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AFTER the Council of Nicaea there sprung up this error. Certain
men ventured with profane mouths to say that the Holy Spirit is made
through the Son. We therefore anathematize those who do not with all
freedom preach that the Holy Spirit is of one and the same substance
and power with the Father and the Son. In like manner we
anathematize them that follow the error of Sabellius and say that the
Father and the Son are the same. We anathematize Arius and
Eunomius who with equal impiety, though with differences of phrase,
maintain the Son and the Holy Spirit to be a creature. We
anathematize the Macedonians who, produced froth the root of Arius,
have changed the name but not the impiety. We anathematize Photinus
who, renewing the heresy of Ebion, confessed that our Lord Jesus
Christ was only of Mary. We anathematize them that maintain that
there are two sons, one before the ages and another after the
assumption of the flesh from Mary. We anathematize also all who
maintain that the Word of God moved in human flesh instead of a
reasonable soul. For this Word of God Himself was not in His own
body instead of a reasonable and intellectual soul, but assumed and
saved our soul, both reasonable and intellectual, without sin. We
anathematize also them that say that the Word of God is separated from
the Father by extension and contraction, and blasphemously affirm that
He is without essential being or is destined to die.
Them that have gone from churches to other churches we so far hold
alien from our communion till they shall have returned to those cities
in which they were first ordained.
If any one, when another has gone from place to place, has been
ordained in his stead, let him who abandoned his own city be held
deprived of his episcopal rank until such time as his successor shall
rest in the Lord.
If any one denies that the Father is eternal and the Son eternal and
the Holy Ghost eternal, let him be anathema.
If any one denies that the Son was begotten of the Father, that is
of His divine substance, let him be anathema.
If any one denies that the Son of God is very God, omnipotent and
omniscient, and equal to the Father, let him be anathema.
If any one says that the Son of God, living in the flesh when he was
on the earth, was not in heaven and with the Father, let him be
anathema.
If any one says that in the Passion of the Cross the Son of God
sustained its pain by Godhead, and not by reasonable soul and flesh
which He bad assumed in the form of a servant, as saith the Holy
Scripture, let him be anathema.
If any one denies that the Word of God suffered in the flesh and
tasted death in the flesh, and was the first-born of the dead, as the
Son is life and giver of life, let him be anathema.
If any one deny that He sits on the right hand of the Father in the
flesh which He assumed, and in which He shall come to judge. quick
and dead, let him be anathema.
If any one deny that the Holy Spirit is truly and absolutely of the
Father, and that the Son is of the divine substance and very God of
God, let him be anathema.
If any one deny that the Holy Spirit is omnipotent, omniscient, and
omnipresent, as also the Son of the Father, let him be anathema.
If any one say that the Holy Spirit is a created being or was made
through the Son, let him be anathema.
If any one deny that the Father made all things visible and
invisible, through the Son who was made Flesh, and the Holy
Spirit, let him be anathema.
If any one deny one Godhead and power, one sovereignty and glory,
one lordship, out kingdom, will and truth of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost, let him be anathema.
If any one deny three very persons of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Ghost, living for ever, containing all things visible
and invisible, omnipotent, judging all things, giving life to all
things, creating all things and preserving all things, let him be
anathema.
If any one denies that the Holy Ghost is to be worshipped by all
creation, as the Son, and as the Father, let him be anathema.
If any one shall think aright about the Father and the Son but does
not hold aright about the Holy Ghost, anathema, because he is a
heretic, for all the heretics who do not think aright about God the
Son and about the Holy Ghost are convicted of being involved in the
unbelief of the Sews and the heathen; and if any one shall divide
Godhead, saying that the Father is God apart and the Son God, and
the Holy Ghost God, and should persist that they are called Gods
and not God, on account of the one Godhead and sovereignty which we
believe and know there to be of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Ghost, one God in three essences, or withdrawing the Son and
the Holy Ghost so as to suggest that the Father alone is called God
and believed in as one God, let him be anathema.
For the name of gods has been bestowed by God upon angels and all
saints, but of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost on
account of their one and equal Godhead, not the names of "gods" but
the name of "our God" is predicated and proclaimed, that we may
believe that we are baptized in Father and Son and Holy Ghost and
not in the names of archangels or angels, like the heretics or the
Jews or foolish heathen.
This is the salvation of the Christians that believing in the
Trinity, that is in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,
and being baptized into the same one Godhead and power and divinity and
substance, in Him we may trust.
These events happened during the life of Gratianus.
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