Peter Lombard

[Steven Avery]

Witness of God is Greater

The Mystery of the Trinity

1. The testimonies of the New Testament. After the testimonies of the Old Testament concerning our
faith in the holy trinity and unity, let us now approach the authorities of the New Testament. In this way,
truth can be known "in the midst of two animals;" (cf. Hab. 3:2) and "with tongs" can taken "from the
altar the coal" (cf. Is. 6:6) 2 with which the mouths of the faithful may be touched.

2. And the Lord Christ plainly indicates the unity of the divine essence and the trinity of persons,
saying to the Apostles: "God, baptize all the nations, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit." (Matt 28:19) As Ambrose says in "On the Trinity," book 1: "He said specifically in the
name, and not 'in the names,'" so that the unity of essence should be shown; by adding the three
names, he made clear that there are three persons. And as Ambrose says in the same book: "He also
says: 'I and the Father are one.'4 He said 'one,' so that there should be no differentiation of power or
nature; but he added 'are,' so that you can know the Father and the Son, namely that the perfect Father
may be believed to have begotten the [PAGE 18] perfect Son, and that the Father and the Son are one,
not in confusion, but in unity of nature." (cf. Ambrose, De fide, bk 1 chapter 1 nn8-9)

3. John too says in the canonical Epistle: "There are three who shall give witness in heaven:
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one." (1 Jn 5:7) The same [John]
says at the beginning of his Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God," (Jn 1:1) where he manifestly shows that the Son was always and eternally with the
Father, as one with another.

Lombard, Sentences. Book 1. The Mystery of the Trinity. Distinction II. 8. Of the witness of the New
Testament; Translated by Giulio Silano, The Sentences by Peter Lombard, 2007, p. 17-18.

De Mysterio Trinitatis.
1. Nunc vero post testimonia veteris Testamenti, de fide sanctae Trinitatis et unitatis, ad novi
Testamenti auctoritates accedamus; ut in medio duorum animalium, id est, testamentorum,
cognoscitur veritas: et forcipe de altari sumatur calculus quo tangantur ora fidelium.


2. Dominus itaque Christus unitatem divinae essentiae ac personarum trinitatem aperte
insinuat, dicens apostolis: Ite, baptizate omnes gentes in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus
sancti. In nomine utique ait, ut Ambros. ait in lib. 1 de Trin. (de Fide, l. 1, c. 1, 2) , non in
nominibus, ut unitas essentiae ostendatur. Per nomina tria quae supposuit, tres esse personas
declaravit. Ipse etiam ait: Ego et Pater unum sumus; unum dixit, ut ait Ambr. in eodem, ne fiat
discretio potestatis naturae; et addidit, sumus, ut Patrem Filiumque cognoscas; scilicet ut
perfectus Pater Filium perfectum genuisse credatur; et quod Pater et Filius unum sint, non
confusione personae, sed unitate naturae.

3. Ioannes quoque in Epistola 1 canonica ait: Tres sunt qui testimonium perhibent in
coelo, Pater, Verbum et Spiritus sanctus; et hi tres unum sunt. Ipse etiam in initio Evangelii
sui ait: In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum; ubi aperte
ostendit Filium semper et aeternaliter fuisse apud Patrem; ut alium apud alium.
Petri Lombardi. Sententiae. Liber Primus. De Mysterio Trinitatis. Distinctio II. De Mysterio
Trinitatis et Unitatis. 8. De testimoniis novi Testamenti; Migne Latina, PL 192.528

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[Steven Avery]

Thomas Aquinas on Augustine
Taken from
https://www.purebibleforum.com/inde...stine-de-trinitate-and-other-references.1095/

Grantley McDonald:
Aquinas himself seems to become entangled in these textual problems, claiming for example in Summa theologice Ia.29.4 that Augustine had cited the comma in his De Trinitate, apparently confusing Augustine with Peter Lombard, Sentences 1.25.)108 p. 63
108 Aquinas, 1964-1981, VI.56-57; Meehan, 1986, 8.

While Grantley is basically solid here, it is difficult to follow because he does not give the Augustine text. The only Meehan in the bibliography does not show the Aquinas wording from Velecky, unless you go to the dissertation, see below. (And Sister Thomas More had about three different names, adding to the research difficulties.)

Also, if not Meehan, the Ceslaus Velecky edition may have first given the idea of a mix-up:

And from Lubor Ceslaus Velecky (1927-2011)

Summa Theologiae: Volume 6, The Trinity: 1a. 27-32
Thomas Aquinas
editor Ceslaus Velecky O.P. (2006 edition)
https://books.google.com/books?id=d8QpbDe1u7cC&pg=PA56

3 The ‘three witnesses’ text, 1 John 5, 7, absent from Greek and the most reliable Vulgate mss, also from the old Latin version, appears to be a gloss which at some stage crept into the text. The quotation from St Augustine cannot be found in the place given: St Thomas is possibly telescoping words from Peter Lombard (cf 1 Sentences, 25. Also 1a. 30, 2 sed contra)

The Sentences: The mystery of the Trinity
Peter Lombard (Bishop of Paris),
https://books.google.com/books?id=HNOanXL6SVoC&pg=PA18

Peter Lombard
Distinction XXV
https://books.google.com/books?id=HNOanXL6SVoC&pg=PA137

Lombard is appealing to Augustine on p. 136-137

4. Here, he responds to their objection by which they strive to PROVE THAT PERSONS ARE TAKEN ACCORDING TO ESSENCE WHEN WE RESPOND [‘PERSONS’] TO THOSE WHO ASK THREE WHAT. But as to that which they say: ‘When it is asked three what, the question is about essence, because what the three are is not found to be anything other than essence’7— wishing to induce us by this to understand essence by the term ‘person’ when we answer three persons—we say as follows: It is indubitably true that no one other thing is to be found there which those three are, except essence: for those three are one thing, that is, divine essence. Hence Truth says: I and the Father are one.* And yet, when it is asked ‘three what,’ the question is not about essence, nor does ‘what’ there refer to essence. But since the Catholic faith professed there to be three, as John says in the canonical Epistle: There are three who give witness in heaven? the question arose about what those three might be, that is, whether they be three things, and what three things, and by what name those three things might be signified. And so by the need of speaking in reply, this term ‘person’ was found, and it was said ‘three persons.’