Quodvultdeus

[Steven Avery]

Quodvultdeus - in some NA-UBS apparatus

Grantley, despite some ultra-strained analysis, is helpful here.

Some later Latin writers employ the phrase with a deliberate lack of grammatical agreement of number or gender, a kind of catachresis or synesis apparently intended to reflect the paradox of the doctrine. Thus we find Marius Victorinus, Augustine and Isidore of Seville citing the phrase in the form tria unum.28 We also find Augustine and Quodvultdeus citing this phrase in the more explicitly theologised form hæc tria unus deus [est].29 It should be emphasised that none of these authors cite the comma, merely a Trinitarian interpretation of 1 Jn 5:8.


29 Augustine, De catechizandis rudibus .... (review this)
See also Quodvultdeus (formerly attributed to Augustine), De cantico novo et de reditu ad coelestem patriam ac viæ periculis, sermo ad catechumenos 7, CCSL 60:389 (cf. PL 40:684): “Si ergo semper Deus Pater, semper Deus Filius; quia nec ille aliquando non Pater, nec iste aliquando non Filius. Non enim ut Pater generaret Filium, minuit se ipsum: sed ita genuit de se alterum qualem se, ut totus maneret in se. Spiritus autem sanctus non præcedit unde procedit, sed integer de integro, nec minuit eum procedendo, nec auget hærendo. Et hæc tria unus Deus, de quo propheta dicit: Tu es Deus solus magnus [Ps 85:10 Vg].” See also Augustine, Epist. 170, CSEL 44:625. p. 25-26

 

[Steven Avery]

TWOGIG

HIT:

● [Sermon] If you recognize that the Father is God and that the Son is God, and if you believe that the Son is eternal like the Father, then do not say that the Son is inferior for having created you, because he was lowered to redeem you. But you answer that he himself said:”My Father is greater than me. (Jean, xiv, 28.) Yes, according to human nature, understand it this way, and you leave your error. He said, ”My Father is greater than me,” in the sense that the prophet said, ”You have placed him below the angels for a little while. (Ps. Viii, 6.) For you, tell us in what respect do you find it inferior? Is it for power?”But the Father does not judge anyone, it is the Son. (John, v, 22.) Is it for the works? ”But everything was done by the Son.”(John, i, 3.) If according to the rule of temporal things, you were of your God, that as you are greater than your son, he is also greater than his Son, I pray God to remove these words from the ear of the faithful, for they are blasphemies against God. Indeed, if the Son, according to the Divinity, is the Word of God, as Saint John the Evangelist tells it: ”In the principle was the Werbe, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; » (John, i, 1) does that mean that there was a time when the Father was without the Word, or that there was a principle before the principle itself, since the Son says that he is the principle? The Jews once asked him, ”Who are you?" “He replied:”The principle.”(John, viii, 23.) This word of Genesis: ”In the principle God made heaven and earth,”(Gen., i, 1) must therefore be understood of the Son who is the principle. So therefore God the Father is eternal, God the Son is eternal; for the Father has never been without being the Father, and never the Son without being the Son. And the Father, in order to father his Son, lost nothing of himself; but it has generated another kind of itself in such a way that it has not ceased to be entirely what it is. Now, the Holy Spirit proceeds, in an indivisible manner, entirely from an entire source without diminishing it by going out, and without increasing it by staying. And the three are one God, according to this saying of the prophet:”You are the one great God.» (Ps. Lxxxv, 10.) You, O’ heretic, imagine degrees, separate the Trinity, make the Father greater, the Son less great, and the Holy Spirit coming after. But already we have spoken of the Son to say that he is equal to his Father, and we have said what was right; let's also talk about the Holy Spirit, which you claim to be inferior to the Father and the Son. For the Holy Spirit is himself the spirit of God.
(Quodvultdeus, Sermon to the Catechumens on the New Song 7; Translated by Barreau, vol 22, 1870)

○ Latin: Si Patrem confiteris Deum, Deum Filium, æternumque credis et Patrem et Filium ; noli minorem
facere Filium in eo quod fecit te, quia ideo minor factus [132] est, ut redimeret te. Sed ipse, iniquis, dixit :
« Pater major me est. »39 Intellige secundum susceptum hominem, et deponis errorem. Secundum hoc
dicit : « Pater major me est, » secundum quod de eo ait Propheta : « Minorasti eum paulo minus ab
Angelis. »40 Tu autem dic, secundum quid eum minorem asseris ? Si secundum potestatem « Pater non
judicat quemquam, sed Filius. »41 Si secundum opera : « Omnia per Filium facta sunt. »42 Si secundum
tempus hoc credis de Deo tuo, quia sicut tu major es filio tuo, ita ille filio suo : avertat hoc Deus ab
auribus fidelium ; indigna sunt ista credere de Deo. Si enim Filius secundum deitatem Dei Verbum est,
sicut evangelista Joannes narrat : « In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat
Verbum ;43 » fuit aliquod tempus quando Pater fuit sine Verbo, aut fuit aliquod principium ante ipsum
principium, quoniam ipse Filius dixit se esse principium ? Interrogantibus quippe Judæis : « Tu qui es ?
Respondit : Principium. »44 Ergo et illud quod in Genesi scriptum est : « In principio fecit Deus coelum et
terram, »45 intelligitur in Filio, qui est principium. Sic ergo semper Deus Pater, semper Deus Filius :
quia nec ille aliquando non Pater, nec iste aliquando non Filius. Non enim ut Pater generaret
Filium, minuit se ipsum : sed ita genuit de se alterum qualem se, ut totus maneret in se. Spiritus
autem sanctus non præcedit unde procedit, sed integer de integro, nec minuit eum procedendo,
nec auget haerendo. Et hæc tria unus Deus, de quo Propheta dicit : « Tu es Deus solus
magnus. »46 Tu autem, haeretice, compone gradus, separa Trinitatem : fac Patrem majorem, Filium
minorem, Spiritum sanctum sequentem. Sed jam de Filio, quod aequalis sit Patri, [133] aliqua diximus, et
quod occurrit, diximus : audi et de Spiritu sancto, quem minorem vis esse Patre et Filio. Nempe Spiritus
sanctus ipse Spiritus est Dei.

(Quodvultdeus, De cantico novo et de reditu ad coelestem patriam ac viæ periculis, sermo ad catechumenos 7, CCSL 60:389; Migne Latina, PL 40.684)