By Henry Aloysius Barry
Gregory Theolog elegantly observes that this "Unity, progressing from principle to duality, stops at Trinity." "Rightly considered, these views will be found to coalesce with the Greek and Latin Doctors on the procession of the Holy Ghost and to coalesce in one faith." (J. B. Fournals, Editor of Petav.) Lequien, the most learned commentator of St. John Damascene, vindicates this Father from discordancy and contends with vigor and logic that He is easily explained. The so-called Greeks distort the teaching of the Fathers. They twist the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son and from both in such a way as to restrict the meaning of it to two alternatives, namely, the temporal mission or that the gifts of the Holy Ghost, to the exclusion of His Person, are said to be from the Father and the Son. We have already disproved this perversion of the Fathers. The procession of the Holy Ghost therein recorded points to the eternal immanent res although the mission of the Holy Ghost is a fruit of His procession from the Father and Son and created gifts are also in the light of a consequence from the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost. By the procession from the Father and Son is meant the Third Person. St. Epiphanius says, —"The Father is Light, the Son is Light of Light, the Spirit is of the Two."
The so-called Greeks admit the procession of the Holy Ghost hypostatically speaking as far as the Father is concerned. In the case of the Son, they say it is not thus, but that the Holy Ghost is of His substance. The result of this position would be to make the Holy Ghost co-substantial, and they explain this in such a way as to repudiate the substance of the Son a quo as a principle of procession whence the Holy Ghost is, but rather make it a formal cause of the Holy Ghost's being of the same substance as the Son. Now when the Fathers of Nice said, simply, that "the Son is of the Father," the Allans took occasion therefrom to make these words harmonize with their error which was that the Son was created. To oppose this heresy the Fathers constructed a most effective formula, namely, that He was "of the substance of the Father." Here was expressed the communication of Essence and co-substantiality of the Son to the Father. What the Arians did with the order of the Son to the Father the Pneumatomachi attempted with the order of the Holy Ghost. The Fathers expressed in the same way as Nice had done in the Arian heresy the relationship of the Holy Ghost to the Son. They defined this procession as the communication of the same nature and substance thus: The Holy Ghost is of the substance—of the very substance—of the Father and Son. So in this case, as at Nice, the principium quod, namely, the "producing" person—in spiration the Father and Son —and also the principium quo is expressed, namely, the essence by the communication of which the spiration is brought about.
The formal cause, consequently, whereby the Holy Ghost is God is the very one communicated nature of the Father and the Son. The so-called Greeks call attention to the particular verbs, by which the orthodox Fathers have expressed the mode of the Holy Ghost emanating from or by the Son. They allege that these verbs have not a notional sound but rather a less intimate character. They say that these words assert the contrary of internal procession and rather impress one that they can only mean the external mission of the Holy Ghost or His gifts. As a matter of fact, the Fathers make use of the same verbs to express the generation of the Son and the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father.
St. Basil says:— "The spirit of God shining forth from God." Moreover in contexts where the Fathers use such words as "shine forth from" the Father and Son or both, where the verb, as far as the Father is concerned, can express no other meaning than the eternal procession, the same cannot hold good as otherwise understood in regard to the Son.
St. Cyril proves that the Holy Ghost is divine in essence, because, "He proceedeth from the Father and Son." The Greek Fathers most clearly have employed these words as immediately significative of the eternal immanent procession. Another subterfuge of the enemy is the interpretation of the Lord's words where He says the Holy Ghost "Shall receive of Mine." They would have it, "He shall receive of My Father." The proprieties of grammar disown such a reading. The Phocians allege with sophistic artifice that whatever is in the Trinity is either common to all or peculiar, hence, spiration is peculiar to the Father or common to the Three Persons—which would, they say, according to Latin doctrine, make the Holy Ghost proceed from Himself. Photius comments on this sophistic quandary to the effect that it outdoes the monstrous fables of the Gentiles themselves. St. Thomas says:—"Opposite relations are persons, and there are two persons just as there are two relations, but relations which in the same person are not in opposition are indeed two relations or peculiarities (proprietates), but not two persons, nay, one person." (1. Dist. 33, a. 2, ad one.) A spirator does not mean a person distinct from the father and son; it signifies one spirative force or one act and one relationship of spiration common to two persons and in a confused way signifies those persons whose act and relationship the spiration is. Spiration is really the same as paternity and sonship, and differs therefrom only "ratione." Fatherhood and sonship include spiration; it enters into either intestinally. Theologians say:—Supposing the real identity of spiration with the fatherhood and sonship and the distinction "ratione," that the constitution—the make-up—of the father and son in the fullest conception of the thing, means the formal "ratio" of fatherhood and sonship inasmuch as both embrace the act of spiration.
The so-called Greeks, in view of the Nature of the Trinity, say that if the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and Son there must be Two Principles of the Holy Ghost and, accordingly, either each Principle is perfect, in which case there would be Two Processions, or, if there be but One Procession from the Two Principles, the Father is insufficient and an imperfect Principle, and the Son is called in to take a hand in the matter. If then the Father and Son are One Principle, this reduces them to One Person, and thus, the heretics say, the Latins contract the Sabellian fault. The matter of all these objections is that the objectors are suffering from a sort of gastritis and their objections are very much on a par with the belchings which are characteristic of such infirmity.
St. Augustine remarks, substantially, that if the spirative force cannot be common to the two and be numerically one without confounding persons and destroying the distinction of generation of son from father, or if the spirative force cannot be in two distinct persons without being in each imperfect or without again the persons being divided and there being two spirators and two principles, then these things must be predicable of the creative force and the power of mission as well. That is to say, there cannot be one —in number—force and action of creation and of mission in distinct persons without thereby destroying by that unity distinction of persons. Or if the persons remain distinct, either this force will be imperfect in each or so separated as to have them turn out as many principles of creation or mission as there are persons creating and sending. The Photian contention is, therefore, not only heretical, but very inconsistent in its method of antagonizing the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son as from One Principle.
The Pneumatomachi, and, after them, the Phocians, in assuming the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father, conclude that if He proceeds, besides, from the Son and by the Son, as Catholic theology maintains, then the Holy Ghost must be a Grandson and the First Person a Grandfather. Thin idea supposes that the Persons are divided so that first of all the Father generates the Son and then the Son alone "generates" the Holy Ghost. As a matter of fact, the divine Persons create by a creative act numerically one; so, the Father and Son are One in number in the spirative act and therefore as one Principle— breathe —or breathes forth the Holy Ghost. St. Epiphanius says: "There is no Grandfather nor Grandson about it; the Holy Ghost is from the same substance of the Father and Son."
Gregory Theolog elegantly observes that this "Unity, progressing from principle to duality, stops at Trinity." "Rightly considered, these views will be found to coalesce with the Greek and Latin Doctors on the procession of the Holy Ghost and to coalesce in one faith." (J. B. Fournals, Editor of Petav.) Lequien, the most learned commentator of St. John Damascene, vindicates this Father from discordancy and contends with vigor and logic that He is easily explained. The so-called Greeks distort the teaching of the Fathers. They twist the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son and from both in such a way as to restrict the meaning of it to two alternatives, namely, the temporal mission or that the gifts of the Holy Ghost, to the exclusion of His Person, are said to be from the Father and the Son. We have already disproved this perversion of the Fathers. The procession of the Holy Ghost therein recorded points to the eternal immanent res although the mission of the Holy Ghost is a fruit of His procession from the Father and Son and created gifts are also in the light of a consequence from the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost. By the procession from the Father and Son is meant the Third Person. St. Epiphanius says, —"The Father is Light, the Son is Light of Light, the Spirit is of the Two."
The so-called Greeks admit the procession of the Holy Ghost hypostatically speaking as far as the Father is concerned. In the case of the Son, they say it is not thus, but that the Holy Ghost is of His substance. The result of this position would be to make the Holy Ghost co-substantial, and they explain this in such a way as to repudiate the substance of the Son a quo as a principle of procession whence the Holy Ghost is, but rather make it a formal cause of the Holy Ghost's being of the same substance as the Son. Now when the Fathers of Nice said, simply, that "the Son is of the Father," the Allans took occasion therefrom to make these words harmonize with their error which was that the Son was created. To oppose this heresy the Fathers constructed a most effective formula, namely, that He was "of the substance of the Father." Here was expressed the communication of Essence and co-substantiality of the Son to the Father. What the Arians did with the order of the Son to the Father the Pneumatomachi attempted with the order of the Holy Ghost. The Fathers expressed in the same way as Nice had done in the Arian heresy the relationship of the Holy Ghost to the Son. They defined this procession as the communication of the same nature and substance thus: The Holy Ghost is of the substance—of the very substance—of the Father and Son. So in this case, as at Nice, the principium quod, namely, the "producing" person—in spiration the Father and Son —and also the principium quo is expressed, namely, the essence by the communication of which the spiration is brought about.
The formal cause, consequently, whereby the Holy Ghost is God is the very one communicated nature of the Father and the Son. The so-called Greeks call attention to the particular verbs, by which the orthodox Fathers have expressed the mode of the Holy Ghost emanating from or by the Son. They allege that these verbs have not a notional sound but rather a less intimate character. They say that these words assert the contrary of internal procession and rather impress one that they can only mean the external mission of the Holy Ghost or His gifts. As a matter of fact, the Fathers make use of the same verbs to express the generation of the Son and the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father.
St. Basil says:— "The spirit of God shining forth from God." Moreover in contexts where the Fathers use such words as "shine forth from" the Father and Son or both, where the verb, as far as the Father is concerned, can express no other meaning than the eternal procession, the same cannot hold good as otherwise understood in regard to the Son.
St. Cyril proves that the Holy Ghost is divine in essence, because, "He proceedeth from the Father and Son." The Greek Fathers most clearly have employed these words as immediately significative of the eternal immanent procession. Another subterfuge of the enemy is the interpretation of the Lord's words where He says the Holy Ghost "Shall receive of Mine." They would have it, "He shall receive of My Father." The proprieties of grammar disown such a reading. The Phocians allege with sophistic artifice that whatever is in the Trinity is either common to all or peculiar, hence, spiration is peculiar to the Father or common to the Three Persons—which would, they say, according to Latin doctrine, make the Holy Ghost proceed from Himself. Photius comments on this sophistic quandary to the effect that it outdoes the monstrous fables of the Gentiles themselves. St. Thomas says:—"Opposite relations are persons, and there are two persons just as there are two relations, but relations which in the same person are not in opposition are indeed two relations or peculiarities (proprietates), but not two persons, nay, one person." (1. Dist. 33, a. 2, ad one.) A spirator does not mean a person distinct from the father and son; it signifies one spirative force or one act and one relationship of spiration common to two persons and in a confused way signifies those persons whose act and relationship the spiration is. Spiration is really the same as paternity and sonship, and differs therefrom only "ratione." Fatherhood and sonship include spiration; it enters into either intestinally. Theologians say:—Supposing the real identity of spiration with the fatherhood and sonship and the distinction "ratione," that the constitution—the make-up—of the father and son in the fullest conception of the thing, means the formal "ratio" of fatherhood and sonship inasmuch as both embrace the act of spiration.
The so-called Greeks, in view of the Nature of the Trinity, say that if the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and Son there must be Two Principles of the Holy Ghost and, accordingly, either each Principle is perfect, in which case there would be Two Processions, or, if there be but One Procession from the Two Principles, the Father is insufficient and an imperfect Principle, and the Son is called in to take a hand in the matter. If then the Father and Son are One Principle, this reduces them to One Person, and thus, the heretics say, the Latins contract the Sabellian fault. The matter of all these objections is that the objectors are suffering from a sort of gastritis and their objections are very much on a par with the belchings which are characteristic of such infirmity.
St. Augustine remarks, substantially, that if the spirative force cannot be common to the two and be numerically one without confounding persons and destroying the distinction of generation of son from father, or if the spirative force cannot be in two distinct persons without being in each imperfect or without again the persons being divided and there being two spirators and two principles, then these things must be predicable of the creative force and the power of mission as well. That is to say, there cannot be one —in number—force and action of creation and of mission in distinct persons without thereby destroying by that unity distinction of persons. Or if the persons remain distinct, either this force will be imperfect in each or so separated as to have them turn out as many principles of creation or mission as there are persons creating and sending. The Photian contention is, therefore, not only heretical, but very inconsistent in its method of antagonizing the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son as from One Principle.
The Pneumatomachi, and, after them, the Phocians, in assuming the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father, conclude that if He proceeds, besides, from the Son and by the Son, as Catholic theology maintains, then the Holy Ghost must be a Grandson and the First Person a Grandfather. Thin idea supposes that the Persons are divided so that first of all the Father generates the Son and then the Son alone "generates" the Holy Ghost. As a matter of fact, the divine Persons create by a creative act numerically one; so, the Father and Son are One in number in the spirative act and therefore as one Principle— breathe —or breathes forth the Holy Ghost. St. Epiphanius says: "There is no Grandfather nor Grandson about it; the Holy Ghost is from the same substance of the Father and Son."
