On the Life And Works of St Gregory of Nyssa

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The council held at Alexandria in the year 362, during the brief restoration of S. Athanasius, shows us at once the point of contrast and the substantial agreement between the Western school, with which S. Athanasius himself is in this matter to be reckoned, and the Eastern theologians to whom has been given the title of "Neo-Nicene." The question at issue was one of language, not of belief; it turned upon the sense to be attached to the word hupostasis. The Easterns, following a use of the term which may be traced perhaps to the influence of Origen, employed the word in the sense of the Latin "Persona," and spoke of the Three Persons as treis hupostaseis, whereas the Latins employed the term "hypostasis" as equivalent to "sub-stantia," to express what the Greeks called ousia,--the one Godhead of the Three Persons. With the Latins agreed the older school of the orthodox Greek theologians, who applied to the Three Persons the phrase tria prosopa, speaking of the Godhead as mia hupostasis. This phrase, in the eyes of the newer Nicene school, was suspected of Sabellianism [40] , while on the other hand the Westerns were inclined to regard the Eastern phrase treis hupostaseis as implying tritheism. The synodal letter sets forth to us the means by which the fact of substantial agreement between the two schools was brought to light, and the understanding arrived at, that while Arianism on the one hand and Sabellianism on the other were to be condemned, it was advisable to be content with the language of the Nicene formula, which employed neither the phrase mia hupostasis nor the phrase treis hupostaseis [41] . This resolution, prudent as it may have been for the purpose of bringing together those who were in real agreement, and of securing that the reconciled parties should, at a critical moment, present an unbroken front in the face of their common and still dangerous enemy, could hardly be long maintained. The expression treis hupostaseis was one to which many of the orthodox, including those who had formerly belonged to the Semi-Arian section, had become accustomed: the Alexandrine synod, under the guidance of S. Athanasius, had acknowledged the phrase, as used by them, to be an orthodox one, and S. Basil, in his efforts to conciliate the Semi-Arian party, with which he had himself been closely connected through his namesake of Ancyra and through Eustathius of Sebastia, saw fit definitely to adopt it. While S. Athanasius, on the one hand, using the older terminology, says that hupostasis is equivalent to ousia, and has no other meaning [42] , S. Basil, on the other hand, goes so far as to say that the terms ousia and hupostasis, even in the Nicene anathema, are not to be understood as equivalent [43] . The adoption of the new phrase, even after the explanations given at Alexandria, was found to require, in order to avoid misconstruction, a more precise definition of its meaning, and a formal defence of its orthodoxy. And herein consisted one principal service rendered by S. Basil and S. Gregory; while with more precise definition of the term hupostasis there emerged, it may be, a more precise view of the relations of the Persons, and with the defence of the new phrase as expressive of the Trinity of Persons a more precise view of what is implied in the Unity of the Godhead.

[40] It is to be noted further that the use of the terms "Persona" and prosopon by those who avoided the phrase treis hupostaseis no doubt assisted in the formation of this suspicion. At the same time the Nicene anathema favoured the sense of hupostasis as equivalent to ousia, and so appeared to condemn the Eastern use.

[41] S. Athanasius, Tom. ad Antioch, 5.

[42] Ad Afr. Episc. §4. S. Athanasius, however, does not shrink from the phrase treis hupostaseis in contradistinction to the mia ousia: see the treatise, In illud, Omnia mihi tradita sunt.' §6.

[43] S. Bas. Ep. 125 (being the confession of faith drawn up by S. Basil for the subscription of Eustathius).

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