2

selves they might be used to show that Tertullian's method in speaking of distinctions between the Divine Persons was "the method of Juristic fictions." 1 But there are others which might point to a simpler explanation of the terms: adv. Hermog. 3: "Deus substantiæ ipsius (Christi) nomen est diuinitatis." Apol. 21: "Hunc ex Deo prolatum didicimus et prolatione generatum et idcirco Filium Dei et Deum dictum ex unitate substantiæ."

Faustus, in his book On the Holy Spirit, explains that "to persons it belongs to subsist each one properly by himself," though not unnaturally he afterwards reverts to the legal phrase, persona res iuris.

This question of definition has a wider range than the mere historical problem, whether the use made of these terms in the Quicunque points to a Gallican or African origin. Before we can discuss in the sequel the usefulness of this creed, we must make out what these terms meant at the time of their introduction into Christian formularies. We inherit them also in the Collect and Special Preface for Trinity Sunday, as in the first of the Thirty-nine Articles. Our theology would not be simplified by rejection of this creed. Too much has been made sometimes of S. Augustine's caution that we should use the term "person to express distinctions in the Godhead, not as a satisfactory explanation, but only that we should not remain altogether silent. It is only of the term that he is shy, and that probably because of the danger of taking it in a bold legal sense. He does not shrink from following out the train of thought to which a philosophical explanation of it leads, from a most elaborate analysis of self-consciousness, or from explaining the doctrine of the Trinity by such analogies. As Mr. Illingworth has so clearly shown in his lectures on the doctrine of Personality, men can only obtain more accurate knowledge of the mysteries of Divine Being by more accurate analysis of the mystery of their own being. S. Augustine followed out a

Prax. 14 (Lam. iv. 20): "Spiritus personæ eius Christus Dominus." In both cases the LXX. has πρόσωπον.

1 Harnack, D. G. ii. p. 307.

2 Seeberg, D.G. i. p. 87.

train of thought already suggested by S. Hilary, and those writers who condemn Augustinian speculation most loudly, ignore the theological preparation made for them, which proves them to be the crown of a long series, and not merely the rash deductions of an isolated thinker.

§ II. CONTEMPORARY PROFESSIONS OF FAITH

At the beginning of the fifth century there were in existence in Gaul a number of private professions of faith, relics of a time of restless unsettlement when heresies abounded. Some of them were written in self-defence, some of them simply in the ordinary course of teaching. The history of the Church in Gaul at that period is at many points obscure, and it is difficult to estimate how widely they were used or even known. But it is important to take account of them before discussing the history of the Quicunque, since some of them are found grouped with it in many collections of canons and expositions. Their relation to its history has never been fully investigated, because until recently they have not been critically edited. Their importance consists in the fact that they show the same trend of thought towards fuller teaching on the Trinity and Incarnation.

The most important is the so-called "Faith of the Romans," which will come again under our notice as containing a quotation from the Apostles' Creed. It is attributed to Phœbadius, Bishop of Agen, during the last half of the fourth century. Its further interest for us consists in its clear teaching that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three Gods, but one God; that the Son is not created, but begotten; that we venerate the Holy Spirit as God, not unbegotten nor begotten, not created nor made, but of the Father and the Son always in the Father and the Son co-eternal. The Father begetting the Son did not diminish or lose the fulness of His Deity. In dealing with the incarnation, the author states clearly the facts against Apollinarianism. It was incorporated in a book On the

Trinity, which became widely popular under the name of Athanasius, and in this way the profession got the name "Libellus Fidei S. Athanasii," by which Hincmar of Rheims called it in the ninth century. Probably it was by association with it in MSS. containing this book that the Quicunque also got the name "Faith of S. Athanasius." In collections of creeds the most common name is "The Faith of the Romans, or the Roman Church." This name points to early use in Rome, and the opinion is confirmed by the fact that a long quotation from it is found in the apocryphal Acts of Liberius (p. 215 infra). It is worth while to dwell on these points, because they throw light on the history of a kindred form known as the Creed of Damasus, a full account of which I must reserve for Chapter X. At this moment I will only point out that it belongs to this period, and is found in a MS. of the sixth century. It is partly dependent on the Fides Romanorum, and deals in the same way with the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation.

Another confession of great interest was presented by Victricius, Bishop of Rouen, to Pope Innocent 1. in 403. We know it only from the references in a letter written to him by his intimate friend, Paulinus of Nola. He was accused, it would seem unjustly, of a leaning to Arian or Apollinarian heresy, and wrote to the Pope to defend himself, expressing his faith in a co-eternal Trinity, of one divinity and substance, and in the incarnation as the assuming of full manhood in body and soul.2 There is a parallel passage in his book, de Laude Sanctorum, which I will print with it.

PAULINUS, Ep. 37.

Cum ergo fides et confessio tua, ut credimus atque confidimus coæternam Trinitatem, unius diuinitatis et substantiæ et operis et regni esse testetur; cumque Patrem Deum et

VICTRICIUS, de Laude Sanctorum,c.iv.

Confitemur Deum Patrem, confitemur Deum Filium, confitemur Spiritum Sanctum Deum. Confitemur quia tres unum sunt. Unum dixi; quia ex uno, sicut Filius de Patre

1 This work, formerly ascribed to Vigilius of Thapsus, is now ascribed by Morin to an unknown theologian of the fourth century.-Ben. Rév. 1898.

2 Paulinus, Ep. 37. 5.

PAULINUS-contd.

VICTRICIUS-contd.

ita Pater in Filio; Sanctus Spiritus uero de Patre et Filio: ita et Pater et Filius in Spiritu Sancto. Una Deitas, una substantia quia ut tres ex uno, ita unitas in tribus. Sic confitemur quia sic credimus indiuiduam Trinitatem, ante quam nihil potest attingi nec mente concipi.

Filium Deum et Spiritum Sanctum Deum, ut est qui est et erat et uenturus est . . . quod ita ut ipse a Deo doctus es, doces unitatem Trinitatis sine confusione iungens, et Trinitatem ipsius unitatis sine separatione distinguens, ita ut nulla alteri persona conueniat, et in omni persona trium Deus unus eluceat ; et tantus quidem Filius quantus et Pater, quantus et Spiritus Sanctus; sed semper quisque nominis sui proprietate distinctus, indiuiduam retinet in uirtutis et gloriæ æqualitate concordiam.

Certi autem sumus, quod et Filium Dei ita prædicas, ut eundem et Filium hominis confiteri non erubescas; tam uere hominem in nostra natura quam uere Deum in sua; sed Filium Dei ante sæcula, quia ipse est Dei Verbum Deus, qui erat in principio apud Deum, æque Deus coomnipotens et cooperator Patris. . . . Et hoc Uerbum, pietatis immensæ mysterio, caro factum est et habitauit in nobis. Non autem caro tantum corporis nostri, sed homo totus, et corporis nostri et animæ assumptione, animæ autem rationalis, quæ iuxta naturale opificium Dei habet insitam mentem; alioquin in tenebris Apollinaris errabimus, si hominem assumptum a Deo animam mentis humanæ uacuam, qualis est pecorum et iumentorum, dicamus habuisse; et eum hominem, quem suscepit Dei Filius, necesse est ea ueritate, quæ ueritas est et qua creauit hominem, totum susceperit, ut opus suum plena salute renouaret.

The so-called "Creed of Bacchiarius" deals with precisely the same problems, and shows how eagerly they were discussed at the beginning of the fifth century. Bacchiarius was probably a Spanish monk who had come into Gaul while there was widespread suspicion of Priscillianism, and was made to defend himself before some Gallican bishops from complicity in such heresy. He too asserts the eternal distinctions in the Divine relationships of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, their unity in substance, power, and will. In words which resemble the parallel clauses of the Quicunque, he elaborates the teaching of the scriptural terms, "begotten" and "proceeding."

FIDES BACCHIARII, Cod. Ambros. O. 212 sup.

Pater Deus et Filius Deus, sed non idem Pater, qui Filius, sed idem creditur esse Pater, quod Filius. Et Spiritus Sanctus non Pater ingenitus, sed Spiritus ingeniti Patris. Filius genitus . . . Pater enim unus ingen

itus, Filius unus est genitus, Spiritus Sanctus a Patre procedens Patri et Filio coæternus. . .

...

Itaque Spiritus Sanctus nec Pater esse ingenitus nec Filius genitus æstimetur, sed Spiritus Sanctus, qui a Patre procedit; sed non est aliud, quod procedit, quam quod unde procedit. Si persona quæritur, Deus est. Нӕс per hoc tripertita coniunctio et coniuncta diuisio et in personis excludit unionem et in personarum distinctione obtinet Unitatem. Sicque credimus beatissimam Trinitatem, quod unius naturæ est, unius deitatis, unius eiusdemque uirtutis atque substantiæ, ne inter Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum sit ulla diuersitas, nisi quod ille Pater est et hic Filius et ille Spiritus Sanctus, Trinitas in subsistentibus personis, Unitas in natura atque substantia.

He confesses the truth of the incarnation in the taking of human flesh and soul, and the dependent truth of the future resurrection of men in their bodies. He concludes with statements on the origin of the soul, the nature of the devil, marriage, and the canon of Holy Scripture.

To these professions we must also add the creed of the heretic Pelagius, which, with the exception of one passage on free will, is a document of great dogmatic value, and so fully orthodox that it has been ascribed both to Jerome and Augustine.

He explains the Greek terms ὁμοούσιον and ὑπόστασις, asserting the equality of the Divine Persons in the Trinity of one substance and eternity, in which there are no grades, "nihil quod inferius superiusue dici possit."

"Atque ut, confundentes Arium, unam eandemque dicimus Trinitatis esse substantiam et unum in tribus personis fatemur Deum, ita, impietatem Sabellii declinantes, tres personas expressas sub proprietate distinguimus, non ipsum sibi Patrem, ipsum sibi Filium, ipsum sibi Spiritum Sanctum esse dicentes, sed aliam Patris aliam Filii aliam Spiritus Sancti esse personam.

"Sic autem confitemur in Christo unam Filii esse personam, ut dicamus, duas esse perfectas atque integras substantias, id est, deitatis et humanitatis, quæ ex anima continetur et corpore."

1

Leporius, a native of Trèves, who became a priest at

1 One MS. of Cassian, de Incarnatione, i. 2 (ed. Petschenig), i.e., Cod. lat. Paris. 14,860, preserves the reading ex maxima Belgarum urbe.