of my letter, lest any one should rashly rise though He is an image, yet the image cannot to judge me before he was acquainted with alter, since in Him was born the image of the the entire argument. I ask it again. This Father's essence, and there could not be in assembly of the saints wished to strike a blow Him a change of nature caused by any unlikeat that impiety which by a mere counting ness to the Father's essence from which He of names evades the truth as to the Father was begotten. Now when we are taught that and the Son and the Holy Ghost; which He was brought into being as the first of all represents that there is no personal cause for creation, and He is Himself said to have each name, and by a false use of these names always been in the beginning with God as makes the triple nomenclature imply only one God the Word, the fact that He was brought Person, so that the Father alone could be also into being shews that He was born, and the called both Holy Ghost and Son. Conse- fact that He always was, shews that He is not quently they declared there were three sub- separated from the Father by time. Therestances, meaning three subsistent Persons, and fore this Council by dividing the three subnot thereby introducing any dissimilarity of stances, which it did to exclude a monad God essence to separate the substance of Father with a threefold title, did not introduce any and Son. For the words to teach us that they separation of substance between the Father are three in substance, but in agreement one, and the Son. The whole exposition of faith are free from objection, because as the Spirit makes no distinction between Father and Son, is also named, and He is the Paraclete, it the Unborn and the Only-begotten, in time, is more fitting that a unity of agreement should or name, or essence, or dignity, or domination. be asserted than a unity of essence based But our common conscience demands that on likeness of substance. we should gain a knowledge of the other creeds of the same Eastern bishops, composed at different times and places, that by the study of many confessions we may understand the sincerity of their faith.

The Creed according to the Council of the East.

34. "We, the holy synod met in Sardica. from different provinces of the East, namely, Thebaïs, Egypt, Palestine, Arabia, Phoenicia, Cole Syria, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Paphlagonia, Galatia, Bithynia and Hellespont, from Asia, namely, the two provinces of Phrygia, Pisidia, the islands of the Cyclades, Pamphylia, Caria, Lydia, from Europe, namely, Thrace, Hæmimontus, Moesia, and the two provinces of Pannonia, have set forth this creed.

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 is said, God of God, whole God of whole God, there is no room for doubting that whole God is born of whole God. For the nature of God who is of God admits of no difference, and as whole God of whole God He is in all in which the Father One of One excludes the passions of a human birth and conception, so that since He is One of One, He comes from no other source, nor is different nor alien, for He is One of One, perfect God of perfect God. Except in having a cause of its origin His birth does not differ from the birthless nature; since the perfection of both Persons is the same. King of King. A power that is expressed by one and the same title allows no dissimilarity of power. Lord of Lord. In 'Lord' also the lordship is equal: there can be no difference where domination is confessed of both without diversity. But plainest of all "And we believe in His Only-begotten is the statement appended after several others, Son our Lord Jesus Christ, who before all unable to change or alter, the unvarying image ages was begotten of the Father, God of God, of the Godhead and essence and might and Light of Light, through whom were made glory. For as God of God, whole God of all things which are in heaven and earth, whole God, One of One, perfect God of perfect visible and invisible: who is the Word and God, King of King and Lord of Lord, since Wisdom and Might and Life and true Light: in all that glory and nature of Godhead in and who in the last days for our sake was which the Father ever abides, the Son born incarnate, and was born of the holy Virgin, of Him also subsists; He derives this also who was crucified and dead and buried, And from the Father's substance that He is unable rose from the dead on the third day, And to change. For in His birth that nature from which He is born is not changed; but the Son has maintained a changeless essence since His origin is in a changeless nature. For

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator and Maker of all things, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named:

4 Mount Haemus is the mountain range which at this period formed the boundary between the provinces of Thracia and Mounder the Vicarius of Thrace. Hæmimontus was grouped with Moesia Inferior

sia Inferior.

was received into heaven, And sitteth on the of their merit, though the substance of their right hand of the Father, And shall come to judge the quick and the dead and to give to every man according to his works: Whose kingdom remaineth without end for ever and ever. For He sitteth on the right hand of the Father not only in this age, but also in the age to come.

nature and that of God is different. In that sense there are consequently many gods. Furthermore in the nature of God, God is one, yet in such a way that the Son also is God, because in Him there is not a different nature: and since He is God of God, both must be God, and since there is no difference "We believe also in the Holy Ghost, that of kind between them there is no distinction is, the Paraclete, whom according to IIis in their essence. A number of titular Gods promise He sent to His apostles after His is rejected; because there is no diversity in return into the heavens to teach them and the quality of the divine nature. Since thereto bring all things to their remembrance, fore he is anathema who says there are many through whom also the souls of them that Gods and he is anathema who denies that the believe sincerely in Him are sanctified. Son is God; it is fully shewn that the fact "But those who say that the Son of God is that each has one and the same name arises sprung from things non-existent or from another from the real character of the similar substance substance and not from God, and that there in each: since in confessing the Unborn God was a time or age when He was not, the holy the Father, and the Only-begotten God the Catholic Church holds them as aliens. Like- Son, with no dissimilarity of essence between wise also those who say that there are three them, each is called God, yet God must be Gods, or that Christ is not God and that before believed and be declared to be one. So by the ages He was neither Christ nor Son of the diligent and watchful care of the bishops God, or that He Himself is the Father and the creed guards the similarity of the nature the Son and the Holy Ghost, or that the Son begotten and the nature begetting, confirming is incapable of birth; or that the Father begat it by the application of one name. the Son without purpose or will: the holy Catholic Church anathematizes."

37. Yet to prevent the declaration of one God seeming to affirm that God is a solitary 35. In the exposition of this creed, concise monad without offspring of His own, it imbut complete definitions have been employed. mediately condemns the rash suggestion that For in condemning those who said that the because God is one, therefore God the Father Son sprang from things non-existent, it attri- is one and solitary, having in Himself the buted to Him a source which had no begin-name of Father and of Son: since in the ning but continues perpetually. And lest this Father who begets and the Son who comes source from which He drew His permanent birth should be understood to be any other substance than that of God, it also declares to be blasphemers those who said that the Son was born of some other substance and not of God. And so since He does not draw His subsistence from nothing, or spring from any other source than God, it cannot be doubted that He was born with those qualities which are God's; since the Only-begotten essence of the Son is generated neither from things which are non-existent nor from any other substance than the birthless and eternal substance of the Father. But the creed also rejects intervals of times or ages on the assumption that He who does not differ in nature cannot be separable by time.

to birth one God must be declared to exist on account of the substance of their nature being similar in each. The faith of the saints knows nothing of the Son being incapable of birth: because the nature of the Son only draws its existence from birth. But the nature of the birth is in Him so perfect that He who was born of the substance of God is born also of His purpose and will. For from His will and purpose, not from the process of a corporeal nature, springs the absolute perfection of the essence of God born from the essence of God. It follows that we should now consider that creed which was compiled not long ago when Photinus was deposed from the episcopate.

Easterns to oppose Photinus.

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

36. On every side, where anxiety might be A copy of the creed composed at Sirmium by the felt, approach is barred to the arguments of heretics lest it should be declared that there is any difference in the Son. For those are anathematized who say that there are three Gods: because according to God's true nature His substance does not admit a number of applications of the title, except as it is given to individual men and angels in recognition

"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

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 crea-will, nor rain from Himself but from the Lord, tion of all things: let him be anathema.

God, and beside Me there is no God, which that is God; because His existence is not from were spoken for the destruction of idols and nothing, and He draws subsistence from no them that are no gods: let him be anathema.

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 the heresy which Photinus was reviving was sapping our Catholic home by many secret mines. Their purpose was to oppose every form of stealthy subtle heresy by 42. The fact of the essence declared to be a corresponding form of pure and unsullied one in the Father and the Son having one faith, and to have as many complete explan- name on account of their similarity of nature ations of the faith as there were instances of seemed to offer an opportunity to heretics peculiar faithlessness. Immediately after the to declare that the Unborn God, or a part universal and unquestioned statement of the of Him, was born of Mary. The danger was Christian mysteries, the explanation of the faith against the heretics begins as follows.

God, and that all things were made through
Him: let him be anathema."

speaker's lips and the unembodied sound of an impersonal voice: so that God the Father 43. While denying that the God of us all, has as Son a word resembling any word we the Son of God, existed before He was born utter in virtue of our inborn power of speaking. in bodily form, some assert that He existed Therefore this dangerous deceit is condemned, according to foreknowledge and predestina- which asserts that God the Word. who was in tion, and not according to the essence of the beginning with God, is only the word of a personally subsistent nature: that is, be- a voice sometimes internal and sometimes cause the Father predestined the Son to have expressed. existence some day by being born of the IX. "If any man says that the man alone Virgin, He was announced to us by the born of Mary is the Son: let him be anaFather's foreknowledge rather than born and thema." existent before the ages in the substance of We cannot declare that the Son of God is the divine nature, and that all things which born of Mary without declaring Him to be He Himself spake in the prophets concerning both Man and God. But lest the declaration the mysteries of His incarnation and passion that He is both God and Man should give were simply said concerning Him by the occasion to deceit, the Council immediately Father according to His foreknowledge. Consequently this perverse doctrine is condemned, so that we know that the Only-begotten Son of God was born of the Father before all worlds, and formed the worlds and all creation, and that He was not merely predestined to be born.

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

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 any change of substance. Remaining free and outside the bond of any bodily nature, He supplies out of Himself what He wills, when He wills, and where He wills. Therefore it is impious to ascribe any change of substance to such an unfettered Power.

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

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 the Unborn God by expansion of His substance extended Himself as far as the holy Virgin, in order that this extension produced by the increase of His nature and assuming manhood might be called Son. They denied that the Son who is perfect God born before time began was the same as He who was afterwards born as Man. Therefore the Catholic Faith condemns all denial of the immutability of the Father and of the birth of the Son.

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

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

adds,

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

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 God; and he falls under the same condemnation who says that the Unborn God became man: God made Man is not denied to be God but denied to be the Unborn God, the Father being distinguished from the Son not under the head of nature or by diversity of substance, but only by such pre-eminence as His birthless nature gives.

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

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 being Flesh what constituted the Word, nor has become transformed into Flesh, so as to cease to be the Word; but the Word was made Flesh' in order that the Flesh might begin to be what the Word is. Else whence came to His Flesh miraculous power in working, glory on the Mount, knowledge of the thoughts of human hearts, calmness in His passion, life in His death? God knowing no change, when made Flesh lost nothing of the prerogatives of His substance.

XII. "If any man hearing that the only Son