Letter CCCLX.
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Of the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the invocation of
Saints, and their Images.
According
to the
blameless faith of the Christians which we have obtained from God, I
confess and agree that I believe in one God the Father Almighty; God
the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost; I adore and worship one
God, the Three.
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I confess to
the œconomy of the Son in the flesh,
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and that the holy Mary, who gave birth to Him according to the flesh,
was Mother of God.
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I acknowledge
also the holy apostles, prophets, and martyrs; and I invoke them to
supplication to God, that through them, that is, through their
mediation, the merciful God may be propitious to me, and that a ransom
may be made and given me for my sins. Wherefore also I honour and
kiss the features of their images, inasmuch as they have been handed
down from the holy apostles, and are not forbidden, but are in all our
churches.
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This letter is
almost undoubtedly spurious, but it has a certain interest, from the
fact of its having been quoted at the so-called 7th Council (2d of
Nicæa) in 787. Maran (
Vit. Bas
. xxxix.) is of
opinion that it is proved by internal evidence to be the work of
some Greek writer at the time of the Iconoclastic controversy.
The vocabulary and style are unlike that of Basil.
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Neuter
sc.
πρόσωπα
, not
ὑποστάσεις
,
as we should expect in Basil.
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ἔνσαρκον
οἰκονομίαν,
an expression I do not recall in Basil’s genuine
writings.
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Θεοτόκον,
the
watchword of the Nestorian controversy, which was after
Basil’s time.