Church that the Comma occurs only in certain codices, it is to be noted that this council does not reject the text of the three heavenly witnesses as apocryphal or spurious, or as having been smuggled into the Bible.

41

The strongest dogmatical argument, according to Franzelin and Kleutgen,12 is that drawn from the Tridentine decree De Canonicis Scripturis: "Si quis libros integros cum omnibus suis partibus, prout in ecclesia catholica legi consueverunt et in veteri vulgata latina editione habentur, pro sacris et canonicis non susceperit, . . . anathema sit." 43 anathema sit." 43 Franzelin and Kleutgen argue that since the Comma Ioanneum, being an important "dogmatic text," must be regarded as an integral part of Sacred Scripture, and as it undoubtedly formed part of the ancient Latin Vulgate, its canonical authenticity is fully covered by the Tridentine decree.

If this claim were well founded, the whole discussion would have been irrevocably closed in the sixteenth century. But Franzelin and Kleutgen overshoot the mark. The Tridentine decree settles nothing either for or against the authenticity of the Comma Ioanneum. For, as Schäfer points out, the decree is distinctly limited by the phrases "prout in ecclesia catholica legi consueverunt," and "et in veteri vulgata latina editione habentur." Of these limitations the former does not fully apply to the Comma Ioanneum, and the latter can not affect the official edition of the Vulgate issued in 1592. Of the earlier editions many were notoriously without the Comma. Consequently, the clause omnibus suis partibus" is not strictly applicable to I John V, 7. This argument is strengthened by the testimony

41 De Deo Trino, thes. 4.

42 De Ipso Deo, pp. 519 sqq. 43 Denzinger-Bannwart, Enchiridi on, n. 784.

44 Einleitung in das Neue Testament, pp. 341 sqq., Paderborn 1898.

of the Fourth Lateran Council, which we have already · quoted, to the effect that in the 13th century the Comma Ioanneum was found only in a few codices (“in quibusdam codicibus invenitur "). The fact that there still exist, over fifty ancient manuscript codices of the Vulgate which lack the Comma Ioanneum is too remarkable to be brushed aside as irrelevant. The scientific aspect of the problem, therefore, is not touched by the Tridentine decree at all, and the Comma itself remains a doubtful text. Franzelin in another treatise admits this contention in principle.45

For the rest, it is plain that Rome does not wish to bolt the door to further critical research. Very soon after the Inquisition had promulgated its decree of Jan. 13, 1897, Cardinal Vaughan replied to a query from Mr. Wilfrid Ward: "I have ascertained from an excellent source that the decree of the Holy Office on the passage of the Three Witnesses,' which you refer to, is not intended to close the discussion on the authenticity of that text; the field of Biblical criticism is not touched by this decree." Availing himself of the liberty thus granted, Professor Karl Künstle, of the University of Freiburg in Baden, has lately attempted to throw new light on the origin of the Comma, and has succeeded in making it appear extremely probable that it was formulated by Priscillian, about A. D. 380, in the heretical wording: "Et haec tria unum sunt in Christo Iesu," in support of his Sabellian Pan-Christism, and that it was recast in an orthodox mould by some

45 De Script. et Trad., ed. 4, p. 489, Romae 1896: "Si de aliquo tali textu posset demonstrari, non esse ex veteri vulgata editione," he says, "eius conformitas cum Scriptura primitiva non posset dici per decretum Concilii declarata. Qui ergo

textum ita admittit vel non admittit, prout exstat vel non exstat in veteri vulgata editione, quae longo saeculorum usu in ecclesia probata est, is nihil agit contra decretum Concilii."

46

Catholic theologian 40 (possibly pseudo-Vigilius of Tapsus) and inserted into the text of St. John's First Epistle by one "Peregrinus," who was probably a monk named Bachiarius. It is probably of Spanish origin.*7

READINGS: *Scheeben, Dogmatik, Vol. I, §107 (WilhelmScannell, Manual, I, pp. 265 sqq.).- Oswald, Dogmatische Theologie, Vol. II: Trinitätslehre, §3, Paderborn 1888.-J. Lebreton, Les Origines du Dogme de la Trinité, pp. 207 sqq., 524 sqq., Paris 1910. Other bibliographical references in the text.

SECTION 3

NEW TESTAMENT TEXTS TREATING OF THE DIVINE PERSONS SEVERALLY

In demonstrating the dogma of the Most Holy Trinity from those texts of Sacred Scripture which treat of the Divine Persons severally, we shall have to establish three distinct truths: (1) The reality of each Divine Person in contradistinction to mere personification; (2) the noncoincidence of each Person with the others, in contradistinction to the Sabellian heresy which confuses them; and (3) the Divinity of each Person, in opposition to the Arian and Macedonian doctrine that the Son or the Holy Ghost is a creature.

As "Logos" is manifestly synonymous with Son of God, and "Paraclete" with Holy Ghost, there cannot be five Divine Persons, but only three. To establish the hypostatic difference of these three is the purpose of the first two members of this argument, while the third shows forth the absolute unity of the Divine Nature possessed by the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity in common.

The most important part of our task in this Section is to establish the true Divine Sonship of Jesus Christ,

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a conception which fully harmonizes with the dogma of the Blessed Trinity and sets forth with great clearness its two fundamental marks, viz.: Trinity and Unity. For, as Gossler pertinently observes, "Belief in, and knowledge of, the Triune God is conditioned upon belief in, and knowledge of, the Son of God." The combined results of exegetical research ultimately lead to the dogma of a real Trinity of Persons in one divine and indivisible Monad.

ARTICLE I

OF GOD THE FATHER

I. GOD'S FATHERHOOD IN THE FIGURATIVE SENSE OF THE TERM.-The Biblical use of the name "Father" indicates that He to whom it is applied is a real person. It also proves His Divinity. But it does not necessarily argue that He is a father in the strict sense of the term, or that He is the "first" in a group of three Divine Persons.

There is a human fatherhood which is merely analogical and figurative. Similarly Holy Scripture often refers to the Godhead, i. e., the whole Blessed Trinity, as "Father" in a purely moral or metaphorical sense. Thus God is in a certain sense the Father of His creatures by the act of creation and the fact of His Divine Providence. Cfr. Job XXXVIII, 28: "God ... the father of rain” (“pater pluviae,” i. e., auctor

1 Lehrb. d. kath. Dogmatik, I, 2,

p. 133, Ratisbon 1874.

2 Take for example the relation

denoted by such terms as stepfather, father confessor, father of the Church.