Pelagius (c.354–c.425) was a British cleric, active in Rome from around 380, and later in North Africa and the Middle East. He denied the transmission of original sin, and denied that baptism is necessary to be freed from it. He held the strenuous view that man can take the first steps to his own salvation without the assistance of divine grace, and was one of the principal targets of Augustine who had his doctrine imperially condemned in 418. The dispute rumbled on, but the declaration was upheld at the Council of Ephesus in 431.