Scotus Academicus, Tomus tertius: De adorando divinae Trinitatis mysterio

We have already said in the prelude of this Disputation that the name Spirit, insofar as it signifies the Love that is breathed forth, is proper to the third divine Person alone; but the difficulty remains to be resolved concerning especially the three names which are attributed to Him both by Sacred Scripture and by the Fathers, when He is called Holy, Gift of God, and Charity, and Love: whether these names are proper to Him, or only appropriated, is to be resolved at present. Wherefore

Note 1. "Holy" is taken in three ways: First, indeed, for that which is pure and cleansed of every uncleanness; and thus sanctification is said to be the cleansing from sin through grace. Second, "Holy" is the same as that which is deputed and consecrated to divine worship; and in this way the Temple is said to be sanctified, as also the vessels which serve in the ministry of the Temple; but much more is a rational creature called holy when it is applied to divine service. Third, "Holy" is the same as that which is firm, or confirmed in the good. It is certain, however, that in these three ways sanctity is effectively appropriated to the Holy Spirit, for He cleanses the rational creature from every defilement of flesh and spirit through the infusion of sanctifying grace, and, cleansing it from the flood of earthly affections, raises it up into God, the center of all purity; from which raising up the second ray of sanctity bursts forth, namely consecration, and being made over and applied to divine worship: for love is the principle of ordination into God, and through it we are especially dedicated and consecrated to God; whence it finally comes about that the soul is strengthened and made firm in virtue, and attains a certain immobility in the good, which is the character of all sanctity. But whether, beyond this appropriation of effective sanctity, the divine essential sanctity also belongs to the Holy Spirit under a peculiar title, must be determined here.

Note 2. From Aristotle, lib. 4. Topicorum, cap. 4., gift is said of something and to someone, and giving is said of something and to someone: but giving is the genus of gift: for a gift is an irrevocable giving, that is, a liberal one without any hope of retribution: from which definition it is gathered that three things are found in a gift: First, the thing itself which is given; Second, the relation of the thing given to the giver; Third, finally, the respects both of the giver and of the given to the one to whom the giving is made. It is not necessary, however, that a real distinction intervene between the giver and the given, for one and the same person, when he gives himself to another, is at once both giver and given. Moreover, it must be observed that although the notion of gift in divine matters primarily and per se connotes a relation of reason to creatures, nevertheless it also secondarily connotes the procession in the mode of liberty: whence in that connoted there are found two things, namely emanation and the mode of emanation, so that what is given in divine matters must first emanate from the one who gives; second, so emanate that it is produced freely, that is, through the will; on which two things the relation of reason of gift is especially founded, a relation which is terminated at the creature to whom the giving is made only in time.

Note 3. That "dilection," or "Love," in divine matters is taken in three ways: First, indeed, essentially, insofar as it signifies the act of willing and of dilection which is common to the three Persons, for just as to understand and intellection is essential to God, so to love and love is something essential, absolute, and common. Second, it is sometimes taken notionally, insofar as it signifies the productive action of the term produced through the will; and thus to love is the same as to breathe forth, and its term is none other than the Person Himself who is breathed forth, who is called

the Holy Spirit. Third, finally, it is taken in a certain mixed way for the habitude of the one loving toward the things loved: which again can be taken in two ways, namely principiatively and formally; insofar as the Father and the Son produce the Holy Spirit, who is the Lover (if one may so speak) or the love of everything lovable; they are also said principiatively to be the Love of everything lovable: insofar, however, as the Holy Spirit, through the Love communicated to Himself by force of His procession, regards whatever is lovable, He is deemed to be formally the lover of everything lovable: on which account He has a double respect; one real, toward His productive principle, the other of reason, toward the things loved or lovable. But in what way the name of Love properly belongs to Him is to be resolved below; in the meantime let there be

First conclusion. — Sanctity is especially appropriated to the third Person in the divine. This is of faith, since this adorable Person is constantly called the Holy Spirit not only by the oracles of Sacred Scripture, but also of the Councils and of the holy Fathers; wherefore St. Augustine, lib. 10. De Civitate, cap. 24., calls Him the sanctity of the Father and of the Son, which appellation, indeed, he thus weighs in lib. 11. cap. 24.:

Whether the Holy Spirit, because He is common to both, can rightly be called the goodness of the good Father and of the good Son, I do not dare to rush a rash judgment; yet I should more readily dare to call Him the sanctity of both, not as a quality, as it were, of both, but as the very substance itself and the third Person in the Trinity. For I am led to this more probably by the fact that although the Father is spirit and the Son is spirit, and the Father is holy and the Son is holy, nevertheless He Himself is properly called the Holy Spirit, as the substantial and consubstantial sanctity of both.

St. Cyril sings in accord with him, lib. Dialogo 7. De Trinitate;

"He is holy," he says, "the Spirit of Himself, not by participation, nor by an external habitude toward the Son, but by nature and truth: for just as it is stupid and insipid that a man be called a man, and yet something other than him be understood, so it is quite foolish to name the Spirit indeed holy Spirit, and yet to exclude Him from being holy by nature, and absurdly to shut Him out into another nature. For that name will not signify to Him some mode of glory or excellence, as do these, Principality, and Throne, and Dominion, which are attributed to those things that were created by Him: but rather it expresses a substantial quality, like that name Father to the Father, and Son to the Son, etc."

By which he openly seems to say that sanctity is not only appropriated, but also as it were proper to the Holy Spirit, just as Paternity is proper to the Father, and Filiation to the Son.

And indeed reason also persuades this, if one attends to the mode of love by which that third divine Person proceeds: for all sanctity, or malice, takes its origin from love and the will: whence also it pertains in a peculiar way to that third divine Person to sanctify men and Angels; wherefore St. Cyril of Alexandria, lib. 18. Thesauri, cap. 4.: "The Spirit," he says, "is called holy, because He is said to be holy essentially; for He is the natural, and living, and subsisting operation of God, which perfects creatures by sanctifying them through participation in Himself." And a little below: "We call the Holy Spirit the very power of sanctifying, which naturally proceeds from the Father, and sanctifies and perfects creatures." But in what way the sanctification of creatures is appropriated to Him has already been sufficiently said in the second Note.

Second conclusion. — The name and notion of Gift is especially appropriated to the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine proves this Conclusion by very many texts of Scripture, lib. 15. De Trinitate, capite 19., but especially from the following: Ioannis 4., Christ, addressing the Samaritan woman, says: "Woman, if you knew the Gift of God"; but Christ was speaking of the water of life, which John, in chapter 7., says is the Holy Spirit in these words: "Rivers of living water shall flow from his belly; but this He said of the Spirit, whom those believing in Him were about to receive": likewise Acts 8.: "May your money be with you unto perdition, because you thought the Gift of God could be possessed with money." But St. Peter said this when Simon Magus, seeing that the Holy Spirit was given through the imposition of the Apostles' hands, offered him money. St. Augustine proves this same thing from the very reason of the origin of the Holy Spirit, who, he says, lib. 5. De Trinitate, cap. 14., "went forth not as one born, but as one given, because He proceeds as love, which is the first root of gratuitous giving." For we therefore give freely, because we will the good of the person receiving; wherefore love has the notion of the first gift, through which all gratuitous things are given; since, therefore, the Holy Spirit, by force of His procession, formally proceeds as love produced through the will, it follows that a certain peculiar notion of gift belongs to Him by reason of His personal property, because by force of His origin He formally proceeds according to the first root of gratuitous liberality.

You will say 1. The Holy Spirit is from eternity: but from eternity He cannot have the notion of gift: therefore the notion of gift does not belong to Him by reason of His personal property. The major is evident. The minor is proved: a gift necessarily imports a double respect, one toward the person from whom it is given, and another toward the person to whom it is given: but from eternity there was no creature to whom the Holy Spirit could be given: therefore neither could He have the notion of gift.

Some answer that the Holy Spirit has the notion of Gift not only with respect to creatures, but also with respect to the Father and the Son, for He is as it were a gift which the Father gives to the Son, and in turn the Son to the Father, insofar as the one spends and repays his love to the other.

I answer 2. That a gift is said not from the fact that it is actually given, but from the fact that it has the aptitude of being able to be given: whence from eternity the divine Person is called a gift, although it is given only in time, as St. Augustine explains, De Trinitate, cap. 15.: "Because He proceeded as giftable, He was already a gift even before there was one to whom it might be given; for it is understood otherwise when "gift" is said, otherwise when "given" is said: for a gift can exist even before it is given, but "given" can in no way be said unless it has been given": and after a few intervening words: "Eternally the Spirit is a gift, but temporally He is given."

You will say 2. The Holy Spirit is given not only by God, but also by creatures, since we read in Acts 8. that the Holy Spirit was given through the imposition of the Apostles' hands: therefore He is not only the gift of God.

St. Bonaventure answers in 1. distinct. 14. artic. 2. quaest. 2. that the Holy Spirit can be given in four ways: either as from one preparing, or ministering the Sacraments; or as from one announcing salutary teachings; or as from one impetrating through operation, or through good works; or as from one producing. In the first and second way He is conferred as much by the good as by the wicked: in the third way He is conferred only by the good: in the fourth way He is given only by God, since He is produced by the Father and the Son alone, and is given to creatures as the greatest of all gifts, and the inexhaustible origin of all the goods which flow from God into us. For, says St. Basil in the book De Spiritu sancto:

Through the Holy Spirit is given restoration in Paradise, return into the Kingdom of Heaven, recovery into the adoption of sons: there is given the confidence of calling God Father, of being made a partaker of grace, of being called Christ, a son of light, of being a partaker of eternal glory, and, to say everything at once, of being in the fullness of every blessing:

since, as St. Chrysostom adds, homil. 2. De Spiritu sancto: He is the reformation of our image, the spiritual perfection of the mind, the sun of our mental eyes, the light of our inner man, the bond of our union with Christ, the exultation of souls, the rejoicing of the heart, the rest of the mind, the communication of wisdom. By Him Prophets are enlightened, Kings are anointed, Priests are ordained, Doctors are illuminated, Churches are sanctified, altars are founded, ointment is consecrated, waters are purified, demons are driven away, diseases are cured, sinners are reconciled to God.

Third conclusion. — The name and notion of divine Love especially belongs to the Holy Spirit. This is likewise gathered from Sacred Scripture, especially from those places in which He is called charity and love; thus Romans 5.: "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who is given to us." Which St. Augustine thus weighs, lib. 15. De Trinitate, cap. 18: "The dilection which is from God and is God is properly the Holy Spirit, through whom the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, through whom the whole Trinity inhabits us"; and cap. 19. he calls the Holy Spirit the Charity and the Love of both, namely of the Father and of the Son: "And if the Charity," he says, "by which the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father ineffably, shows the communion of Both, what is more fitting than that He be properly called Charity, who is the common Spirit of Both?" But although he affirms that charity properly belongs to the Spirit, I do not deny that he has used "properly" for "appropriately," for he subjoins:

Just as in that Trinity He is not alone either Spirit or Holy: but the Father is Spirit, and the Son is Spirit, and the Father is holy, and the Son is holy, which piety does not doubt, and yet He is not in vain properly called the Holy Spirit: for because He is common to both, He Himself is properly called that which both are in common.

Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit can be named Love not only appropriately, but also properly, both by reason of the procession, because He proceeds through the will, by which love is properly breathed forth; and by the addition of some predicate, if indeed He be called love produced, or breathed forth. St. Peter Damian excellently explains the first in his first Opusculum, cap. 2., saying:

And this is that supreme Charity by which the begotten is loved by the begetter, and loves his own begetter: and therefore they are no more than three, both essentially undivided and distinguished by a threefold property: one loving him who is from him, one loving him from whom he is; and the dilection itself, of which it is said, because God is Charity.

But the second St. Augustine impresses in many of the places cited.

However, the Holy Spirit is so to be thought the Charity, or love, or dilection of the Father and of the Son, that He nevertheless is not the essential Charity itself by which the divine Persons love one another, for 1. Ioan. 4.: "God is Charity"; whence certain persons, as St. Augustine relates, lib. De Fide, et symbolo cap. 9., in order to deny that the Holy Spirit is a Person distinct from the Father and the Son, used… to believe the Holy Spirit to be the communion itself of the Father and of the Son, and, so to speak, the Deity… etc.

Thus the Holy Spirit is love appropriately, because He proceeds through the will, whose it is to love; and properly, because He is the term breathed forth through love, or love produced; and effectively, because the Charity of God is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Which St. Bernard thus weighs, Epistola 107.:

O the twin and most firm argument of love toward us! Christ dies; He merits being loved: the Spirit affects, and makes Him to be loved: the one makes why He should be loved; the other makes that He be loved: the one commends much dilection in us; the other gives it: in the one we discern what we may love; from the other we take whence we may love: Charity, therefore, from the one is the occasion, from the other the affection.

Moreover, here it must be noted that since the Holy Spirit is the mutual love of the Father and of the Son, or the fruit and term of mutual love, He is called by Augustine not only the unity and communion of both, 6. De Trinit. cap. 5., but He is also called by some the kiss, the embrace, the bond of each: thus St. Bernard, serm. 8. in Cantica: "If," he says, "the Father is rightly understood as the one kissing, the Son as the one kissed, it will not be beside the point to understand the Holy Spirit as the kiss, as being of the Son, who is the undisturbed peace, the firm glue, the undivided love, the undivided unity." And serm. 1. in Octava Paschae: "The Spirit is the indissoluble bond of the Trinity, through whom, just as the Father and the Son are one, so also we are one in them." Likewise Lawrence Justinian, in the book De Obedientia, calls the Holy Spirit the indissoluble bond of Charity, and the most sweet kiss of peace, and the most blessed embrace of mutual love.

There are other appellations of this divine Spirit, some of which the Seraphic Bonaventure thus weighs in the Theological compendium, lib. 1. cap. 9. For He is called 1. Living Fountain, because He flows into us by a sevenfold stream of gifts (which Isaias 11. enumerates). 2. Fire, because He enkindles the affection in us. 3. Charity, not only because He is the love of the Father and of the Son, but because He makes us loving. 4. Spiritual unction, because He makes all worldly tribulations sweet and clean, according to that of the prose: in labor, rest; in heat, temperateness; in weeping, solace. 5. Finger of God's right hand, because just as corporeal things are shown by the finger, so spiritual things are shown through the Holy Spirit to the spiritual eye. 6. Paraclete, because He instills heavenly consolations into minds. 7. Best of teachers, because He illuminates the intellect unto the knowledge of God and of itself.

Divine Wisdom attributes many other characters to Him, cap. 7.: for the Spirit of intelligence is called Right, because (says Cornelius Mussius, lib. 3. Historiae sacrae) He turns the crooked into the straight, and the rough into plain ways: Good, by whom all evils are driven away, or cooperate unto good: Principal, because He makes us princes, lords of the perturbations, conquerors of vices: Sweet, through whom all bitter things become sweet, while Charity is poured forth in our hearts: Holy, by whom sins are remitted, and sinners are sanctified: Clean, than whom nothing is cleaner, who makes men clean, to whom none please but the clean: Simple, who flees the feigned, and sees every deceit: Subtle, for slipping into, and for searching and examining the deep judgments of God: Modest, the author of holy shame and reverence: Eloquent, who opens the mouths of the mute, and makes the tongues of infants eloquent: Secure, of the future and of the present: Certain, because He neither is deceived nor deceives: Agile, breaking off all unjust delays, impatient of impious idleness, of negligence, and of tardiness: Kind, loving the souls of all men.