SECTION 2

THE POSITIVE TRADITION OF THE FIRST FOUR

CENTURIES

The Trinitarian belief of the Christian Church during the first four centuries is manifested partly by her official liturgy and the private prayers of the faithful; partly by the doctrinal discussions of the Fathers, whom, for convenience sake, we may group in two categories, viz., Ante-Nicene and Post-Nicene. The Council of Nicaea forms a sort of dividing line between the two, in so far as before its formal definition of the dogma, the Fathers were laboriously groping for accurate terms and not infrequently failed to formulate the teaching of the Church with sufficient theological precision.1 We cannot reasonably assume that they deviated from this teaching, except in the few cases in which the fact is clearly apparent from their writings. One of these exceptional cases is that of Hippolytus, who is charged with entertaining Ditheistic views; another, that of Origen, whose language on the subject of the Blessed

1 Cfr. J. Chapman, O. S. B., in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. X,

P. 450.

Trinity lays him open to the suspicion of hetero

doxy.

GENERAL READINGS: - *Ruiz, De Trinitate, Lugduni 1625; Werner, Geschichte der apologetischen und polemischen Literatur der christlichen Theologie, Vol. I, Schaffhausen 1861; Réville, Histoire du Dogme de la Divinité de Jésus-Christ, 2nd ed., Paris 1876; Dorner, Entwicklungsgeschichte der Lehre von der Person Christi, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Stuttgart 1845 (translated into English under the title History of the Development of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ, Edinburgh 1861-3; 5 vols.; to be used with caution); Schwane, Dogmengeschichte, 2nd ed., Vols. I and II, Freiburg 1892, 1895; Th. de Régnon, Etudes de Théologie Positive sur la Sainte Trinité, 4 vols., Paris 1892 sqq.; J. Tixeront, History of Dogmas (Engl. tr.), Vol. I, St. Louis 1910; F. J. Hall, The Trinity, pp. 50 sqq., New York 1910.

ARTICLE I

THE HOLY TRINITY IN THE OFFICIAL LITURGY OF THE EARLY CHURCH AND THE PRIVATE PRAYERS

OF THE FAITHFUL

I. THE APOSTLES' CREED.-The belief of the early Christians found its natural utterance in the so-called Apostles' Creed, which is undoubtedly as old as the Church herself. In all of its various recensions this symbol voices simple faith in the Divine Trinity. St. Irenæus, Origen, and Tertullian testify to its antiquity. The salient passages concerning the Blessed

2 Cfr. Denzinger-Bannwart, Enchiridion, nn. 1-14.

8 Adv. Haer., I, 10, Migne, P. G., VII, 550 sq.

5

3

4 De Princip., Preface, Migne, P. G., XI, 117 sq.

5 De Praescr., 13, Migne, P. L., II, 26.

Trinity are as follows: "Credo in Deum [not: deos], Patrem omnipotentem. ... et in Iesum Christum, Filium eius unicum . . . et in Spiritum Sanctum - I believe in God [not: gods], the Father, Almighty, . . . and in Jesus Christ, His only Son. and in the Holy Ghost."

It is safe to regard the Apostles' Creed as an expansion of the form of Baptism; in fact it is the baptismal symbolum. The constant practice of the Church in the administration of Baptism is of itself convincing proof that the dogma of the Divine Trinity always formed part and parcel of the original deposit of faith. In the Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, which, according to the late Dr. F. X. Funk, was written towards the end of the first century, when Nerva ruled the Roman Empire, we read: "Baptizate in nomine (eis rò ovoμa) Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti- Baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.""

An interesting counterpart of the baptismal symbolum of the early Church is the private profession of faith

• Rediscovered by Philotheus Bry. ennios and edited by him in 1883. Cfr. Bardenhewer-Shahan, Patrology, pp. 19 sqq.; Tixeront, History of Dogmas, Vol. I, pp. 135 sqq.; C. Taylor, An Essay on the Doctrine of the Didache, Cambridge 1889.

7 Doctrina Duodecim Apostolorum, 7, 1; ed. Funk, pp. 21 sq., Tubingae 1884. For an English translation

of the Didache, see The Ante-Nicene Fathers, American Reprint, Vol. VII, pp. 377 sqq., New York 1907. On the Apostles' Creed cfr. Bäumer, Das Apostolische Glaubensbekenntnis, seine Geschichte und sein Inhalt, Mainz 1893, and Her bert Thurston, S. J., in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. I, pp. 629632, who also gives copious bibliographical references.

ascribed to St. Gregory Thaumaturgus (d. 270). This document tersely, clearly, and completely expounds the Catholic teaching on the Blessed Trinity. Defending the faith against Paul of Samosata, the Wonderworker professes: "Unus Deus Pater Verbi viventis. ... Unus Dominus solus ex solo, Deus ex Deo. . . Unus Spiritus Sanctus ex Deo subsistentiam (vrapέiv) habens. . . . Trinitas perfecta (тpiàs teλeía), quae gloria et aeternitate et regno non dividitur nec alienatur There is one God, Father of the Living Word. . . . One Lord, sole from sole, God from God. . . . One Holy Ghost having His being from God. . . . A perfect Triad not separated nor dissociated in glory, eternity, and reign." Gregory of Nyssa tells us that his grandmother Macrina had received this formula from Thaumaturgus himself and handed it down to her grandchildren in Cappadocia. We are able to obtain a glimpse into the popular belief of the early Christians from an ancient evening hymn, which concludes with a doxology to "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 10

2. THE ANCIENT CHRISTIAN DOXOLOGIES.The public and private doxologies, which may be looked upon as the common property of the faithful in the early Church, distinctly voice belief in the Blessed Trinity. In fact these an

8 Migne, P. G., X, 984 sqq. Newman's translation, Tracts Theol. and Eccles., pp. 155 sq.

9 Migne, P. G., XLVI, 913. Gregory of Nyssa's Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus is, however, "of little historical value because of its highly legendary character." Cfr. Bardenhewer-Shahan, Patrology, p. 170.

10 Ελθόντες ἐπὶ τοῦ ἡλίου δύσιν, ἰδόντες φῶς ἑσπερινόν, ὑμνοῦμεν πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα Ocov. Quoted by Routh, Reliqu. Sacr., 2nd ed., Vol. III, p. 515, Oxon. 1846.

11 For a brief historical account of them, see Fortescue's article "Doxology" in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, pp. 150 sq.

cient hymns, or psalms of praise, seem to be a development of the Trinitarian forms of benediction contained in the New Testament Epistles, and they doubtless reflect the publicly professed faith of the early Christians, unaffected by extraneous elements of abortive speculation. The coordinative form "Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto (or cum Spiritu Sancto) - Glory be to God the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost (or, together with the Holy Ghost)," and the subordinative form, "Gloria Patri per Filium in Spiritu Sancto — Glory be to the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost" are probably of equal antiquity, and the assertion of the Arian historian Philostorgius,12 that the first-mentioned formula had been introduced into the liturgy by Bishop Flavian of Antioch, must be received with suspicion. It is certain that already Justin Martyr was acquainted with it.1 13 Because the Arians showed a decided predilection for the formula "Gloria Patri per Filium in Spiritu Sancto,” (Διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι), St. Basil substituted therefor, as equally correct, the formula μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ σὺν τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ, which threw into stronger relief the consubstantiality and coequal adorableness of the Son and of the Holy Ghost with the Father.1

12 Hist. Eccles., III, 13, Migne, P. G., LXV, 502.

13 Apol., I, c. 65, Migne, P. G., VI, 427.

14

14 Cfr. Von der Goltz, Das Gebet in der ältesten Christenheit, pp. 135 sqq., Leipzig 1902.