Abbot Chæremon responds to Germanus’s concern that credit for virtues such as chastity should belong chiefly to human effort. Using the farmer whose labour bears fruit only with favourable weather, he teaches that striving is necessary but cannot produce good without divine grace. The apparent chastity of pagan philosophers, he adds, often restrained outward acts without purifying the inner passions; Christian purity requires God’s gift and a contrite heart.

The conference examines how grace and free will cooperate in salvation. Human beings retain the natural capacity to recognise good and remain responsible for resisting or accepting it, yet every good desire, opportunity, and successful action depends on providence. God wills the salvation of all, nurtures even a small spark of goodwill, and acts as physician, father, protector, and helper, sometimes intervening when people resist or do not perceive their danger. Scripture both commands effort and attributes its power to mercy. Trials test and strengthen the authenticity of faith, while God draws different people by different paths. Salvation is therefore neither passive fatalism nor human achievement: people must cooperate, but grace initiates, sustains, and completes the work.