The Trinity by Hilary PDF
Preview The Trinity by Hilary
THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH A NEW TRANSLATION VOLUME 25 THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH A NEW TRANSLATION Roy JOSEPH DEFERRARI Editorial Director Emeritus EDITORIAL BOARD J. BERNARD M. PEEBLES PAUL MORIN The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of Amerir:a Editorial Director Managing Editor ROBERT P. RUSSELL, O.S.A. THOMAS P. HALTON Villanova University The Catholic University of A lI1l'rica MARTIN R. P. MCGUIRE WILLIAM R. TONGUE The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America HERMIGILD DRESSLER, O.F.M. SR. M. JOSEPHINE BRENNAN, I.H.M. The Catholic University of America Marywood College MSGR. JAMES A. MAGNER REDMOND A. BURKE, C.S.V. The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America SAINT HILARY OF POITIERS THE TRINITY Translated by STEPHEN McKENNA, C.SS.R. The Catholic University of Puerto Rico Ponce, Puerto Rico THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS Washington, D.C. 20017 IMPRIMI POTEST: VERY REV. JOHN SEPHTON C.SS.R. Provincial, Baltimore Province NIHIL OBSTAT: JOHN M. A. FEARNS, S.T.D. Censor Librorum IMPRIMATUR: III FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN Archbishop of New York September 24, 1954 Library of Congress Catalog No.: 67·28585 © Copyright 1954 by AT HOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, INC. Reprinted with corrections 1968 All rights reserved First paperback reprint 2002 ISBN 0·8132·1321·5 INTRODUCTION T' HILARY WAS BORN, probably in the year 315, at ~ Poitiers in Aquitaine.1 It is uncertain whether or not his family was Christian. Though the saint does not settle the question by an explicit statement, the better opinion seems to be that he was a pagan and has described the manner of his conversion in the opening chapters of his work on the Trinity. Additional confirmation for this view is that he was not baptized until he was an adult.2 His edifying life as a Catholic caused him to be chosen as Bishop of Poitiers in 353 or 354. He entered the episcopate at a critical moment. Constant I, Emperor of the Roman Empire in the West, had been murdered in 350, and his brother, Constantius II, now became the sole ruler of the whole Empire. But it was not until 353 that the latter's au thority was universally recognized and the rebellion against him had come to an end. While Constans had been a staunch supporter of the Catholics, the sympathies of Constantius were clearly with the Arian party in the Church. He was deter mined to force his religious opinions upon the bishops of the West as well as of those in the East. His first step was to summon the prelates of Western Europe to councils at ArIes 1 For an account of St. Hilary's life cf. G. Girard. Saint Hilaire (Paris 1902; Angers 1905); J. Reinkens. Hilarius von Poitiers (Schaffhausen 186-1) ; X. Le Dachelet. 'Hilaire (Saint). eveque de Poitiers,' DACL VI. cols. 21188-2462. 2 De Trinitate 6.21. v vi ST. HILARY OF POITIERS and Milan in 355 and to demand that they repudiate St. Athanasius, who had become the touchstone of orthodoxy, and the living symbol of the Council of Nicaea and of its defi nition of the Verbum as 'consubstantial with the Father.' With only a few exceptions, the bishops at these councils acceded t.o the emperor's wishes. St. Hilary, who does not seem to have been present at either ArIes or Milan, was summoned to a meeting at Beziers. He refused absolutely to condemn St. Athanasius and was banished to Phrygia in 356. His exile was not too severe, for he was able to keep in touch with his flock in Poi tiers and with the hierarchy of Gaul by means of letters. And in a sense his enforced stay in the East was to be a blessing in disguise. Incredible as it may seem, St. Hilary tells us that up to 355 he had not even heard of the term 'homoousion' that the Council of Nicaea had officially promulgated in 325.3 But now he obtained first-hand information about the controversies regarding the divinity of Christ that had raged in the Eastern Church since the days of Paul of Samosata a century before. He became well in formed about the heresy of Arius and the answers that had been given by the Catholic apologists. He likewise took an active part in encouraging the prelates to resist the Arian ten dencies that were so evident among the members of the im perial court and among so many of the bishops. Then, in 360, after a period of four years, the exile of St. Hilary sud denly ended. According to Sulpicius Severus,4 the reason for this sudden change of policy was that the emperor regarded the saint as 'a sower of discord and a disturber of the Orient.' The death of Constantius soon afterwards and the short and troubled reign of Julian the Apostate gave the Church a breathing spell. Upon his return home, St. Hilary did not confine his activity to his own diocese, but went about Gaul 3 De synodis n. 91. 4 Chronica 2.45.4. INTRODUCTION vii and Italy trying to heal the wounds caused by the anti Catholic policy of Constantius. On the whole he was success ful, although he failed in one of his principal objectives, to have Auxentius, the Arian bishop of Milan, removed from office. The saint, who had accomplished so much for the Church in so short a time, died either in 367 or 368. Just as Boethius was later to write his best known work, De consolatione philosophiae, while in prison, so St. Hilary composed his masterpiece, De Trinitate, during his exile in Phrygia. This is clear from his own words: 'Although in exile we shall speak through these books, and the word of God, which cannot be bound, shall move about in freedom.'5 The work, therefore, was completed during the years 356-360. It may even be that the first three of the twelve books of De Trinitate were finished before his .exile even began. At least the saint informs us that there was a comparatively long delay between the writing of them and the beginning of the fourth book.6 One important reason in favor of this opinion is that he does not mention the word 'homoousion,' even though it would have fitted in very appropriately with the subject-matter of the first three books, and, as we have al ready noted, he did not learn of this term until the year 355. During the years 356-360, when De Trinitate was written, the Anomoeans, as the Arians were now called, attained their greatest influence. Supported by the emperor, they were able to bend the bishops to their will, and to banish those, like St. Athanasius and St. Hilary, who refused to submit. In 359, at the Councils of Seleucia and Rimini, they forced the prelates to declare that the Verbum was 'like the Father in all things,' a formula of faith that not only repudiated the Council of Nicaea, but would inevitably lead to a denial of Christ's divin ity. St. Hilary was not exaggerating when he wrote: 'Through- 5 De Trinitate 10.4. 6 Ibid. 4.1. viii ST. HILARY OF POITIERS out almost all the provinces of the Roman Empire many churches have become infected with this deadly doctrine.' 1 As far as we know, no one requested St. Hilary to write De Trinitate. He did so because he was vividly conscious of the fact that his vocation and office of bishop obliged him to preach the Gospel. 8 Through these books he would make known the true teaching of the Church about this most sacred mystery to his fellow Catholics of Western Europe, and ex pose the hypocrisy of the heretics in appealing to Scripture to defend their false doctrine, and in pretending to be only concerned with maintaining the oneness of God when they denied the divinity of Christ. It was his hope that the people who had fallen into heresy through ignorance rather than through malice would return to the Catholic Church, and, as he picturesquely described it, 'might soar aloft in freedom and security from the deadly food by which birds are wont to be enticed into the trap.'9 The main enemies against whom he wrote were the Arians. But the name of Arius appears only twice in this work, and there is but one explicit mention of this heresiarch's followers. He usually designates them as 'the new teachers of Christ,' 'the heretics of the present day,' 'the new apostolate of Anti Christ.' His detestation of their false teaching is clearly ap parent from the adjectives which he is constantly applying to it: 'impious,' 'irreverent,' 'blasphemous.' It is true that he also replies to the objections that Valentinian, Hieracas, Ebion, and others had brought against the Trinity in the earlier cen turies. He takes particular care to refuse Sabellius, who spoke of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but considered them as merely three different names for one and the same divine Person. But St. Hilary refutes these men only in order to 7 Ibid. 6.1. 8 Ibid. 6.2. 9 Ibid. INTRODUCTION IX combat the Arians more effectively. One of the favorite ac cusations of the latter was that the Catholic doctrine about the divinity of the Verbum, as it had been defined by the Council of Nicaea, was merely a revival under a different form of errors that had long since been condemned. In his De synod is, which he also wrote during his exile, St. Hilary gives an account of the machinations of the Arians and the Semi-Arians, and the various formulas of faith which they had drawn Up.l0 But he does not discuss the historical aspects of Arianism in De Trinitate. Here, his main concern is with theological considerations. The root of Arius' errors was that 'he conceived the eternal, simple, immutable God as essentially unbegotten, so that all communication of God's substance by way of generation must imply a contradiction in terms.'ll It is only natural, therefore, that the central idea of all twelve Books of The Trinity is the being or essence of God. His previous training had to a cer tain extent prepared him for this difficult task. As he tells us, it was God's eternal self-existence, which He had revealed to Moses in the words 'I AM WHO AM' that had not only filled him with admiration, but also marked a turning point in his life.12 God was not, as the Arians described Him, a Person living alone in solitary grandeur. With Him was the Son. The latter was not a creature, not a cutting off, an emanation, a separa tion, or a division of the nature of God. He was the true Son of God, born of Him by an eternal generation. The Father, who had all, gave to the Son who received all. It is true that St. Hilary applies the words of our Saviour, 'The Father is greater than I,' to the divine nature of Christ.13 But it would be wrong to conclude from this that he regarded Christ as 10 PL 10.471-475. 11 B_ Otten. A Manual of the History of Dogmas I (St. Louis 1917) 254. 12 De Trinitate 1.5. 15 Ibid. 9.4.
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