That is not true. Pelagianism is the idea that we can make such decisions WITHOUT God and His grace, either before or after our initial justification. He believed that the unassisted human will takes the determining initiative in the matter of salvation. He didn't believe in original sin. The Church has refuted those positions. But don't go in the other extreme by saying that man, even with the aid of God, cannot make a decision to choose Him. He is our Father, not an unloving tyrant who forces us to follow His will.
Again, I point you to Phil 2:12,13. God gives us the ability to choose Him. He stirs within us the desire and will to do good. But choosing to do good with God's aid is not Pelagianism. Otherwise, WHAT is God saving? He is no longer saving someone who is in the image of God. Being in His image, we have freedom - we can reject God, which presumes that we can accept Him (but not without His aid).
Also, you are incorrect that the Early Church felt that man had no freedom. They taught that God gives sufficient grace to everyone for faith and salvation. The Scriptures also say that Christ died for the SIN of the WHOLE world. That man can decide to accept or reject God's gift does NOT deflate God's sovereignty - it is God's will to love! Love DEMANDS a choice.
Brother in Christ
Unfortunately Semi-Pelagianism continued and was the substance fought over during the Reformation. Protestants had no sooner got their Augustinian footing back when along came Joseph Arminian who took the Semi-Pelagian model and remolded it into Arminianism. Below is a short definition of Semi-Pelagianism and Arminian beliefs. Please note how close Arminianism is to what you are saying.
Semi-Pelagianism
While not denying the necessity of Grace for salvation, Semi-Pelagianism maintains that the first steps towards the Christian life are ordinarily taken by the human will and that Grace supervened only later.
Arminianism
In contrast to semi-pelagianism, Arminianism teaches that the first steps of grace are taken by God. This teaching derives from the Remonstrance of 1610, a codification of the teachings of Jacob Arminius (1559-1609). Here are the 3rd and 4th articles of five to show how close it actually sounds to traditional Calvinism, but still left with a small island of righteousness for man, as you will see:
III.That man has not saving grace of himself, nor of the working of his own free-will, inasmuch as in his state of apostasy and sin he can for himself and by himself think nothing that is good--nothing, that is, truly good, such as saving faith is, above all else. But that it is necessary that by God, in Christ and through his Holy Spirit he be born again and renewed in understanding, affections and will and in all his faculties, that he may be able to understand, think, will, and perform what is truly good, according to the Word of God [John 15:5].
IV.That this grace of God is the beginning, the progress and the end of all good; so that even the regenerate man can neither think, will nor effect any good, nor withstand any temptation to evil, without grace precedent (or prevenient), awakening, following and co-operating. So that all good deeds and all movements towards good that can be conceived in through must be ascribed to the grace of God in Christ. But with respect to the mode of operation, grace is not irresistible; for it is written of many that they resisted the Holy Spirit [Acts 7 and elsewhere passim].
Reformed Theology by contrast teaches that the natural men may have common grace, common illuminations, and common affections that are from the Spirit of God. Natural men have sometimes the influences of the Spirit of God in His common operations and gifts, and therefore God's Spirit is said to be striving with them, and they are said to resist the Spirit, (Acts 7:51;) to grieve and vex God's Holy Spirit, (Eph. 4:30; Isaiah 63:10;) While indeed fallen men resist grace every day when the gospel is presented to them, for that is their nature and desire. But it is important to note that God can and does make His grace effectual or irresistible at a time of His sovereign merciful choosing (John 6:37, 39, 44, 63-65; John 3:8; Matt 11:27; 1 Corinthians 1:9; Paul's conversion in Acts 2:39, Acts 9; Rom 8:30 ROM 9:11-24; 1 Cor. 1:9-26; Gal. 1:6-15; 1 Thess. 1:5, 6; 1 Thess. 2:12; 5:24; 2 Thess. 2:14; Eph. 1:18; 4:1-4, 5; 2 Tim. 1:9; Heb. 3:1; 1 Pet. 2:9; 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3-10). If this kind of effectual grace can be resisted, as Arminians claim, then faith is understood as a natural preparation for saving grace, as the fulfillment of a condition for receiving supernatural grace by the performance of something that is within man's natural capacity/desire to do. Man, in this scheme, cooperates with God's prevenient grace according to his native ability. But the Scripture teaches that salvation is not a faith-contribution or a principle standing ultimately independent of God's action of grace. Rather, it does not owe exclusively to man's natural endowment with a free will and does not arise out of an inherent capacity of the natural man, as Arminians teach. Rather, God acts unilaterally and exclusively, taking the sole initiative in a free act of sovereign grace—grace that is altogether prior to, and productive of, justifying faith.
Hannah More said:
"The sacred writings frequently point out the analogy between natural and spiritual things. The same Spirit, which in the creation of the world moved upon the face of the waters, operates on the human character to produce a new heart and a new life. By this operation the affections and faculties of the man receive a new impulse -- his dark understanding is illuminated, his rebellious will is subdued, his irregular desires are rectified; his judgment is informed, his imagination is chastised, his inclinations are sanctified; his hopes and fears are directed to their true and adequate end. Heaven becomes the object of his hopes, and eternal separation from God the object of his fears. His love of the world is transformed into the love of God. The lower faculties are pressed into the new service. The senses have a higher direction. The whole internal frame and constitution receive a nobler bent; the intents and purposes of the mind, a sublimer aim; his aspirations, a loftier flight; his vacillating desires find a fixed object; his vagrant purposes a settled home; his disappointed heart a certain refuge. That heart, no longer the worshiper of the world, is struggling to become its conqueror. Our blessed Redeemer, in overcoming the world, bequeathed us his command to overcome it also; but as he did not give the command without the example, so he did not give the example without the offer of a power to obey the command."
While it is clear that Arminian Theology and Semi-Pelagianism have a different view of grace; (Arminianism believes God must initiate with grace and Semi-pelagianism believes man must initiate to receive grace), but both systems ultimately share in common a characteristic - synergism. The question Arminians still need to answer is why do some people believe the gospel and not others? Is the power/desire to cooperate with God's grace itself a work of the Holy Spirit or of the natural man? How can a natural man produce holy affections without God illuminating the mind and heart? What ultimately makes men to differ? grace or faith?
I must say that I did not come to these conclusions lightly but through a lot of research on church history, reading the writings of many of the humanistic church fathers during the 11-15th centuries (the age of the Renaissance with it’s man-centered philosophies), and rereading the scriptures from a Reformed point of view. An article of interest that I stumbled across just now that articulate this history is Outlines of Theology: Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism & Augustinianism ..by A. A. Hodge. Please note of special interest #6, 7 and 8.
Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism, and the Protestant Arminianism were the evolutionary process of the same heresy. The Catholic position, as you have outline it is the true Arminian position. That is why there is very little difference in the Luthern/Catholic/Presbyternian/Eastern Orthodox/... churches anymore. Just about everyone follows the Arminian model which was based upon Semi-Pelagianism which was based upon Pelagianism. I don't know what you want to call it for everyone has variation of the same thing. (Even the Protestants can't decide.)
After 30 years as a Christian I believe I was in error. The Reformed position traces its roots straight back to Augustine. Luther and Calvin just refined Augustine's writings but the doctrine remains the same. It has not changed over time as has Pelagianism/Semi-Pelagianism/Arminianism and that is why I believe the Reformed position to be the true doctrine of the western church.
God saves man according to His good grace and elects those who He so desires by His sovereign choice. The scriptures are clear and the traces of this belief goes straight back to the apostles. I do believe a great many Christian brothers and sisters are in error over this.
Blessings