Letter 170: Alypius and Augustine congratulate Maximus and give him a compact anti-Arian explanation of the Trinity.

To Maximus, excellent lord, deservedly honorable and religious brother: Alypius and Augustine send greetings in the Lord. When we asked our holy brother and fellow bishop Peregrinus chiefly about the spiritual, not bodily, welfare of you and yours, his answer made us glad about you but sad about your people, because they have not been joined by healthy correction to the catholic Church. We had hoped this would happen quickly, and we are very grieved, excellent lord, deservedly honorable and religious brother, that it has not yet happened. Therefore we greet Your Charity in the peace of the Lord, and we both instruct and ask you not to delay teaching them what you have learned: namely, that there is only one God, to whom alone the service called by the Greek word latreia is owed. This is the very word used in the law, where it is written, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." If we say that this means only God the Father, the reply will be: then such service is not owed to the Son, which it is wicked to say. But if it is owed to the Son, how is it owed to one God alone, unless the one God, whom alone we are ordered to serve with latreia, is spoken of in such a way that the Father and the Son are understood, indeed also the Holy Spirit? For of the Spirit the apostle says, "Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a great price. Glorify God in your body." What God, if not the Holy Spirit, whose temple he had said our bodies were? Latreia, then, is owed also to the Holy Spirit. If we were ordered to make him a temple, as Solomon made one of wood and stone, by making a temple we would certainly be convicted of offering latreia. How much more do we owe it to the one for whom we do not make a temple, but whose temple we are? For this reason, if latreia is owed to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and is offered by us to them, the service about which it was said, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve," then without doubt our Lord God, whom alone we must serve with latreia, is not the Father alone, nor the Son alone, nor the Holy Spirit alone, but the Trinity itself, the one God alone: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This does not mean that the Father is the same person as the Son, or that the Holy Spirit is the same person as either Father or Son. In that Trinity the Father is Father only of the Son, and the Son is Son only of the Father, while the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both Father and Son. But because of one and the same nature and inseparable life, the Trinity itself, as far as a human being can understand after faith has gone before, is the one Lord our God, of whom it was said, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve," and whom the apostle proclaims when he says, "From him and in him and through him are all things; to him be glory forever. Amen." The only-begotten Son is not from God the Father in the same way as the whole creation is from him, which he created from nothing. The Father begot the Son from his own substance; he did not make him from nothing. Nor did he beget him in time, since through him he founded all times. Just as a flame does not precede in time the brightness it gives birth to, so the Father was never without the Son. The Son is the Wisdom of God the Father, of whom it is written, "He is the brightness of eternal light." Therefore he is without doubt coeternal with the light whose radiance he is, that is, with God the Father. So Scripture does not say, "In the beginning God made the Word," as it says, "In the beginning God made heaven and earth"; rather, "In the beginning was the Word." The Holy Spirit likewise is not a creature made from nothing, but proceeds from the Father and the Son in such a way that he is made by neither the Son nor the Father. This Trinity is of one and the same nature and substance: not less in each person than in all, nor greater in all than in each. The Father alone, or the Son alone, is as great as the Father and Son together; and the Holy Spirit alone is as great as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together. The Father did not diminish himself in order to have a Son from himself. Rather, he so begot another self from himself that he remained whole in himself and was in the Son as great as he is alone. Likewise the Holy Spirit, whole from the whole, does not precede the one from whom he proceeds, but is as great with him as from him. He does not diminish him by proceeding from him, nor enlarge him by adhering to him. All these are neither confusedly one nor separately three. Since they are one, they are three; and since they are three, they are one. Therefore the God who gave to so many hearts of his faithful to be one heart, how much more does he preserve in himself that these three, both each singly and all together, are God, not three gods but one God? This is the one Lord our God, who is served with all piety, to whom alone that latreia is owed. Among things that are born in time, God in his goodness has made it so that each thing begets offspring of its own substance, as a human being begets a human being, not something of another nature but of the nature that he himself is. See, then, how impious it is to say that God himself did not beget what he himself is. These are names of kinship, not of nature, and for that reason they are called relative terms, terms said in relation to something. Sometimes they are the same on both sides, sometimes different. They are the same when brother is referred to brother, friend to friend, neighbor to neighbor, relative to relative, and many similar cases too numerous to run through. In these, what one is to the other, the other is to him. They are different when father is referred to son, son to father, father-in-law to son-in-law, son-in-law to father-in-law, master to slave, slave to master. Here one is not to the other what the other is to him, but both are still human beings. The relation is different, not the nature. If you ask what each is to the other, this one is not to that one what that one is to this one, because one is father and the other son, or one father-in-law and the other son-in-law, or one master and the other slave. But if you ask what each is in himself, one is what the other is, because this one is human just as that one is. From this Your Prudence understands that those from whose error the Lord has freed you do not speak reasonably when they say that the nature of God the Father and God the Son is different because one is Father and the other Son, or that God the Father did not beget what he himself is because he did not beget the Father of his Son. Who does not see that such words do not show natures in themselves, but signify persons in relation to one another? The same holds for the similar error by which they say the Son is of another nature and different substance because God the Father is not from another God, while God the Son is indeed God but from God the Father. Here too substance is not being indicated, but origin: not what each is, but from where each is, or is not. Abel and Adam were not of different nature and substance because one was a human being from that other human being, while the other was from no human being. If the nature of both is asked, Abel is human and Adam is human. If origin is asked, the first human being is the one from whom Abel came, and there is no human being from whom Adam came. So too with God the Father and God the Son: if the nature of each is asked, both are God, and neither is more God than the other. But if origin is asked, the Father is God from whom the Son is God; and there is no God from whom the Father is. They try in vain to answer this by saying, "A human being begets with passion, but God begot the Son without passion." This not only does them no good; it helps us greatly. If God gave to temporal and passible things the ability to beget what they are, how much more did he, eternal and impassible, beget nothing other than what he himself is, one begetting one? We marvel at this beyond speech because it is without passion and with such equality that the Father did not precede the Son either in power or in age. Yet the Son attributes everything he has and everything he can do not to himself but to the Father, because he is not from himself but from the Father. He is equal to the Father, but he received this too from the Father, not as though he first existed unequal and then received what would make him equal, but born equal. As he is always born, so he is always equal. The Father did not beget him unequal and add equality once he was born; he gave equality by begetting, because he begot him equal, not inferior. Therefore being equal to God in the form of God was not robbery for him, but nature, because he took it by being born, not by arrogantly seizing it. He says the Father is greater because he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, not losing the form of God. Because of that form of a servant he was made less not only than the Father but also than himself and the Holy Spirit. He was not only made lower than this most excellent Trinity, but also "a little less than the angels"; he was even less than human beings when he was subject to his parents. It is because of that form of a servant, which he took when the fullness of time came and he emptied himself, that he said, "The Father is greater than I." But because of the form he did not lose when he emptied himself, he said, "I and the Father are one." He was made human and remained God: a human being was assumed by God, not God consumed in a human being. Therefore most reasonably the human Christ is less than the Father, and the same Christ as God is equal to the Father. Since we rejoice that, while we were present, you were joined to this right and catholic faith with great exultation among God's people, why are we still sad over the sluggishness of your people? We beg you by God's mercy: with his help, remove that grief from our hearts. We must not believe that your authority could have counted for so much in turning your people toward error and counts for nothing in correcting them. Or perhaps they despise you because you have come into the participation of the catholic Church at this age, when they should admire and honor you all the more because, with a kind of old-age youthfulness, you have conquered a very old error. Far be it from them to resist you when you speak the truth, since they agreed with you when you strayed from the truth. Far be it from them to refuse to think rightly with you, when they took pleasure in being wrong with you. Only pray for them and press them. Better yet, bring those who are with you in your house with you to the house of God. Or do not be ashamed to come with them to the house of God, since they had been accustomed to gather in your house. Catholic mother especially asks some people back from you and asks others from you for the first time: she asks for those whom she finds with you, and asks back those whom she lost through you. Let her not be tortured by losses, but rather rejoice in gains; let her gain children she did not have, and not mourn children she had. We pray God that you do what we urge, and from his mercy we hope that, through the letter of our holy brother and fellow bishop Peregrinus and through the reply of Your Love, our heart will soon be filled with joy about this matter and our tongue with exultation.

EPISTOLA 170 Scripta post a. 414. Alypius et Augustinus Maximo medico, gratulantes ei recens ab Ariana haeresi ad fidem catholicam converso dolentes quod sui eum imitati non sint (n. 1) instruentes illum adversus eos qui de trium Personarum eadem essentia impie disputant (nn. 2-5) explicantes vocabula Patrem, Filium, Spiritum Sanctum, generatum, spirantem vel procedentem etc. diversas indicare relationes non naturam (nn. 6-9), hortantes ut studeat et alios ad catholicam fidem adducere, praesertim cum nonnullos in errorem adduxisset auctoritate sua (n. 10). Domino eximio, meritoque honorabili et religioso fratri Maximo, Alypius et Augustinus, in Domino salutem. A. gaudet de Maximi conversione. 1. Cum a sancto fratre et coepiscopo nostro Peregrino, de tua tuorumque non corporali, sed spiritali salute praecipue quaereremus, de tua quidem laetos, de tuorum vero tristes nos eius responsa fecerunt, quod non sunt Ecclesiae catholicae salubri correctione sociati. Et quia id cito futurum sperabamus, adhuc non esse factum multum dolemus, domine eximie, meritoque honorabilis et religiose frater. Uni Trinitatis substantiae servitus debetur latriae. 2. Proinde Caritatem tuam in Domini pace salutantes, et praecipimus, et rogamus ut eos quod didicisti, docere non differas; unum scilicet Deum esse solum, cui servitus illa debetur quae Graeco vocabulo nuncupatur. Ipsum enim verbum est in lege, ubi scriptum est: Dominum Deum tuum adorabis et illi soli servies 1: quem si Deum Patrem tantummodo dixerimus, respondebitur, Ergo Filio non debetur; quod nefas est dicere. Si autem debetur, quomodo ergo uni tantum debetur Deo, si et Patri et Filio debetur, nisi quia unus Deus, cui soli per servire iussi sumus, ita dicitur solus Deus, ut et Pater intellegatur et Filius, immo etiam et Spiritus sanctus? De illo quippe dicit Apostolus: Nescitis quia corpora vestra templum sunt in vobis Spiritus sancti quem habetis a Deo, et non estis vestri? Empti enim estis magno pretio. Glorificate Deum, in corpore vestro 2: quem Deum, nisi Spiritum sanctum cuius corpora nostra dixerat esse templum? Debetur ergo Spiritui sancto. Nam si templum ei facere, sicut Salomon fecit de lignis et lapidibus, iuberemur; utique faciendo templum, exhibere convinceremur: quanto magis debemus cui non templum facimus, sed sumus! Unus Deus trinusque. 3. Ac per hoc si Patri et Filio et Spiritui sancto debetur, et exhibetur a nobis, de qua dictum est: Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, et illi soli servies; procul dubio Dominus Deus noster, cui soli per servire debemus, non est Pater solus, nec Filius solus, nec solus Spiritus sanctus, sed ipsa Trinitas unus Deus solus, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus sanctus: non ut Pater sit ipse qui Filius, vel Spiritus sanctus ipse sit aut Pater aut Filius, cum sit in illa Trinitate Pater Filii solius, et Filius Patris solius, Spiritus autem sanctus et Patris et Filii sit Spiritus; sed propter unam eamdemque naturam atque inseparabilem vitam, ipsa Trinitas, quantum ab homine potest, fide praecedente intellegitur unus Dominus Deus noster, de quo dictum est: Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, et illi soli servies, et quem praedicat Apostolus; ait enim: Quoniam ex ipso, et in ipso, et per ipsum sunt omnia: ipsi gloria in saecula saeculorum. Amen 3. Filii generatio ac Spiritus Sancti processio. 4. Non enim sic ex Deo Patre unigenitus Filius, quemadmodum ex illo est universa creatura, quam ex nihilo creavit. Hunc quippe de sua substantia genuit, non ex nihilo fecit: nec eum ex tempore genuit, per quem cuncta tempora condidit. Quoniam sicut flamma splendorem quem gignit, tempore non praecedit; ita Pater numquam sine Filio fuit. Ipse est quippe Sapientia Dei Patris, de qua scriptum est: Splendor est enim lucis aeternae 4. Luci ergo cuius candor est, id est, Deo Patri sine dubio coaeterna est: et ideo non sicut in principio fecit Deus coelum et terram, ita in principio fecit Verbum; sed in principio erat Verbum 5. Spiritus quoque sanctus non sicut creatura ex nihilo est factus: sed sic a Patre Filioque procedit, ut nec a Filio nec a Patre sit factus. Unus Deus Trinitas, non triteismus. 5. Haec Trinitas unius est eiusdemque naturae atque substantiae: non minor in singulis, quam in omnibus, nec maior in omnibus, quam in singulis; sed tanta in solo Patre, vel in solo Filio, quanta in Patre simul et Filio; et tanta in solo Spiritu sancto, quanta simul in Patre et Filio et Spiritu sancto. Neque enim Pater, ut haberet Filium de seipso, minuit seipsum; sed ita genuit de se alterum se, ut totus maneret in se, et esset in Filio tantus quantus et solus. Similiter et Spiritus sanctus integer de integro, non praecedit unde procedit, sed tantus cum illo quantus ex illo, nec minuit eum procedendo, nec auget haerendo. Et haec omnia nec confuse unum sunt, nec disiuncte tria sunt: sed cum sint unum, tria sunt, et cum sint tria, unum sunt. Proinde qui tam multis cordibus fidelium suorum donavit ut essent cor unum, quanto magis conservat in seipso ut sint haec tria et singula Deus, et simul omnia non tres dii, sed unus Deus! Hic est unus Dominus Deus noster, cui universa pietate servitur, cui soli illa debetur. " Pater ", " Filius ", " Spiritus " relationum esse nomina. 6. Qui cum in rebus quae nascuntur in tempore, sua bonitate effecerit ut suae substantiae prolem quaelibet res gignat, sicut homo gignit hominem, non alterius naturae, sed eius cuius ipse est; vide quam impie dicatur ipse non genuisse id quod ipse est. Haec enim propinquitatis sunt nomina, non naturae, et ideo ad aliquid, vel relativa dicuntur, quae aliquando eadem sunt, aliquando diversa. Eadem scilicet cum frater refertur ad fratrem, amicus ad amicum, vicinus ad vicinum, cognatus ad cognatum, et si qua similia, quae infinitum est velle omnia percurrere. In his enim quod est iste ad illum, hoc est ille ad istum. Diversa sunt autem, sicut pater ad filium, filius ad patrem, socer ad generum, gener ad socerum, dominus ad servum, servus ad dominum. Non est quidem hoc iste ad illum, quod ille ad istum; sed ambo tamen homines sunt: relatio diversa est, non natura. Quoniam si attendas quid sit alter ad alterum, non est hoc ad illum iste, quod ad istum ille: quia iste pater, ille filius; aut iste socer, ille gener; aut iste dominus, ille servus. Si autem attendas quid quisque sit ad seipsum, vel in seipso, hoc est ille quod iste; quia ille homo est sicut iste. Unde intellegit prudentia tua non ab eis rationabiliter dici, a quorum errore te Dominus liberavit, ideo Dei Patris et Dei Filii naturam esse diversam, quia iste Pater est, ille Filius; et Deum Patrem non genuisse id quod est ipse, quia non genuit Patrem Filii sui, quod est ad illum ipse: quis enim non videat ista vocabula non in seipsis demonstrare naturas, sed alterius ad alterum significare personas? Vox "genitus" Filii originem denotat. 7. Tale est etiam illud quod simili loquuntur errore, ideo Filium alterius esse naturae, diversaeque substantiae, quia Pater Deus non est de altero Deo, Filius autem Deus est quidem, sed de Patre Deo: et hic enim non indicatur substantia, sed origo, id est, non quid sit, sed unde sit quisque vel non sit. Neque enim Abel et Adam ideo non unius naturae atque substantiae fuerunt, quia iste fuit homo de homine illo, ille de nullo. Si ergo utriusque natura quaeritur, homo Abel, homo Adam: si autem origo, primus homo ex quo Abel, nullus homo ex quo Adam. Ita in Deo Patre et Deo Filio, si utriusque natura quaeratur, uterque Deus, nec magis alter altero Deus: si autem origo, Pater est Deus de quo Filius Deus; de quo autem Pater, nullus est Deus. Filius ab aeterno aequalis Patri genitus. 8. Frustra itaque ad hoc respondere conantes dicunt: Sed homo cum passione generat, Deus autem sine passione genuit Filium. Hoc enim non solum ipsos nihil, sed nos adiuvat plurimum. Nam si temporalibus et passibilibus rebus Deus tribuit ut quod sunt hoc generent, quanto magis ipse aeternus et impassibilis, non aliud quam est ipse generavit, unus unicum; ideo nostra inenarrabili admiratione, quoniam sine passione, et tanta secum aequalitate, ut eum nec potestate praecederet, nec aetate! Sed ideo totum quod habet, quod potest, non tribuit sibi, sed Patri, quia non est a seipso, sed a Patre. Aequalis est enim Patri, sed hoc quoque accepit a Patre; nec sic accepit unde esset aequalis, quasi prius fuerit inaequalis; sed natus aequalis, sicut semper natus, ita semper aequalis. Non itaque inaequalem genuit, et aequalitatem iam nato addidit; sed gignendo eam dedit, quia aequalem non imparem genuit. Ideo in forma Dei aequalem esse Deo, non ei rapina fuerat 6, sed natura; quoniam id nascendo sumpsit, non superbiendo praesumpsit. Christus minor Patre qua homo, aequalis Patri qua Deus. 9. Propterea vero Patrem dicit esse maiorem, quia seipsum exinanivit, formam servi accipiens 7, non amittens Dei: propter quam formam servi, non tantum Patre, verum etiam seipso et Spiritu sancto minor factus est; nec tantum hac excellentissima Trinitate, sed etiam minoratus est paulo minus ab Angelis 8; hominibus quoque minor fuit, quando parentibus subditus fuit 9. Propter hanc utique formam servi, quam veniente plenitudine temporis exinanitus accepit, dixit: Pater maior me est 10. Propter illam formam vero, quam nec exinanitus amisit, dixit: Ego et Pater unum sumus 11; et homo scilicet factus, et permanens Deus: homo enim assumptus est a Deo, non in homine consumptus est Deus. Ideo valde rationabiliter et Patre minor est homo Christus, et Patri aequalis est idem ipse Deus Christus. Maximus ad catholicam fidem suos et alios adducat. 10. Cum igitur huic rectae atque catholicae fidei praesentibus nobis cum magna exsultatione populi Dei consociatum te esse gaudeamus, quare adhuc de tuorum segnitia tristes sumus? Obsecramus te per misericordiam Dei, ut ipso adiuvante auferas istum maerorem de cordibus nostris. Neque enim credendum est auctoritatem tuam ad perversitatem tuorum plurimum valere potuisse, et ad correctionem valere nihil. An forte contemnunt te, quia in Ecclesiae catholicae participationem hac aetate venisti, cum te amplius debeant admirari, atque venerari, quia vetustissimum errorem senili quadam iuventute vicisti? Absit ut resistant tibi vera dicenti, cui consenserant a veritate devianti; absit ut nolint tecum recta sentire, cum quo eos delectavit errare. Tu tantum ora pro eis, et insta eis. Immo vero adduc eos ad domum Dei tecum, qui in domo tua sunt tecum; vel te non pigeat in domum Dei cum illis venire, qui in domum tuam soliti fuerant convenire; praesertim cum Catholica mater aliquos a te petit, aliquos repetit: petit eos quos apud te invenit; repetit eos quos per te perdidit. Non excrucietur damnis, sed potius laetetur lucris: acquirat filios quos non habuit, non plangat quos habuit. Oramus ad Deum, ut facias quod hortamur; et speramus de misericordia eius, quod litteris sancti fratris et coepiscopi nostri Peregrini, et rescriptis Dilectionis tuae, cito de hac re gaudio explebitur cor nostrum, et lingua nostra exsultatione 12.