Expositio super symbolum Apostolorum

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.

The things said above pertain to Christ's divine nature and his eternal generation. What follows pertains to his human nature. In the following articles are explained those seven seals or signatures of which John speaks in the Apocalypse,¹ which no one could loose except the lion of the tribe of Judah, by which are understood the seven states of Christ, namely his conception of the Holy Spirit, his birth of the Virgin, his voluntary passion, his resurrection, his ascension, the sending of the Holy Spirit, and his second coming. This article was composed by Andrew. He says therefore:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Behold the first seal. Note that he is said to be conceived of the Holy Spirit not because he took the seed of his birth from the operation of the Holy Spirit, but because, through the love and operation of the Holy Spirit, human nature furnished the substance for his divine birth, that is, by the authority of the Holy Spirit a certain portion of flesh was taken from the rest of the Virgin's flesh and formed into the body of Christ. And thus it denotes an efficient cause, not a material one, as certain heretics wrongly understood, who taught that Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, that is, of the seed of the Holy Spirit.

To remove the suspicion of this error, in that hymn "Quem terra pontus ethera" ("Whom earth, sea, and sky silently venerate"), in certain churches there is that verse: therefore the ages marvel that an angel brings the seeds. The sense, then, is: who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, that is, by the authority of the Holy Spirit. Hence it is not to be said that he is the son of the Holy Spirit, as Augustine says, because he is not of the Holy Spirit through a material cause but through an efficient one. It follows:

Born of the Virgin Mary.

This preposition "of" here denotes a material cause, because Christ was born of the Virgin not only locally but materially, because he took the nature of flesh not merely in the Virgin but from the Virgin. This is said against the Manichean, who taught that Christ took on a body from celestial matter and thus descended into the womb of the Virgin, and so the Virgin was only a receptacle for Christ, not his mother. Hence the disciples of Mani refuse to curse a sack, calling the Virgin's womb a sack. To this article is reduced the third article of the Nicene Creed, where it is said:

Who for us men

For Christ took on flesh, endured his passion, and rose again not for his own sake but for ours. For he was not incarnate because he was in need, but so that he might fulfill our need. Hence it is read in Isaiah: "A little child is born to us, a son is given to us."² This is said against Origen, who asserted that Christ was incarnate not for the sake of redeeming men but for the sake of redeeming demons. And to show for what purpose he came, it follows:

And for our salvation

And so that it might be clear that it was for our salvation, it follows:

He descended from the heavens.

By his incarnation he is said to have descended from the heavens. For whereas before he was in a certain way in this heaven in that he was invisible (for celestial things are not open to our sight), in this he descended from heaven, because he who was invisible according to his divinity appeared visible according to his humanity. Also in this, that he united the human nature to the divine. Third, so that he who was unknown might become known to the faithful.

And was incarnate of the Holy Spirit, of the Virgin Mary.

And this is what was said above: "Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary." And because there were those who said Christ was a phantom man, it follows:

And was made man.

These things too pertain to one article, because they pertain to Christ's temporal birth. And thus the articles are so connected that one is understood in the other.