to the Father and the Son per modum unius, that is, as one really identical act. This definition is ultimately based upon the axiom of the relationis oppositio. Whatever does not include relative opposition in the Godhead, appertains to the indistinct identity of the Divine Being and Essence. Hence active Spiration must be identical with Paternity and Filiation, or, in other words, Father and Son are necessarily one Spirator, even as the product of their Spiration, the Holy Ghost, is one. This unica spiratio was interpreted by the rule of St. Anselm, which we have called the fundamental law of the Trinity, in the Decretum pro Iacobitis, which emphatically declares that the Father and the Son are one principle of the Holy Ghost in the same sense in which the Blessed Trinity, as the Creator of the physical universe, is the one sole principle of the creature.17 4. THE THREE "RELATIONES PERSONIFICAE.” -If, as we have said, the Divine Nature subsists in three Hypostases or Persons, only three of the four real Relations existing in the Godhead can be "relationes personificae," that is to say, only three constitute Persons. These three are: Paternity (paternitas, πаτρóTMηS), Filiation (filiatio, viórns), and Passive Spiration (processio, ἐκπόρευσις). 17 Decretum pro Iacobitis: "Hae tres personae sunt unus Deus, et non tres dii, quia trium est una substantia, una essentia, una divinitas ... ... omniaque sunt unum, ubi non obviat relationis oppositio.. Spiritus Sanctus, quidquid est aut habet, habet a Patre simul et Filio. Sed Pater et Filius non duo prin cipia Spiritus Sancti, sed unum principium, sicut Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus non tria principia creaturae, sed unum principium.” (Denzinger-Bannwart, Enchiridion, n. 703 sq.) a) It is easy to perceive that, concretely, these three Relations are the three Divine Persons themselves: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It follows, and this is a most important truth,— that the three Divine Persons, as such, are Subsistent Relations; and since there are no accidents in God, they must be conceived as Substantial Relations. Hence the Scholastic axiom: "Personae divinae sunt relationes subsistentes et substantiales." The concept of Hypostasis or Person is most perfectly realized in Paternity, Filiation, and Passive Spiration, because it is to these "relationes personificae," in virtue of their exclusive opposition, that the distinctive note of "totietas in se" appertains. The mystery of the Divine Trinity consists in this, that the one concrete Nature of the Godhead culminates in three distinct Hypostases, who, as three perfect Persons, possess one and the same Nature in com mon. Some theologians teach that the Divine Persons are constituted by their origins rather than by their Relations. This opinion does not differ substantially from the one set forth above. For as the origin of the Son by Generation and of the Holy Ghost by Spiration forms the fundamental basis of the divine Relations, there is no objective difference between origins and Relations. They differ only to our imperfect mode of thinking, which conceives the Processions as expressing primarily the "fieri" (via ad personas), and the Relations as de noting the complete state (in facto esse, forma permanens). Since, however, in our human conception of the Divine Persons, the point of prime importance is not their genesis, but their permanence, theologians are wont to say that the Divine Persons are constituted by their Relations rather than by their origins.18 b) We have still to answer the important question, why, despite the fact of its being a real Relation, the spiratio activa does not produce a separate Divine Hypostasis. If Paternity, Filiation, and passive Spiration are the only "relationes personificae," active Spiration must manifestly be cancelled from the list of "subsistent" relations; because else we should have a quaternity instead of a trinity. Consequently, the Spirator, as such, must be impersonal. The objective theological reason for the impersonal character of the Spirator is the fact that active Spiration is a function common to both Father and Son. In other words, the "unus Spirator" presupposes two complete Hypostases, constituted by the relations of Paternity and Filiation. Consequently there is no room left for a fourth person. It follows from what we have said that Spiration in its active sense (spiratio activa) constitutes an essential note of the definition of Paternity and Filiation. In other words, the Father cannot be conceived adequately, 18 On the question whether and how far we may speak of an "absolute subsistence," but not of an "absolute personality," in God, see Kleutgen, Theologie der Vorzeit, Vol. I, pp. 363 sqq. Cfr. also Pesch, Praelect. Dogmat., t. II (3rd ed.), pp. 323 sqq., Friburgi 1906; Billuart, De SS. Trinit. Myst., diss. 4, art. 3. unless He is conceived as Spirator; and the same holds true of the Son. The complete concept of both Father and Son contains spirare as a logical ingredient. There is this difference, however. With the Father spirare takes the form of giving, while with the Son it takes the form of being received: because the Father has the power of Spiration from Himself, whereas the Son possesses it only in virtue of His Generation by the Father.19 In defining as an article of faith the unica spiratio by which the Father and the Son produce the Holy Ghost, the Church has therefore erected a strong rampart around the dogma of the Blessed Trinity, effectively preventing its transformation into a quaternity. It is easy to see how the Greek schism, "the greatest and most enduring of all the schisms that have rent the Church," affects the dogma of the Blessed Trinity. (a) It denies the immediate and direct union of the Holy Ghost with the Son, which can consist only in a relation of origin. At the same time it deprives the Holy Ghost of His attribute of "own Spirit of the Son." 20 (b) It denies the perfect unity of Father and Son, in virtue of which the Son possesses everything except Paternity (and therefore also the virtus et actus spirandi) in common with the Father. (c) It denies the indivisible unity of the Father, since the character of Spirator no longer appears as contained in and founded on Paternity, but standing independently alongside of it, must, like Paternity, constitute a Person, and so give the Father a double personality.21 19 For a more detailed statement of this subtle argument the reader is referred to Ruiz, De Trinit., disp. 17, sect. 6. 20 ἴδιον πνεῦμα. 21 Scheeben, Dogmatik, Vol. I, p. 825; cfr. Wilhelm-Scannell's Manual, Vol. I, p. 306. SECTION 4 THE TRINITARIAN PROPERTIES AND NOTIONS I. THE TRINITARIAN PROPERTIES.-By a "Property" theologians here understand any distinctive peculiarity by which one Divine Person differs from another. a) Properties are divided into two classes: personal properties (proprietates personales, ἰδιώματα υποστατικά), and properties of persons (proprietates personarum, idiopata tõv vπootáσewv). The first class comprises the three subsistent Relations, each of which appertains to but one Divine Person, and thus forms a truly distinctive peculiarity of that Person. They are: Paternity, Filiation, and passive Spiration. The second class, besides these properties of the first class-for every proprietas personalis is eo ipso also a proprietas personae-comprises two or three others respectively. For besides Paternity there is also peculiar to the Father, as a distinctive personal note, innascibility (innascibilitas, ȧyevmoía); and He furthermore shares with the Son the property of active Spiration (spiratio activa, Tveiv). The different Personal Properties |