Sentences, Books I–II

Cap. 1 (125).

1. “Principle” is said relatively and signifies several relations. There is another name that signifies several relations, namely “principle.” Principle is always said in relation to something. The Father is called principle, the Son principle, and the Holy Spirit principle, but in different ways: the Father is principle in relation to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

2. How the Father is called the principle of the whole deity. Augustine says: “The Father is the principle of the whole divinity, or, better, deity,” because he is from no one. “He has no one from whom he is or from whom he proceeds”; but from him the Son is begotten and the Holy Spirit proceeds. He is therefore not called principle of the whole deity as though he were the principle of himself or of the divine essence, but because he is the principle of the Son and the Holy Spirit, in each of whom the whole deity is.

3. How and in relation to what the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Trinity are called principle. The Son is principle in relation to the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is called principle only in relation to creatures, in relation to which the Father and Son are also called principle, and the Trinity itself together, as well as each person, is called the principle of creatures. Thus the Father is principle without principle, the Son principle from principle, and the Holy Spirit principle from both, that is, from Father and Son.

¹ omitted in RWX. 24 Filius] dicitur principium add. VW, added in the margin by R²T². 25 et omitted in LMN. 26 persona] personarum M, corrected to personarum by T.]

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Cap. 2 (126).

1. The Father and Son are principle from eternity, but the Holy Spirit is not; rather, he began to be principle. From eternity the Father is principle of the Son, and Father and Son are principle of the Holy Spirit, because the Son is from the Father and the Holy Spirit from both. The Holy Spirit, however, is not principle from eternity but began to be principle, because he is called principle only in relation to creatures. When creatures began to exist, the Holy Spirit began to be their principle. Likewise Father and Son began, with the Holy Spirit, to be one principle of creatures, because creatures began to exist from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

2. How these three are one principle of creatures. They are called not three but one principle of all creatures because they are principle of things in one and the same way. Things are not from the Father in one way and from the Son in another, but wholly in the same way. The Apostle, understanding that this Trinity is one principle of things, says: “From him and through him and in him are all things.”

3. How “all things are from God” is to be understood. “When we hear that all things are from God,” Augustine says, “we must understand all natures and everything that exists naturally. Sins are not from him, for they do not preserve nature but corrupt it and arise from the will of sinners.” Of everything that exists naturally, therefore, the Father with the Son and Holy Spirit is one principle, and this principle began to be such.

4. The Father is eternally principle of the Son, and Father and Son of the Holy Spirit. From eternity the Father is principle of the Son by generation, and Father and Son are one principle of the Holy Spirit. Augustine says: “The Father is called relatively Father, and he is likewise called relatively principle; but Father is said in relation to the Son, while principle is said in relation to everything that is from him. The Son too is called principle. When he was asked, ‘Who are you?’ he answered, ‘The Principle, who also speak to you.’ But is he the Father’s principle? Rather, he wished to show himself creator when he said he was principle, just as the Father is principle of creation because all things are from him. When we call both Father and Son principle, we do not call them two principles of creation, because Father and Son together are one principle in relation to creation, just as one creator.”

⁴ were only temporal in L. || esse coepit] is temporal in L. 11 esse coepit] temporal in LNR. 12 creaturarum] sunt added in LNR. coeperunt] are temporal in LNR. 26 esse coepit] temporal in LR. 27 Quod] pater added in M. || ab aeterno] pater added in LX.]

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5. He adds that the Holy Spirit too is principle. “If whatever remains in itself and begets or works something is principle of what it begets or works, we cannot deny that the Holy Spirit is rightly called principle. We do not separate him from the name creator, because Scripture says that he works, and he works while remaining in himself; he is not changed into any of the things he works. The Holy Spirit, therefore, with the Father and Son, is one principle in relation to creation, not two or three principles.” Augustine plainly shows that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one principle of created things, operating in one and the same way; because the three work together, they are called one principle.

Cap. 3 (127).

1. How the Father is principle of the Son, and Father and Son principle of the Holy Spirit. In the same book he goes on to show that the Father is called principle in relation to the Son, and Father and Son in relation to the Holy Spirit: the Father is principle of the Son because he begot him, and Father and Son are principle of the Holy Spirit because the Spirit proceeds or is given from both. “If the begetter is principle of what he begets, the Father is principle of the Son because he begot him. Whether the Father is also principle of the Holy Spirit because it is said, ‘He proceeds from the Father,’ is no small question. If so, he will be principle not only of what he begets or makes, but also of what he gives and what proceeds from him.” If what is given or proceeds has its principle from the one by whom it is given or from whom it proceeds, we must confess that Father and Son are principle of the Holy Spirit—not two principles. Just as Father and Son are relatively one creator and one lord in relation to creatures, so they are relatively one principle in relation to the Holy Spirit; in relation to creatures Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one principle, just as one creator and one lord.

⁶ eius BCOLNTVWX. || ei?] eius BCTVWX, om. LR. 14 aliquid] aliquod BCN. 20 simul NPT, similiter alii codd.]

1 Joan. 8, 25. 2 August., ibid. (PL 42, 920; CCL 50, 221s). 3 Resp. I Cor. 12, 11: Haec autem omnia operatur unus atque idem Spiritus. 4 De Trinitate, V, c. 14, n. 15 (PL 42, 920s; CCL 50, 222s). 5 Ioan. 15, 26.

2. The Father is principle and author of the Son in the same respect in which he is Father. The Father is called principle of the Son because he begot him: the notion by which he is Father is the notion by which he is principle of the Son, namely generation. In the same respect he is called the Son’s author. Hilary says: “By the very fact that he is called Father, he is shown to be the author of him whom he begot; he has a name which is understood not to have proceeded from another and from which the one begotten is taught to have subsisted.” — Note that he says the Son is not from a beginning but from one who is beginning. “The Church knows one unbegotten God and the only-begotten Son of God. It confesses the Father free from origin and also confesses the Son’s origin from a beginning: not the Son himself from a beginning, but from one who can be a beginning; not from himself, but from him who was born from no one eternally and who receives birth from the Father’s eternity.” This profession of faith is given, but its reasoning remains to be explained: how the Son’s origin is from a beginning while he himself is not from a beginning but from one who can be a beginning.

3. He explains the sense in which he said this. He determines the meaning of “beginning”: do not understand the Son’s origin as from a beginning as though the Son had a beginning, but because he is from one who can be a beginning, namely the Father, from whom all things are. Although the Son is principle from principle, it must not be granted that the Son has a principle from principle while the Father is principle without principle; the Father is not principle from principle as the Son is.

4. Father and Son are not two creators but one creator.

⁷ omitted in RVW. 12 ait] omitted in OP. 18 initiabili] initiali LP, ininitiabili Hil. 19 ipsum] rubric in the margin of BCTX: nota filium non esse per seipsum. 23 initiabili] initiali M, corrected from initiali in LN, corrected to initiali in P. 24 Heading omitted in RVW. 27 initiabili] initiali P, corrected to initiali in L.]

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Cap. 4 (128).

1. Since Father and Son are one principle of the Holy Spirit, is this in the same respect? Father and Son are one principle not only of creatures, as said above, but also of the Holy Spirit. It is asked whether the Father is principle of the Holy Spirit in the same notion as the Son, or whether the Father is called principle by one notion and the Son by another. We answer that, since both are called principle because the Holy Spirit proceeds or is given from both, and proceeds or is given from the Father in no other way than from the Son, Father and Son can rightly be understood to be called principle of the Holy Spirit by the same relation or notion.

2. What is the notion by which Father and Son are called principle of the Holy Spirit? If we ask what notion “principle” signifies there, we do not have its name. It is not fatherhood or sonship, but a certain notion belonging to Father and Son, by which from eternity Father and Son are one principle of the Holy Spirit. “Giver,” however, as said above, is said of Father or Son in time, just as the Holy Spirit is said to be given or donated.

⁹ omitted in MRW. 16 est] sunt BCV.]

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