|
HOME | GREEK LANGUAGE |
LIBRARIES |
BLOG | HELP | SEARCH | BOOKSTORE | FREEWARE |
|
|
Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
|
56 Pages
Page 30
27. However they did not stand even to this; for again at Sirmium [3567] they met together [3568] against Photinus [3569] and there composed a faith again, not drawn out into such length, not so full in words; but subtracting the greater part and adding in its place, as if they had listened to the suggestions of others, they wrote as follows:--
We believe [3570] in One God, the Father Almighty, the Creator and Maker of all things, 'from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named [3571] '
And in His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus the Christ, who before all the ages was begotten from the Father, God from God, Light from Light, by whom all things were made, in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible, being Word and Wisdom and True Light and Life, who in the last of days was made man for us, and was born of the Holy Virgin, and crucified and dead and buried, and rose again from the dead the third day, and was taken up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of the Father, and is coming at the consummation of the age, to judge quick and dead, and to render to every one according to his works; whose Kingdom being unceasing endures unto the infinite ages; for He shall sit on the right hand of the Father, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
And in the Holy Ghost, that is, the Paraclete; which, having promised to the Apostles to send forth after His ascension into heaven, to teach and to remind them of all things, He did send; through whom also are sanctified the souls of those who sincerely believe in Him.
(1.) But those who say that the Son was from nothing or from other subsistence [3572] and not from God, and that there was time or age when He was not, the Holy and Catholic Church regards as aliens.
(2.) Again we say, Whosoever says that the Father and the Son are two Gods, be he anathema [3573] .
(3.) And whosoever, saying that Christ is God, before ages Son of God, does not confess that He has subserved the Father for the framing of the universe, be he anathema [3574] .
[3567] Sirmium [Mitrowitz on the Save] was a city of lower Pannonia, not far from the Danube, and was the great bulwark of the Illyrian provinces of the Empire. There Vetranio assumed the purple; and there Constantius was born. The frontier war caused it to be from time to time the Imperial residence. We hear of Constantius at Sirmium in the summer of 357. Ammian. xvi. 10. He also passed there the ensuing winter. ibid. xvii. 12. In October, 358, after the Sarmatian war, he entered Sirmium in triumph, and passed the winter there. xvii. 13 fin. and with a short absence in the spring, remained there till the end of May, 359.
[3568] [Cf. Prolegg. ch. ii. S:7]. The leading person in this Council was Basil of Ancyra. Basil held a disputation with Photinus. Silvanus too of Tarsus now appears for the first time: while, according to Socrates, Mark of Arethusa drew up the Anathemas; the Confession used was the same as that sent to Constans, of the Council of Philippopolis, and the Macrostich.
[3569] S. Hilary treats their creed as a Catholic composition. de Syn. 39-63. Philastrius and Vigilius call the Council a meeting of 'holy bishops' and a 'Catholic Council,' de Haer. 65. in Eutych. v. init. What gave a character and weight to this Council was, that it met to set right a real evil, and was not a mere pretence with Arian objects.
[3570] 6th Confession, or 1st Sirmian, a.d. 351.
[3571] Eph. iii. 15.
[3572] Vid. p. 77, sqq.
[3573] This Anathema which has occurred in substance in the Macrostich, and again infr. Anath. 18 and 23. is a disclaimer of their in fact holding a supreme and a secondary God. In the Macrostich it is disclaimed upon a simple Arian basis. The Semi-Arians were more open to this imputation; Eusebius, as we have seen above, distinctly calling our Lord a second and another God. vid. p. 75, note 7. It will be observed that this Anathema contradicts the one which immediately follows, and the 11th, in which Christ is called God; except, on the one hand the Father and Son are One God, which was the Catholic doctrine, or, on the other, the Son is God in name only, which was the pure Arian or Anomoean.
[3574] The language of Catholics and heretics is very much the same on this point of the Son's ministration, with this essential difference of sense, that Catholic writers mean a ministration internal to the divine substance and an instrument connatural with the Father, and Arius meant an external and created medium of operation. Thus S. Clement calls our Lord 'the All-harmonious Instrument (organon) of God.' Protrept. p. 6; Eusebius 'an animated and living instrument (organon empsuchon), nay, rather divine and vivific of every substance and nature.' Demonstr. iv. 4. S. Basil, on the other hand, insists that the Arians reduced our Lord to 'an inanimate instrument,' organon apsuchon, though they called Him hupourgon teleiotaton, most perfect minister or underworker. adv. Eunom. ii. 21. Elsewhere he makes them say, 'the nature of a cause is one, and the nature of an instrument, organou, another;....foreign then in nature is the Son from the Father, since such is an instrument from a workman.' De Sp. S. n. 6 fin. vid. also n. 4 fin. 19, and 20. And so S. Gregory, 'The Father signifies, the Word accomplishes, not servilely, nor ignorantly, but with knowledge and sovereignty, and to speak more suitably, in a father's way, patrikos. Orat. 30. 11. Cf. S. Cyril, in Joann. p. 48. Explanations such as these secure for the Catholic writers some freedom in their modes of speaking, e.g. Athan. speaks of the Son, as 'enjoined and ministering,' prostattomenos, kai hupourgon, Orat. ii. S:22. Thus S. Irenaeus speaks of the Father being well-pleased and commanding, keleuontos, and the Son doing and framing. Haer. iv. 75. S. Basil too, in the same treatise in which are some of the foregoing protests, speaks of 'the Lord ordering,' prostassonta, and the word framing.' de Sp. S. n. 38, S. Cyril of Jerusalem, of 'Him who bids, entelletai, bidding to one who is present with Him,' Cat. xi. 16. vid. also hupereton te boule, Justin. Tryph. 126, and hupourgon, Theoph. ad Autol. ii. 10. hexupereton thelemati, Clem. Strom. vii. p. 832.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/councils.asp?pg=30
