Did Pelagius believe in "faith alone"? The doctrine of "faith alone," or sola fide, teaches that people are justified only by their faith in Christ, not by any works they do.  It was emphasized during the Protestant Reformation, where it was one of the marks distinguishing Protestants from Roman Catholics.  

However, I found an interesting statement in Bruce Shelley's Church History in Plain Language that seems to indicate a much earlier origin.  He describes the views of Pelagius (d. 418) as follows:


  God predestinates no one, except in the sense that he foresees who will believe and who will reject his gracious influences.  His forgiveness comes to all who exercise "faith alone"; but, once forgiven, man has power of himself to live pleasing to God. (138)


Of course, Pelagius's views on sin differed significantly from those of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation and most modern Protestants.  As a result, his doctrine of "faith alone," if it exists, will likely differ in particulars from that of Protestants.  So I'd like to know:


Did Pelagius believe in a doctrine called "faith alone" or one bearing resemblance to the Protestant doctrine?


That is, did he believe that faith without works caused someone to be saved?

If yes, what are the main ways in which his view differed from that of Protestant leaders like Luther and Calvin?
Below I've tried to summarize Calvin's views and then characterize Pelagius' as they relate to salvation by faith alone. All quotes from Calvin below are from his Institutes of the Christian religion. I will therefore just reference chapter and part in my quotes from Calvin. I left Luther out, because I don't have any of his books on hand.

Faith Alone according to Calvin: 

John Calvin taught what is familiar to most contemporary Protestants

Book 3 Chapter 2
Part 1


  "God by his Law prescribes what we ought to do, failure in any one respect subjects us to the dreadful judgment of eternal death, ... it is not only difficult, but altogether beyond our strength and ability to fulfill the demands of the Law ... " (no merit in ourselves can be found) "there is only one method of deliverance which can deliver us ... when Christ the Redeemer appears ... if we with true faith embrace this mercy, and with firm hope rest in it.


Part 2


  "Faith consists not in ignorance, but in knowledge - knowledge not of God merely, but of the divine will. We do not obtain salvation either because we are prepared to embrace every dictate of the church as true, or leave to the church the province of inquiring and determining; but when we recognize God as a propitious Father through the reconciliation made by Christ ... By this knowledge ... we obtain an entrance into the kingdom of heaven."


Part 3


  "Faith consists in the knowledge of God and Christ"


So faith is the knowledge of Christ's work for us by which we receive his righteousness.

Pelagius

Now attempting to characterize whether Pelagius taught that man may be saved by faith alone is more difficult. He certainly did not teach that man must be saved by faith alone as Calvin did.

The Seven Ecumenical Councils from Shaff's Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, the Excursus on Pelagianism  (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.xiv.xxvi.html)


  "Further he taught that man could live without committing any sin at all. And for this there was no need of grace; indeed grace was not possible, according to his teaching.  The only “grace,” which he would admit the existence of, was what we may call external grace, e.g. the example of Christ, the teaching of his ministers, and the like."


Augustine gives some more detail about how Pelagius believed man could be saved without grace here: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.xiv.xxvi.html (chapter 22 of his Anti-Pelagian writings)

We take for granted that Pelagius must have thought that if a man has chosen to be without sin, then he will enjoy eternal life. So it can be safely stated that man did not need to be saved by faith-alone. The question then is how Pelagius viewed those who had sinned and therefore needed grace; could those poor souls be saved by faith alone in the way Calvin understood it? I think the answer is no.

Unfortunately the best on topic content that I found comes from St. Augustine in his polemic against Pelagius.

St. Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings Chapter 33 (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.xiv.xxxvii.html), quoting Pelagius here:


  "we declare that God gives to the person, who has proved himself worthy to receive them, all graces, even as He conferred them on the Apostle Paul."


I don't think it takes much imagination to see how this statement by Pelagius directly opposes salvation by faith alone as taught by Calvin or any other Protestant (it is probably even unagreeable to Catholics); so long as we extend the grace he refers to here to include saving grace and not just the grace received by believers after baptism (personally I don't differentiate between the two). Chapter 33-36 of this work is where St. Augustine makes the following important points:


Grace is given to those who don't deserve it
If grace were given to the deserving it wouldn't be grace
Faith is given by God and works follow after this faith is implanted in the believer


All of these points are made as refutations of Pelagius' teachings and all points are foundational to the reformed doctrine in question; so if St. Augustine is to be believed, then Pelagius definitely couldn't have believed that man is saved by faith alone. However, this condemnation seems to all be hung on this one statement from Pelagius (I didn't read all those chapters in detail).

Following are some secondary considerations:

Pelagius - Letter and Confession of Faith to Innocent I (http://www.earlychurchtexts.com/public/pelagius_letter_and_confession_to_innocent.htm)


  "If after baptism a man do fall, we believe he may be recovered by repentance [or penance]." 


This little snippet stands opposed to Calvin's teachings. He did say that repentance was required throughout life, but firmly rejected the Catholic practice of penance and the sacrament of confession altogether. Pelagius, however, appears to view it as a necessary action for those who have sinned to restore their salvation. It is worth noting that this was not a controversial doctrine at the time, St. Augustine probably agreed with him on this point.

St. Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings Chapter 28 (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.xiv.xxxii.html)


  "the Church is by the laver cleansed from every spot and wrinkle ... And who amongst us denies that in baptism the sins of all men are remitted, and that all believers come up spotless and pure from the laver of regeneration?"


Pelagius most certainly taught that those defiled by sin must be baptized to receive the forgiveness of sins. This contradicts how many Protestants conceive of salvation by faith-alone: believing saves you and baptism is just a symbol of that belief. However, I cannot say how Calvin would respond to this, he seems to emphasize different aspects of baptism, but not deny that it is how we initially receive grace: "forgiveness ... at our first regeneration we receive by baptism alone" (4:15:3). However, he mostly talks about how baptism gives the believer "knowledge and certainty" (4:15:1) of the gifts of salvation. Since knowledge = faith to Calvin, perhaps we can say that Calvin thought that baptism gives better understanding and assurance which is in itself perfecting the faith that already exists and therefore needful for salvation; however it is still this faith that saves. I think Calvin's views on baptism differ from Pelagius', but have some overlap. When Calvin attacks Pelagius he does so for his conception of infant baptism, not on his teachings about why converts need baptism. I don't think we can say that this teaching alone would exclude him from believing in faith-alone salvation from Calvin's viewpoint, but according to some it would.

In summary, imposing a contemporary reformed doctrine on Pelagius is difficult, because it was not what he was on trial for. None of his accusers condemned him for saying that man must work for his salvation or apply his effort to it. He was condemned for allowing that man may be saved apart from grace. Notice that the anathemas against Pelagius from the council of Carthage (http://www.earlychurchtexts.com/public/carthage_canons_on_sin_and_grace.htm) say that "without the grace of God we can do no good thing." They do not say that man cannot perform actions pleasing to God which are beneficial to salvation; neither do they say that man is saved by faith alone, they simply state that man cannot do any of these things with God's grace (note St. John Cassian's exhortation to a synergistic view of salvation in response to Augustine's polemical writings; as talked about in the article posted in my first comment).

The best proof we have is Augustine's words against Pelagius, but one may think that he is extrapolating the words of the heretic a bit.

As an aside, I would use caution with the phrase "faith apart from works" when referring to the soteriology of Calvin. He certainly taught that believers were to inherit salvation through good works.

Book 3 Chapter 18
Part1

"But though it is by mercy alone that God admits his people to life, yet as he leads them into possession of it by the course of good works"

Part 3

"believers must continue running during the whole course of their lives in order that they may attain it"