Chapter XXII
.—
At that
Time, the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost was agitated, and it was decided
that he is to be considered Consubstantial with the Father and the
Son
.
A question
was renewed at this
juncture which had previously excited much inquiry and now more;
namely, whether the Holy Ghost is or is not to be considered
consubstantial with the Father and the Son.
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Many contentions and debates ensued on this subject,
similar to those which had been held concerning the nature of God the
Word. Those who asserted that the Son is dissimilar from the Father,
and those who insisted that He is similar in substance to the Father,
came to one common opinion concerning the Holy Ghost; for both parties
maintained that the Holy Ghost differs in substance, and that He is but
the Minister and the third in point of order, honor, and substance.
Those, on the contrary, who believed that the Son is consubstantial
with the Father, held also the same view about the Spirit. This
doctrine was nobly maintained in Syria by Apolinarius, bishop of
Laodicea; in Egypt by Athanasius,
1468
the bishop; and in Cappadocia and in the churches of Pontus by Basil
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and Gregory.
1470
The bishop of Rome, on learning that this question was agitated with
great acrimony, and that it of course was augmented daily by
controversies, wrote to the churches of the East and urged them to
receive the doctrine upheld by the Western clergy; namely, that the
three Persons of the Trinity are of the same substance and of equal
dignity. The question having been thus decided by the Roman churches,
peace was restored, and the inquiry appeared to have an end.
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This chapter seems curiously out of place after the
history of the Macedonians and that of the Synod of Alexandria. Cf.
Soc. ii. 45, iii. 7.
1468
Athan.
Epp.
i., iii., iv., ad Serapionem,
contra illos qui blasphemant et dicunt spiritum sanctum rem creatam
esse.
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Bas.
adv. Eunomium,
iii., v.; Lib.
de
Spiritu Sancto.
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Greg. Naz.
Or.
xxxi., xxxiv., xli.