As to
Origen’s unorthodoxy concerning the Holy Spirit St. Basil
may have had in his mind such a passage as the following from the
First Book of the De Principiis, extant in the original in
Justinian, Ep. ad Mennam. Migne, Pat. Gr. xi. p.
150. ὅτι ὁ μὲν
θεὸς καὶ
πατὴρ
συνέχων τὰ
πάντα
φθάνει εἰς
εκαστον τῶν
ὄντων
μεταδιδοὺς
ἑκάστῳ ἀπὸ
τοῦ ἰδίου τὸ
εἶναι· ὢν
γὰρ ἔστιν·
ἐλάττων δὲ
παρὰ τὸν
πατέρα ὁ Υἱ&
232·ς φθάνει
ἐπὶ μόνα τὰ
λογικά·
δεύτερος
γάρ ἐστι τοῦ
πατρός· ἔτι
δὲ ἧττον τὸ
πνεῦμα τὸ
ἅγιον ἐπὶ
μόνους τοὺς
ἁγίους
διικνούμενον·
ὥστε κατὰ
τοῦτο
μείζων ἡ
δύναμις τοῦ
Πατρὸς παρὰ
τὸν Υἱ& 232·ν
καὶ τὸ
πνεῦμα τὸ
ἅγιον
πλείων δὲ ἡ
τοῦ Υἱοῦ
παρὰ τὸ
πνεῦμα τὸ
ἅγιον The work does not even exist as a whole in
the translation of Rufinus, who omitted portions, and St. Jerome
thought that Rufinus had misrepresented it. Photius
(Biblioth. cod. viii.) says that Origen, in asserting
in this work that the Son was made by the Father and the Spirit by
the Son, is most blasphemous. Bp. Harold Browne, however
(Exposition of the xxxix. Art. p. 113, n. 1), is of opinion
that if Rufinus fairly translated the following passage, Origen
cannot have been fairly charged with heresy concerning the Holy
Ghost: “Ne quis sane existimet nos ex eo
quod diximus Spiritum sanctum solis sanctis præstari.
Patris vero et Filii beneficia vel inoperationes pervenire ad
bonos et malos, justos et injustos, prœtulisse per hoc Patri
et Filio Spiritum Sanctum, vel majorem ejus per hoc asserere
dignitatem; quod utique valde inconsequens est. Proprietatem
namque gratiæ ejus operisque descripsimus.
Porro autem nihil in Trinitate majus minusve dicendum est, quum
unius Divinitatis Fons verbo ac ratione sua teneat universa,
spiritu vero oris sui quæ digna sunt, sanctificatione
sanctificet, sicut in Psalmo scriptum est verbo domini cœli
firmati sunt et spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum.”
De Princ. I. iii. 7.
On the obligations of both Basil
and Gregory of Nazianzus to Origen, cf. Socrates iv.
26.