SYMBOLUM CHALCEDONENSE. VERSIO LATINA.

SYMBOLUM CHALCEDONENSE. VERSIO LATINA.

Sequentes igitur sanctos patres, unum eundemque confiteri Filium et Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum consonanter omnes docemus, eundem perfectum in deitate et eundem perfectum in humanitate; Deum verum et hominem verum eundem ex anima rationali et corpore; consubstantialem Patri secundum deitatem, consubstantialem nobis eundem secundum humanitatem; 'per omnia nobis similem, absque peccato' (Heb. iv.): ante secula quidem de Patre genitum secundum deitatem; in novissimis autem diebus eundem propter nos et propter nostram salutem ex Maria virgine, Dei genitrice secundum humanitatem; unum eundemque Christum, filium, Dominum, unigenitum, in duabus naturis inconfuse, immutabiliter, indivise, inseperabiliter agnoscendum: nusquam sublata differentia naturarum propter unitionem, magisque salva proprietate utriusque naturæ, et in unam personam atque subsistentiam concurrente: non in duos personas partitum aut divisum, sed unum eundemque Filium et unigenitum, Deum verbum, Dominum Jesum Christum; sicut ante prophetæ de eo et ipse nos Jesus Christus erudivit et patrum nobis symbolum tradidit.

NOTES.

The Greek text, together with the Latin version, is taken from the horos tes en Chalkedoni tetartes Sunodou , Act. V. in Mansi, Conc. Tom. VII. p. 115. We have inserted en duo phusesin (see note 4). There are several other Latin versions which Mansi gives, Tom. VII. pp. 115 and 751-758, with the various readings. See also Hahn, l.c. pp. 117 sqq.

The Creed is preceded in the acts of the Council by an express confirmation of the Nicene Creed in both forms, 'the Creed of the three hundred and eighteen holy Fathers of Nicæa,' and 'the Creed of the hundred and fifty holy Fathers who were assembled at Constantinople.' The Fathers of Chalcedon declare that 'this wise and saving Creed [of Nicæa] would be sufficient for the full acknowledgment and confirmation of the true religion; for it teaches completely the perfect doctrine concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and fully explains the Incarnation of the Lord to those who receive it faithfully.' The addition of a new Creed is justified by the subsequent Christological heresies (Apollinarianism, Nestorianism, and Eutychianism). After stating it, the Synod solemnly prohibits, on pain of deposisition and excommunication, the setting forth of any other Creed for those 'who are desirous of turning to the acknowledgment of the truth from Heathenism and Judaism.'

[65] Against Apollinaris, who denied that Christ had a psuche logike , anima rationalis , or nous, pneuma , and who reduced the Incarnation to the assumption of a human body ( soma ) with an animal soul ( psuche alogos ), inhabited by the Divine Logos. But the rational spirit of man requires salvation as much as the body.

[66] Homoousios , consubstantialis (al. coessentialis ), is used in both clauses, though with a shade of difference. Christ's homoousia with the Father implies numerical unity, or identity of essence (God being one in being, or monoousios); Christ's homoousia with men means only generic unity, or equality of nature.

[67] Homoousios , consubstantialis (al. coessentialis ), is used in both clauses, though with a shade of difference. Christ's homoousia with the Father implies numerical unity, or identity of essence (God being one in being, or monoousios); Christ's homoousia with men means only generic unity, or equality of nature.

[68] The predicate theotokos , the Bringer-forth of God, Dei genitrix (al. quæ Deum peperit , or even divini numinis creatrix ), is directed against Nestorius, and was meant originally not so much to exalt the Virgin Mary, as to assert the true divinity of Christ and the realness of the Incarnation. Basil of Seleucia: Theon sarkothenta tekousa theotokos onomazetai. It is immediately after qualified by the phrase kata ten anthropoteta ( secundum humanitatem ), in distinction from kata ten theoteta ( secundum deitatem ). This is a very important limitation, and necessary to guard against Mariolatry, and the heathenish, blasphemous, and contradictory notion that the uncreated, eternal God can be born in time. Mary was the mother not merely of the human nature of Jesus of Nazareth, but of the theanthropic person of Jesus Christ; yet not of his eternal Godhead (the logos asarkos ), but of his incarnate person, or the Logos united to humanity (the logos ensarkos ). In like manner, the subject of the Passion was the theanthropic person; yet not according to his divine nature, which in itself is incapable of suffering, but according to his human nature, which was the organ of suffering. There is no doubt, however, that the unscriptural terms theotokos , Dei genitrix , Deipara , mater Dei , which remind one of the heathen mothers of gods, have greatly promoted Mariolatry, which aided in the defeat of Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus, 431. It is safer to adhere to the New Testament designation of Mary as meter Iesou , or meter tou Kuriou (Luke i. 43).

[69] En duo phusesin , and all the Latin translations, in duabus naturis (only the Roman editors in the margin read ex d. n.), are directed against Eutyches. The present Greek text reads, it is true, ek duo phuseon , from two natures; but this signifies, and, according to the connection, can only signify, essentially the same thing; though, separately taken, it admits also of an Eutychian and Monophysite interpretation, namely, that Christ has arisen from the confluence of two natures, and since the act of the Incarnation, or unition of both, has only one nature. Understood in that sense, Dioscurus at the Council was very willing to accept the formula ek duo phuseon . But for this very reason the Orientals, and also the Roman delegates, protested with one voice against ek , and insisted upon another formula with en , which was adopted. Baur (Gesch. der Lehre v. d. Dreieinigkeit, I. p. 820 sq.) and Dorner (Gesch. d. Lehre v. d. Person Christi, II. p. 129) assert that ek is the accurate and original expression, and is a concession to Monophysitism; that it also agrees better (?) with the verb gnorizein (to recognize by certain tokens); but that it was from the very beginning changed by the Occidentals into en . But, with Gieseler, Neander (iv. 988), Hefele (Conciliengesch. II. 451 sq.), Beck (Dogmengeschichte, p. 251), and Hahn (l.c. p. 118, note 6), we prefer the view that en duo phusesin was the original reading of the symbol, and that it was afterwards altered in the interest of Monophysitism. This is proved by the whole course of the proceedings at the fifth session of the Council of Chalcedon, where the expression ek duo phusesin was protested against, and is confirmed by the testimony of the Abbot Euthymius, a contemporary, and by that of Severus, Evagrius, and Leontius of Byzantium, as well as by the Latin translations. Severus, the Monophysite Patriarch of Antioch since 513, charges the Fathers of Chalcedon with the inexcusable crime of having taught en duo phusesin adiairetois gnorizesthai ton christon (see Mansi, Conc. VII. p. 839). Evagrius (H. E. II. c. 5) maintains that both formulas amount to essentially the same thing, and reciprocally condition each other. Dorner also affirms the same. His words are: 'The Latin formula has "to acknowledge Christ as Son in two natures;" the Greek has "to recognize Christ as Son from two natures," which is plainly the same thought. The Latin formula is only a free but essentially faithful translation, only that its coloring expresses somewhat more definitely still Christ's subsisting in two natures, and is therefore more literally conformable to the Roman type of doctrine' (l.c. II. 129). From my Church History, Vol. III. p. 745 sq.

[70] asunchutos , inconfuse , and atreptos , immutabiliter (without confusion, without conversion or change), are directed against Eutychianism, which mixes and confounds the human and the divine natures in Christ ( sunchusis ), and teaches an absorption of the former into the latter; hence the phrases 'God is born; God suffered; God was crucified; God died.' The Monophysites (so called after the Council of Chalcedon) rejected the Eutychian theory of an absorption, but nevertheless taught only one composite nature of Christ ( mia phusis sunthetos ), making his humanity a mere accident of the immutable divine substance, and using the liturgical shibboleth 'God has been crucified' (without a qualifying 'according to the human nature,' or 'the flesh,' as the ( theotokos is qualified in the Symbol of Chalcedon). Hence they were also called Theopaschites. They divided into several sects and parties on subtle and idle questions, especially the question whether Christ's body before the resurrection was corruptible or incorruptible (hence the Phthartolaters, from phthartos and latres , and Aphthartodocetæ).

[71] adiairetos , indivise , achoristos , inseparabiliter (without division, without separation), both in opposition to Nestorianism, which so emphasized the duality of natures, and the continued distinction between the human and the divine in Christ, as to lose sight of the unity of person, and to substitute for a real Incarnation a mere conjunction ( sunapheia ), a moral union or intimate friendship between the Divine Logos and the man Jesus. Hence, also, the opposition to the term theotokos , with which the Nestorian controversy began. With the Symbol of Chalcedon should be compared the semi-symbolical Epistola dogmatica of Pope Leo, I. to the Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople, which contains a lengthy and masterly exposition of the orthodox Christology against the heresy of Eutyches, and was read and approved by the Council of Chalcedon, as the voice of Peter speaking through 'the Archbishop of old Rome.' It is dated June 13, 449, and is found in the works of Leo M. (Ep. 24 in Quesnel's ed., Ep. 28 in the ed. Ballerini), in Mansi, Conc. Tom. V. pp. 1366-90 (Latin and Greek, with the different readings), Hardouin, Conc. Tom. II. pp. 290-300 (also Latin and Greek, but without the variations), Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, Vol. II. pp. 335-346 (German and Latin), partly also in Denzinger, Enchir. p. 43.

[72] Against Apollinaris, who denied that Christ had a psuche logike , anima rationalis , or nous, pneuma , and who reduced the Incarnation to the assumption of a human body ( soma ) with an animal soul ( psuche alogos ), inhabited by the Divine Logos. But the rational spirit of man requires salvation as much as the body.

[73] Homoousios , consubstantialis (al. coessentialis ), is used in both clauses, though with a shade of difference. Christ's homoousia with the Father implies numerical unity, or identity of essence (God being one in being, or monoousios); Christ's homoousia with men means only generic unity, or equality of nature.

[74] The predicate theotokos , the Bringer-forth of God, Dei genitrix (al. quæ Deum peperit , or even divini numinis creatrix ), is directed against Nestorius, and was meant originally not so much to exalt the Virgin Mary, as to assert the true divinity of Christ and the realness of the Incarnation. Basil of Seleucia: Theon sarkothenta tekousa theotokos onomazetai. It is immediately after qualified by the phrase kata ten anthropoteta ( secundum humanitatem ), in distinction from kata ten theoteta ( secundum deitatem ). This is a very important limitation, and necessary to guard against Mariolatry, and the heathenish, blasphemous, and contradictory notion that the uncreated, eternal God can be born in time. Mary was the mother not merely of the human nature of Jesus of Nazareth, but of the theanthropic person of Jesus Christ; yet not of his eternal Godhead (the logos asarkos ), but of his incarnate person, or the Logos united to humanity (the logos ensarkos ). In like manner, the subject of the Passion was the theanthropic person; yet not according to his divine nature, which in itself is incapable of suffering, but according to his human nature, which was the organ of suffering. There is no doubt, however, that the unscriptural terms theotokos , Dei genitrix , Deipara , mater Dei , which remind one of the heathen mothers of gods, have greatly promoted Mariolatry, which aided in the defeat of Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus, 431. It is safer to adhere to the New Testament designation of Mary as meter Iesou , or meter tou Kuriou (Luke i. 43).