Sentences, Books I–II

Chapter 1 (102).

1. What is signified when three persons or two persons are said in the plural. Since the word "person," as was said above, is said according to substance, we must consider what is meant when it is expressed in the plural: three persons or two persons, and when it is said that the Father is one person, the Son another, and the Holy Spirit another. If in these expressions the word person signifies the essence, we seem to confess several essences and thus several gods. But perhaps the word has one meaning when we say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are persons, and another when we say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three persons, or that the person of the Father is one and that of the Son another, and so on.

2. That “the person of the Father is one and that of the Son another,” or “three persons,” seems to be said according to essence. Person, as Augustine said above, is said in relation to itself; and for God to be a person is the same as to be, just as for him to be is the same as to be God. Hence it plainly follows that we predicate the divine essence when we say: the Father is a person, the Son is a person, the Holy Spirit is a person—that is, essence. Exactly the same is signified by the word person, namely the divine essence, when we say that the Father is a person and the Son is a person as is signified by the word God when we say that the Father is God and the Son is God. The same is likewise signified when we say that God is God, since both are said according to substance.

3. But when the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are said to be three persons, what do we signify by “persons”? The essence? This seems so if we examine carefully Augustine's words cited above. For he said that "we therefore say three persons because what person is is common to the three"; and likewise, "because the Father is a person, the Son is a person, and the Holy Spirit is a person, therefore they are called three persons." It therefore seems that the word person has the same meaning when we say three persons as when we say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are persons, because, as Augustine shows, the former is said because of the latter, and because what person is is common to them. What is common to them—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—therefore seems to be signified by person when we say three persons.

4. Another way in which it seems that the plural expression too is said according to essence. It can also be shown that essence is signified by person when we say three persons. As Augustine said above, we said three persons because we needed to answer those asking what the three or what the three things were. When one asks what the three are, it is appropriately answered by saying three persons. But when one asks what the three are, one asks about essence by the word what; for there is no answer to what those three are except essence. If we answer the question correctly, then, we must signify essence in answering; otherwise we do not show what the three are. If, in answering, we signify essence, we understand essence itself by the word persons when we say three persons.

5. The opinion of some who think that essence is signified by person when we say three persons. Some think that essence is signified by person when we say three persons because Augustine says that they are called three persons because what person is is common to them. Their understanding is therefore: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three persons, that is, three having in common what person is; three, each of whom is a person, that is, essence. — But on this understanding, how will one say that the person of the Father is one and the person of the Son another? of the Father, and another of the Son? They also want to understand this as meaning that the Father is one and the Son another, while they have in common what person is. They confirm this by Augustine's authority: in Book VII of The Trinity he says, "We say three persons of the same essence, or three persons who are one essence. But we do not say three persons from the same essence, as though one thing there were essence and another person." By this authority and those already cited they try to assert that person signifies essence in the expressions above. But what will they answer to Augustine's statement in his book On Faith, namely that "the Father is one personally, the Son another personally, and the Holy Spirit another personally"? For how can the Father be one personally and the Son another personally if they entirely agree in being persons, that is, if person signifies only the understanding of essence? It therefore seems to us that, in accordance with the authorities of Catholic teachers, this can more suitably be explained otherwise.

¹ significetur LNRVW. 7 alia] est add. LOPV. 11 persona] vel persona LNRVW. 18 manifeste] coll. OP. 20 essentia] Quod (in OP) nomine personae. 24 persona] vel persona LNRVW. 25 persona est] persona sit BLMNOPT. ‘Et cum dicitur Pater est deus’ rubr. (em.).]

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Chapter 2 (103).

1. The word person is taken in the Trinity in three ways; this is the useful and Catholic doctrine concerning person and persons. We must know, then, that the word person does not have only one meaning but several. As Hilary says in The Trinity, "The meaning of statements must be drawn from the reasons for speaking, since reality is not subject to speech, but speech is subject to reality." Distinguishing the reasons for using this word, person, we distinguish its meaning. Properly, according to substance, the word person signifies essence, as Augustine showed above when it is said that God is a person and the Father is a person.

2. What is signified when three persons are said: three subsistences or three beings, not three essences. By a certain necessity, as Augustine said above, this word was transferred so that it could be said in the plural, three persons, when the question was what the three or what the three things were. Here it does not signify essence—that is, the divine nature common to the three—but subsistences, or hypostases according to the Greeks. For the Greeks, as Augustine said above, take substance, that is, hypostasis, differently from us. We call substance essence or nature, whereas we call persons what they call substances, that is, hypostases. If we take persons in the way they take substances or hypostases, while they take hypostases differently from the way we take substance, then we take persons differently from substance. When we say three persons, therefore, person does not signify essence there. What do we say? We say that there are three persons, that is, three subsistences or three beings; the Greeks call these three hypostases.

3. He shows that Augustine's words agree with this view. This meaning is supported by Augustine's words cited above, if they are understood more deeply: "Because the Father is a person," that is, essence, "and the Son a person, and the Holy Spirit a person, therefore they are called three persons," that is, three subsistences or beings. They could not be called subsistences or beings unless each were a person, that is, essence. "Because what person is is common to them," that is, essence, "therefore they are rightly called three persons," that is, subsistences or subsisting beings: just as the essence common to them truly and properly exists, so those three are understood truly and properly as subsistences or beings. Hence Augustine, distinguishing the reasons for the statements, says that the three persons are one essence or of one essence, not from one essence, lest one thing be understood there as person and another as essence. The three persons, that is, subsistences, are one essence and of one essence; but they are not one person or of one person, although person is sometimes said according to substance, for if this were said, confusion would arise among the persons.

4. He answers their objection, by which they try to prove that persons are taken according to essence because we answer those asking what the three are. They say: when one asks what the three are, one asks about essence, since there is no answer to what those three are except essence; by this they want to induce us to understand essence by person when we answer three persons. We reply: it is unquestionably true that there is no one thing which those three are except essence; for the three are one, namely the divine essence. Hence the Truth says: I and the Father are one. Nevertheless, when one asks what the three are, the question is not about essence, nor is the word what directed to essence— but when the Catholic faith professed that there are three, as John says in his canonical Epistle, "There are three who bear witness in heaven," the question was what those three were: whether they were three things, what those three things were, and by what name those three things were signified. Therefore, from the necessity of speaking, the word person was found as an answer, and it was said: three persons.

⁴ tres add. BRVW, add. interl. N2, 31–32 Indubitanter] indubitanter LOP.]

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5. What is meant by three things and one thing. Do not be troubled by our saying three things. In saying this we do not posit a number of different things in the Trinity; rather, we say three things in such a way as to confess them to be one supreme thing. Hence Augustine says in Book I of On Christian Doctrine: "The things to be enjoyed make us blessed." "The things to be enjoyed, then, are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and the same Trinity is one supreme thing, common to those who enjoy it, if indeed it is a thing and not the cause of all things, and if it is itself a cause. For it is not easy to find a name suitable to such excellence, except that this Trinity is better called one God." Thus, just as three things are said and these are one thing, so three subsistences are said and these are one substance. Here it has been shown what is meant by the word person when we say three persons.

Chapter 3 (104).

1. In what sense it is said: the person of the Father is one, the person of the Son another, and the person of the Holy Spirit another. Let us now see whether the statement is made according to the same reason and cause: the person of the Father is one, the person of the Son another, and the person of the Holy Spirit another. This can properly be understood to mean that the subsistence or hypostasis of the Father is one, that of the Son another, and that of the Holy Spirit another; and that the subsisting Father is one, the Son another, and the Holy Spirit another.

2. How these expressions are understood: the Father is another in person, and the Son another. Next it is asked whether the same meaning applies when it is said that the Father is one personally, the Son another personally, and the Holy Spirit another personally.

3. Here person is taken differently from above: it is taken for a property. We reply that although it could be taken in the same way, the reason for the statement more suitably gives it another meaning: here person signifies the personal property. The meaning is therefore that the Father is another in person or personally, that is, by his property the Father is other than the Son, and by his property the Son is other than the Father. The hypostasis of the Father is distinguished from the hypostasis of the Son by the paternal property; the hypostasis of the Son is distinguished from the Father by the filial property; and the Holy Spirit is distinguished from both by the property of procession.

4. The foregoing expressions can also be understood in this way. Person can properly be taken in this way in the expressions cited above, when it is said that the person of the Father is one and that of the Son another: that is, the property by which the Father is Father is one, the property by which the Son is Son another, and the property by which the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit another. Some likewise wish to understand properties by person when three persons are said; but it is better to understand subsistences or hypostases when we say three persons.

5. He gathers the substance of what was said. From the foregoing it follows that the word person has three meanings in the Trinity: in one place it gives the understanding of essence, in another the understanding of hypostasis, and in another the understanding of property.

6. He shows by the authorities of the saints what he has said. We have already plainly shown from Augustine's words that person is sometimes said according to substance and signifies essence. That it is taken for hypostasis and property must be shown from the authorities of the saints, lest we seem to say anything on the basis of our own conjectures. Jerome says in his Exposition of the Catholic Faith to Bishops Alypius and Augustine: "There is no rank at all in the Trinity, nothing that can be called lower or higher; the whole Godhead is equal in the perfection of itself. Thus, except for the names that indicate the properties of the persons, whatever is said of one person can most fittingly be understood of the three. As, in refuting Arius, we say that the Trinity has one and the same substance and confess one God in three persons, so, avoiding Sabellius's impiety, we distinguish the three persons as marked by their properties: we do not say that the Father is himself the Son or himself the Holy Spirit, but that the person of the Father is one, that of the Son another, and that of the Holy Spirit another. We confess not only names but also the properties of names, that is, persons—or, as the Greeks express it, hypostases, that is, subsistences. Neither does the Father ever exclude the person of the Son or the Holy Spirit, nor does the Son or the Holy Spirit receive the name and person of the Father; rather, the Father is always Father, the Son always Son, and the Holy Spirit always the Holy Spirit. Thus they are one in substance, but are distinguished by persons and names." Here Jerome plainly says that properties are persons and persons are subsistences; it is therefore clear that, as we said, person signifies both hypostasis and property. John Damascene likewise calls persons hypostases and says that they are beings, as follows: "In the Godhead we confess one nature and three hypostases that truly exist, that is, persons."

⁶ profitetur LPX. 7 res] om. OP. 14–15 si... causa] om. BOPX, add. mg. MLV. 25 alia Spiritus Sancti] om. BMOPR, add. mg. LT3.]

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