in ecclesiastical history, a name anciently, and even at this day, given to such as retain some tincture of Pelagianism. See PELAGIANS.

Cassian, who had been a deacon of Constantinople, and was afterwards a priest at Marseilles, was the chief of these Semipelagians; whose leading principles were,

1. That God did not dispense his grace to one more than another in consequence of predestination, i.e., an eternal and absolute decree, but was willing to save all men, if they complied with the terms of his gospel.

2. That Christ died for all men.

3. That the grace purchased by Christ, and necessary to salvation, was offered to all men.

4. That man, before he received grace, was capable of faith and holy desires.

5. That man was born free, and was consequently capable of resisting the influences of grace, or of complying with its suggestion. The Semipelagians were very numerous; and the doctrine of Cassian, though variously explained, was received in the greatest part of the monastic schools in Gaul, from whence it spread itself far and wide thro' the European provinces. As to the Greeks and other Semiramis, eastern Christians, they had embraced the Semipelagian doctrines before Cassian, and still adhere to them. In the 6th century, the controversy between the Semipelagians and the disciples of Augustin prevailed much, and continued to divide the western churches.