Church leaders tried repeatedly to distance themselves from one side of the grace-free will debate, but they usually ended up exactly where they didn't want to be: the middle.
The fall of Rome was the 9/11 of the ancient world; Alaric, its Osama bin Laden. As the "eternal city" crumbled, Augustine of Hippo pointed Christians to the City of God—the eternal church on pilgrimage through a world that is not our home.