論三位一體與詩篇釋義 第 2 章 第 1/9 段

SERIES A. I. HERE BEGINS THE CATHOLIC FAITH SET FORTH AT THE CITY OF PARIS BY THE BISHOPS OF GAUL TO THE BISHOPS OF THE EAST. To the most beloved and most blessed fellow priests, all the bishops of the East abiding in Christ throughout the various provinces, the bishops of Gaul send greeting. With every feeling of our life and faith we give thanks to God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, that he has set us in the light of the knowledge of his confession by the doctrines both of the prophets and the apostles, lest, held fast by the darkness of worldly ignorance, we should be bound by the judgment of the world; since the only fullest hope unto salvation is to confess God the Father Almighty through his only-begotten our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.

But clearly the cause of our rejoicing is heaped up no less daily, in that he who frees us from the error of the world now also does not suffer us to be mingled in the inexpiable fellowship of heretics. For from your letters, which you entrusted to our beloved brother and fellow priest Hilary, we have come to know the fraud of the devil and the schemes of the heretics conspiring against the Lord's Church, so that, divided into the parts of East and West, we might be deceived by opinions differing from one another. For very many in number, who were present either at Ariminum or at Nicaea, under the authority of your name were forced into silence concerning the word 'ousia' (substance). Which word, once discovered by you against the heresy of the Arian-maniacs, has always been received by us in a holy and faithful manner.

For we have embraced the word 'homoousion' (of one substance) with reference to the true and lawful nativity of the only-begotten God from God the Father, detesting the very union according to the blasphemies of Sabellius, and understanding the Son to be no part of the Father, but from the whole and perfect unbegotten God the whole and perfect only-begotten God begotten; and therefore he is confessed by us to be 'of one' either 'ousia or substance' with God the Father.

lest he should seem rather a creature, or an adoption, or a mere appellation; and because he is from him, as the Son from the Father, as God from God, as power from power, as spirit from spirit, as light from light. His likeness also to God the Father we hear not unwillingly—since indeed he is the image of the invisible God—but understanding that likeness alone to be worthy toward the Father which is of the true God to the true God, so that not a union but a unity of divinity may be understood; for a union is singular, but a unity, according to the truth of the nativity, is the fullness of the one being born; especially since the Lord Jesus Christ himself professed to his disciples, saying: 'I and the Father are one.'

By which he signifies not only the love which is toward the Father, but also the divinity which is of God from God, according to that saying: 'He who has seen me has seen the Father also,' and: 'If you will not believe me, believe even my works, for the Father is in me and I in the Father.' Therefore, holding this faith always, we will hold it, detesting also those who say: 'He was not before he was born.' Not that we preach the only-begotten God to be unbegotten, but because it is most impious to set some time before times to God, since that very phrase 'before he was born, he was not' belongs to time. But we also do not deny that he was obedient to the Father even unto the death of the cross, according to the weakness of the assumed manhood, since he himself spoke concerning his ascent to the heavens:

'If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.' Through the taking up of whose flesh he deigned to call us brothers to himself, when, abiding in the form of God, he willed to be in the form of a servant. And so, dearest ones, since from your letters our simplicity recognizes that it was made to suffer fraud in the silence concerning 'ousia,' and since our brother Hilary, the faithful preacher of the Lord's name, has announced that even the piety of those who returned from Ariminum to Constantinople, having been convened (as your letter's contents testify), could not be compelled to the condemnation of such great blasphemies—we too withdraw from all those things which were wrongly done through ignorance.

We hold Auxentius and Ursacius and Valens, Gaius, Megasius, and Justinus as excommunicated according to your letters, and surely, as we have said, according to the profession of our brother Hilary, who declared that he would not have peace with those who followed the errors of these men. All the blasphemies too, which you appended in your letters, we condemn, and especially rejecting those apostate priests who have been substituted, either through ignorance or through impiety, into the places of the brethren most unworthily driven into exile; promising this before God and even confessing it, that whoever within Gaul shall have thought that these things which we have decreed should be resisted, is to be cast out from communion and from the seat of the priesthood.

For neither—as in other cases—shall he be judged worthy of the holiness and the name of the priesthood, who either does not condemn while permitting an occasion of preaching, or who strives against God and the majesty of Christ the only-begotten God otherwise than we hold concerning the meaning of 'homoousion.' From whom already let your charity know that Saturninus, who most impiously contradicted the wholesome decrees, has been excommunicated by all the bishops of Gaul according to two letters already sent by our brethren; whom both his old crimes—dissembled, though for a long time now—and certain ones published in his own letters of new recklessness have made unworthy, unworthy of the name of bishop. HERE ENDS THE CATHOLIC FAITH SET FORTH AT THE CITY OF PARIS BY THE BISHOPS OF GAUL TO THE BISHOPS OF THE EAST. II.

To the most holy lord and brother Gregory the bishop, Eusebius in the Lord, greeting. (5). I have received the letters of your sincerity, in which, as befits a bishop and a priest of God, I have learned that you resisted the transgressor Ossius, and that, when very many at Ariminum were falling into communion with Valens, Ursacius, and the rest, whom they themselves had previously condemned when the crime of blasphemy was recognized, you denied your assent, keeping, that is, the faith which the fathers of Nicaea wrote. We rejoice—for you in this, and we rejoice for ourselves, that you live by this purpose and, strong in this faith, have deigned to remember us. And to you, remaining in the same confession and retaining no fellowship with hypocrites, I promise our communion with you.

With whatever treatises you can, with whatever labor you prevail, rebuke the transgressors, chide the unfaithful, fearing nothing about the earthly kingdom, as you have done, because greater is he who is in us than he who is in this world. But we, your fellow priests, laboring in a third exile, say this, which we thought to be manifest, that all the hope of the Arian-maniacs hangs not on their own unharmonized consensus, but on the protection of the earthly kingdom, ignorant of the Scripture that they are accursed who have their hope in man. But our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. In sufferings we desire to endure, that, according to what has been said, we may be glorified in the kingdom.

Deign to write to us what you have accomplished in correcting the wicked, or how many brethren you have either recognized as standing firm, or have yourself corrected by admonishing. All who are with me greet you, especially the Deacon, and together they ask that you would deign to greet with our respect all who faithfully cleave to your side. HERE ENDS THE LETTER OF EUSEBIUS TO GREGORY BISHOP OF SPAIN. III. HERE BEGINS THE LETTER OF BISHOP GERMINIUS AGAINST THE ARIANS, WHO HAD ALREADY SUBSCRIBED AT THE COUNCIL OF ARIMINUM, KNOWING THAT THEY HAD DONE WRONGLY. I, Bishop Germinius, believe and profess there to be one true God the Father, eternal, almighty.

And Christ his only Son and our Lord and God, true Son of God from the true God the Father, begotten before all things, like the Father in all things—in divinity, love, majesty, power, brightness, life, wisdom, knowledge—as being the Perfect begotten from the Perfect. We also accept and believe his taking up of manhood from the Virgin Mary, as the prophets foretold would come to pass and as the evangelical and apostolic voices teach was fulfilled; his passion too, and his death, and his resurrection, and his ascension into the heavens. We profess also that at the end of the world he shall descend from the heavens to judge the living and the dead, and to render to each according to his works. And in the Holy Spirit, that is, the Paraclete,

who was given to us by God the Father through the Son. IV. HERE BEGINS THE DECREE OF THE SYNOD OF THE EASTERN BISHOPS AT SERDICA FROM THE PARTY OF THE ARIANS, WHICH THEY SENT TO AFRICA. To Gregory bishop of Alexandria, to the bishop of Nicomedia, to the bishop of Carthage, to the bishop of Campania, to the bishop of Naples in Campania, to the clergy of Ariminum, to the bishop of Campania, to the bishop of Salona in Dalmatia, to Amphion, to Donatus, to Desiderius, to Fortunatus, to Euthicius, to Maximus, to Symphron, and to all our fellow priests throughout the whole world, to the presbyters and deacons and to all

who are under heaven in the holy Catholic Church—we bishops who, from the various provinces of the East, that is, from the province of Thebaid and from the province of Palestine, Arabia, Phoenicia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, [Galatia], Isauria, Cappadocia, Galatia, Pontus, Bithynia, Pamphylia, Paphlagonia, Caria, Phrygia, Pisidia, and from the islands of the Cyclades, Lydia, Asia, Europe, the Hellespont, Thrace, and Haemimontus, gathered to the city of Serdica, have celebrated a council—eternal salvation in the Lord. There is indeed for all of us an unceasing prayer, most beloved brethren, first,

that the holy Church of the Lord, the Catholic Church, being free from all dissensions and schisms, may everywhere preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of charity through right faith—and also to hold, embrace, guard, and keep an unspotted life is indeed just for all who call upon the Lord, but especially for the bishops who preside over the most holy churches. Second, that the rule of the Church and the holy tradition and judgments of our fathers may remain firm and solid forever, and be not at any time disturbed by newly emerging sects and perverse traditions, especially in the appointing of bishops or in their deposing, so that it may not the less hold the evangelical and holy precepts, both those commanded to the holy and most blessed apostles and to our forefathers, and observed by us ourselves down to this very day, and which are still observed.

For there arose in our times a certain Marcellus of Galatia, a more execrable pest than all heretics, who with sacrilegious mind, profane mouth, and ruinous argument would set a limit to the perpetual, eternal, and timeless kingdom of Christ the Lord, saying that the Lord received the beginning of his reigning four hundred years ago, and that its end will come together with the passing away of the world. He even attempts, with the rashness of his undertaking, to assert this too: that at the conception of his body he was then made the image of the invisible God, and then also was made bread and door and life.

And indeed this he confirms not only with words nor with the assertion of loquacity, but the whole of whatever had been conceived in his sacrilegious mind and uttered from his blasphemous mouth, with striving desire, he set down in a book full of blasphemies and execrations, inserting also many other far worse things, forging calumny against him with the divine Scriptures, with his own interpretation and wicked mind, which things, contrary to those Scriptures, he applied out of his own pestilent understanding. From which things it plainly and manifestly stood established that he is a heretic; who, mingling his assertions with certain filths, now with the falsehoods of Sabellius, now with the malice of Paul of Samosata,

now openly mixing in the blasphemies of Montanus, the leader of all heretics, and making one confusion out of the aforesaid, like an imprudent Galatian he turned aside to another gospel, which is not another—according to which the blessed Apostle Paul, condemning such men, says: 'Even if an angel from heaven should announce to you otherwise than what you received, let him be anathema.' Now great was the solicitude of our forefathers and elders concerning the aforesaid sacrilegious preaching. For a council of bishops was appointed in the city of Constantinople under the presence of Constantine the emperor of most blessed memory. They came from many provinces of the East,

that they might reform by wholesome counsel a man steeped in evil things, and that he, admonished, being corrected by most holy rebuke, might depart from his sacrilegious preaching. And they, chiding and reproaching him, and moreover entreating him with the affection of charity for a long time, made no progress at all. For after a first and a second and many rebukes, when they could accomplish nothing—for he persisted and contradicted the right faith and with malignant contentiousness resisted the Catholic Church—thereafter all began to shudder at and to shun him. And seeing that he was subverted and sinning and was condemned by his own self, they condemned him by ecclesiastical acts, lest he should any further stain the sheep of Christ with pestilent evil contacts.

For then also they deposited in the archive of the Church, in their most holy writings, some of his most depraved opinions against the right faith and the most holy Church, for the memory of posterity and as a caution. But these things indeed were the first according to the impiety of the heretic Marcellus; worse things then followed. For who of the faithful would believe or endure those things which were wickedly done and written by him, and which were worthily anathematized together with Marcellus himself by our forefathers in the city of Constantinople?

For there exists a book of sentences against him written by the bishops, in which book even these very men, who are now with Marcellus himself and favor him—that is, Protogenes bishop of the city of Sardica, and Cyriacus of Naissus—wrote the sentence against him with their own hand. Whose surviving hands testify that the most holy faith is by no means to be changed, nor the holy Church to be subverted by false preaching, lest in this way a most grievous plague and pestilence of souls be brought upon men, Paul saying: 'Whether we or an angel from heaven should announce to you otherwise than what you received, let him be anathema.' But we have wondered vehemently, how it is that certain men who wish to be reckoned churchmen readily receive into communion him who dares to preach the gospel otherwise than it is in truth,

and would neither inquire into his blasphemies, which are marked out in his own book, nor would consent to give their assent to those who diligently investigated all things and, finding them, justly condemned him. For indeed Marcellus, when he was held to be a heretic among his own people, sought the aids of travel abroad—namely, that he might deceive also those who were ignorant both of himself and of his pestilent writings. But whatever he does among them, he conceals his impious writings and profane opinions, setting forth false things for true, and has made himself gain out of the simple and the innocent.

And under the pretext of ecclesiastical discipline he has led astray many pastors of the Church, and, reducing them into his own power, introducing the sect of the heretic Sabellius, deceived them with cunning fraud, restoring both the arts and the guiles of Paul of Samosata. For the strange tradition of Marcellus is mingled with the sects of all heretics, as has been mentioned above. Wherefore it had befitted all the overseers of the holy Church, mindful of the words of the Lord Christ, who says:

'Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves; by their fruits you shall know them'—to shun such men and to shudder at them and not readily to hold communion with them, to recognize them by their acts and to pre-condemn them by their sacrilegious writings. But now we greatly fear lest in our times that be fulfilled which is written: 'While men sleep, the enemy comes and sows tares among the wheat.' For when those do not watch who ought to watch in the guardianship of the Church, false things imitating true things utterly overturn that which is right.

Wherefore we, who have fully come to know his sect and his crimes from the book of Marcellus, have written to you, most beloved brethren, that you may admit neither Marcellus nor those who are joined to him into the communion of the holy Church, and that you may be mindful of the prophet David, who says: 'I said to those who do iniquity: Do not commit iniquity, and to those who offend: Do not exalt the horn; lift not up your horn on high, speak not iniquity against God.' And believe Solomon, who says: 'Remove not the eternal landmarks which your fathers set up.'

Since these things are so, do not follow the most depraved errors of the aforesaid Marcellus, and pre-condemn those things which were devised and handed down by him with unjust preaching against the Lord Christ, lest you also become partakers of his blasphemies and crimes. But for the sake of brevity, thus far concerning Marcellus. But concerning Athanasius, once bishop of Alexandria, receive what deeds were done. He was gravely accused of being sacrilegious toward God and profane toward the mysteries of the holy Church—he who with his own hands broke to pieces a cup dedicated to God and Christ, and shattered the venerable altar itself, and overturned the priestly seat, and demolished that very basilica, the house of God, the Church of Christ, down to the ground.

And a certain presbyter himself, a grave and just man, by name Ischyras, he handed over to military custody. He was moreover accused of injuries, violence, slaughter, and even the murder of bishops.

He also, in the most sacred days of Easter, raging in tyrannical fashion and joined with commanders and counts—who on his account shut some up in custody, and vexed others with blows and scourges, and drove yet others by diverse torments to his sacrilegious communion (nor had the acts committed ever proceeded from the innocent)—hoping in this way that he and his faction could prevail, so that through commanders and judges and through the very prisons, blows, and diverse torments, he might force the unwilling to his communion, drive the reluctant, and terrify in tyrannical fashion those who fought against and resisted him. Grave indeed and bitter were the charges brought against him by his accusers.

For on account of these things a council seems necessarily to have been first appointed at Caesarea in Palestine, and, when neither he himself nor his satellites at all appeared at the aforesaid council, after a second year, on account of his crimes, it is of necessity celebrated again at Tyre. Bishops came from Macedonia and from Pannonia, Bithynia, and from all parts of the East, constrained by the command of the emperor. And they, learning the outrages and crimes of Athanasius from the acts, do not believe the accusers rashly or heedlessly, but from their own council they choose distinguished and praiseworthy bishops and send them to the very scene, where the deeds had been done of which Athanasius was accused.

And they, beholding all things with eye-witness faith and learning the truth, return to the council and by their own testimony confirm as true his crimes which were brought against him by the accusers. Whence they pronounce against the present Athanasius a sentence worthy for his crimes. On account of which, fleeing from Tyre, he appeals to the emperor. The emperor too hears him; and, an interrogation being held, recognizing all his outrages, deported him into exile by his own sentence.

These matters therefore having thus gone forward, when Athanasius, worthily condemned, was being held in exile on account of the desert of his crimes—sacrilegious toward God, profane toward the sacred mysteries, violent in the demolition of the basilica, horrible in the destructions of bishops and the persecution of innocent brethren—by all the bishops the authority of the law, the canon of the Church, and the holy tradition of the apostles is preserved in rejecting the wicked. But while Athanasius, after his condemnation, was procuring for himself a return from exile, after a very long time he came from Gaul to Alexandria. And he, reckoning the past as nothing, prevailed more fiercely in wickedness. For in comparison with what followed, the first things committed by him are light.

For along his whole way of return he was subverting churches, restoring some condemned bishops, promising others hope of a return to the episcopate, appointing some from among the unfaithful as bishops while the priests remained safe and whole and intact, through the fights and slaughters of the heathen—regarding no laws, attributing everything to desperation. Whence by force, by slaughter, by war he plunders the basilicas of the Alexandrians. And when now, by the judgment of the council, a holy and whole priest had been appointed in his place, like a barbarian foe, like a sacrilegious plague, having brought in throngs of the heathen, he sets fire to the temple of God, breaks the altar to pieces, and secretly, stripped, fled out of the city in hiding.

But concerning Paul, once bishop of the city of Constantinople, after the return from his exile, if anyone shall have heard, he will shudder with horror. ... For there were also at Ancyra in the province of Galatia, after the return of the heretic Marcellus, the burnings of houses and diverse kinds of wars. Presbyters were dragged naked by him to the forum, and—what must be said with tears and mourning—the consecrated body of the Lord, hung about the necks of the priests, he openly and publicly profaned; and the most holy virgins, dedicated to God and Christ, he publicly, in the forum and in the midst of the city, with the peoples running together, their garments torn off, laid bare with horrible foulness.

But also in the city of Gaza in the province of Palestine, Asclepas, after his return, smashed an altar and stirred up many seditions. Moreover at Adrianople, Lucius, after his return, ordered — if it is permissible even to say it — that the sacrifice offered by holy and blameless priests be thrown to the dogs. Since, therefore, these things are so, shall we go on still entrusting the sheep of Christ to such and so great wolves, and make the members of Christ the members of a harlot? God forbid.

For afterwards Athanasius, roaming through various parts of the world — namely leading some astray and, by his deceit and his pestilential flattery, deceiving innocent bishops who were unaware of his crimes, or certain Egyptians ignorant of his deeds — by begging letters from individuals, disturbed churches that were at peace, or himself fabricated new ones according to his own will. Yet none of this could have any force against a judgment long since ratified by the most holy and illustrious bishops. For the commendation of those who were neither judges in the council, nor ever had any share in the council's judgment, nor were present when the aforesaid Athanasius was heard — such men are known neither to have been able to avail him nor to profit him.

Finally, when he perceived that these attempts had come to nothing, he set off to Julius at Rome, and to Julius also went certain bishops of his own party. Leading these astray by the falsehood of his letters, he was very easily received by them into communion. From then on they began to labour not so much for him as for their own deeds, because by believing too rashly they had communicated with him. For even if those letters were from certain persons, they were not from those who had either been judges or had sat in the council. And even if they were from some persons, they ought never to have rashly given credence to one pleading on his own behalf. But even the judges who worthily passed sentence upon him refused to believe him, for this reason:

Because others too, who in the past were exposed for their crimes, have now joined themselves with Marcellus and Athanasius — we mean Asclepas, who seventeen years ago was stripped of the honour of the episcopate, then Paul and Lucius and all who have joined such men — and going about together through foreign regions, they were persuading the judges that no credence should be given to those who had worthily passed sentence upon them, so that by this kind of trafficking they might one day procure for themselves a return to the episcopate.

They defended themselves neither in the very places where they had sinned, nor in the neighbouring ones, nor where they had their accusers, but among strangers set far from their own regions, who knew nothing of the truth of what had been done; and they tried to break through a just sentence, referring their deeds to men who in every respect were ignorant of them. This they do cunningly. For knowing that, after so many and such weighty sentences, many of the judges, accusers, and witnesses had died, they thought to set up another trial, wishing to plead their cause before us, who neither acquitted them nor judged them. For those who did judge them have already gone to the Lord. Yet they even wished to impose themselves upon the Eastern bishops, and they come forward as defenders in place of judges, and in place of defenders...

At the time when their defence had no force — especially since then they were least able to be defended, when their own accusers convicted them face to face — they thought to introduce a new law, that the Eastern bishops should be judged by the Western. And they wanted the judgment of the Church to be able to be established through men who pitied not so much them as their own deeds. Since, therefore, ecclesiastical discipline has never admitted this crime, we beseech you, most beloved brethren, that you too, together with us, condemn the wicked ruin and the deadly attempts of these lost men. For indeed, while Athanasius was still bishop, he himself by his own sentence condemned Asclepas, who had been deposed; and Marcellus likewise never communicated with him.

Paul indeed took part in the deposition of Athanasius, and writing the sentence with his own hand together with the others, he too himself condemned him. And as long as each of them was a bishop, he confirmed his own judgments. But when, from various causes and at various times, each of them was worthily driven out of the Church according to his deserts, they made a greater concord by a single conspiracy, each pardoning the others the offences which, while they were bishops, they had by divine authority condemned.

For inasmuch as Athanasius, going into Italy and Gaul, secured for himself a trial after the death of some of his accusers, witnesses, and judges, and believed that he could be heard afresh at a time when his outrages would be obscured by the lapse of time — to which Julius, bishop of the city of Rome, Maximinus, Ossius, and very many others of their party wrongly lending their consent, obtained by the emperors' favour that a council be held at Serdica — we came to Serdica, summoned by the emperor's letters.