Prosper of Aquitaine

Born around 390 in Aquitaine, married and never ordained, he lived at Marseilles in a region where the monks of Lérins and Saint-Victor found the Augustinian doctrine of grace too hard. Prosper became its most obstinate advocate: he wrote to Augustine himself to warn him of the objections, then, after his death in 430, defended his memory at Rome against John Cassian. Pope Leo the Great took him as secretary, and his hand is thought recognisable in certain papal texts. With age he himself softened the positions he had defended, notably on predestination, and set down the formula that God wills the salvation of all. He also kept a universal chronicle, a valuable source for the fifth century. He is one of the few laymen the Church counts among its major theologians.