PARADOSIS Contributions to the History of Early Christian Literature and Theology IX MARK DORENKEMPER C.PP.S. THE TR1NITARIAN DOCTRINE AND SOURCES OF ST. CAESARIUS OF ARLES THE UNIVERSITY PRESS • FRIBOURG SWITZERLAND 1953 PAR ADO SIS is intended as a series I of studies in ancient Christian literature and theology. The Greek • term, already familiar to the earliest Christian writers, has been adopted as a title since it is convenient for quotation and reference, while at the same time serving to cover contributions in various languages. It implies, further­ more, both a principle and a programme. Christian theo­ logy is by its nature rooted in th~ past. Only in so far as it remains in living contact therewith is it capable of further growth. Hence any study, however unassuming, that throws light on tradition or its sources bec~mes by the very fact a contribution to the theology of the present. Fribourg, Switzerland. OTHMAR PERLER. PARADOSIS Contributions to the History of Early Christian Literature and Theology ----------IX---------- MARK DORENKEMPER, C.PP.S. THE TRINITARIAN DOCTRINE AND SOURCES OF ST. CAESARIUS OF ARLES THE UNIVERSITY PRESS - FRIBOURG,SWITZERLAND 1953 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents vii Abbreviations ix Introduction ................·------···················································----- 1 PART ONE Caesarius's Doctrine of the Trinity Chapter One The Consubstantiality and Sequels ___ _ 13 Division and plan of Caesarius's argumentation against the Semi- Arians .........................··················································----------- 13 I. Catholic Faith - One God in Trinity ·········································-···························....... 18 II. Consubstantiality and Personal Triplicity ······----·················•················ 28 III. Sequels of Consubstantiality 35 1. Equality 35 2. Coetemity 57 3. Omnipotence ··································-------------- 63 4. Omnipresence ··································································----·······································70 5. Lord and God ····------------·······························- 74 Chapter Two The Internal Procession 83 Generation and the relations of paternity and filiation __ _ 84 Procession and the relations of active and passive procession .................. 92 Chapter Three The Divine Missions ··············--------·····················-····························· 101 The mission of the Son ···········································-----------­ 101 The mission of the Holy Spirit ···············----------- 106 Chapter Four Appropriation ····································-······-------------- vii PART TWO Sources of Caesarius's Trinitarian Doctrine Chapter One Dependence on the Quicumque 127 Chapter Two Principal Patristic Dependence 141 St. Augustine --------------------­ 141 Faustus of Riez 169 St. Ambrose ············------------------- 179 Chapter Three Secondary Patristic Dependence 187 St. Hilary of Poitiers __ _ 187 St. Fulgentius ____________________ _ 192 lthacius of Ossonoba ·-··-··········-·····-------------­ 198 Gennadius of Marseilles ---------------- 201 Chapter Four No Dependence 210 Eugenius of Carthage ________________ _ 210 St. Vincent of Lerins -----------------­ 211 Eugyppius of Africa 213 Conclusion to Part Two -----------------­ 215 Index of Texts Cited ------------------­ 217 General Conclusion 221 Bibliography 225 Index of Scriptural Texts ------------------­ 229 Index of Persons and Things ---------------- 230 ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS WORK B.A.H. = Breviarium Adversus Haereticos, by Caesarius BLE = Bulletin de Litterature Ecclesiastique, Paris, CSEL = Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vienna. De Trin. = Libellus de Mysterio Sanctae Trinitatis, by Cae- sarius. Die. Theol. Cath. = Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique, Paris. JTS = Journal of Theological Studies, London. MBP = Maxima Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, Lyon. Misc. Agos. = Miscellanea Agostiniana, vol. 1, Rome. NRT = Nouvelle Revue Theologique. PL = Patrologiae Latinae, Migne, Paris. RB = Revue Benedictine, Maredsous. RBI = Revue Biblique Internationale, Paris. RCF = Revue du Clerge Francais, Paris. RHE = Revue d'Histoire Ecclesiastique, Louvain. RHEF = Revue d'Histoire de l'Eglise de France, Paris. RHLR = Revue d'Histoire et de Litterature Religieuse, Paris. RSR = Recherches de Science Religieuse, Paris. RT Revue Thomiste, Paris. RTAM = Recherches de Theologie Ancienne et Medievale, Louvain. vs = La Vie Spirituelle, Paris. ZntW = Zeitschrift fuer neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der aelteren Kirche, Giessen. Note: Citations from St. Augustine throughout are taken from the Maurists' edition, Paris 1689-1700. INTRODUCTION Literary tradition has not been favorable toward St. Caesarius. His doctrinal works, by no means negligible, have remained till our day in a very chaotic state. The textual difficulties alone which con­ fronted one wishing to study his sermons were no less than insurmount­ able. The sermons which came from the pen of the saintly bishop of Aries were interspersed among the manuscripts ascribed to the most diverse names: St. Augustine, Faustus of Riez, Maximus of Turin. The task of disentangling such a conglomeration of texts was greatly augmented by the well-proven fact that Caesarius did not hesitate to borrow long passages from his predecessors. These he would then insert, more or less retouched, into his own discourses without hint­ ing that he is indebted to another for perhaps most of the sermon. Morin tells us, "At times only the most discerning study will enable one to distinguish in the writings of the Saint that which he has taken over from another from that which is properly his own.''1 The near hopelessness of this situation is evidenced in the wide variety in the number of sermons attributed to St. Caesarius. Du Port, writing at the end of the 17th century, gives the number as about forty sermons.2 Ampere, who wrote at the same time as Morin began his work, assures us that Caesarius had written prodigiously, and that the one hundred and fifty sermons at that time assigned to him were only a small part of those originally composed by him.3 Malnory writes in his Life of St. Caesarius that the reconstruction of the ser­ mons of the Bishop of Aries is "a work which will demand of the editor endless research and unlimited patience." 4 He knows of the work that Morin had already begun and joins in an appeal that patrologists had been making for centuries - for the speedy com­ pletion of a critical edition of the works of St. Caesarius of Aries. This demand of scholars is now realized in Morin's Opera Omnia Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis. 5 Thanks to the fifty years of tireless 1. G. MORIN, Le symbole de S. Cesaire d'Arles. RB 46 (1934) 189. 2. DU PORT, Histoire de l'Eglise d'Arles. Paris 1690, 133. 3, M. AMPERE, Histoire litteraire de la France. Paris 1893, 2, 225. 4. A. MALNORY, Saint Cesaire. Paris 1894, xi. 5. G. MORIN, Sancti Caesarii Episcopi Arelatensis Opera Omnia, Volu­ men I Sermones et Admonitiones. Maretioli, 1936. Volumen II Opera Varia. Maretioli, 1942. 1 labor on the part of this Benedictine monk, the greatest popular orator of Christian antiquity speaks to us once more.6 Once again he exhorts and teaches, and his message has lost none of the vividness and vitality that it possessed fourteen centuries ago. We stand in full accord with Lambot's estimation of the man who has made this possible. "Dom Morin is a scholar that posterity will number among the most eminent." 7 Reviewers agree that the Opera Omnia possesses a thoroughness that is seldom found in works of this nature. The reader receives a new respect for the science of internal criticism, which the Benedictine scholar utilizes with rare mastery. 8 Without internal criticism the work could never have been accomplished.9 With it, the student of St. Caesarius may be confident that he has before him the words of the saintly bishop of Aries. This is the more true in that every page of the Opera Omnia testifies to Morin's scrupulous fidelity to the one su­ preme principle he set for himself at the outset: "We seek but one thing, the triumph of the truth. Non enim de adversario victoriam, sed contra mendacium quaerimus veritatem. Faithful to this maxim of St. Jerome, as must be every honest writer," 10 he begins his work. We do not hesitate, therefore, to accept the findings of Morin throughout the present study. It goes without saying that the very nature of this work of a lifetime is such that one cannot fully appre­ ciate the force of the arguments and the certainty of the conclusions until he has become equally familiarized with the matter. Certainly such needless repetition is not demanded for progressive scientific work. The laws of internal criticism "are so firmly established and secure at the present time ... that any abuse is easily discovered."11 The universal acclaim the Opera Omnia has received from the savants 6. Cf. P. LEJAY, Notes d'ancienne litterature chretienne: Les sermons de Cesaire d'Arles. RBI 4 (1895) 607. 7. D. C. LAMBOT, La premiere edition critique des sermons de saint Cesaire d'Aries. RB 49 (1937) 387. 8. Cf. D'ALES, Les "Sermones" de saint Cesaire d'Arles. RSR 28 (1938) 372. 9. In all fairness much credit must be given to the Maurists for their edition of St. Augustine, in which they employed the internal critical method with much success. Morin confirms their judgment in almost every case (one hundred out of one hundred and three instances) in regard to the sermons