Free Will Heresy Paper

[bauerpauer]

So i'm doing a paper for my European History on the free will heresy. It has to be simple enough for high school students to understand yet 'meaty enough', if you will, to get a grasp on the basic theology of free will. I'm convinced God is sovereign in salvation, election, the whole works. But when did the whole idea behind free will start? Who started it? Is there any proof of any recorded free will catechisms or canons or anything before Jacob Arminius or Pelagian. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

[wildboar]

Adam.

The Sadducees were thorough free-willists. The Pharisees were moderate free-willists and the Essenes denied free-will. Free-will was believed by many Greek philosophers and so when the Gentiles were brought in a number of them would have assumed free-will. Augustine wrote a good deal of his writings while still assuming free-will until the Pelagian controversy when he began denying it.