Holy Father. I. " The first person of the Trinity was represented as in Daniel's vision, vii, 3, and vested in a cope, and wearing a tiara. It was contrarj^ to our Lord's declaration (John vi, 46), and indefensible." — Walcott, Sac. Archaol. p. 312. II. A title of the pope
(q. v.).
Holy Fire, a ceremony in the Romish Chiurcb, ob- served on Holy Saturday (q. v.) of Easter, with especial pomp at Eome, where the pope himself is in attendance. A light is kindled by sparks struck from a fiint, to com- memorate Christ — according to the IMissal — as the great conier-stone. This light is bailed by kneeling ecclesi- astics saj'ing "Light of Christ" (Lirntoi Chrht'i). all the lights in the chapel having been previously cxtingiii>h- ed, to be rekindled at the new fire. In the Church of the Holy Sepidchre at .Jerusalem, at the Easter of the Oriental Church, the Holy Fire is claimed to be mirac- ulous. " The Greek and Armenian clergy combine on this occasion, and amidst processions, solemnities, an excited multitude, and scenes disgraceful not only to the name of religion, but to human nature, the expected fire makes its appearance from within an ajiartment in which a Greek and an Armenian bishop have locked themselves." — Chambers, Cyclop, x, 565.
Holy Font, the vessel containing the baptismal water. See I'ont.
Holy Fridays, Fridays in Ember-weeks (q. v.).— Walcott, Sac. A ichcpol. p. 312. See Fridav.
Holy Gates. See Jubilee (Roman Catholic).
Holy Ghost (irvevina iiyiov'), the third person in the Trinity, iiroceeding from the Father and the Son, and equal with them in power and glor%- (see Vth Art. of Religion. Church of England, and IVth of Jlethodist Episcopal Church). For the significations of the orig- inal words rendered in the English version by '• Spirit,'' '•Holy Spirit," "Holy Ghost," see Spirit. The Scrip-
HOLY GHOST
306
HOLY GHOST
tures teach, and the Church maintains, I. the Proces- sion; II. the Personality ; and, III. the Bivinifi/ of the Holy Ghost. For the offices of the Holy Ghost, see Spirit, Holy ; Paraclete ; Witness of the Holy Spirit.
I. Procession o/the Holy Ghost. — The orthodox doc- trine is, that as Christ is God by an eternal filiation, so the Holy Ghost is God by an eternal j^rocession. He proceedeth from the Father and from the Son. " When the Comforter is come, whom I will send you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which jn-oceecktk from tlie Father, he shall testify of me" (John xv, 26). He is the Spirit of the Father, he is the Spirit of the Son : he is sent by the Father, he is sent by the Son. The Father is never sent by the Son, but the Father sendeth the Son ; neither the Father nor the Son is ever sent by the Holy Ghost, but he is sent by both. The Nicene Creed teaches, "And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified." The Athanasian Creed, " The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, nei- ther made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceedinff." The article of the Chiu-ch of England says, " The Holy Qihost, proceeding from the Fatlier and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God." The term spiration was introduced by the Latin Church to denote the manner of the procession. When our Lord imparted the Holy Ghost to his disciples, " he breathed on them, and said, Keceive ye the Holy Ghost" (John xx, 22).
Diuring the first three centuries there was nothing decided by ecclesiastical authority respecting the rela- tions of the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son. The Nicene Creed (A.D. 325) declared only that " the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father" (i/c toij TlarpoQ t/c- TTopevoiisvov), and the Greek fathers generally adhered to this vicAV : so Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Cyril of Alexandria, and others. Epiphanius added to the for- mida, t/c Tov Harpof iK—opsvo/xivov, the explanatory clause, iK TOV Yiov \afij5avov (John xvi, 15). John of Damascus represents the Spirit as proceeding from the Father through the Son, as Novatian liad done before him, relying on John xv, 26. With this modification, the formula adopted at the Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381), and appended to the Nicene Creed, was re- tained in the Greek Church.
" But there were many in the Latin Church who main- tained that the Holy Spirit did not proceed from the Father only, but also from the Son. They appealed to John xvi, 13, and to the texts where the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ, e. g. Rom. viii, 9 sq. To this doctrine the Greeks Avere for the most part opposed. It prevailed, however, more and more in the Latin Church ; and when, in the fifth and sixth centuries, the Arians, who then prevailed very much in Spain, urged it as an argument against the equality of Christ Avith the Father, that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Fa- ther only, and not from the Son, the Catholic churches of that region began to hold more decidedly that the Holy Spirit proceeded/?-on» both (ab utrogue), and to in- sert the adjunct Filioque after Patre in the Symholum NiccBno-Constantinopolitanum. In this the chiu-ches of Spain were followed, first by those of France, and at a later period by nearly all the Western churches. But as the Eastern Church still adhered substantially to the more ancient formula, it accused the Western "Chiu-ch of falsifying the Nicene symbol ; and thus at different periods, and especially in the 7th and 9th centuries, vio- lent controversies arose between them" (Knapp. Theolo- gy, § 43 ; Hey, Lectures on Divinity, vol. i). Tlie true causes of these dissensions were, however, very different from those which were alleged, and less animated, it seems, by zeal for the truth than by the mutual jeal- ousies of the Roman and Byzantine bishops. But, liow- ever uncertain the reason that provoked these disputes, they terminated in the 11th century in an entire separa-