent to Rome, Orosius's own orthodoxy was questioned. This charge prompted him to write his defense in the book Liber Apologeticus contra Pelagianos"

Paulus Orosius was a fifth-century Christian theologian and historian and a close associate of Saint Augustine of Hippo. He composed the Seven Books of History Against the Pagans (circa 418) arguing that Alaric's 410 sack of Rome was not caused by Rome's conversion to Christianity. The history traced the world from creation to Orosius's own time from a Christian perspective and became a widely used reference for Christian readers. He was probably born in Portugal around 380, entered the priesthood young, and fled Hispania in 414 to seek Augustine in Hippo. Augustine dispatched him to Jerusalem to confront Pelagius, and challenges to his orthodoxy led him to write Liber Apologeticus contra Pelagianos. Orosius vanishes from the historical record after publishing his world history.

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