On the Trinity & Psalm Commentary 2 part 8/9

And as far indeed as pertains to Italy, it now returns to the paternal faith—that is, to the faith written at Nicaea—recognizing the fraud which it suffered at Ariminum. We rejoice that God, with a clement nod, has looked also upon Illyricum, and we give thanks that, the fellowship of unbelief by which it was burdened having been cast off, it has begun to approve those things which are of right doctrine. Therefore, most beloved brethren, receive our one and the same firm judgement with our subscription. We keep the Nicene decrees against Arius and Sabellius, of whose portioned inheritance Photinus is condemned. The statutes of the Council of Ariminum, corrupted by the tergiversation of certain men, we rightly rescind by the consent of all the provinces.

Of which we have also judged that copies should be transmitted, so that there might seem to be no disagreement, either in retaining the faith or in refuting the Council of Ariminum. Whoever, therefore, desires to have fellowship in our unanimity, whoever longs to have undivided peace with us, let him hasten to approve what is of our judgement, and to send without ambiguity his subscription to the aforesaid faith and the rescinding of the Council of Ariminum. This assuredly we ask, which we ourselves also put forward by the consent of many of these provinces. But that the authors of the Arian or Aetian heresy, Valens and Ursacius and the rest of their associates, were condemned—not now, and because they have begun to be made manifest in Illyricum, but of old—is evident. HERE ENDS. V.

HERE BEGINS A COPY OF THE LETTER OF VALENS, URSACIUS AND OTHERS TO GERMINIUS. To the most religious lord and brother Germinius, from Valens, Ursacius, Gaius and Paulus. When solicitude presses concerning hope and salvation, those who are solicitous ought rather to be praised than to bear any reproach; but salvation and hope consist principally in the Catholic faith.

And therefore, although, being admonished by our lords, brethren, and fellow-bishops Valens and Paulus in conference, you were unwilling to answer to that which rumour bandies about concerning you, most religious lord, nevertheless, because you have testified by your letters that you persevere in the same charity and are prepared to show that you hold unimpaired affection toward us, therefore, having gathered together in one at Singidunum, we again admonish your holiness of this: that, every occasion of evasions being excluded, you would deign again to write back to us, and more openly declare, as is asked, that you will not depart—just as you have already professed—from the Catholic faith which was set forth and confirmed at Ariminum by the holy Council, to which also all the bishops of the East consented.

Now this is, as was provided therein: 'We say that the Son is like the Father according to the Scriptures,' not 'according to substance' or 'in all things,' but absolutely. For if this exposition be altered, manifestly the once perfidious assertion of Basil, on account of which the synod was held—which also was deservedly condemned—will be restored. Deign therefore to declare evidently by your letters what is asked: that you have not said, nor say, nor will say:

'that the Son is like the Father in all things except in ingenerateness,' lest what the bearers of the letters, the deacon Jovianus and the subdeacon Martyrius, were asserting by way of their entreaty before the aforesaid my lords and our fellow-bishops Valens and Paulus, should seem the more credible—namely, that you profess the Son to be 'like the Father in all things.' For if you shall have manifested by your writings that you think, as we have wished, thus, then the complaint made about the injury by certain of your clergy, our brethren and fellow-bishops Palladius and Gaius, though you were unwilling—as you were admonished at the first conference—to investigate it, does not pertain to your reputation, those men, namely, being answerable for their own rashness.

These things we have transmitted to your charity through the presbyter Secundianus, the reader Pollentius, and the exorcist Candidianus, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of January, in the consulship of the most noble Gratian and Dagalaifus, retaining a copy in our own keeping. VI. HERE BEGINS THE REPLY OF GERMINIUS TO RUFIANUS, PALLADIUS AND THE REST. To the most religious lords and brethren Rufianus, Palladius, Severinus, Nicaeas, Heliodorus, Romulus, Mucianus and Stercorius, Germinius, salvation in the Lord. From the report of Vitalis, a most distinguished man serving in the office of the exalted prefecture, we have learned that your holiness desires it to be signified to you openly what it is that displeases Valens, Ursacius, Gaius and Paulus concerning our faith.

I have deemed it necessary by these letters to make plain to your holiness that also which I am confident is in you yourselves from the beginning, and to say it. We hold this, which we have received as handed down from the fathers and from the divine Scriptures, which we have once learned and daily teach: that Christ the Son of God, our Lord, is like the Father in all things except in ingenerateness—God of God, Light of Light, Power of Power, whole of whole, perfect of perfect, begotten before the ages and before all things that can be understood or spoken, whose birth no one knows save the Father alone, as the Son himself affirms: For no one knows the Son but the Father, neither does anyone know the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall have willed to reveal him.

through whom all things were made, without whom was made nothing, according to the divine words of our Saviour himself, the Son, who says: My Father works even until now, and I work; and again: For whatsoever the Father does, these the Son likewise does; and again: I and the Father are one; and again: He who has seen me has seen the Father also; and again: As the Father has life in himself, so he has given also to the Son to have life in himself; and again: As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will; and again: Believe in God and believe in me; and again: For neither does the Father judge any man, but has given all judgement to the Son, that all may honour the Son as they honour the Father.

And again, to whom did the Father say: Let us make man to our image and likeness? He did not say 'to thy image' or 'to my image,' lest he should show any unlikeness in the divinity of his Son, but for that reason he joined 'to our image and likeness,' that he might manifest his Son to be God like himself in all things. Again the Evangelist: We saw his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And the Apostle to the Corinthians: In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine unto them. And again the same Apostle:

And he has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption, the remission of sins; who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. And again the same Apostle: For have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. Who does not understand that, just as according to the form of the servant our flesh was true in Christ, so also in the form of God the divinity of the Father is true in the Son? And again:

See that no one deceive you through philosophy and vain fallacy, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of this world, and not according to Christ, for in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. If, therefore, all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, then they are no longer in part like and in part unlike, as those now assert who, on account of the contention of their own lust, going backwards, have turned themselves away from us.

For as to what they think they are putting forward as something great from the divine Scriptures, in saying that Christ is a 'thing made' and a 'creature,' we on the contrary say according to the Scriptures both 'the Way' and 'the Door' and 'the stone of stumbling' and 'the rock of offence' and 'the foundation' and 'the arm' and 'the hand' and 'the wisdom' and 'the word' and 'the lamb' and 'the sheep' and 'the shepherd' and 'the priest' and 'the vine' and other things. But all these we so understand and say that we may understand them as the powers and operations of the Son of God, not that by names of this kind we may compare his divine birth from the Father; for out of nothing all things were made through the Son, but the Son was begotten not out of nothing, but of God the Father.

But I marvel that the aforesaid Valens has either forgotten or is certainly craftily dissembling what was done and defined in the past. For under the emperor Constantius of good memory, when a dissension concerning the faith had begun to arise among certain persons, in the sight of that same emperor—there being present George bishop of the church of the Alexandrians, Pancratius bishop of the Pelusians, Basil then bishop of Ancyra, present also Valens himself and Ursacius and my littleness—after a disputation about the faith had been held even into the night and brought to a certain rule, Marcus, chosen by all of us, dictated the faith, in which faith it was thus set down in writing:

'the Son like the Father in all things, as the holy Scriptures say and teach,' to whose entire profession we all consented and subscribed with our own hand. But if now the spirit of this world suggests something to them, we cannot as yet openly know it. For as we professed from the Scriptures 'the Son like the Father in all things except in ingenerateness,' let them too expound from the Scriptures how he may be in part like and in part unlike.

And therefore, most beloved brethren, this profession I have addressed fearlessly and without delay to the conscience of your love through Cyriacus the official—the first occasion found after the deacon Carinius, whom I sent to you—so that through your most vigilant devotion it may be made known before God to the whole brotherhood, lest anyone in ignorance be entangled in the snares of the deceiving devil. It is now for your unanimity to write back to me what the Holy Spirit suggests to you. I make known indeed to your charity that I was unable to subscribe to this letter, because my hand was pained, but that I have charged our brethren and fellow-presbyters Innocentius, Octavius and Catulus to subscribe. HERE ENDS. VII.

The letters of Liberius and the narrative text. (Column VI) Narrative text. Liberius, moreover, before he went into exile, wrote this uniform letter to the confessors, that is, to Eusebius, Dionysius and Lucifer, who were established in exile. Letter to Eusebius, Dionysius, and Lucifer (355). Although under the image of peace the enemy of the human race seems to have raged the more vehemently against the members of the Church, nevertheless your outstanding and singular faith has shown you here to be priests most acceptable to God and approved before God, and has already marked you out as martyrs unto future glory.

With what proclamation of praise, therefore, with what exultation of voice I may set forth the merits of your virtue, placed as I am between the grief of your absence and the joy of your glory, I am utterly unable to find, except that I know I here offer to you more probable consolations, if you believe that I too have been thrust down into exile together with you. In short, I grieve enough that I am still hanging in that very expectation, because a harder necessity for the time draws me back from your fellowship. For I had wished, most devoted brethren, to be first spent on behalf of all of you, that through me your love might rather obtain an example of glory. But let this be the palm of your merits, that you should come first, by the perseverance of faith, to the illustrious glory of confession.

I beseech, therefore, your love, that you believe me to be present with you, and that you feel and understand that I am not absent from you in that affection, and that I grieve enough that I am for the time separated from your fellowship. In short, how great a glory you have attained, you may know the more from this: that, if any have been crowned in persecution, they were able to feel only the bloody swords of the persecutor, whereas you, soldiers of God devoted in all things, having experienced even false brethren as enemies, have carried off the victory over the perfidious; and by however much their violence could increase in the world, by so much the greater are the rewards of praise found to be conferred on the priests. Be therefore secure concerning the heavenly promise.

And because you have been made nearer to God, by your prayers lift up me, your fellow-priest, the servant of God, to the Lord, that I may be able tolerably to bear the assaults that come upon me, which from day to day, when they are announced, inflict graver wounds; that with faith inviolate and the state of the Catholic Church safe, the Lord may deign to make me equal to yourselves. And because I desire to know more faithfully the things that were done in that very encounter, I beseech your holiness, deign to make all things known to me faithfully by letter, that either the mind itself, which is tormented by divers rumours, or the strength of the body itself, which is now enfeebled, may be able to feel a greater increase from your exhortation. And in another hand:

May God keep you unharmed, my lord brethren. Narrative text. Likewise Liberius, before he went into exile, wrote concerning Vincentius of Capua to Caecilianus bishop of Spoletium: From the letter to Caecilianus (353/4). (3) I would not have the deed of Vincentius recall you from the intent of a good work, dearest brother. Narrative text. And to Ossius concerning the fall of Vincentius he speaks thus: From the letter to Ossius (368/4). Meanwhile, because in nothing ought I to pass over your conscience, many fellow-bishops from Italy assembled, who together with me had entreated the most religious emperor Constantius that he would command—as had formerly pleased himself—a council to be gathered at Aquileia.

I make known to your holiness that Vincentius of Capua, together with Marcellus, equally a bishop from Campania, undertook our legation. Concerning whom, because I hoped much—both that he would maintain the cause excellently and that he had frequently sat as judge in the same cause together with your holiness—I had believed that the whole right of the Gospels or of the legation could be preserved. Not only did he obtain nothing, but he himself was even led into that dissimulation. After whose deed, being afflicted with a twofold grief, I resolved rather that I must die for God, lest I should seem the latest informer, or should lend consent to sentences against the Gospel. Narrative text.

(4) After all these things which Liberius had either done or promised, being sent into exile, he made all void, writing to the prevaricating Arian heretics who had unjustly passed sentence against the holy Athanasius, the orthodox bishop. Letter to the Eastern bishops (357). To the most beloved brethren, the presbyters and fellow-bishops of the East, Liberius, salvation. (5) Through the God-fearing dread, your holy faith is known to God and to men of good will. As the law says: Judge justly, ye sons of men. I did not defend Athanasius; but because Julius the bishop of good memory, my predecessor, had received him, I feared lest perhaps in some respect I might be judged a prevaricator.

But when I learned, when it pleased God, that you had justly condemned him, I forthwith lent my consent to your sentences. Letters likewise concerning his name—that is, concerning his condemnation—I gave to be conveyed to the emperor Constantius through our brother Fortunatianus. And so, Athanasius having been removed from the communion of us all, whose letters are not even to be received by me, I say that I hold peace with all of you and with all the bishops of the East, or throughout all the provinces, peace and unanimity.

For that you may more truly know that I speak forth the true faith through this my letter: our common lord and brother Demophilus, because he deigned of his benevolence to expound your Catholic faith, which was treated, set forth and received at Sirmium by many of our brethren and fellow-bishops—[this is the Arian perfidy; this I have noted, not the apostate, but Liberius, in what follows]—by all who were present, this I received with a willing mind—[holy Hilary pronounces anathema upon him: anathema be said to thee by me, Liberius, and to thy associates]—in nothing did I contradict, I accommodated my consent, this I follow, this is held by me. [again anathema to thee, and a third time, prevaricator Liberius.]

Indeed I judged that your holiness must be entreated, that, since you now perceive me to be in all things in agreement with you, you would deign by common counsel and zeal to labour to the end that I may be dismissed from exile and may return to the see which has been divinely entrusted to me. Narrative text. (7) Now they who wrote out at Sirmium the creed which Liberius calls Catholic, expounded to him by Demophilus, are these: Narcissus, Theodorus, Basil, Eudoxius, Demophilus, Cecropius, Silvanus, Ursacius, Valens, Evagrius, Irenaeus, Exuperantius, Terentianus, Bassus, Gaudentius, Macedonius, Marcus, Acacius, Julius, Surinus, Simplicius and Junior [note: all heretics]. LIKEWISE LIBERIUS FROM EXILE TO URSACIUS, VALENS AND GERMINIUS (8).

Because I know that you are sons of peace, and that you love also concord and the unanimity of the Catholic Church, therefore, impelled by no necessity—I speak with God as witness—but for the good of peace and concord, which is preferred to martyrdom, I address you by these letters, my dearest lord brethren. Let therefore your prudence recognize that Athanasius, who was bishop of the church of Alexandria, was condemned by me, before I should write to the court of the holy emperor according to the letters of the Eastern bishops, and that he has been separated also from the communion of the Roman Church, as the whole presbytery of the Roman Church is witness. This alone was the cause,

so that I might seem the slower to give letters concerning his name to our brethren and fellow-bishops of the East, in order that my legates, whom I had directed from the city of Rome to the court, or the bishops who had been deported, might themselves also, together with these, if it could be done, be recalled from exile. And this too I wish you to know: that I asked our brother Fortunatianus to convey my letters to the most clement emperor, which I made to the Eastern bishops, that they too might know that I, together with them, was separated from the communion of Athanasius; which I believe his piety will receive gladly for the good of peace, a copy of which I also directed to Hilary the emperor's faithful eunuch. Let your charity perceive that I have done these things with a kindly and innocent mind.

Wherefore by these my letters I address you and adjure you by God almighty and by Christ Jesus his Son, our God and Lord, that you would deign to go to the most clement emperor Constantius Augustus and to petition that, for the good of peace and concord, in which his piety ever exults, he may command me to return to the Church divinely handed over to me, so that in his times the Roman Church may sustain no tribulation. But that I hold peace with all of you, the bishops of the Catholic Church, you ought to know by these my letters with an equable and simple mind, dearest brethren. For you will acquire for us great consolation in the day of retribution, if through you the peace of the Roman Church be restored.

But I wish through you also our brethren and fellow-bishops Epictetus and Auxentius to know that I hold peace and ecclesiastical communion with them, whom I believe will receive these things gladly. But whosoever shall dissent from our peace and concord, which by God's will has been established throughout the whole world, let him know that he is separated from our communion. [anathema pronounced by me upon the prevaricator, together with the Arians.] LIKEWISE FROM EXILE, LIBERIUS TO VINCENTIUS. (10) I do not teach, but I admonish thy holy mind, dearest brother, that evil conversations corrupt good manners. The snares of evil men are well known to thee, whence I have come to this labour; and pray, that the Lord may grant endurance.

My most beloved son the deacon Urbicus, whom I seemed to have as a solace, was taken from me by Venerius, an agent in affairs. But I have judged that it should be signified to thy holiness that I have withdrawn from that contention concerning the name of Athanasius, and have given letters to our brethren and fellow-bishops of the East about his name. Whence, because by God's will there is peace for us everywhere, thou wilt deign to convene all the bishops of Campania and to make these things known to them. From among their number, together with your letter, write concerning our unanimity and peace to the most clement emperor, by which I too may be freed from sorrow. And in his own hand: May God keep thee unharmed, brother. Likewise a page written out in his own hand:

With all the Eastern bishops we hold peace, and with you. I have absolved myself before God. You shall see to it, if you wish me to fail in exile, God shall be judge between me and you. VIII. A COPY OF THE LETTER OF THE EASTERN BISHOPS, WHICH THEY GAVE TO THE LEGATES RETURNING FROM ARIMINUM. To the most beloved brethren Ursacius, Valens, Magdonius, Megasius, Germinius, Gaius, Justinus, Optatus, Marcialis and the rest of the legates of the Synod of Ariminum, Silvanus, Sophronius, Nectarius, Herodianus, Patricius, Helpidius, Theophilus, Theodorus, Eumatius, Didymion, Ecdicius, Arsenius, Passinicus, Valentinus, Eucarpius, Leontius, Eortasius and Macarius, salvation in the Lord.

(1) We, being zealous for unity and true peace, and, by the mandate of the synod, resisting heresy, have thought it just that the things which are being done concerning the Church should be made manifest to you, lest ignorance should make you associates of so great an impiety; and although we think that you are not unaware that not without cause the legates of the whole synod—of bishops, namely, in number far more than a hundred—have hitherto abstained from entering this church.

On which account we wish you also to be instructed, lest a heresy, now domineering within the Church, should thoroughly prevail—a heresy which has dared to deny our Lord Jesus Christ to be truly the only-begotten Son of God, God of God, like the Father—so that you might come to know what preachings of blasphemy concerning the only-begotten God are both held and preached by these men. For we proved this very thing to the most pious emperor Constantius, and, being moved, he most religiously willed that all these things be anathematized. But now this deceit is being prepared: that Aetius, the author of this heresy, should himself rather than these impious sayings be condemned, so that the sentence may seem to have been passed against the man rather than against the doctrine.

We admonish you therefore, brethren, to weigh these matters diligently and to take pains that the catholic faith may endure. For the rest, your Charity does not doubt that all things, as they have been transacted, must be announced to the Western churches. We desire, brethren, that you fare well in the Lord. A narrative passage. (2). These things therefore having been received—things to which the blasphemies commemorated above had also been appended—a calumny is directed against him who received it. And so great a fury seized the hypocrites at the exposure of their fraud that they resolved upon the peril of his deposition. What grief is this of a convicted conscience, that anyone should be deterred from the acknowledgement of the truth! If that book of Valens and Ursacius is no part of your faith, why do you not acquiesce in its condemnation!

Is it not by the public consent of the human race agreed among all that poison is an evil, that the slaying of the innocent is a crime, and that impiety against the Lord is a thing of horror? Yet whoever does not condemn these things when they are laid before him, must needs profess himself a partner in their design; for there is no one who does not both convict what he hates and approve what he does not convict. For after the Synod of Seleucia, when you came to Constantinople, what is this—that you at once join yourselves to condemned heretics, that you defer for no length of time your approach to them, nor spend any delay in inquiry drawn from the reasoning of prudent counsel? Then there come to you the Eastern legates of the synod, not in communion with the bishops; they set forth all that was done, and they point out the heresy now holding sway.

Ought you not at least even now to have taken your stand and been kept as arbiters of all the disputes? But by some consciousness of your own will you did not receive the judgement of what is right. For you at once flock to your own party and enter into the communion of your blasphemies. Nor do you even take this counsel—that, if shame had deceived any—the Synod of Rimini should be held in esteem. For you at once betrayed your guile in not anathematizing your own men. (3).

For in an assembly of many who reproached you, asking why you would not also call the Son of God a creature, you replied that the holy men of Rimini had not denied Christ to be a creature, but only unlike the rest of creatures; because in the phrase 'not made like the rest of the works,' it was not said that there was no creating, but that he was excepted from the rest, so that, although he is altogether unlike the rest, yet, so as that he himself should be nothing other—as though indeed any creature were like others, an angel like a man, a man like a bird, a bird like a beast. If I lie in this, there are witnesses who heard. But if even they shall be silent, that most impious book of yours, defended by you, speaks with me, in which, just as glass is alien to jacinth, so is Christ the Son alien to the Father and God.

Next, in the point wherein you deceived your hearers—that he is 'not from things that are non-existent, but from God'—was not your dissimulation laid bare precisely because you said this? For according to your profession he is 'not from things non-existent, but from God' only in this sense: that the same will was for him the beginning of his subsisting. I lie outright if you did not, with the Easterners conniving through the arrangement of their pamphlet, condemn those who had said that he holds what he is, in that he is born, not from the substance but from the will. You also profess him to be 'eternal with the Father.'