Sentences, Books I–II

Chapter 1 (39).

1. Whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father before or more fully than from the Son. It is also asked, since the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son, whether he proceeded from the Father before, or to a greater degree than, from the Son.

2. The heretic’s argument. The heretic attempts to show this as follows: If the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father, he proceeded either after the Son had already been born or before the Son was born. If he proceeded after the Son had already been born, then the Son was born before the Spirit proceeded; the Son’s birth, therefore, preceded the procession of the Holy Spirit. But if he proceeded from the Father while the Son was not yet begotten, he proceeded before the Son was begotten.

3. Augustine’s reply to the first question, namely, whether the Spirit proceeded from the Father before proceeding from the Son. Augustine answered these and similar questions, more laborious than fruitful, in Book XV of De Trinitate¹, saying: «In that supreme Trinity which is God, there are no intervals of time by which it could be shown, or even asked, whether the Son was born from the Father first and the Holy Spirit proceeded from both afterward». «Can we² then ask whether the Holy Spirit had already proceeded from the Father when the Son was born, or had not yet proceeded and proceeded from both after the Son was born? Such things absolutely cannot be asked there, where nothing begins in time to be completed afterward in time. Therefore, whoever can understand the Son’s generation from the Father without time should understand the Holy Spirit’s procession from both without time». — Behold, these words settle the question whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father before he proceeded from the Son.

³ a LNRVW. 9 Spiritus] sanctus add. RTV. 13 processerit] processit BCMX. 24–25 prius processerit trp. OP.]

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Chapter 2 (40).

1. Here he treats the second question, namely, whether the Holy Spirit proceeded more fully or to a greater degree from the Father than from the Son. We must now discuss what was asked second, namely, whether the Holy Spirit proceeds more fully or to a greater degree from the Father than from the Son. — We say that just as he does not proceed from the Father before he proceeds from the Son, so he does not proceed from the Father more or more fully than from the Son.

2. Augustine says that the Holy Spirit proceeds principally from the Father. Augustine nevertheless says in Book XV of De Trinitate⁶ that the Holy Spirit proceeds principally from the Father: «It is not without reason, he says, that in this Trinity only the Son is called the Word of God, only the Holy Spirit the Gift of God, and only God the Father the one from whom the Word is begotten and from whom the Spirit proceeds principally». Behold, you have heard that the Holy Spirit proceeds principally from the Father.

3. In what sense he said that the Spirit proceeds principally from the Father. So that this would not trouble you, Augustine himself immediately explains the sense, adding⁷: «I added “principally” because the Holy Spirit is also found to proceed from the Son; but the Father gave this to him too—not to one who already existed and did not yet have it, but whatever he gave to the only-begotten Word, he gave by begetting him. Thus he begot him so that the common Gift would also proceed from him, and the Holy Spirit would be the Spirit of both». He himself has explained how the Holy Spirit proceeds principally from the Father: not because he proceeds from the Father before or more fully than from the Son, but because, when he proceeds from the Son, the Son has this very thing from the Father.

4. In the same sense the Holy Spirit is said to proceed properly from the Father. In the same sense too he is said to proceed properly from the Father. Hence Jerome says in Expositio catholicae fidei Nicaenique Symboli⁸: «We believe in the Holy Spirit, who proceeds properly from the Father». Likewise⁹: «In Scripture we find the Holy Spirit to be true God and properly to be from the Father». «to be». And again¹⁰: «The Son is from the Father, and the Spirit truly and properly proceeds from the Father». Behold, he plainly says that the Holy Spirit is properly from the Father and properly proceeds from the Father. — This is not to be understood as though he proceeds from the Father before or more fully than from the Son, but because the Father has this from himself and not from another, namely, that the Holy Spirit is from him and proceeds from him; the Son, however, has this not from himself but from the Father, that the Holy Spirit is from him and proceeds from him.

¹¹ trp. BCNRV. 15 subdens] dicens VWX. 20–21 Sanctus] om. BCLRVW. 24 a] de OP.]

5. In the same sense the Holy Spirit is said to be and to be sent by the Father through the Son. Perhaps it is also in this sense that the Holy Spirit is said to be sent by the Father through the Son and to be from the Father through the Son. Hence Hilary, speaking to God the Father about the Holy Spirit and the Son, says in Book XII of De Trinitate¹²: «In your Holy Spirit, proceeding from you and sent through him». Again¹³: «Your Only-begotten, born from you before times, remains, so that your Holy Spirit is from you through him; and although I do not grasp this by understanding, I hold it by faith: for I am dull in your spiritual matters». — Again in the same work¹⁴: «Preserve, I pray, this reverence of my faith, so that I may always hold what I professed in the creed of my rebirth: that I worship you as Father, your Son with you, and may deserve your Holy Spirit, who is from you through your Only-begotten». Behold, Hilary plainly says that the Holy Spirit is both sent and exists from the Father through the Son. — This is not to be understood as though he were sent or existed from the Father through the Son as an inferior, but because he is from the Father and Son and is sent by both; the Son has this very thing from the Father, that the Holy Spirit is from him and is sent by him. Hilary wished to signify this, making a distinction in his wording to show that authority resides in the Father. Hence the Truth too, showing that the Father is the source of the procession by which the Spirit proceeds from the Son, said in the Gospel¹⁵: «He proceeds from the Father», although the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son.

6. Augustine in Book XV of De Trinitate. The question is why the Son said of the Holy Spirit «He proceeds from the Father» when he proceeds from both. Hence Augustine asks¹⁶: «If the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son, why did the Son say, “He proceeds from the Father”? (He answers.) Why do you think, except because he is accustomed to refer even what belongs to him to the one from whom he himself is? Thus he says, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” (A similar way of speaking.) If his teaching is understood here, although he did not call it his own but the Father’s, how much more should we understand that the Holy Spirit proceeds from him there, where he says “He proceeds from the Father” without saying, “He does not proceed from me.” From the one from whom the Son has that he is God—for God is from God—he surely has also that the Holy Spirit proceeds from him. And therefore, for the Holy Spirit to proceed from the Son as he proceeds from the Father, the Son has this from the Father himself».

«Therefore¹⁷, whoever can understand that, when the Son says, “As the Father has life in himself, so he gave the Son to have life in himself,” the Father gave life not to a Son who already existed without life, but begot him without time in such a way that the life the Father gave the Son by begetting him is coeternal with the life of the Father who gave it, should also understand that just as the Father has in himself that the Holy Spirit proceeds from him, so he gave the Son that the same Holy Spirit proceeds from him too, and both without time. Thus «the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father» was said so that it may be understood that what also proceeds from the Son is from the Father for the Son. For if the Son has everything he has from the Father, then he has from the Father that the Holy Spirit proceeds from him too. But let no times be imagined there, with their before and after, for there are absolutely none there».

¹⁸ de LNR. 13 Sanctus Spiritus trp. BCO. 17 te] et add. BX, add. interl. TV. 19 Sanctum Spiritum trp. BNRX. 24 est] etiam trp. NRX. 28–29 rubrics omitted PRW.]

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