PROLEGOMENON. (From Cave.) Paschasius, a deacon of the Roman Church, flourished at the beginning of this century, in the year 501. During the Roman schism that raged in the year 498, he strenuously defended the party of Laurentius against Symmachus, and stubbornly championed his cause until his death. He died in the year 512. On this occasion Gregory, or whoever is the author of the Dialogues, relates to us a most charming tale about Paschasius's soul being burned in the flames of Purgatory. There survives Paschasius's Letter to Eugippius, prefixed to the Life of St. Severinus, in Surius for January 8 and in Baronius at the years 496. There are also held the Two Books on the Holy Spirit, against Macedonius (Cologne, 1539, octavo; Helmstadt, 1613; and in the Library of the Fathers, vol. VIII, p. 806).
Casimir Oudin utterly denies that these are Paschasius's, and contends that they should be attributed to Faustus of Riez. Indeed, his reasons do not seem altogether contemptible, and may be seen in his own work, Supplement, p. 107. Since, however, these most choice and splendid books (to use Gregory's words) rest on Gregory's testimony, who expressly attributes them to Paschasius the deacon (and certainly Oudin himself acknowledges that the Dialogues have the greatest authority in this matter), to say nothing now of Sigebert of Gembloux (Chapter 17), they are not rashly to be denied to our Paschasius. Nor do the titles of certain manuscript codices stand in the way, which, set there by the carelessness of copyists, not seldom deceive incautious readers:
especially since Gennadius (Chapter 85) has handed down that Faustus wrote a book on the Holy Spirit. And Trithemius himself, whom Oudin cites as a witness on his own side, splendidly ascribes these very books, which Gregory mentioned, to our Paschasius; although, being engaged in another matter, he incautiously attached the opening words of this work to that single book which Faustus wrote on this subject. THE TWO BOOKS OF PASCHASIUS THE DEACON ON THE HOLY SPIRIT. PREFACE. The catholic faith has been spread throughout the whole world by the patriarchs and the prophets and the dispensers of grace, the Holy Spirit prompting it.
This apostolic solicitude and perfection, just as it had spread it abroad through the holy pages, so through the Creed it gathered it together with wondrous brevity, and arranged it, as it were through diverse kinds of remedies, into one body, and as if from countless aromatic spices compounded a precious ointment, whose odour filled all the ends of the earth with the power of spiritual fragrance, so that in the very ascent of the universe the power of truth might appear. And because it is fitting that we repeat the first elements of the Christian tradition to those who err, as it were to little ones and the ignorant (concerning these see Ambrose, Book I on Abraham, chapter...),
and Prudentius's Psychomachia), in this perfection of the Creed both the unity is evidently disclosed, and the trinity, while the thrice-repeated confession to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, renders one homage of belief. In which words also the sacred number of three hundred and eighteen priests, springing forth, condemned the errors of Arius and Macedonius, saying: I believe in God the Father, I believe in His only Son our Lord, I believe also in the Holy Spirit. For even if from this number the frailty of a few turned aside, yet it did not dissolve the mystery of the universal number. And therefore we have called it a sacred number, because three hundred, by Greek reckoning, show the sign of the cross, but eighteen show the adorable name of Jesus.
In this number, therefore, and mystery, in which holy Abraham also triumphed over countless nations, the piety of the elders confounds the enemy of the faith under the one preaching of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: whence also it is to be understood that those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit under eternal damnation, or those baptized without the profession of the Creed, or those who lied in the very Creed and font, before every man, renouncing the devil, confesses: I believe also in the Holy Spirit. I believe, I say, also in the Holy Spirit. Let us recognize the privilege of the Word itself. Any of men can believe Him. But to believe in Him, you shall know that you owe to majesty alone. But this very thing is also another: it is one thing to believe God, another to believe in God.
Even the devil is said to believe that God exists, according to the Apostle: For even the demons believe and tremble. But to believe in God is not proved except in him who has piously hoped in Him. To believe in God, therefore, is to seek Him faithfully, is to pass over into Him with one's whole love. I believe in Him, that is to say, I confess Him, I worship Him, I adore Him, I hand over and pour my whole self into His right and dominion. In the reverence of this profession are contained all the homages owed to the divine name. CHAPTER ONE. That we ought to believe the Catholic Church not as we believe in the Holy Spirit, but with the preposition removed.
But you object and say that God cannot at once be shown in this clause where we say: I believe also in the Holy Spirit, because there follows: I believe in the holy catholic Church. First, I know not how Macedonius dares to name the catholic Church, who, an exile from the catholic Church, is shut out from salvation, made of the number of those concerning whom it is said: The wicked walk in a circle. Therefore you say: I believe in the holy catholic Church. By thus supplying a tiny thing, that is a single syllable, do you strive to weave underneath a vast darkness? We believe the Church as the mother of regeneration; we do not believe in the Church as in the author of salvation.
For since the whole Church confesses this concerning the Holy Spirit, can it indeed also believe in itself? Therefore, since it behoves us to believe especially in the Trinity alone, and the doctrine of the aforesaid Fathers, celebrated throughout the whole world, confirms this, either remove this syllable from the name of the Church, or else assert with manifest profession from the Scriptures that you believe in the Church, teach it by testimonies, prove it by divine oracles, and convince us, putting aside the presumption of your own words. Let us take from the sacred volumes in every way what is to be believed, from whose fount the very series of the Creed has been derived and subsists. Whoever believes in the Church believes in a human being. For man does not begin from the Church, but the Church began to be from man.
Withdraw therefore from this persuasion of blasphemy, lest you reckon that you ought to believe in some human creature: since by no means is one to believe in an angel or in an archangel. For these things which follow in the Creed after the name of the Holy Spirit are received at the close of the Creed with the preposition removed, that we may believe the holy Church, the communion of saints, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, life eternal. Let us believe in God, that is, that we confess these things to be deposited from God and to stand fast in God. For the inexperience of some has dragged and snatched this preposition, as if from a near and neighbouring clause, into what follows, and superfluously and imprudently added it.
But in none of the canonical books, on which the text of the Creed depends, have we received that we ought to believe in the Church as we believe in the Holy Spirit and in the Son. And therefore, since every creature is alien from this honour, He in whom we are commanded to believe is God. This word of divinity the voice of the Lord Saviour specifically assigns, saying thus: Believe in God, and believe in me. And again: He who believes in me, believes not in me, but in Him who sent me (John XIV, 10 and 12). CHAPTER II. That Christ was not begotten but created by the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as He is God.
But since the catholic Church confesses, 'He was conceived of the Holy Spirit,' the Macedonians are at this point to be asked whether they reckon the Holy Spirit to be the creator or the father of the Redeemer. If perchance they answer 'father,' since they have already said at the beginning of the Creed, 'I believe in God the Father almighty,' they will confusedly confess that He has two fathers. But if they assert Him to be the creator, as the truth holds, they will be compelled, even by necessity, to pronounce Him God of the universe together with us. And therefore through the prophet Isaiah, as through His own trumpet and from His own temple He speaks, while He pre-signified two substances in Christ:
Drop down dew, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just one; let the earth be opened and bring forth a Saviour: I the Lord have created Him (Isaiah XLV). For the man assumed from Mary was the operation of the Holy Spirit, not a portion; nor begotten by Him, but created. He was conceived by power, not by substance; by operation, not by participation; by virtue, not by genus. CHAPTER III. On the unity to be asserted by the testimonies of the prophets. The catholic faith venerates the threefold majesty under the confession of one divinity. Receive one divinity from the sacred volumes. Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one God (Deut. VI); and, You shall adore the Lord your God and serve Him only; in the psalms, doing wonders, You are God alone. Likewise:
You alone are most high over all the earth. Through Isaiah also: God of Israel, who sits upon the Cherubim, You are God alone of all the kingdoms of the earth (Isaiah XLV). Likewise: I am the Lord, the first and the last, I am (Isaiah XLI). Likewise: I am the Lord, this is my name; I will not give my glory to another (Isaiah XLII). But that you may know this testimony to pertain to Christ, that is, 'the first and the last,' He said of Himself in another place: I am the beginning, who also speak to you (John VIII). Likewise: Before me there was no God, and after me there shall be none. I am the Lord, and there is no Saviour besides me (Isaiah XLIII). Which pertains specifically to Christ the Saviour of the human race. Likewise:
Thus says the Lord your redeemer, and your former from the womb: I am the Lord who makes all things, who stretched out the heavens, alone established the earth, and there was none with me (Isaiah XLIV): which pertains to Jesus, and properly regards Him as maker and redeemer. Of whom the evangelist records: All things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing (John I). Likewise: There is no God beyond me, and there is no Saviour besides me (Isaiah XLV). Likewise: I am the first and the last; my hand founded the earth, and my right hand measured out the heavens (Isaiah XLVIII). Just as Jesus Christ in another place evidently asserts of Himself, saying: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation XXI).
In these testimonies the Holy Spirit also is contained, in which the unity of every substance is so to be confessed, that in them is also to be believed to inhere the distinct property of the Persons, and an undivided plurality. CHAPTER IV. On the Trinity, and that even the liberal arts have passed over concerning the three Persons. Since therefore we have shown one deity of the Word, let us now teach three things in one Deity: three names, not three kingdoms; three appellations, but not three powers; three hypostases or subsistences, but not three substances. It is manifest that even secular wisdom understood that the multitude of all secular things is enclosed within the reckoning of three persons. What are these three? That is: I, You, He.
Therefore, as we have said, the liberal studies also perceived, by instruction borrowed from spiritual disciplines, that there are only three persons in things, and to them it evidently appeared that neither could the second person fulfil perfection, nor could the third be transcended, because fullness, tending toward the third number, proves the duality to be half-complete; but the perfection consummated in three rejects a quaternity. These things, then, having been passed over with a light mention, let us rather assert by sacred testimonies that the Trinity subsists in unity without change. But you say: Why do you offer me the words of unity and Trinity, which you do not find in the canonical reading?
It is no wonder if he who does not merit to enter the inner sanctuaries dreads and flees even the testimony of truth. For what is so close, so natural, so proper, as that from 'one' unity, from 'three' Trinity, should first be named by catholic definitions? The words that depend on what precedes are not to be discussed in isolation; nor indeed is it consistent that those things be declared foreign which are born from 'one' and 'three,' that is, from the property of a manifest beginning. Note that neither of these terms is presumptuous, but derivative. These terms antiquity discovered from the time of the primitive Church, authority brought forth, long age confirmed. CHAPTER V. That while the Son is called the face of the Father, He is recognized as coeval with the Father.
Receive the Trinity from the sacred volumes. In the beginning God made heaven and earth, and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters (Gen. I). The Father the author, the coeval beginning, the Holy Spirit poured out over the waters. Over the waters, therefore, the eminence of the One ruling was borne; even then, I believe, prefiguring the gifts of baptism. In the making of man also, the threefold repetition of the deity demonstrates the work to be that not of one, but of three persons. For thus we read: And God said, Let us make man to our image and likeness. Note the sentence simple in the proposition, manifold in the response. And God said, Let us make man. What else is this, but that the substance of unity speaks, and the power of the Trinity operates?
Observe how three times the name of God is named in the creation of man. For thus we have it in Genesis: And God said, Let us make man. And again: God created man. And thirdly: God blessed him. God said, God made, God blessed. On account of the three persons, one divinity is repeated three times. In which place understand evidently the mystery also of the Trinity. Behold, the image of God and the likeness is given to each man by three, and yet is recognized to be one. God said, Let us make.
Diligently attend: while One speaks and not one makes, and while again He mingles the plural with the singular, He does not say 'to our images and likenesses,' nor certainly 'to my image and likeness,' He commends unity by singularity, Trinity by plurality. And so, in that He says, 'Let us make man to our image,' the number of the persons is unfolded; in that He says singularly 'to image and likeness,' the undivided divinity is gathered into one substance. When God had appeared to Abraham at the door of his tent (Gen. XVIII), and three of them had wondrously offered themselves to his eyes, in the three he, conscious of the majesty, adored One. In the psalm also unity is absolutely designated for His persons:
Cast me not away, He says, from Your face, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me (Psalm L). The Son, as the image of the Father, is so also received as the face of the Father. And therefore we read: Philip, he who sees me, sees the Father also (John XIV). And again: Whither shall I go from Your Spirit, and whither shall I flee from Your face? Note in the faith of perfect confession the mystery of the Trinity. The prophet speaks to the Father, professes the Son to be the face of the Father, and likewise professes the Holy Spirit diffused through all things. Of the Son the Lord also speaks to Moses: My face shall go before you (Exod. XXXIII). Which name, that is 'face,' pertains both to the substance of unity and to the eternity of majesty.
But as for the fact that they think Him lesser because He was born, what is it for God to have been born of God, except to have naturally existed from God? But you say: If He is from Him, He is younger. Behold, the arm is born from the body, and the face from its own head, yet it is not the case that the face is lesser than its own head, or the arm later than its own body. If therefore any head was ever older, then presume to assert the Father older than His own image, which consists in the perfect likeness and equality of Christ. So therefore the Son does not know how to be distinguished from the Father in power or in time, just as the face cannot be separated from the head, or be found younger than its own head. CHAPTER VI. That the Spirit of the Father is the very Holy Spirit. But you say:
Show me that the Holy Spirit subsists in His own essence. Wherever or as often as I read, either 'the Spirit of the Father,' or 'my Spirit,' or 'the Spirit of God,' I see, you say, that the person is to be referred not to the Holy Spirit, but to the Father. First, they heap up this blasphemy of their impiety, when they say, on the one side or the other, that the Holy Spirit of God is to be believed either a creature, or else the Father Himself. Rightly does he who does not confess the Holy Spirit slide down with a confounded mind even to the insult of the Father. Surely, if a thing made, it cannot pertain to the substance of the Father. But if you think it to be the paternal power, how do you presume to humble Him even to the injury of a thing made?
But we shall prove by clear testimonies that the Spirit of God is spoken of not properly of the Father, but properly of the Holy Spirit. We read in Isaiah that upon the Lord Jesus there descended the Holy Spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety (Isaiah 11). Concerning this Spirit of the Lord, therefore, who descended upon the Saviour with a sacred infusion, the Son says through Isaiah: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me' (Isaiah 61). And the evangelist Matthew: 'Behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove' (Matthew 3). Moreover, that this Spirit of God, which the Saviour received in baptism, was the Holy Spirit, Luke the evangelist taught plainly, saying:
'Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan' (Luke 3). We read in the prophet Joel: 'In those days I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh' (Joel 2). That what He says, 'of my spirit,' was said of the Holy Spirit is manifest, because when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles on the sacred solemnity of Pentecost, then the apostle Peter alleged this testimony from the prophet. That this Spirit of the Father is the same Holy Spirit, the evangelists taught in differing words but with harmonious truth. For when Matthew said: 'For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you' (Matthew 10),
the same one openly set forth that this Spirit of the Father is the Holy Spirit, saying: 'What is given you, that speak: for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit' (Mark 13). And Luke likewise showed that this Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, saying: 'Be not anxious how or what you shall say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that hour what you ought to say' (Luke 12). Accordingly, then, whenever you read of either the Spirit of the Father or the Spirit of God, you must of necessity confess, laying aside error, that it is to be referred specially to the Holy Spirit.
Likewise also Isaiah had announced that the Holy Spirit is one in the glory of the Trinity, when he says: 'I saw the Lord sitting upon a high throne, and the seraphim stood, and they cried one to another, Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts' (Isaiah 6). And in what follows he says: 'And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Go, and you shall say to this people: Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive.' This Lord of hosts, who through an assumed appearance was seen by the prophet or spoke in the prophet—who he was, the apostle Paul shows in the Acts of the Apostles, saying: 'Well did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers:'
'Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive' (Acts, last chapter). Let us at least believe Paul, that most renowned herald of truth, that the Holy Spirit was that God of hosts whom Isaiah saw, and who spoke through Isaiah. But because it resounds with a threefold repetition, 'Holy, holy, holy,' let us see whether this honour does not regard the Trinity. When Isaiah says, 'I saw the Lord of hosts,' he is acknowledged to proclaim the Father to the Jews. John the evangelist is proved openly to assert the Son, saying thus: 'Therefore they could not believe in Jesus, because Isaiah said: He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart' (John 12; Isaiah 6). Isaiah said these things when he saw the grace of the Son of God, and spoke concerning Him.
But that which the same Isaiah says, 'And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Go and tell this people: Seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive'—this Lord, the apostle Paul, as we have said, confirms to be the Holy Spirit. You see, therefore, that 'Holy, holy, holy'—this utterance celebrates together the whole Trinity? And just as in these three words there is no dissimilarity, no difference, so in the truth of the Trinity there can be no discord. CHAPTER VII. On the finger of God. But you say: From this the Holy Spirit is acknowledged to be lesser, because He is called the finger of God. It is not so.
But when you hear it said of the Holy Spirit, 'If I by the Spirit of God, or by the finger of God, cast out demons,' you must know that this demonstrates not a diminution of grace, but a unity of substance; not a discrepancy of honour, but a concord of operation. What then? Because the Holy Spirit is sometimes called a finger, is He therefore sometimes believed to be lesser than the Son and the Father? Flee the error of this persuasion; take heed lest sometimes in this designation of 'finger' it embraces both the Father and the Son. We remember that it was not said of one finger, when we read: 'For I will behold your heavens, the works of your fingers' (Psalm 8). But you say that in the 'fingers' only the Son and the Holy Spirit are signified, under a certain duality.
Lest you attempt to assert this of two persons, in another place Isaiah speaks of the number of fingers, signifying the Trinity, saying: 'Who has weighed the mass of the earth with three fingers?' (Isaiah 40). What could be more evident concerning the unity of the Trinity, what clearer? Did he not in these three fingers weigh out the equality of one power, under a certain balance of mystery? Therefore, as has been said, since you are now instructed concerning the fellowship of operation, do not doubt concerning the equality of power; when therefore it says, 'Who has weighed the mass of the earth with three fingers,' here they intend to speak specially of the cooperation of power and of the unity of substance, which is approved to be one and the same in the three fingers. But none the less, observe in Isaiah the proper person of the Holy Spirit, under the distinction of the Trinity.
For where the Son asserted concerning Himself, saying, 'I am the first, and I am the last,' He consequently added: 'And now the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit' (Isaiah 48). Therefore one in person is the Lord Father, another is the Spirit of God the Father. And so, while the Son is read to be sent by the Father and the Holy Spirit, under the name of three persons it is evidently opened that the Holy Spirit subsists of itself, just as in another place the same prophet distinguishes the proper essence of the Trinity: 'Behold my child, I will uphold him, my chosen, in whom my soul is well pleased; I have put my Spirit upon him' (Isaiah 42). The Father calls His beloved child, upon whom He has put His Spirit, concerning whom Jesus Christ testifies with His own voice:
'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me' (Luke 4). And so that this might be manifest even to the Gentiles, 'Go,' He says, 'baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' (Matthew, last chapter). Where, under three persons, one work and one name asserts an undivided majesty. We have, as has been said, according to Luke: 'And when Jesus was baptized, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven: You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased' (Luke 3). The Son, therefore, in the body; the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove; the Father is declared in the voice. But in this place the dove is to be understood as an appearance passing through, not a substance enduring. CHAPTER VIII.
That it does not detract from the deity of the Holy Spirit, that He seems to be neither begotten nor unbegotten. But amid these things, while we demonstrate the proper person of the Holy Spirit, and confess the Father unbegotten, and acknowledge the Son indeed only-begotten, you ask of me whether the Holy Spirit is unbegotten or begotten, or what else He is to be confessed. The holy Scriptures speak of the power and deity of the Holy Spirit; but whether He ought to be called begotten or unbegotten, they do not speak. See what darkness of unbelief he makes for himself. You do not wish to know what He willed not to be unknown; and you wish to know what He did not command to be inquired into. He did not say 'begotten,' lest you should believe Him the Son; He did not say 'unbegotten,' lest you should suppose Him the Father;
but for the distinction of essence, He testified that He proceeds from the Father, as we read: 'The Paraclete who proceeds from the Father.' Since these things are so, even thus acknowledge that the Holy Spirit has His own person. That He is a third beside the two, the diversity of name proves; that He is not third in order or grade, proceeding from God, the unity of majesty shows. For He who proceeds from the inmost depths of God is proved to be not the creature of God, but the substance of God. Do not scrutinize how He is God whom it is manifest to be God. Here the reason lies hidden, the truth does not lie hidden. Why should you ask how He is the companion and equal of the King, whom it is established to be of the same honour and lineage as the King? And inquiry concerning the name is undertaken superfluously, where there is no room to doubt concerning the sublimity.
Therefore the Holy Spirit proceeds from both; hence He says: 'But whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ, this one is not His.' And in another place: 'He breathed and said: Receive the Holy Spirit.' You ask whether He is unbegotten or begotten. The sacred oracles have sung nothing of this; it is unlawful to break in upon the divine silences. What God did not believe ought to be made known in His Scriptures, He willed you neither to make known nor to know, by superfluous curiosity. He indicated that this ought to reach your conscience, which pertains to your salvation. What you are to believe concerning the Holy Spirit, let us consult the holy oracles. For this very thing—that He said the Son is begotten—you would dare to call wicked to say, had you not learned it from the heavenly attestation of the Scriptures.