The Holy Trinity

“We believe in one God , the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ , the only begotten Son of God , begotten of his Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God , begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father , by whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary , and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate . He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures , and ascended into heaven, and sits at the Right Hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead. Whose kingdom shall have no end. ( I ) And [we believe ] in the Holy Ghost , the Lord and Giver-of-Life, who proceeds from the Father , who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified , who spoke by the prophets . And [we believe ] in one, holy , ( II ) Catholic and Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins , [and] we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen .”

“Following the holy Fathers we teach with one voice that the Son [of God] and our Lord Jesus Christ is to be confessed as one and the same [Person], that he is perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood, very God and very man, of a reasonable soul and [ human ] body consisting, consubstantial with the Father as touching his Godhead, and consubstantial with us as touching his manhood; made in all things like us, sin only excepted; begotten of his Father before the worlds according to his Godhead; but in these last days for us men and for our salvation born [into the world] of the Virgin Mary , the Mother of God according to his manhood. This one and the same Jesus Christ , the only-begotten Son [of God] must be confessed to be in two natures , unconfusedly, immutably, indivisibly, inseparably [united], and that without the distinction of natures being taken away by such union, but rather the peculiar property of each nature being preserved and being united in one Person and subsistence, not separated or divided into two persons , but one and the same Son and only-begotten, God the Word , our Lord Jesus Christ , as the Prophets of old time have spoken concerning him, and as the Lord Jesus Christ has taught us, and as the Creed of the Fathers has delivered to us.”

“1 If anyone shall not confess that the nature or essence of the Father , of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost is one, as also the force and the power; [if anyone does not confess] a consubstantial Trinity, one Godhead to be worshipped in three subsistences or Persons: let him be anathema . For there is but one God even the Father of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things, and one Holy Spirit in whom are all things. 2 If anyone shall not confess that the Word of God has two nativities, the one from all eternity of the Father , without time and without body; the other in these last days, coming down from heaven and being made flesh of the holy and glorious Mary, Mother of God and always a virgin , and born of her: let him be anathema . 3 If anyone shall say that the wonder-working Word of God is one [Person] and the Christ that suffered another; or shall say that God the Word was with the woman-born Christ, or was in him as one person in another, but that he was not one and the same our Lord Jesus Christ , the Word of God , incarnate and made man, and that his miracles and the sufferings which of his own will he endured in the flesh were not of the same [Person]: let him be anathema . 4 If anyone shall say that the union of the Word of God to man was only according to grace or energy, or dignity, or equality of honour , or authority, or relation, or effect, or power, or according to good pleasure in this sense that God the Word was pleased with a man , that is to say, that he loved him for his own sake, as says the senseless Theodorus, or [if anyone pretends that this union exists only] so far as likeness of name is concerned, as the Nestorians understand, who call also the Word of God Jesus and Christ , and even accord to the man the names of Christ and of Son, speaking thus clearly of two persons , and only designating disingenuously one Person and one Christ when the reference is to his honour , or his dignity, or his worship; if anyone shall not acknowledge as the Holy Fathers teach, that the union of God the Word is made with the flesh animated by a reasonable and living soul , and that such union is made synthetically and hypostatically, and that therefore there is only one Person, to wit: our Lord Jesus Christ , one of the Holy Trinity : let him be anathema . As a matter of fact the word union has many meanings, and the partisans of Apollinaris and Eutyches have affirmed that these natures are confounded inter se , and have asserted a union produced by the mixture of both. On the other hand the followers of Theodorus and of Nestorius rejoicing in the division of the natures, have taught only a relative union. Meanwhile the Holy Church of God , condemning equally the impiety of both sorts of heresies , recognises the union of God the Word with the flesh synthetically, that is to say, hypostatically. For in the mystery of Christ the synthetical union not only preserves unconfusedly the natures which are united, but also allows no separation. 5 If anyone understands the expression one only Person of our Lord Jesus Christ in this sense, that it is the union of many hypostases, and if he attempts thus to introduce into the mystery of Christ two hypostases, or two Persons, and, after having introduced two persons , speaks of one Person only out of dignity, honour or worship, as both Theodorus and Nestorius insanely have written; if anyone shall calumniate the holy Council of Chalcedon , pretending that it made use of this expression [one hypostasis] in this impious sense, and if he will not recognize rather that the Word of God is united with the flesh hypostatically, and that therefore there is but one hypostasis or one only Person, and that the holy Council of Chalcedon has professed in this sense the one Person of our Lord Jesus Christ : let him be anathema . For since one of the Holy Trinity has been made man, viz.: God the Word , the Holy Trinity has not been increased by the addition of another person or hypostasis. 6 If anyone shall not call in a true acceptation, but only in a false acceptation, the holy , glorious , and ever-virgin Mary, the Mother of God , or shall call her so only in a relative sense, believing that she bare only a simple man and that God the word was not incarnate of her, but that the incarnation of God the Word resulted only from the fact that he united himself to that man who was born [of her]; if he shall calumniate the Holy Synod of Chalcedon as though it had asserted the Virgin to be Mother of God according to the impious sense of Theodore; or if anyone shall call her the mother of a man or the Mother of Christ , as if Christ were not God , and shall not confess that she is exactly and truly the Mother of God , because that God the Word who before all ages was begotten of the Father was in these last days made flesh and born of her, and if anyone shall not confess that in this sense the holy Synod of Chalcedon acknowledged her to be the Mother of God : let him be anathema . 7 If anyone using the expression, in two natures , does not confess that our one Lord Jesus Christ has been revealed in the divinity and in the humanity, so as to designate by that expression a difference of the natures of which an ineffable union is unconfusedly made, [a union] in which neither the nature of the Word was changed into that of the flesh, nor that of the flesh into that of the Word, for each remained that it was by nature, the union being hypostatic; but shall take the expression with regard to the mystery of Christ in a sense so as to divide the parties, or recognising the two natures in the only Lord Jesus , God the Word made man, does not content himself with taking in a theoretical manner the difference of the natures which compose him, which difference is not destroyed by the union between them, for one is composed of the two and the two are in one, but shall make use of the number [two] to divide the natures or to make of them Persons properly so called: let him be anathema . 8 If anyone uses the expression of two natures , confessing that a union was made of the Godhead and of the humanity, or the expression the one nature made flesh of God the Word , and shall not so understand those expressions as the holy Fathers have taught, to wit: that of the divine and human nature there was made an hypostatic union, whereof is one Christ; but from these expressions shall try to introduce one nature or substance [made by a mixture] of the Godhead and manhood of Christ; let him be anathema . For in teaching that the only-begotten Word was united hypostatically [to humanity] we do not mean to say that there was made a mutual confusion of natures, but rather each [nature] remaining what it was, we understand that the Word was united to the flesh. Wherefore there is one Christ, both God and man , consubstantial with the Father as touching his Godhead, and consubstantial with us as touching his manhood. Therefore they are equally condemned and anathematized by the Church of God , who divide or part the mystery of the divine dispensation of Christ , or who introduce confusion into that mystery . 9 If anyone shall take the expression, Christ ought to be worshipped in his two natures , in the sense that he wishes to introduce thus two adorations, the one in special relation to God the Word and the other as pertaining to the man; or if anyone to get rid of the flesh, [that is of the humanity of Christ ,] or to mix together the divinity and the humanity, shall speak monstrously of one only nature or essence of the united (natures), and so worship Christ, and does not venerate, by one adoration, God the Word made man, together with his flesh, as the Holy Church has taught from the beginning: let him be anathema . 10 If anyone does not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified in the flesh is true God and the Lord of Glory and one of the Holy Trinity : let him be anathema . 11 If anyone does not anathematize Arius , Eunomius, Macedonius, Apollinaris , Nestorius , Eutyches and Origen , as well as their impious writings, as also all other heretics already condemned and anathematized by the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and by the aforesaid four Holy Synods and [if anyone does not equally anathematize ] all those who have held and hold or who in their impiety persist in holding to the end the same opinion as those heretics just mentioned: let him be anathema . 12 If anyone defends the impious Theodore of Mopsuestia , who has said that the Word of God is one person, but that another person is Christ, vexed by the sufferings of the soul and the desires of the flesh, and separated little by little above that which is inferior, and become better by the progress in good works and irreproachable in his manner of life, as a mere man was baptized in the name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost , and obtained by this baptism the grace of the Holy Spirit , and became worthy of Sonship, and to be worshipped out of regard to the Person of God the Word (just as one worships the image of an emperor) and that he has become, after the resurrection, unchangeable in his thoughts and altogether without sin . And, again, this same impious Theodore has also said that the union of God the Word with Christ is like to that which, according to the doctrine of the Apostle, exists between a man and his wife, They two shall be in one flesh. The same [Theodore] has dared, among numerous other blasphemies , to say that when after the resurrection the Lord breathed upon his disciples , saying, Receive the Holy Ghost , he did not really give them the Holy Spirit , but that he breathed upon them only as a sign. He likewise has said that the profession of faith made by Thomas when he had, after the resurrection, touched the hands and the side of the Lord, viz.: My Lord and my God , was not said in reference to Christ , but that Thomas, filled with wonder at the miracle of the resurrection, thus thanked God who had raised up Christ. And moreover (which is still more scandalous) this same Theodore in his Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles compares Christ to Plato , Manichæus, Epicurus and Marcion , and says that as each of these men having discovered his own doctrine, had given his name to his disciples , who were called Platonists, Manicheans, Epicureans and Marcionites, just so Christ, having discovered his doctrine, had given the name Christians to his disciples . If, then, anyone shall defend this most impious Theodore and his impious writings, in which he vomits the blasphemies mentioned above, and countless others besides against our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ , and if anyone does not anathematize him or his impious writings, as well as all those who protect or defend him, or who assert that his exegesis is orthodox , or who write in favour of him and of his impious works, or those who share the same opinions, or those who have shared them and still continue unto the end in this heresy : let him be anathema . 13 If anyone shall defend the impious writings of Theodoret , directed against the true faith and against the first holy Synod of Ephesus and against St. Cyril and his XII. Anathemas, and [defends] that which he has written in defense of the impious Theodore and Nestorius , and of others having the same opinions as the aforesaid Theodore and Nestorius , if anyone admits them or their impiety, or shall give the name of impious to the doctors of the Church who profess the hypostatic union of God the Word ; and if anyone does not anathematize these impious writings and those who have held or who hold these sentiments, and all those who have written contrary to the true faith or against St. Cyril and his XII. Chapters, and who die in their impiety: let him be anathema . 14 If anyone shall defend that letter which Ibas is said to have written to Maris the Persian, in which he denies that the Word of God incarnate of Mary , the Holy Mother of God and ever-virgin, was made man, but says that a mere man was born of her, whom he styles a Temple, as though the Word of God was one Person and the man another person; in which letter also he reprehends St. Cyril as a heretic , when he teaches the right faith of Christians , and charges him with writing things like to the wicked Apollinaris . In addition to this he vituperates the First Holy Council of Ephesus, affirming that it deposed Nestorius without discrimination and without examination. The aforesaid impious epistle styles the XII. Chapters of Cyril of blessed memory, impious and contrary to the right faith and defends Theodore and Nestorius and their impious teachings and writings. If anyone therefore shall defend the aforementioned epistle and shall not anathematize it and those who defend it and say that it is right or that a part of it is right, or if anyone shall defend those who have written or shall write in its favour, or in defense of the impieties which are contained in it, as well as those who shall presume to defend it or the impieties which it contains in the name of the Holy Fathers or of the Holy Synod of Chalcedon, and shall remain in these offenses unto the end: let him be anathema .”

“we likewise declare that in him are two natural wills and two natural operations indivisibly, inconvertibly, inseparably, inconfusedly, according to the teaching of the holy Fathers. And these two natural wills are not contrary the one to the other (God forbid!) as the impious heretics assert, but his human will follows and that not as resisting and reluctant, but rather as subject to his divine and omnipotent will. For it was right that the flesh should be moved but subject to the divine will, according to the most wise Athanasius.”

“Elsewhere He says that the Father sends the Spirit; now He says He does: Whom I will send unto you; thus declaring the equality of the Father and the Son. That He might not be thought however to be opposed to the Father, and to be another and rival source, as it were, of the Spirit, He adds, From the Father; i. e. the Father agreeing, and taking an equal part in sending Him. When it is said that He proceedeth, do not understand His procession to be an external mission, such as is given to ministering spirits, but a certain peculiar, and distinct procession, such as is true of the Holy Spirit alone. To proceed is not the same as being sent, but is the essential nature of the Holy Ghost, as coming from the Father.”

“We firmly believe and simply confess that there is one only true God, eternal, immeasurable and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty and ineffable, Father and Son and Holy Spirit: three Persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature altogether simple. The Father from none, the Son from the Father alone, and the Holy Spirit equally from both: without beginning, always and without end; the Father begetting, the Son being born, and the Holy Spirit proceeding; consubstantial and coequal and coalmighty and coeternal; one principle of all things; creator of all things visible and invisible, spiritual and corporeal; who by his almighty power from the beginning of time made together out of nothing both orders of creature, the spiritual and the corporeal, that is the angelic and the earthly, and thereafter the human, as it were common to both, composed of spirit and body. For the devil and the other demons were indeed created by God good in their nature, but they made themselves evil of their own doing. Man however sinned at the suggestion of the devil. This Holy Trinity, undivided according to its common essence and distinct according to the properties of the Persons, gave to the human race the doctrine of salvation, first through Moses and the holy Prophets and his other servants, according to the most orderly disposition of the times. And at the last the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, made flesh by the whole Trinity in common, conceived of Mary ever Virgin by the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, made true man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh, one Person in two natures, showed more plainly the way of life. Who, although according to his divinity he is immortal and impassible, the same according to his humanity was made passible and mortal; who also, for the salvation of the human race, having suffered and died upon the wood of the cross, descended to the realms below, rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven — but he descended in the soul and rose again in the flesh, and ascended alike in both — to come at the end of the world, to judge the living and the dead, and to render to each according to his works, to the reprobate as to the elect: who shall all rise again with their own bodies, which they now bear, that they may receive according to their works, whether these have been good or evil; the one everlasting punishment with the devil, and the other everlasting glory with Christ. There is moreover one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved; in which Jesus Christ himself is both priest and sacrifice, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine, the bread having been transubstantiated into the body and the wine into the blood by divine power, so that, to accomplish the mystery of unity, we ourselves may receive of what is his what he himself received of what is ours. And this sacrament no one at all can confect but a priest who has been rightly ordained according to the keys of the Church, which Jesus Christ himself granted to the Apostles and their successors. But the sacrament of baptism — which is consecrated in water at the invocation of God and the undivided Trinity, namely of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit — rightly conferred by anyone in the form of the Church, profits unto salvation both little ones and adults. And if anyone, after receiving baptism, has fallen into sin, he can always be restored through true penance. Moreover not only virgins and the continent, but also the married, pleasing God by right faith and good works, deserve to come to eternal blessedness.”

“With faithful and devout profession we confess that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, not as from two principles but as from one principle, not by two spirations but by a single spiration. This the most holy Roman Church, mother and teacher of all the faithful, has professed, preached and taught until now; this she firmly holds, preaches, professes and teaches. This is the unchangeable and true judgement of the orthodox Fathers and Doctors, Latin and Greek alike. But because some, through ignorance of the aforesaid irrefutable truth, have fallen into various errors, we, desiring to bar the way to errors of this kind, with the approval of the sacred Council condemn and reprove those who shall presume to deny that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, or who with rash daring shall assert that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from two principles and not as from one.”

“In the name of the Holy Trinity, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, with the approval of this sacred universal Council of Florence we define that this truth of faith be believed and accepted by all Christians, and that all so profess it: that the Holy Spirit is eternally from the Father and the Son, and has his essence and his subsistent being from the Father together with the Son, and proceeds from both eternally as from one principle and by a single spiration; declaring that what the holy Doctors and Fathers say — that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son — tends to this understanding, that by it is signified that the Son too is, according to the Greeks the cause, and according to the Latins the principle, of the subsistence of the Holy Spirit, as is the Father. And since all that is the Father's, the Father himself in begetting gave to his only-begotten Son, save being Father, this very thing — that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son — the Son himself has eternally from the Father, by whom he was likewise eternally begotten. We define besides that the explanation of those words "Filioque" was lawfully and reasonably added to the Symbol for the sake of declaring the truth, and under the necessity then pressing. Likewise, that the body of Christ is truly confected in unleavened or in leavened wheaten bread, and that priests ought to confect the body of the Lord in either one of these, each according to the custom of his own Church, whether western or eastern.”

“There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker, and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”