The Formation of Christendom, Volume II

S. Aug. tom. iii. pp. 2, 527.

98

Ib. tom. v. 47.

99

Ib. tom. v. 392 e.

100

S. Thomas in Joh. i. lec. 10: “Nam unitas Spiritus Sancti facit in Ecclesia unitatem.”

101

ὁδηγεῖν.

102

Epist. 185. tom. ii. p. 663. “Proinde Ecclesia Catholica sola corpus est Christi, cujus ille caput est, Salvator corporis sui. Extra hoc corpus neminem vivificat Spiritus Sanctus, quia sicut ipse dicit Apostolus; Caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per Spiritum Sanctum, qui datus est nobis. Non est autem particeps divinæ caritatis, qui hostis est unitatis. Non habent itaque Spiritum Sanctum qui sunt extra Ecclesiam.”

103

Matt. xxiv. 14.

104

See Möhler, Die Einheit in der Kirche, p. 176. “Der Körper des Menschen ist eine Offenbarung des Geistes, der in ihm sein Dasein bekundet, und sich entwickelt. Der Staat ist eine nothwendige Erscheinung, eine Bildung und Gestaltung des von Gott gegebenen κοινωνικόν.”

105

Möhler, Einheit, &c. p. 8. “Wie das Leben des sinnlichen Menschen nur einmal unmittelbar aus der Hand des Schöpfers kam, und wo nun sinnliches Leben werden soll, es durch die Mittheilung der Lebenskraft eines schon Lebenden bedingt ist, so sollte das neue göttliche Leben ein Auströmen aus den schon Belebten, die Erzeugung desselben sollte ein Ueberzeugung sein.”

106

For instance, two passages on the Incarnation in S. Cyril of Alexandria, tom. iv. pp. 819-824 and 918-920, set forth the whole sequence of the Fall and the Restoration, and how wonderfully the gift of the Spirit replaces what was lost in Adam.

107

See S. Cyril. Alex. in Joan. p. 997 e. ἐν δὲ τούτοις ἤδη πως καὶ φυσικὴν τὴν ἑνότητα δεικνῦναι σπουδάζομεν, καθ᾽ ἢν ἡμεῖς τε ἀλλήλοισ καὶ οἱ πάντες Θεῷ συνδούμεθα; κ.τ.λ.; and p. 998. τίς γὰρ ἂν καὶ διέλοι καὶ τῆς εἰς ἀλλήλους φυσικῆς ἑνώσεως ἐξοικέοι τοὺς δι᾽ ἑνὸς τοῦ ἁγίου σώματος πρὸς ἑνότητα τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ἀναδεσμουμένουσ?

108

S. Iren. iv. c. 33, 7. ἀνακρινεῖ τοὺς τὰ σχίσματα ἐργαζομένους, κένους ὄντας τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀγάπης, καὶ τὸ ἴδιον λυσιτελὲς σκοποῦντας, ἀλλὰ μὴ τὴν ἕνωσιν τῆς ἐκκλησίας; καὶ διὰ μικρὰς καὶ τὰς ὑψούσας αἰτίας τὸ μέγα καὶ ἔνδοξον σῶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ τέμνοντας καὶ διαιροῦντας, καὶ ὅσον τὸ ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἀναιροῦντας, τοὺς εἰρήνην λαλοῦντας καὶ πόλεμον ἐργαζομένους, ἀληθῶς διυλίζοντας τὸν κώνωπα, καὶ τὸν κάμηλον καταπίνοντας.

109

Acts ii. 3. ὤφθησαν αὐτοῖς διαμεριζόμεναι γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρὸς, ἐκάθισέ τε ἐφ᾽ ἕνα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν ἅπαντες Πνεύματος ἁγίου.

110

“Non jam visitator subitus, sed perpetuus consolator et habitator æternus.” S. Aug. tom. v. d. app. p. 307.

111

Con. Crescou. lib. ii. c. 14, tom. ix. p. 418. “Hic Spiritus sanctus veniens in eos tale signum primitus dedit, ut qui eum acciperent linguis omnium gentium loquerentur, quia portendebat Ecclesiam per omnes gentes futuram, nec quemquam accepturum Spiritum sanctum nisi qui ejus unitati copularetur. Hujus fontis largo atque invisibili flumine lætificat Deus civitatem suam, quia Propheta dixit: Fluminis impetus lætificat civitatem Dei. Ad hunc enim fontem nullus extraneus, quia nullus nisi vita æterna dignus accedit. Hic est proprius Ecclesiæ Christi.”

112

Ἡ ἀλήθεια: there seems to be no one word in the New Testament of more pregnant signification than this, which in a great number of instances bears the sense of the whole body of the divine revelation. The root of this meaning would seem to lie in Christ Himself, who as the Divine Word is the αὐτοαλήθεια, the εἰκὼν of the Father; on which title S. Athanasius and S. Cyril of Alexandria specially dwell, while S. Hilary expresses the Blessed Trinity by “Æternitas in Patre, Species in Imagine, Usus in Munere,” on which see S. Augustine's magnificent comment, de Trin. l. vi. 10, p. 850; and as our Lord is from eternity the Truth, so in and by His Incarnation He becomes in a special sense the Truth to man: ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς, καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια, καὶ ἡ ζωή: and so the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son, “ille ineffabilis quidam complexus Patris et Imaginis” (S. Aug.), is τὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, who ὁδηγήσει ὑμᾶς εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν ἀλήθειαν: and again, 1 John v. 6, τὸ Πνεῦμά ἐστι τὸ μαρτυροῦν, ὅτι τὸ Πνεῦμά ἐστιν ἡ ἀλήθεια. This is the first meaning. Secondly, as derived from it, the Truth is the whole body of the divine revelation. In this sense it is used in a great many places of S. John's Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles, e. g. John i. 14, 17; viii. 31; xvi. 13; xvii. 17; xviii. 37; 1 John ii. 21; iii. 19; 2 John i. 1-3; 3 John 3, 4, 8, 12; 1 Tim. iii. 15, where, because this whole body of truth dwells in the Church of Christ and there alone, it is emphatically called the “House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the Truth;” 1 Tim. ii. 3; Rom. xv. 8; 2 Cor, iv. 2; xiii. 8; Gal. iii. 1; v. 7; Ephes. i. 13; iv. 21-24 (in which passage the Apostle contrasts heathen man with Christian, the one, τὸν φθειρόμενον κατὰ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας τῆς ἁπάτης; the other, τὸν κατὰ Θεὸν κτισθέντα ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ὁσιότητι τῆς ἀληθείας, and again, the mass of the Gentiles, as τὰ ἔθνη περιπατεῖ ἐν ματαιότητι τοῦ νοὸς αὐτῶν, ἐσκοτισμένοι τῇ διανοίᾳ, while Christians ἐν αὐτῷ ἐδιδάχθητε, καθώς ἐστιν ἀλήθεια ἐν τῷ Ἰησοῦ); 2 Thess. ii. 8-13; 1 Tim. iv. 3; vi. 5; 2 Tim. ii. 15, 25; iii. 7, 8; iv. 4; Titus i. 1 and 14; Heb. x. 26; Jac. v. 19; 1 Pet. i. 22; 2 Pet. ii. 2. In this second sense, as signifying the whole body of the divine revelation, the expression has been searched for, but without success, in the Gospels of S. Matthew, S. Mark, and S. Luke, and in the Acts.

Thirdly, as the effect of this revelation to man, the Truth signifies uprightness, as equivalent to justice or sanctity, in the individual.

Fourthly, it means sincerity, absence of hypocrisy: and Fifthly, correspondence to fact.

In the Apocalypse our Lord is designated “the holy, the true,” “the Amen, the Witness faithful and true,” the rider of the white horse, “called faithful and true,” “whose name is the Word of God.” iii. 7, 14; xix. 11.

113

“La creatura, la più amabile, la più amata, e la più amante di Dio.” S. Alfonso, Gran Mezzo della Preghiera, p. 280.

114

Acts ii. 38.

115

“Non te fefellit sponsus tuus: non te fefellit qui suo sanguine te dotavit.” S. Aug. tom. v. 1090 b.

116

“Quod tunc faciebat unus homo accepto Spiritu sancto, ut unus homo linguis omnium loqueretur, hoc modo ipsa unitas facit, linguis omnibus loquitur. Et modo unus homo in omnibus gentibus linguis omnibus loquitur, unus homo, caput et corpus, unus homo, Christus et Ecclesia, vir perfectus, ille sponsus, illa sponsa. Sed erunt, inquit, duo in carne una; judicia Dei vera, justificata in idipsum: propter unitatem.” S. Aug. in Ps. xviii. 2, tom. iv. 85 f.

117

Ephes. iv. 11-16. ἀληθεύοντες ἐν ἀγάπῃ. Joh. xvii. 19. ἡγιασμένοι ἐν ἀληθείᾳ.

118

1 Cor. xii. 12. οὕτω καὶ ὁ Χριστός.

119

So says the great maintainer of episcopal power, S. Cyprian, in his famous aphorism: “Episcopatus unus est, cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur.”

120

Matt. xxiv. 14.