[Chapman] Priscillian found himself bound to defend the Comma. In the Priscillianist creed "We confess the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" ("Nos patrem et filium..." ; See Caspari, Kirchenhistorische Anecdota, vol 1, 1883, p. 308, and Kunstle, Antipriscilliana, 1905, p. 67). We have a clear reference: "The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; These are one in Christ Jesus" ("Pater Deus, Filius Deus, et Spiritus sanctus Deus; haec unum sunt in Christo Iesu.") Now a few lines further on we read: "If any one has no faith in the truth of this, he cannot be said to be of the Catholic churches; he does not explain Catholic faith, but he is inappropriate, profane, rebellious against the truth." ("Si quis vero hanc fidem non habet, catholicas dici non potest; qui catholicam non tenet fidem, Alienus Est, Profanus Est, adversus veritatem rebellis est.") This is a citation of St. Cyprian, De Cath. Eccl. Unit. 6 "Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress, is separated from the promises of the Church; nor can he who forsakes the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane; he is an enemy." ("Nec perueniet ad Christi praemia qui relinquit ecclesiam Christi; ALIENUS EST, PROFANUS Est, hostis est.") Why a citation from this particular chapter? Obviously because this is the chapter which contains the famous words: "and again it is written of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, “And these three are one." ("Et iteram de Patre et Filio et Spiritu sancto scriptum est: et hi tres unum sunt,") to which so many moderns have unsuccessfully appealed to prove the antiquity of the reading in I John [5:7-8]. It seems plain that the passage of St. Cyprian was lying open before the Priscillianist author of the Creed (Priscillian himself?) because he was accustomed to appeal to it in the same way. In Priscillian's day St. Cyprian had a unique position as the one great Western Doctor. (Chapman, Notes on the Early History of the Vulgate Gospels, 1908, p. 264)
