De Synodis or On the Fiath of the Easterns.

 On the Councils, or, The Faith of the Easterns.

 I had determined, beloved brethren, to send no letter to you concerning the affairs of the Church in consequence of your prolonged silence. For when I

 2. But when I received the letters that your blessed faith inspired, and understood that their slow arrival and their paucity were due to the remotene

 3. You awaited the noble triumph of a holy and steadfast perseverance without yielding to the threats, the powers and the assaults of Saturninus: and

 4. But your invincible faith keeps the honourable distinction of conscious worth, and content with repudiating crafty, vague, or hesitating action, sa

 5. And although in all your actions, past and present, you bear witness to the uninterrupted independence and security of your faith yet in particula

 6. Now I beseech you by the mercy of the Lord, that as I will in this letter according to your desire write to you of divine things and of the witness

 7. Therefore I comply with your affectionate and urgent wish, and I have set down all the creeds which have been promulgated at different times and pl

 8. For although it was necessary to reply to your letters, in which you offered me Christian communion with your faith, (and, moreover, certain of you

 9. Now it seems to me right and appropriate, before I begin my argument about suspicions and dissensions as to words, to give as complete an account a

 10. You remember that in the Blasphemia , lately written at Sirmium, the object of the authors was to proclaim the Father to be the one and only God o

 11. Since there appeared to be some misunderstanding respecting the faith, all points have been carefully investigated and discussed at Sirmium in the

 12. After these many and most impious statements had been made, the Eastern bishops on their side again met together and composed definitions of their

 13. Hereby is excluded the assertion of those who wish to represent the relationship of Father and Son as a matter of names, inasmuch as every image i

 14. The person of the recipient and of the giver are distinguished so that the same should not be made one and sole. For since he is under anathema wh

 15. It is here insisted that the nature is indistinguishable and entirely similar. For since He is the Only-begotten Son of God and the image of the i

 16. With the Son’s origin as thus stated is connected the perfect birth of the undivided nature. For what in each is life, that in each is signified b

 17. Those who say that the Son of God is only a creature or formation are opposed on the fact that they say they have read The Lord formed or created

 18. Moreover, to shew that she possesses a nature that was born and not created, Wisdom has added that she was begotten, that by declaring that she wa

 19. The heretics when beset by authoritative passages in Scripture are wont only to grant that the Son is like the Father in might while they deprive

 20. By confused and involved expressions the heretics very frequently elude the truth and secure the ears of the unwary by the mere sound of common wo

 21. We have always to beware of the vices of particular perversions, and countenance no opportunity for delusion. For many heretics say that the Son i

 22. But birth does not countenance this vain imagination for such identity without differentiation excludes birth. For what is born has a father who

 23. It was said unto the apostles of the Lord, Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves . Christ therefore wished there to be in us the nature of

 24. It is a pious saying that the Father is not limited by times: for the true meaning of the name of Father which He bore before time began surpasses

 25. The essential likeness conformed to the Father’s essence in kind is also taught to be identical in time: lest He who is the image of God, who is t

 26. The above definition when it denied that the idea of time could be applied to the birth of the Son seemed to have given an occasion for heresy (we

 27. We have reviewed, beloved brethren, all the definitions of faith made by the Eastern bishops which they formulated in their assembly against the r

 28. Here, beloved brethren, is the entire creed which was published by some Easterns, few in proportion to the whole number of bishops, and which firs

 29. “We believe in accordance with evangelical and apostolic tradition in one God the Father Almighty, the Creator, Maker and Disposer of all things t

 30. “Having therefore held this faith from the beginning, and being resolved to hold it to the end in the sight of God and Christ, we say anathema to

 31. Perhaps this creed has not spoken expressly enough of the identical similarity of the Father and the Son, especially in concluding that the names

 32. But in the first place we must remember that the bishops did not assemble at Antioch to oppose the heresy which has dared to declare that the subs

 33. Further the whole of the above statement has drawn no distinction whatever between the essence and nature of the Father and the Son. For when it i

 34. “We, the holy synod met in Sardica from different provinces of the East, namely, Thebais, Egypt, Palestine, Arabia, Phœnicia, Cœle Syria, Mesopota

 35. In the exposition of this creed, concise but complete definitions have been employed. For in condemning those who said that the Son sprang from th

 36. On every side, where anxiety might be felt, approach is barred to the arguments of heretics lest it should be declared that there is any differenc

 37. Yet to prevent the declaration of one God seeming to affirm that God is a solitary monad without offspring of His own, it immediately condemns the

 38. “We believe in one God the Father Almighty, the Creator and Maker, from whom every fatherhood in heaven and in earth is named.

 39. The necessity of the moment urged the Council to set forth a wider and broader exposition of the creed including many intricate questions, because

 40. What ambiguity is there here? What is omitted that the consciousness of a sincere faith could suggest? He does not spring from things non-existent

 41. The very statement of the name as our religion states it gives us a clear insight into the fact. For since it is condemned to say that the Father

 42. The fact of the essence declared to be one in the Father and the Son having one name on account of their similarity of nature seemed to offer an o

 43. While denying that the God of us all, the Son of God, existed before He was born in bodily form, some assert that He existed according to foreknow

 44. To contract and expand are bodily affections: but God who is a Spirit and breathes where He listeth, does not expand or contract Himself through a

 45. The above opinion, although meant to teach the immutability of God, yet prepared the way for the following heresy. Some have ventured to say that

 46. Heretics, destroying as far as in them lies the Son of God, confess Him to be only the word, going forth as an utterance from the speaker’s lips a

 47. Thus is preserved both the name and power of the divine substance. For since he is anathema who says that the Son of God by Mary is man and not Go

 48. This preserves the dignity of the Godhead: so that in the fact that the Word was made Flesh, the Word, in becoming Flesh, has not lost through bei

 49. It is clearly shewn why the Word, though He was made Flesh, was nevertheless not transformed into Flesh. Though these kinds of suffering affect th

 50. These points had to be inserted into the creed because Photinus, against whom the synod was held, denied them. They were inserted lest any one sho

 51. The foregoing and the following statements utterly remove any ground for suspecting that this definition asserts a diversity of different deities

 52. Sheer perversity calls for no contradiction: and yet the mad frenzy of certain men has been so violent as to dare to predicate one Person with two

 53. The further clause makes liable to anathema the predicating Unborn God of the Paraclete. For it is most impious to say that He who was sent by the

 54. We remember that the Paraclete was sent by the Son, and at the beginning the creed explained this. But since through the virtue of His nature, whi

 55. The insane frenzy of the heretics, and not any genuine difficulty, rendered it necessary that this should be written. For since the name of Holy S

 56. Since it is contrary to religion to say that there are two Gods, because we remember and declare that nowhere has it been affirmed that there is m

 57. Though we condemn a plurality of gods and declare that God is only one, we cannot deny that the Son of God is God. Nay, the true character of His

 58. To all creatures the will of God has given substance: but a perfect birth gave to the Son a nature from a substance that is impossible and itself

 59. Since it was taught that the Son did not, like all other things, owe His existence to God’s will, lest He should be thought to derive His essence

 60. To declare the Son to be incapable of birth is the height of impiety. God would no longer be One: for the nature of the one Unborn God demands tha

 61. A condemnation of that heresy on account of which the Synod was held necessarily concluded with an explanation of the whole faith that was being o

 62. You perceive that the truth has been sought by many paths through the advice and opinions of different bishops, and the ground of their views has

 63. You must not be surprised, dear brethren, that so many creeds have recently been written. The frenzy of heretics makes it necessary. The danger of

 64. Kept always from guile by the gift of the Holy Spirit, we confess and write of our own will that there are not two Gods but one God nor do we the

 65. I have expounded, beloved brethren, my belief in our common faith so far as our wonted human speech permitted and the Lord, whom I have ever besou

 66. Since your faith and mine, so far as I am conscious, is in no danger before God, and I have shewn you, as you wished, the creeds that have been se

 67. Many of us, beloved brethren, declare the substance of the Father and the Son to be one in such a spirit that I consider the statement to be quite

 68. But if we attribute one substance to the Father and the Son to teach that there is a solitary personal existence although denoted by two titles: t

 69. Therefore amid the numerous dangers which threaten the faith, brevity of words must be employed sparingly, lest what is piously meant be thought t

 70. Therefore let no one think that our words were meant to deny the one substance. We are giving the very reason why it should not be denied. Let no

 71. Beloved brethren, we must not deny that there is one substance of the Father and the Son, but we must not declare it without giving our reasons. T

 72. But perhaps the word similarity may not seem fully appropriate. If so, I ask how I can express the equality of one Person with the other except by

 73. Therefore, beloved brethren, in declaring that the Son is like in all things to the Father, we declare nothing else than that He is equal. Likenes

 74. I am aware, dear brethren, that there are some who confess the likeness, but deny the equality. Let them speak as they will, and insert the poison

 75. Although general conviction and divine authority sanction no difference between likeness and equality, since both Moses and John would lead us to

 76. Therefore, brethren, likeness of nature can be attacked by no cavil, and the Son cannot be said to lack the true qualities of the Father’s nature

 77. Beloved, after explaining in a faithful and godly manner the meaning of the phrases one substance , in Greek ὁμοούσιον, and similar substance

 78. Ye who have begun to be eager for apostolic and evangelical doctrine, kindled by the fire of faith amid the thick darkness of a night of heresy, w

 79. These are deceivers, I both fear and believe they are deceivers, beloved brethren for they have ever deceived. This very document is marked by hy

 80. Now I beseech you, holy brethren, to listen to my anxieties with indulgence. The Lord is my witness that in no matter do I wish to criticise the d

 81. Your letter on the meaning of ὁμοούσιον and ὁμοιούσιον, which Valens, Ursacius and Germinius demanded should be read at Sirmium, I understand to h

 82. But I am not needlessly critical on this point. For I had rather use an expression that is new than commit sin by rejecting it. So, then, we will

 83. But when I at last turn to speak on the third point, I pray you to let there be no conflict of suspicions where there is peace at heart. Do not th

 84. Let us see, therefore, what the Council of Nicæa intended by saying ὁμοούσιον, that is, of one substance: not certainly to hatch the heresy which

 85. But perhaps on the opposite side it will be said that it ought to meet with disapproval, because an erroneous interpretation is generally put upon

 86. Some misunderstand ὁμοούσιον does that prevent me from understanding it? The Samosatene was wrong in using the word ὁμοούσιον does that make the

 87. But perhaps you will reply, ‘Some of those who were then present at Nicæa have now decreed that we ought to keep silence about the word ὁμοούσιον.

 88. Holy brethren, I understand by ὁμοούσιον God of God, not of an essence that is unlike, not divided but born, and that the Son has a birth which is

 89. But you say: ‘The ambiguity of the word ὁμοούσιον troubles and offends me.’ I pray you hear me again and be not offended. I am troubled by the ina

 90. I am afraid, brethren, of the brood of heresies which are successively produced in the East: and I have already read what I tell you I fear. There

 91. I pray you, brethren, remove all suspicion and leave no occasion for it. To approve of ὁμοιούσιον, we need not disapprove of ὁμοούσιον. Let us thi

 92. Beloved brethren, I have passed beyond the bounds of courtesy, and forgetting my modesty I have been compelled by my affection for you to write th

38. “We believe in one God the Father Almighty, the Creator and Maker, from whom every fatherhood in heaven and in earth is named.

“And in His only Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the Father before all ages, God of God, Light of Light, through whom all things were made in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible. Who is the Word and Wisdom and Might and Life and true Light: who in the last days for our sake took a body, And was born of the holy Virgin, And was crucified, And was dead and buried: who also rose from the dead on the third day, And ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of the Father, And shall come at the end of the world to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom continueth without end and remaineth for perpetual ages. For He shall be sitting at the right hand of the Father not only in this age, but also in the age to come.

“And in the Holy Ghost, that is, the Paraclete, whom according to His promise He sent to the apostles after He ascended into heaven to teach them and to remind them of all things, through whom also are sanctified the souls of those who believe sincerely in Him.

I. “But those who say that the Son is sprung from things non-existent, or from another substance and not from God, and that there was a time or age when He was not, the holy Catholic Church regards as aliens.

II. “If any man says that the Father and the Son are two Gods: let him be anathema.

III. “And if any man says that God is one, but does not confess that Christ, God the Son of God, ministered to the Father in the creation of all things: let him be anathema.

IV. “And if any man dares to say that the Unborn God, or a part of Him, was born of Mary: let him be anathema.

V. “And if any man say that the Son born of Mary was, before born of Mary, Son only according to foreknowledge or predestination, and denies that He was born of the Father before the ages and was with God, and that all things were made through Him: let him be anathema.

VI. “If any man says that the substance of God is expanded and contracted: let him be anathema.

VII. “If any man says that the expanded substance of God makes the Son; or names Son His supposed expanded substance: let him be anathema.

VIII. “If any man says that the Son of God is the internal or uttered Word of God: let him be anathema.

IX. “If any man says that the man alone born of Mary is the Son: let him be anathema.

X. “If any man though saying that God and Man was born of Mary, understands thereby the Unborn God: let him be anathema.

XI. “If any man hearing The Word was made Flesh23    John i. 14.thinks that the Word was transformed into Flesh, or says that He suffered change in taking Flesh: let him be anathema.

XII. “If any man hearing that the only Son of God was crucified, says that His divinity suffered corruption, or pain, or change, or diminution, or destruction: let him be anathema.

XIII. “If any man says Let us make man24    Gen. i. 26.was not spoken by the Father to the Son, but by God to Himself: let him be anathema.

XIV. “If any man says that the Son did not appear to Abraham, but the Unborn God, or a part of Him: let him be anathema.

XV. “If any man says that the Son did not wrestle with Jacob as a man, but the Unborn God, or a part of Him: let him be anathema.

XVI. “If any man does not understand The Lord rained from the Lord to be spoken of the Father and the Son, but that the Father rained from Himself: let him be anathema. For the Lord the Son rained from the Lord the Father.

XVII. “If any man says that the Lord and the Lord, the Father and the Son are two Gods, because of the aforesaid words: let him be anathema. For we do not make the Son the equal or peer of the Father, but understand the Son to be subject. For He did not come down to Sodom without the Father’s will, nor rain from Himself but from the Lord, to wit by the Father’s authority; nor does He sit at the Father’s right hand by His own authority, but He hears the Father saying. Sit thou on My right hand25    Ps. cix 1..

XVIII. “If any man says that the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are one Person: let him be anathema.

XIX. “If any man speaking of the Holy Ghost the Paraclete says that He is the Unborn God: let him be anathema.

XX. “If any man denies that, as the Lord has taught us, the Paraclete is different from the Son; for He said, And the Father shall send you another Comforter, whom I shall ask26    John xiv. 16.: let him be anathema.

XXI. “If any man says that the Holy Spirit is a part of the Father or of the Son: let him be anathema.

XXII. “If any man says that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are three Gods: let him be anathema.

XXIII. “If any man after the example of the Jews understands as said for the destruction of the Eternal Only-begotten God the words, I am the first God, and I am the last God, and beside Me there is no God27    Isai. xliv. 6., which were spoken for the destruction of idols and them that are no gods: let him be anathema.

XXIV. “If any man says that the Son was made by the will of God, like any object in creation: let him be anathema.

XXV. “If any man says that the Son was born against the will of the Father: let him be anathema. For the Father was not forced against His own will, or induced by any necessity of nature to beget the Son: but as soon as He willed, before time and without passion He begat Him of Himself and shewed Him forth.

XXVI. “If any man says that the Son is incapable of birth and without beginning, saying as though there were two incapable of birth and unborn and without beginning, and makes two Gods: let him be anathema. For the Head, which is the beginning of all things, is the Son; but the Head or beginning of Christ is God: for so to One who is without beginning and is the beginning of all things, we refer the whole world through Christ.

XXVII. “Once more we strengthen the understanding of Christianity by saying, If any man denies that Christ who is God and Son of God, personally existed before time began and aided the Father in the perfecting of all things; but says that only from the time that He was born of Mary did He gain the name of Christ and Son and a beginning of His deity: let him be anathema.”

38. «Credimus in unum Deum patrem omnipotentem, creatorem et conditorem, ex quo omnis paternitas in coelo et in terris nominatur. Et in unicum ejus Filium Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, qui ante omnia saecula ex Patre natus est, Deum ex Deo, lumen ex lumine, per quem facta sunt omnia in coelis et in terra, visibilia et invisibilia. Qui est verbum, et sapientia, et virtus, et vita, et lumen verum: qui in novissimis diebus propter nos incorporatus est, et natus de sancta Virgine, et crucifixus, 0509C et mortuus est, et sepultus: qui et surrexit ex mortuis tertia die, et adscendit in coelum, et sedet in dextera Patris, et venturus est in consummatione saeculi judicare vivos et mortuos, et reddere unicuique secundum opera sua: cujus regnum sine fine perseverans, permanet in perpetua saecula. Erit enim sedens in dextera Patris, non solum in hoc saeculo, verum etiam et in futuro. Et in Spiritum sanctum, id est, paracletum, quem promittens Apostolis, postea quam coelum adscendit, misit docere eos, et 0510A commonere omnia, per quem et sanctificantur credentium in eum sinceriter animae.

I. «Eos autem qui dicunt: De nullis exstantibus Filius, vel de altera substantia, et non ex Deo; et quod erat tempus vel saeculum quando non erat: alienos scit sancta et catholica Ecclesia.

II. «Si quis autem Patrem et Filium duos dicit deos: anathema sit.

III. «Et si quis, unum dicens Deum, Christum autem Deum ante saecula filium Dei obsecutum Patri in creatione omnium non confitetur: anathema sit.

IV. «Et si quis innascibilem Deum, vel partem ejus, de Maria natum esse audet 486 dicere: anathema sit.

0510B V. «Et si quis secundum praescientiam vel praedestinationem a Maria dicit Filium esse, et non ante saecula ex Patre natum apud Deum esse, et per eum facta esse omnia: anathema sit.

VI. «Si quis substantiam Dei dilatari et contrahi dicit: anathema sit.

VII. «Si quis dilatatam substantiam Dei filium dicat facere; aut latitudinem substantiae ejus, sicuti sibi videtur, Filium nominet: anathema sit.

VIII. «Si quis insitum vel prolativum verbum Dei filium dicat: anathema sit.

IX. «Si quis hominem solum dicit de Maria Filium: anathema sit.

X. «Si quis Deum et hominem de Maria natum dicens, Deum innascibilem sic intelligit: anathema 0510C sit.

XI. «Si quis Verbum caro factum est (Joan. I, 14), audiens, Verbum in carnem translatum putet, vel demutationem sustinentem accepisse carnem dicit: anathema sit.

XII. «Si quis unicum filium Dei crucifixum audiens, dealitatem (θεότητα) ejus corruptionem vel passibilitatem (πάθος) aut demutationem aut deminutionem vel interfectionem sustinuisse dicat: anathema sit.

XIII. «Si quis, Faciamus hominem (Gen. I, 26), 0511A non Patrem ad Filium dixisse, sed ipsum ad semetipsum dicat Deum locutum: anathema sit.

XIV. «Si quis filium non dicat Abrahae visum (Gen. XVIII), sed Deum innascibilem, vel partem ejus: anathema sit.

XV. «Si quis cum Jacob non Filium quasi hominem colluctatum (Gen. XXXII, 24), sed Deum innascibilem, vel partem ejus dicat: anathema sit.

XVI. «Si quis, Pluit Dominus a Domino (Gen. XIX, 24), non de Filio et Patre intelligat, sed ipsum a se dicat pluisse: anathema sit. Pluit enim Dominus Filius a Domino Patre.

XVII. «Si quis Dominum et Dominum 487 Patrem et Filium (quia Dominus a Domino [supple pluit]), duos dicat deos: anathema sit. Non enim 0511B exaequamus vel comparamus Filium Patri, sed subjectum intelligimus. Neque enim descendit in Sodomam sine Patris voluntate; neque pluit ex se, sed a Domino, auctoritate scilicet Patris; nec sedet in dextera a semetipso, sed audit dicentem Patrem, Sede ad dexteram meam (Psal. CIX, 1).

XVIII. «Si quis Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum unam personam dicat: anathema sit.

XIX. «Si quis Spiritum sanctum paracletum dicens, innascibilem Deum dicat: anathema sit.

XX. «Si quis, sicuti docuit nos Dominus, non alium dicat Paracletum a Filio; dixit enim: Et alterum paracletum mittet vobis Pater, quem rogabo ego (Joan. XIV, 16): anathema sit.

XXI. «Si quis Spiritum sanctum partem dicat Patris 0511C vel Filii: anathema sit.

XXII. «Si quis Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum tres dicat deos: anathema sit.

0512A XXIII. «Si quis, quod dictum est: Ego Deus primus, et ego Deus novissimus, et praeter me non est Deus (Esai. XLIV, 6), ad destructionem idolorum dictum et eorum qui non sunt dii, in destructionem unigeniti ante saecula Dei judaice intelligat: anathema sit.

XXIV. «Si quis voluntate Dei, tamquam unum aliquid de creatura, factum dicat Filium: anathema sit.

XXV. «Si quis nolente Patre natum dicat Filium: anathema sit. Non enim nolente Patre coactus Pater, vel naturali necessitate ductus, cum nollet genuit Filium: sed mox voluit, sine tempore et impassibiliter ex se eum genitum demonstravit.

XXVI. «Si quis innascibilem et sine initio dicat 0512B Filium, tamquam duo sine principio et duo innascibilia et duo innata dicens: duos faciat deos: anathema sit. Caput enim, quod est principium omnium, Filius; caput autem, quod est principium Christi, Deus: 488 ita enim ad unum qui est sine principio omnium principium, per Filium universa referimus.

XXVII. «Et iterum confirmantes Christianismi intellectum, dicimus, quoniam si quis Christum Deum filium Dei ante saecula subsistentem et ministrantem Patri ad omnium perfectionem non dicat: sed ex quo de Maria natus est, ex eo et Christum et filium nominatum esse, et initium accepisse ut sit Deus, dicat: anathema sit .»