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| Creeds published at Sirmium in Presence of the Emperor Constantius.
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Chapter XXX.—Creeds
published at Sirmium in Presence of the Emperor Constantius.
As if they would rescind their
former determinations respecting the faith, they published anew other
expositions of the creed, viz.: one which Mark of Arethusa composed in
Greek; and others in Latin, which harmonized neither in expression nor
in sentiment with one another, nor with that dictated by the bishop of
Arethusa. I shall here subjoin one of those drawn up in Latin, to that
prepared in Greek by Mark: the other, which was afterwards recited at
Sirmium,358
| 358There were three councils held at Sirmium: one in
351, as already indicated in note 3, ch. 29; another in 357, in which
Hosius and Potamius composed their blasphemy; and one in 359. It was in
this last council that that creed was drawn up which was recited in
Ariminum. The confusion of Socrates on this point has been alluded to
in the Introd.
|
will be given when we describe what was done at Ariminum. It must be
understood, however, that both the Latin forms were translated into
Greek. The declaration of faith set forth by Mark, was as follows:359
‘We believe in one God the Father Almighty, the
Creator and Maker of all things, of whom the whole family in heaven and
on earth is named,360
and in his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was begotten
of the Father before all ages, God of God, Light of Light, by whom all
things visible and invisible, which are in the heavens and upon the
earth, were made: who is the Word, and the Wisdom, and the true Light,
and the Life; who in the last days for our sake was made man and born
of the holy virgin, and was crucified and died, and was buried, and
rose again from the dead on the third day, and was received up into
heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father, and is coming at the
completion of the age to judge the living and the dead, and to requite
every one according to his works: whose kingdom being everlasting,
endures into infinite ages; for he will be seated at the Father’s
right hand, not only in the present age, but also in that which is to
come. [We believe] also in the Holy Spirit, that is to say the
Comforter, whom, having promised to his apostles after his ascension
into the heavens, to teach them, and bring all things to their
remembrance, he sent; by whom also the souls of those who have
sincerely believed in him are sanctified. But those who affirm that the
Son is of things which are not, or of another substance, and not of
God, and that there was a time or an age when he was not, the holy and
catholic Church recognizes to be aliens. We therefore again say, if any
one affirms that the Father and Son are two Gods, let him be anathema.
And if any one admits that Christ is God and the Son of God before the
ages, but does not confess that he ministered to the Father in the
formation of all things, let him be anathema. If any one shall dare to
assert that the Unbegotten, or a part of him, was born of Mary, let him
be anathema. If any one should say that the Son was of Mary according
to foreknowledge, and not that he was with God, begotten of the Father
before the ages, and that all things were not made by him, let him be
anathema. If any one affirms the essence of God to be dilated or
contracted, let him be anathema. If any one says that the dilated
essence of God makes the Son, or shall term the Son the dilatation of his essence, let
him be anathema. If any one calls the Son of God the internal or
uttered word, let him be anathema. If any one declares that the Son
that was born of Mary was man only, let him be anathema. If any man
affirming him that was born of Mary to be God and man, shall imply the
unbegotten God himself, let him be anathema. If any one shall
understand the text, “I am the first, and I am the last, and
besides me there is no God,”361
which was spoken for the destruction of idols and false gods, in the
sense the Jews do, as if it were said for the subversion of the
only-begotten of God before the ages, let him be anathema. If any one
hearing “the Word was made flesh,”362
should imagine that the Word was changed into flesh, or that he
underwent any change in assuming flesh, let him be anathema. If any one
hearing that the only-begotten Son of God was crucified, should say
that his divinity underwent any corruption, or suffering, or change, or
diminution, or destruction, let him be anathema. If any one should
affirm that the Father said not to the Son, “Let us make
man,”363
but that God spoke to himself, let him be anathema. If any one says
that it was not the Son that was seen by Abraham, but the unbegotten
God, or a part of him, let him be anathema. If any one says that it was
not the Son that as man wrestled with Jacob, but the unbegotten God, or
a part of him, let him be anathema. If any one shall understand the
words, “The Lord rained from the Lord,”364
not in relation to the Father and the Son, but shall say that he rained
from himself, let him be anathema: for the Lord the Son rained from the
Lord the Father. If any one hearing “the Lord the Father, and the
Lord the Son,” shall term both the Father and the Son Lord, and
saying “the Lord from the Lord” shall assert that there are
two Gods, let him be anathema. For we do not co-ordinate the Son with
the Father, but [conceive him to be] subordinate to the Father. For he
neither came down to the body365
| 365Athanasius reads ἐπὶ Σόδομα,
not εἰς
σῶμα. If this be the true reading, we
should translate ‘came down to Sodom,’ &c.
|
without his Father’s will; nor did he rain from himself, but from
the Lord (i.e. the Father) who exercises supreme authority: nor
does he sit at the Father’s right hand of himself, but in
obedience to the Father saying, “Sit thou at my right
hand”366
[let him be anathema]. If any one should say that the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit are one person, let him be anathema. If any one, speaking
of the Holy Spirit the Comforter, shall call him the unbegotten God,
let him be anathema. If any one, as he hath taught us, shall not say
that the Comforter is other than the Son, when he has himself said,
“the Father, whom I will ask, shall send you another
Comforter,”367
let him be anathema. If any one affirm that the Spirit is part of the
Father and of the Son, let him be anathema. If any one say that the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three Gods, let him be anathema. If
any one say that the Son of God was made as one of the creatures by the
will of God, let him be anathema. If any one shall say that the Son was
begotten without the Father’s will, let him be anathema: for the
Father did not, as compelled by any natural necessity, beget the Son at
a time when he was unwilling; but as soon as it pleased him, he has
declared that of himself without time and without passion, he begot
him. If any one should say that the Son is unbegotten, and without
beginning, intimating that there are two without beginning, and
unbegotten, so making two Gods, let him be anathema: for the Son is the
head and beginning of all things; but “the head of Christ is
God.”368
Thus do we devoutly trace up all things by the Son to one source of all
things who is without beginning. Moreover, to give an accurate
conception of Christian doctrine, we again say, that if any one shall
not declare Christ Jesus to have been the Son of God before all ages,
and to have ministered to the Father in the creation of all things; but
shall affirm that from the time only when he was born of Mary, was he
called the Son and Christ, and that he then received the commencement
of his divinity, let him be anathema, as the Samosatan.’369
| 369Paul of Samosata, see I. 36, note 3.
|
Another Exposition of the Faith set forth at Sirmium in
Latin,
and afterwards translated into Greek.370
| 370Athan. de Synod. 28, and Hilar. de
Synod. calls this creed ‘The blasphemy composed at Sirmium by
Hosius and Potamius.’
|
Since it appeared good that some deliberation respecting
the faith should be undertaken, all points have been carefully
investigated and discussed at Sirmium, in presence of Valens, Ursacius,
Germinius, and others.
It is evident that there is one God, the Father
Almighty, according as it is declared over the whole world; and his
only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, God, and Saviour, begotten of
him before the ages. But we ought not to say that there are two Gods,
since the Lord himself has said ‘I go unto my Father and your
Father, and unto my God and your God.’371
Therefore he is God even of all, as the apostle also taught, ‘Is
he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yea of the Gentiles also;
seeing that it is one God who shall justify the circumcision by
faith.’372
And in all other matters there is agreement, nor is there any
ambiguity. But since it troubles very many to understand about that
which is termed substantia in Latin, and ousia in Greek;
that is to say, in order to mark the sense more accurately, the word
homoousion373
| 373Of the same substance.
|
or homoiousion,374
it is altogether desirable that none of these terms should be
mentioned: nor should they be preached on in the church, for this
reason, that nothing is recorded concerning them in the holy
Scriptures; and because these things are above the knowledge of mankind
and human capacity, and that no one can explain the Son’s
generation, of which it is written, ‘And who shall declare his
generation?’375
It is manifest that the Father only knows in what way he begat the Son;
and again the Son, how he was begotten by the Father. But no one can
doubt that the Father is greater in honor, dignity, and divinity, and
in the very name of Father; the Son himself testifying ‘My Father
who hath sent me is greater than I.’376
And no one is ignorant that this is also catholic doctrine,377
| 377καθολικόν ,
‘universally accepted.’
|
that there are two persons of the Father and Son, and that the Father
is the greater: but that the Son is subject, together with all things
which the Father has subjected to him. That the Father had no
beginning, and is invisible, immortal, and impassible: but that the Son
was begotten of the Father, God of God, Light of Light; and that no one
comprehends his generation, as was before said, but the Father alone.
That the Son himself, our Lord and God, took flesh or a body, that is
to say human nature, according as the angel brought glad tidings: and
as the whole Scriptures teaches, and especially the apostle who was the
great teacher of the Gentiles, Christ assumed the human nature through
which he suffered, from the Virgin Mary. But the summary and
confirmation of the entire faith is, that [the doctrine of] the Trinity
should be always maintained, according as we have read in the gospel,
‘Go ye and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’378
Thus the number of the Trinity is complete and perfect. Now the
Comforter, the Holy Spirit, sent by the Son, came according to his
promise, in order to sanctify and instruct the apostles and all
believers.
They endeavored to induce Photinus, even after his
deposition, to assent to and subscribe these things, promising to
restore him his bishopric, if by recantation he would anathematize the
dogma he had invented, and adopt their opinion. But he did not accept
their proposal, and on the other hand he challenged them to a
disputation:379
| 379‘Epiphanius relates that Photinus, after he
had been condemned and deposed in the synod of Sirmium, went to
Constantius, and requested that he might dispute concerning the faith
before judges nominated by him; and that Constantius enjoined Basilius,
bishop of Ancyra, to undertake a disputation with Photinus, and gave
leave that Thalassiuss, Datianus, Cerealis, and Taurus should be
arbiters’ (Valesius).
|
and a day being appointed by the emperor’s arrangement, the
bishops who were there present assembled, and not a few of the
senators, whom the emperor had directed to attend to the discussion. In
their presence, Basil, who at that time presided over the church at
Ancyra, was appointed to oppose Photinus, and short-hand writers took
down their respective speeches. The conflict of arguments on both sides
was extremely severe; but Photinus having been worsted, was condemned,
and spent the rest of his life in exile, during which time he composed
treatises in both languages—for he was not unskilled in
Latin—against all heresies, and in favor of his own views.
Concerning Photinus let this suffice.
Now the bishops who were convened at Sirmium, were
afterwards dissatisfied with that form of the creed which had been
promulgated by them in Latin; for after its publication, it appeared to
them to contain many contradictions. They therefore endeavored to get
it back again from the transcribers; but inasmuch as many secreted it,
the emperor by his edicts commanded that the version should be sought
for, threatening punishment to any one who should be detected
concealing it. These menaces, however, were incapable of suppressing
what had already fallen into the hands of many. Let this suffice in
regard to these affairs.> E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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