ready been developed in a previous Section of this treatise.33

a) One of the most authoritative of the Greek Fathers is St. Athanasius (+373). He expressly teaches that "the Holy Ghost holds the same relation to the Son as to the Father," and that consequently the total substance of the Father is communicated to the Holy Ghost "through the mediation of the Son." 34 Christ's breathing upon the Apostles he explains as a symbol of the "Procession" of the Holy Ghost from the Son. "The Son breathed the Holy Ghost into the Apostles' countenance and said: 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost,' in order that we might learn that the Spirit given to the Disciples is from the fulness of the Godhead; for in Christ, says the Apostle, the whole plenitude of the Godhead indwells corporeally." 35 For this reason he designates the Son as "the fountainhead (or source) of the Holy Ghost." s These and many similar phrases are merely equivalent terms signifying the "Procession" of the Holy Ghost from the Son.

b) St. Basil's attitude on the question of the "Filioque" may be gathered from his constant teaching that the Holy Ghost proceeds "from the Father through the Son." He furthermore affirms that "the divine dignity comes to the Holy Ghost from the Father through

37

33 Supra, pp. 168 sqq.

84 S. Athanas., Ad Serap., ep. 1, n. 19: Qualem scimus proprietatem (ιδιότητα) esse Filii ad Patrem, eandem ad Filium habere Spiritum S. comperiemus. Et quemadmodum Filius dicit: Omnia, quaecunque habet Pater, mea sunt,' ita haec omnia per Filium in Spiritu Sancto esse deprehendemus."

35 Ad Serap., ep. 3.

38 τὴν πηγὴν τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος. De Incarnatione contra Arianos, 9.

37 St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto, XVIII, 45: Εν δὲ καὶ τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, · δι ̓ ἑνὸς υἱοῦ τῷ ἑνὶ πατρὶ συναπτόμενον.

"39

[His] Only-begotten Son." 38 In a famous passage, which gave rise to acrid disputes at Florence, in 1439, St. Basil says that the Spirit holds His place after the Son, "because He holds from Him His being, and receives from Him and communicates to us, and depends entirely on that principle (or cause)." "Dignitate [i. e., secundum originem] namque Spiritum secundum esse a Filio [cum habeat esse ab ipso atque ab ipso accipiat et annuntiet nobis, et omnino ab illa causa dependeat] tradit pietatis sermo." 40 The bracketed clause, which definitely asserts the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son,11 was vigorously impugned by the Greeks, who claimed that it was spurious. But, as Dr. Bardenhewer points out, that these are the genuine original words of Basil is proved by good arguments, extrinsic and intrinsic. But even were they the words of a forger, their meaning is true: and the entire argument of Basil presupposes it as something logical and indispensable." 42

41

66

c) Of St. Gregory of Nazianzus (+389) Bardenhewer observes: "The Filioque is not found in the writings of St. Gregory as clearly and openly as in those of Basil. He takes it, however, for recognized and granted, that the Son also is principle or origin of the Holy Spirit. When he says 43 in his discourse delivered at the Second Ecumenical Council (381), that the Father

88 L. C., 1. 47: ἐκ πατρὸς διὰ τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἐπὶ τὸ πνεῦμα.

39 The Latin Fathers prefer the word principle for the Father and Son; the Greeks more frequently use cause (alría).

40 Contra Eunom. III, 1 (apud Migne, P. G., XXIX, 653 sqq.).

41 It runs as follows in the original Greek: Παρ ̓ αὐτοῦ τὸ εἶναι

ἔχον καὶ παρ' αὐτοῦ λαμβάνον καὶ ἀναγγέλλον ἡμῖν καὶ ὅλως τῆς αἰτίας ἐκείνης ἐξημμένον.

Patrol

42 Bardenhewer-Shahan, ogy, p. 282. For further information on this point, cfr. A Kranich, Der hl. Basilius in seiner Stellung zum Filioque, Augsburg 1882.

43 Or., 42, n. 15.

is ἄναρχος,44 the Son ἀρχή, and the Holy Spirit τὸ μετὰ Tns ȧpxйs, he implicitly affirms that the mutual relation between the Holy Spirit and the Son is that of one who proceeds to Him from whom He proceeds. Moreover, he expressly says that the Holy Spirit is τὸ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν ovrμμévov,15 i. e., He proceeds equally from the Father and the Son. The poem entitled Praecepta ad Virgines ends with these words: 'One God from the Begetter through the Son, to the great Spirit (εἷς θεὸς ἐκ γενέταο δι' υἱέος ἐς μέγα πνεῦμα [this is the so-called κίνησις τῆς μονάδος εἰς τριάδα]), since the perfect Divinity subsists in perfect Persons." " 48

Gregory of Nyssa, a brother of Basil the Great (+ after 394), also teaches that "the Holy Ghost is considered a distinct Hypostasis, because He is from God (EK TOй cou), and is of Christ (Toυ Xpiσtov), So that He does not share either the property of not proceeding (rò ȧyévrov) with the Father, or the property of being the Only-begotten with the Son." 47 There is another passage in the writings of Gregory, which, if its genuineness could be established, would be even more conclusive. Cardinal Bessarion cited it against those of his Greek countrymen who were opposed to the reunion, and at the same time protested against the perversion to which the passage had been subjected in an ancient manuscript codex of the works of St. Gregory at Florence, wherein some Greek forger had clumsily expunged the preposition . The passage occurs in the third of Gregory's Sermones in Orationem Dominicam, and reads

thus: "Spiritus Sanctus et ex Patre (ÈK TOŨ TATρÓS) dicitur et ex Filio esse (Kai [K] TOυ viov) perhibetur The Holy Ghost is said to be from the Father and is shown to be also from the Son." 48

d) The "Filioque" was very clearly taught by St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia (+403). In his Ancoratus 49 he employs the formula τὸ πνεῦμα ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ at least three times.50 And in his work "The Medicine-Chest," 51 usually cited as Haereses, because written against eighty heresies,52 he says: Audi, quisquis es, quod Pater vere est Filii Pater, totus lux, et Filius vere Patris lumen de lumine, . . . et Spiritus Sanctus veritatis lumen tertium a Patre et Filio (pus τρίτον παρὰ πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ).” 53

"Non

To these authorities we may add Didymus the Blind (+ about 395), who, despite his Origenistic tendencies, according to the testimony of St. Jerome was certainly orthodox in his treatise on the Trinity.54 Didymus paraphrases John XVI, 13 as follows: enim loquetur a semetipso, hoc est non sine me et Patris arbitrio, quia inseparabilis a mea et Patris voluntate; quia non ex se, sed ex Patre et me est: hoc enim ipsum, quod subsistit, a Patre et me illi est―[St. John XVI, 13, says: But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth. For he shall not speak of himself; but what things soever he shall hear, he shall speak; and the things that are to come, he shall shew you.] He will not speak of himself, that is to say, not

without Me and the judgment of the Father, because He is inseparable from Mine and the Father's will; because He is not from Himself, but from the Father and Me; for He has His very subsistence from the Father and Me.” ʊs

66

Lastly we will mention St. Cyril of Alexandria (+444), whose writings fairly swarm with texts in support of the “Filioque." Not only does he employ the formula “ Ἐκ πατρὸς δι' υἱοῦ προχεόμενον πνεῦμα — The Holy Ghost flows forth from the Father through the Son,” 5 but he distinctly asserts: “Spiritus Sanctus procedit ex Patre et Filio (πρόεισι δὲ καὶ ἐκ πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ) — The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son." "

57

e) Cardinal Bessarion, in his famous dogmatic discourse at the Council of Florence, A. D. 1439, summarized the teaching of the entire Patristic period on the dogma of the Blessed Trinity in these words: "Latini Patres clarissime et dissertissime docent, Spiritum Sanctum procedere ex Filio et Filium, sicut Patrem, esse eius principium. Deinde Orientales quoque, non secus ac Occidentales, hoc ipsum dicere demonstravimus, cum alii Spiritum ex Patre per Filium procedere, alii ex Patre et Filio atque ex ambobus esse aiunt, sicque aperte docent, esse etiam ex Filio - The Latin Fathers teach most clearly and eloquently that the Holy Ghost proceeds

55 Didymus, De Spiritu Sancto, 2. Another, larger extract from the writings of Didymus on the Trinity is quoted by Petavius, De Trinitate, VII, 3, 6.

56 De Adorat. in Spiritu et Veritate, apud Migne, P. G. LXVIII, 147. 57 Thesaurus Assert., 34. Migne, P. G. LXXV, 586.