XII. “And if any one attributes the
timeless substance (i.e. Person) of the Only-begotten Son
derived from the Father to the unborn essence of God, as though calling
the Father Son: let him be anathema Substantia is
in this passage used as the equivalent of Person. The word was
used by Tertullian in the sense of οὐσία, and this early Latin use
of the word is the use which eventually prevailed. The meaning of
the word in Hilary is influenced by its philological equivalent in
Greek. At the beginning of the fourth century ὑπόστασις was used
in the same sense as οὐσία. The latter word
meant ‘reality,’ the former word ‘the basis of
existence.’ Athanasius, however, began the practice of
restricting ὑπόστασις to
the divine Persons. Hilary consequently here uses
substantia in this new sense of the word ὑπόστασις.
The Alexandrine Council of 362 sanctioned as allowable the use of
ὑπόστασις in the
sense of Person, and by the end of the century the old usage
practically disappeared..”