Contents
Scripture
I. The Holy Spirit is God
Job 33:4 – “The Spirit of God made me and the breath of the Almighty has given me life.” Only God is the creator of life.
Matt. 12:31; Luke 12:10 – Jesus says blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Only God can be blasphemed.
John 4:24 – God is a spirit (the Holy Spirit) and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. Only God is worshiped.
John 14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7 – the Father and the Son send the Counselor, the Holy Spirit – Isaiah 9:6 – the Counselor is Mighty God.
Acts 5:3-4,9 – Peter tells Ananias that he lied to the Holy Spirit, and that he has not lied to men, but to God (the Holy Spirit).
Acts 28:25-27 – the Holy Spirit said “Go to this people and say…” – Isaiah 6:8-10 – the Lord said “Go to this people and say…”
Rom. 8:11 – the Spirit that raised Jesus up from the dead – Gal. 1:1 – God the Father raised Jesus from the dead.
1 Cor. 2:10 – the Spirit searches everything – Jer. 17:10 – the Lord searches the heart.
1 Cor. 3:16 – you are the temple of God – 1 Cor. 6:19 – you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor. 12:4-6 – there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, varieties of service but the same Lord, varieties of working but same God.
2 Cor. 3:6,17 – we are ministers of the covenant in the Spirit which gives life. Now the Lord (God) is the Spirit.
Heb. 10:16 – the Holy Spirit said this is the covenant I will make – Jer. 31:33 – the Lord said this is the covenant I will make.
1 Peter 1:2 – we are sanctified by the Holy Spirit – 1 Thess. 5:23 – the very God of peace sanctifies you wholly.
II. The Holy Spirit is a Person
Luke 12:12 – the Holy Spirit will teach you in that hour what you ought to say. He (the Holy Spirit) teaches the faithful.
John 14:17 – the world neither sees Him or knows Him (“Him” is referring to the Holy Spirit). You know Him for He dwells with you.
John 14:26 – the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all I have said to you.
John 15:26 – the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness to me. He = the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a thing.
John 16:7 – if I do not go, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I (Jesus) will send Him to you.
John 16:7 – this verse also proves the filioque (that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son). The Father isn’t just loving the Son; the Son is loving the Father in return, in the same Spirit of love. Therefore, the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son.
John 16: 8 – when He (the Holy Spirit) comes, He will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
John 16:13-14 – when the Spirit of truth comes He will guide you into all truth. He will speak, He will declare and He will glorify.
Acts 8:29; 10:19-20; 11:12;13:2; Rev. 22:17 – the Holy Spirit speaks to us like a human person.
Acts 15:25,28 – it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. The Holy Spirit, as a divine person, thinks and makes judgments.
Rom. 8:26 – the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. It is the Spirit Himself, not itself.
Rom. 8:16 – it is the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. The Spirit is a person.
Rom. 15:30 – I appeal to you by the Lord Jesus and the love of the Spirit. Only persons, rational beings, can love.
1 Cor. 12:11 – the Holy Spirit apportions His gifts to each one individually as He wills. He is the third person of the Godhead.
2 Cor. 13:14 – the Holy Spirit can have fellowship with the faithful like a human person.
Eph. 4:30 – the Holy Spirit can be grieved, just as human persons can be grieved.
Tradition
I. The Holy Spirit is God
“Bear always in mind that this is the rule of faith which I profess; by it I testify that the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit are inseparable from each other, and so will you know in what sense this is said. Now, observe, my assertion is that the Father is one, and the Son one, and the Spirit one, and that They are distinct from Each Other. This statement is taken in a wrong sense by every uneducated as well as every perversely disposed person, as if it predicated a diversity, in such a sense as to imply a separation among the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit…Happily the Lord Himself employs this expression of the person of the Paraclete, so as to signify not a division or severance, but a disposition (of mutual relations in the Godhead); for He says, ‘I will pray the Father, and He shall send you another Comforter. … even the Spirit of truth,’ thus making the Paraclete distinct from Himself, even as we say that the Son is also distinct from the Father; so that He showed a third degree in the Paraclete, as we believe the second degree is in the Son, by reason of the order observed in the Economy.” Tertullian, Against Praxeas, 9 (A.D. 213).
“But if there is such co-ordination and unity within the holy Triad, who can separate either the Son from the Father, or the Spirit from the Son or from the Father himself? Who would be so audacious as to say that the Triad is unlike itself and diverse in nature, or that the Son is in essence foreign from the Father, or the Spirit alien from the Son?…For as the Son, who is in the Father and the Father in him, is not a creature but pertains to the essence of the Father(for this you also profess to say); so also it is not lawful to rank with the creatures the Spirit who is in the Son, and the Son in him, nor to divide him from the Word and reduce the Triad to imperfection.” Athanasius, Letter to Serapion of Thmuis, 1:20-21 (A.D. 360).
“There is one true God…Trinity in unity; one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…We call the Father God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God.” Epiphanius, Well Anchored man, 2,6 (A.D. 374).
“The Godhead is common; the fatherhood particular. We must therefore combine the two and say, ‘I believe in God the Father.’ The like course must be pursued in the confession of the Son; we must combine the particular with the common and say ‘I believe in God the Son,’ so in the case of the Holy Ghost we must make our utterance conform to the appellation and say ‘in God the Holy Ghost.’ Hence it results that there is a satisfactory preservation of the unity by the confession of the one Godhead, while in the distinction of the individual properties regarded in each there is the confession of the peculiar properties of the Persons.” Basil, To Amphilochius, Epistle 236:6 (A.D. 376).
“Who, then, can dare to say that the Holy Spirit is separated from the Father and the Son, since through Him we attain to the image and likeness of God, and through Him, as the Apostle Peter says, are partakers of the divine nature?” Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit, 1:6, 80 (A.D. 381).
“And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who is proceeding from the Father, who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who spoke through the prophets.” Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (A.D. 381).
“Let us, however, see whether the prophet does not say that that earth is to be worshipped which the Lord Jesus took upon Him in assuming flesh. And so, by foot-stool is understood earth, but by the earth the Flesh of Christ, which we this day also adore in the mysteries, and which the apostles, as we said above, adored in the Lord Jesus; for Christ is not divided but is one; nor, when He is adored as the Son of God, is He denied to have been born of the Virgin. Since, then, the mystery of the Incarnation is to be adored, and the Incarnation is the work of the Spirit, as it is written, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee, and that Holy Thing Which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God,”(2) without doubt the Holy Spirit also is to be adored, since He Who according to the flesh was born of the Holy Spirit is adored.” Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit,3:11, 879 (A.D. 381).
“And yet I certainly believe…in God the Holy Ghost.” Jerome, Against the Luciferians, 12 (A.D. 382).
“For the Father is not Son, and yet this is not due to either deficiency or subjection of Essence; but the very fact of being Unbegotten or Begotten, or Proceeding has given the name of Father to the First, of the Son to the Second, and of the Third, Him of Whom we are speaking, of the Holy Ghost that the distinction of the Three Persons may be preserved in the one nature and dignity of the Godhead. For neither is the Son Father, for the Father is One, but He is what the Father is; nor is the Spirit Son because He is of God, for the Only-begotten is One, but He is what the Son is. The Three are One in Godhead, and the One Three in properties; so that neither is the Unity a Sabellian one, nor does the Trinity countenance the present evil distinction. What then? Is the Spirit God? Most certainly. Well then, is He Consubstantial? Yes, if He is God.” Gregory of Nazianzen, 5th Oration – On the Holy Spirit, 9-10 (A.D. 383).
“For as the Son is bound to the Father, and, while deriving existence from Him, is not substantially after Him, so again the Holy Spirit is in touch with the Only-begotten, Who is conceived of as before the Spirit’s subsistence only in the theoretical light of a cause. Extensions in time find no admittance in the Eternal Life; so that, when we have removed the thought of cause, the Holy Trinity in no single way exhibits discord with itself; and to It is glory due.” Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius, 1:42 (A.D. 384).
” ‘I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,’ that is, Another like unto Me.’ Let those be ashamed who have the disease of Sabellius, who hold not the fitting opinion concerning the Spirit. For the marvel of this discourse is this, that it hath stricken down contradictory heresies with the same blow. For by saying ‘another,’ He showeth the difference of Person, and by “Paraclete,” the connection of Substance.” John Chrysostom, Homily on John, 75 (A.D. 391).
“We have said elsewhere that those things are predicated Specially in the Trinity as belonging severally to each person, which are predicated relatively the one to the other, as Father and Son, and the gift of both, the Holy Spirit; for the Father is not the Trinity, nor the Son the Trinity, nor the gift the Trinity: but what whenever each is singly spoken of in respect to themselves, then they are not spoken of as three in the plural number, but one, the Trinity itself, as the Father God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God; the Father good, the Son good, and the Holy Spirit good; and the Father omnipotent, the Son omnipotent, and the Holy Spirit omnipotent: yet neither three Gods, nor three goods, nor three omnipotents, but one God, good, omnipotent, the Trinity itself; and whatsoever else is said of them not relatively in respect to each other, but individually in respect to themselves. For they are thus spoken of according to l essence, since in them to be is the same as to be great, as to be good, as to be wise, and whatever else is said of each person individually therein, or of the Trinity itself, in respect to themselves. And that therefore they are called three persons, or three substances, not in order that any difference of essence may be understood, but that we may be able to answer by some one word, should any one ask what three, or what three things? And that there is so great an equality in that Trinity, that not only the Father is not greater than the Son, as regards divinity, but neither are the Father and Son together greater than the Holy Spirit; nor is each individual person, whichever it be of the three, less than the Trinity itself.” Augustine, On the Trinity, 8 Pref (A.D. 416).
“We have said elsewhere that those things are predicated Specially in the Trinity as belonging severally to each person, which are predicated relatively the one to the other, as Father and Son, and the gift of both, the Holy Spirit; for the Father is not the Trinity, nor the Son the Trinity, nor the gift the Trinity: but what whenever each is singly spoken of in respect to themselves, then they are not spoken of as three in the plural number, but one, the Trinity itself, as the Father God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God.” Augustine, On the Trinity, (A.D. 419).
“And if the Spirit is called Image of the Son, then He is God and not something else.” Cyril of Alexandria, Treasury of the Holy Spirit, 33 (A.D. 425).
“There is a proper Person of the Father, a roper Person of the Son, and a proper Person of the Holy Spirit, each alike belonging to the Divine essence.” Theodore of Mopsuestia, Epistle 135 (ante A.D. 428).
“The Holy Spirit … is of the same Godhead and essence as the Father and the Son, and is ever inseparable from the Father and the Son, as the Son is from the Father, and the Father from the Son.” Gelasius of Cyzicus, History of the Council of Nicea (A.D. 476).
“The Father is the Source-Deity, whereas Jesus and the Spirit are, if one may so speak, Divine growths from the Divine parent-stock, and as it were the flowers and lights of an Essence beyond all essence.” Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita, The Divine Names (A.D. 500).
II. The Holy Spirit Proceeds from the Father and the Son
“I believe the Spirit to proceed from no other source than from the Father through the Son.” Tertullian, Against Praxeas, 4:1 (A.D. 216).
“Now the Spirit indeed is third from God and the Son; just as the fruit of the tree is third from the root, or as the stream out of the river is third from the fountain, or as the apex of the ray is third from the sun.” Tertullian, Against Praxeas, 8:1 (A.D. 216).
“We consider therefore that there are three hypostases, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; and at the same time we believe nothing to be uncreated but the Father. We therefore, as the more pious and the truer course, admit that all things were made by the Logos, and that the Holy Spirit is the most excellent and the first in order of all that was made by the Father through Christ.” Origen, Commentary on John, 2:6 (A.D. 229).
“Therefore the Spirit is said to receive from Christ, and Christ Himself from the Father.” Marius Victorinus, Against Arium, I:12 (c. A.D. 355).
“Concerning the Holy Spirit I ought not to be silent, and yet I have no need to speak; still, for the sake of those who are in ignorance, I cannot refrain. There is no need to speak, because we are bound to confess Him, proceeding, as He does, from Father and Son.” Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 2:29 (A.D. 357).
“For the present I forbear to expose their license of speculation, some of them holding that the Paraclete Spirit comes from the Father or from the Son. For our Lord has not left this in uncertainty, for after these same words He spoke thus,– ‘I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak from Himself: but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak; and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine and stroll declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, He shall receive of Mine and shall declare it unto you’ (John 16:12-15). Accordingly He receives from the Son, Who is both sent by Him, and proceeds from the Father. Now I ask whether to receive from the Son is the same thing as to proceed from the Father. But if one believes that there is a difference between receiving from the Son and proceeding from the Father, surely to receive from the Son and to receive from the Father will be regarded as one and the same thing.” Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 8:20 (A.D. 357).
“But I cannot describe Him, Whose pleas for me I cannot describe. As in the revelation that Thy Only-begotten was born of Thee before times eternal, when we cease to struggle with ambiguities of language and difficulties of thought, the one certainty of His birth remains; so I hold fast in my consciousness the truth that Thy Holy Spirit is from Thee and through Him, although I cannot by my intellect comprehend it. For in Thy spiritual things I am dull, as Thy Only-begotten says, Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be barn anew. The Spirit breathes where it will, and thou hearest the voice of it; but dost not know whence it comes or whither it goes. So is every one who is barn of water and of the Holy Spirit. Though I hold a belief in my regeneration, I hold it in ignorance; I possess the reality, though I comprehend it not.” Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 12:56 (A.D. 357).
“For as the Son, who is in the Father and the Father in him, is not a creature but pertains to the essence of the Father (for this you also profess to say); so also it is not lawful to rank with the creatures the Spirit who is in the Son, and the Son in him.” Athanasius, To Serapion, I:21 (A.D. 360).
“For He, as as been said, gives to the Spirit, and whatever the Spirit hath, He hath from the Word.” Athanasius, Against the Arians, III:24 (A.D. 362).
“Even if the Holy Spirit is third in diginity and order, why need he be third also in nature? For that he is second to the Son, having his being from him and receiving from him and announcing to us and being completely dependent on him, pious tradition recounts; but that his nature is third we are not taught by the Saints nor can we conclude logically from what has been said.” Basil, Against Eunomius, 3, PG 29:653B (A.D. 365).
“[A]lthough the Holy Spirit is behind the Son in dignity, yet not in nature. We have received that he is numbered third from the Father, the Lord saying in the tradition of baptism….But that he is thrust out to some third nature we have neither learnt nor ever heard.” Basil, Homilies, Against Eunomius, PG 29:657D-660A (A.D. 365).
“The Holy Spirit … is ever with the Father and the Son, and is from God, proceeding from the Father and receiving of the Son.” Epiphanius, The Man Well-Anchore, 7 (A.D. 374).
“The Spirit is God, from the Father and the Son.” Epiphanius, The Man Well-Anchored, 9 (A.D. 374).
“[N]either does any know the Spirit but the Father and the Son, the Persons from whom he proceeds and from whom He receives.” Epiphanius, The Man Well-Anchored, 11 (A.D. 374).
“God …is Life, the Son Life from Life, and the Holy Spirit flows from both; the Father is Light, the Son is Light, the Holy Spirit the third from Father and Son.” Epiphanius, The Man Well-Anchored, 70 (A.D. 374).
“The Father always existed and the Son always existed, and the Spirit breathes forth from the Father and the Son…” Epiphanius, The Man Well-Anchored, 75 (A.D. 374).
“One, moreover, is the Holy Spirit, and we speak of Him singly, conjoined as He is to the one Father through the one Son, and through Himself completing the adorable and blessed Trinity.” Basil, On the Holy Spirit, 18:45 (A.D. 375).
“One, moreover, is the Holy Spirit and we speak of Him singly, conjoined as He is through Himself completing the adorable and blessed Trinity.” Basil, On the Holy Spirit, 18:45 (A.D. 375).
“Thus the way of the knowledge of God lies from One Spirit through the One Son to the One Father, and conversely the natural Goodness and the inherent Holiness and the royal Dignity extend from the Father through the Only-begotten to the Spirit. Thus there is both acknowledgment of the hypostases and the true dogma of the Monarchy is not lost.” Basil, On the Holy Spirit, 18:47 (A.D. 375).
“If, however, any one cavils at our argument, on the ground that by not admitting the difference of nature it leads to a mixture and confusion of the Persons, we shall make to such a charge this answer;–that while we confess the invariable character of the nature, we do not deny the difference in respect of cause, and that which is caused, by which alone we apprehend that one Person is distinguished from another;-by our belief, that is, that one is the Cause, and another is of the Cause; and again in that which is of the Cause we recognize another distinction. For one is directly from the first Cause, and another by that which is directly from the first Cause; so that the attribute of being Only-begotten abides without doubt in the Son, and the interposition of the Son, while it guards His attribute of being Only-begotten, does not shut out the Spirit from His relation by way of nature to the Father.” Gregory of Nyssa, To Ablabius-There are not three gods (A.D. 375).
“[T]he Holy Spirit is neither begotten or created … but of the same substance with the Father and the Son.” Epiphanius, Panarion, 74 (A.D. 377).
“But if there is really no hindrance to the third torch being fire, though it has been kindled from a previous flame, what is the philosophy of these men, who profanely think that they can slight the dignity of the Holy Spirit because He is named by the Divine lips after the Father and the Son?” Gregory of Nyssa, Against Macedonians, 6 (A.D. 377).
“For neither did the Universal God make the universe ‘through the Son,’ as needing any help, nor does the Only-begotten God work all things ‘by the Holy Spirit,’ as having a power that comes short of His design; but the fountain of power is the Father, and the power of the Father is the Son, and the spirit of that power is the Holy Spirit.” Gregory of Nyssa, Against Macedonians, 13 (A.D. 377).
“One Father, one Son, one Holy Spirit must be confessed according to the divine tradition. Not two Fathers, nor two Sons, since the Spirit neither is the Son nor is called. For we do not receive anything from the Spirit in the same way as the Spirit from the Son; but we receive him (the Spirit) coming to us and sanctifying us, the communication of divinity, the pledge of eternal inheritance, and the first fruits of the eternal good.” Basil, Homilies, PG 31:1433 (ante A.D. 379).
“If ever there was a time when the Father was not, then there was a time when the Son was not. If ever there was a time when the Son was not, then there was a time when the Spirit was not.” Gregory of Nazianen, 5th Oration (31), 3 (A.D. 380).
“Our Lord teaches that the being of the Spirit is derived not from the Spirit Himself, but from the Father and the Son; He goes forth from the Son, proceeding from the Truth; He has no subsistence but that which is given Him by the Son.” Didymus the Blind of Alexandria, The Holy Spirit, 37 (ante A.D. 381).
“Our Lord teaches that the being of the Spirit is derived not from the Spirit Himself, but from the Father and the Son; He goes forth from the Son, proceeding from the Truth; He has no subsistence but that which is given Him by the Son.” Didymus the Blind, The Holy Spirit, 37 (ante A.D. 381).
“The Holy Spirit also, when He proceeds from the Father and the Son, is not separated from the Father nor separated from the Son. For how could He be separated from the Father Who is the Spirit of His mouth? Which is certainly both a proof of His eternity, and expresses the Unity of this Godhead.” Ambrose, The Holy Spirit, 1:11:120 (A.D. 381).
“Learn now that as the Father is the Fount of Life, so, too, many have stated that the Son is signified as the Fount of Life; so that, he says, with Thee, Almighty God, Thy Son is the Fount of Life. That is the Fount of the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit is Life, as the Lord says: ‘The words which I speak unto you are Spirit and Life,’ for where the Spirit is, there also is Life; and where Life is, is also the Holy Spirit.” Ambrose, The Holy Spirit, 1:15:172 (A.D. 381).
“For as the Son is bound to the Father, and, while deriving existence from Him, is not substantially after Him, so again the Holy Spirit is in touch with the Only-begotten, Who is conceived of as before the Spirit’s subsistence only in the theoretical light of a cause. Extensions in time find no admittance in the Eternal Life; so that, when we have removed the thought of cause, the Holy Trinity in no single way exhibits discord with itself; and to It is glory due.” Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius, 1:42 (A.D. 384).
“The Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, not made nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.” Athanasian Creed (A.D. 400).
“As, therefore, the Father begat, the Son is begotten; so the Father sent, the Son was sent. But in like manner as He who begat and He who was begotten, so both He who sent and He who was sent, are one, since the Father and the Son are one. So also the Holy Spirit is one with them, since these three are one. For as to be born, in respect to the Son, means to be from the Father; so to be sent, in respect to the Son, means to be known to be from the Father. And as to be the gift of God in respect to the Holy Spirit, means to proceed from the Father; so to be sent, is to be known to proceed from the Father. Neither can we say that the Holy Spirit does not also proceed from the Son, for the same Spirit is not without reason said to be the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son. Nor do I see what else He intended to signify, when He breathed on the face of the disciples, and said, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost.’ For that bodily breathing, proceeding from the body with the feeling of bodily touching, was not the substance of the Holy Spirit, but a declaration by a fitting sign, that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, but also from the Son.” Augustine, On the Trinity, IV:20,29 (A.D. 408).
“If, therefore, that also which is given has him for a beginning by whom it is given, since it has received from no other source that which proceeds from him; it must be admitted that the Father and the Son are a Beginning of the Holy Spirit, not two Beginnings; but as the Father and Son are one God, and one Creator, and one Lord relatively to the creature, so are they one Beginning relatively to the Holy Spirit. But the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one Beginning in respect to the creature, as also one Creator and one God.” Augustine, On the Trinity, V:14,15 (A.D. 408).
“And the Holy Spirit, according to the Holy Scriptures, is neither of the Father alone, nor of the Son alone, but of both.” Augustine, On the Trinity, ,XV:17,27 (A.D. 408).
“And yet it is not to no purpose that in this Trinity the Son and none other is called the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit and none other the Gift of God, and God the Father alone is He from whom the Word is born, and from whom the Holy Spirit principally proceeds. And therefore I have added the word principally, because we find that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son also. But the Father gave Him this too, not as to one already existing, and not yet having it; but whatever He gave to the only-begotten Word, He gave by begetting Him. Therefore He so begat Him as that the common Gift should proceed from Him also, and the Holy Spirit should be the Spirit of both.” Augustine, On the Trinity, XV:17,29 (A.D. 408).
“Wherefore let him who can understand the generation of the Son from the Father without time, understand also the procession of the Holy Spirit from both without time. And let him who can understand, in that which the Son says, ‘As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself,’ not that the Father gave life to the Son already existing without life, but that He so begat Him apart from time, that the life which the Father gave to the Son by begetting Him is co-eternal with the life of the Father who gave it: let him, I say, understand, that as the Father has in Himself that the Holy Spirit should proceed from Him, so has He given to the Son that the same Holy Spirit should proceed from Him, and be both apart from time: and that the Holy Spirit is so said to proceed from the Father as that it be understood that His proceeding also from the Son, is a property derived by the Son from the Father. For if the Son has of the Father whatever He has, then certainly He has of the Father, that the Holy Spirit proceeds also from Him…Therefore the Spirit of both is not begotten of both, but proceeds from both.”
Augustine, On the Trinity, XV:26,47 (A.D. 408).
“Some one may here inquire whether the Holy Spirit proceedeth also from the Son. For the Son is Son of the Father alone, and the Father is Father of the Son alone; but the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit of one of them, but of both…. If, then, the Holy Spirit proceedeth both from the Father and from the Son, why said the Son, ‘He proceedeth from the Father’? Why, do you think, but just because it is to Him He is wont to attribute even that which is His own, of whom He Himself also is? Hence we have Him saying, ‘My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me.’ If, therefore, in such a passage we are to understand that as His doctrine, which nevertheless He declared not to be His own, but the Father’s, how much more in that other passage are we to understand the Holy Spirit as proceeding from Himself, where His words, ‘He proceedeth from the Father,’ were uttered so as not to imply, He proceedeth not from me? But from Him, of whom the Son has it that He is God (for He is God of God), He certainly has it that from Him also the Holy Spirit proceedeth: and in this way the Holy Spirit has it of the Father Himself, that He should also proceed from the Son, even as He proceedeth from the Father.” Augustine, Homilies on John, 99:6,8 (A.D. 416).
“Since the Holy Spirit when he is in us effects our being conformed to God, and He actually proceeds from Father and Son, it is abundantly clear that He is of the divine essence, in it in essence and proceeding from it.” Cyril of Alexandria, Treasury of the Holy Trinity, Thesis 34 (A.D. 425).
“Inasmuch as the Son is God and is by nature from God, the Spirit is His own, and is both in Him and from Him.” Cyril of Alexandria, In Joel, 2:28 (A.D. 427).
“Call the Father the author, because the Son is from him, though he is not from the Son and because the Holy Spirit proceeds from him and from the Son. By giving birth to the Son, he gave it to him that the Holy Spirit proceeds from him as well.” Augustine, Against Maximinus, 2:5 (A.D. 428).
“The Son comes from the Father; the Holy Spirit comes from the Father. The former is born; the latter proceeds. Hence, the former is the Son of the Father from whom he is born, but the latter is the Spirit of both because he proceeds from both. When the Son spoke of the Spirit, he said, ‘He proceeds from the Father (Jn 15:26)’, because the Father is the author of his procession. The Father begot a Son and, by begetting him, gave it to him that the Holy Spirit proceeds from him as well. If he did not proceed from him, he would not say to his disciples, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit (Jn 20:22)’, and give the Spirit by breathing on them. He signified that the Holy Spirit also proceeeds from him and showed outwardly by blowing what he was giving inwardly by breathing. If he were born, he would be born not from the Father alone or from the Son alone, but from both of them; he would beyond any doubt be the son of both of them. But because he is in no sense the son of both of them, it was necessary that he not be born from both. He is, therefore, the Spirit of both, by proceeding from both.” Augustine, Against Maximinus, 2:14 (A.D. 428).
“He is the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son, seeing that He is poured forth in a way of essence from Both or in other words, from the Father through the Son.” Cyril of Alexandria, Worship and Adoration, 1 (A.D. 429).
“For he [the Holy Spirit] is called the Spirit of Truth, and Christ is the Truth, and he is poured forth from him [the Son] just as he is also from God the Father.” Cyril of Alexandria, To Nestorius, Epistle 17 (A.D. 430).
“Believe most firmly, and never doubt, that the same Holy Spirit, the One Spirit of the Father and the Son, proceeds from the Father and the Son. That He proceeds also from the Son is supported by the teaching both of Prophets and Apostles.” Fulgence of Ruspe (North Africa), Rule of Faith, 11 (A.D. 447).
“The Spirit is also the Paraclete, who is himself neither the Father and the Son, but proceeding from from the Father and the Son. Therefore the Father is unbegotten, the Son is begotten, the Paraclete is not begotten, but proceeding from the Father and the Son.” Council of Toledo II (A.D. 447).
“And so under the first head is shown what unholy views they hold about the Divine Trinity: they affirm that the person of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost is one and the same, as if the same God were named now Father, now Son, and now Holy Ghost: and as if He who begot were not one, He who was begotten, another, and He who proceeded from both, yet another; but an undivided unity must be understood, spoken of under three names, indeed, but not consisting of three persons.” Pope Leo the Great [regn. A.D. 440-461], To Turribius, Epistle 15 (A.D. 447).
“The Holy Spirit is neither generate nor ingenerate, but rather is He who proceeds from the Father and the Son, as a harmony, we may say of Both.” Eucherius of Lyons, Spic. Rom., 5:93 (ante A.D. 454).
“And while in the property of each Person the Father is one, the Son is another, and the Holy Ghost is another, yet the Godhead is not distinct and different; for whilst the Son is the Only begotten of the Father, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, not in the way that every creature is the creature of the Father and the Son, but as living and having power with Both, and eternally subsisting of That Which is the Father and the Son.” Pope Leo the Great [regn. A.D. 440-461], Sermon 75 (ante A.D. 461).
“We believe that there is One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Father, in that He has a Son; Son, in that He has a Father; Holy Spirit, in that He proceeds from the Father and the Son (ex patre et filio).” Gennadius of Marseilles, De eccl. dogm., PL 58,980 (ante A.D. 495).
“[T]he faithful committed to our charge ought to be taught concerning the Holy Spirit that He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and therefore cannot be said to be either generate or ingenerate.” Julianus Pomerius of Arles, The Contemplative Life, PL 59,432 (ante A.D. 498).
“The Spirit is said to be sent by the Father and the Son, and to proceed from Their substance… If you ask what distinction is to be drawn between generation and procession, there is clearly this difference, that the Son is begotten of One, but the Spirit proceeds from Both.” Paschasius a Deacon of Rome, The Holy Spirit, 1:12 (ante A.D. 512).
“The Father is begotten of none, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.” Fulgence of Ruspe (North Africa), The Trinity, 2 (ante A.D. 517).
“Great and incomprehensible is the mystery of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, an undivided Trinity, and yet it is known because it is characteristic of the Father to generate the Son, characteristic of the Son of God to be born of the Father equal to the Father, characteristic of the Spirit to proceed from Father and Son in one substance of deity.” Pope Hormisdas [regn. A.D. 514-523], Profession of Faith, PL 63:514B (A.D. 517).
“We for our part affirm that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son…it is the property of the Holy Spirit to proceed from the Father and the Son.” Avitus of Vienne, Against King Gundobad (ante A.D. 523).
“The Holy Spirit is wholly the Father’s and wholly the Son’s, because He is by nature the one Spirit of the Father and the Son; for which cause He proceeds wholly from the Father and the Son; for He so abides as to proceed, and so proceeds as to abide.” Fulgence of Ruspe (North Africa), To Ferrandus, Epistle 14 (ante A.D. 527).
We further declare that we hold fast to the decrees of the four Councils, and in every way follow the holy Fathers, Athanasius, Hilary, Basil, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, Theophilus, John (Chrysostom) of Constantinople, Cyril, Augustine, Proclus, Leo and their writings on the true faith.” Ecumenical Council of Constantinople II, Session I (A.D. 553).
“[T]he Father is unbegotten, the Son begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son.” Cassiodorius, Expositio Psalmorum,Praef. 17 (ante A.D. 570).
“We must equally confess and preach that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.” Council of Toledo III (A.D. 589).
“The Spirit proceeds essentially from the Son…the Redeemer imparted to the hearts of His disciples the Spirit who proceeds from Himself.” Pope Gregory the Great (the Theologian) [regn. A.D.590-604], Moral Teachings drawn from Job, 1:22,2:92 (A.D. 595).
“Our Lord … shews how the Spirit of Both so proceeds as to be coeternal with Both…He who is produced by procession is not posterior in time to those by whom He is put forth.” Pope Gregory the Great (the Theologian) [regn. A.D.590-604], Moral Teachings drawn from Job, 25:4 (A.D. 595).
“The Holy Spirit is called God because He proceeds from the Father and the Son and has Their essence….There is, however, this difference between generation of the Son and the procession of the Spirit, that the Son is begotten of One, but the Spirit proceeds from Both.” Isidore of Seville ,Etymologies, 7:3 (A.D. 636).
“One thing which is consubstantial with two could not at once proceed from them and be in them, unless the two from which it proceeds were one.” Isidore of Seville, Sententiarum libri tresm1:15 (A.D. 636).
“Those of the Queen of the cities (Constantinople) have attacked the synodal letter of the present very holy Pope, not in the case of all chapters that he has written in it, but only in the case of two of them. One relates to the theology (of the Trinity) and, according to them says: ‘The Holy Spirit also has his ekporeusis (ekporeuesthai) from the Son’. The other deals with the divine incarnation. With regard to the first matter, they (the Romans) have produced the unanimous evidence of the Latin Fathers, and also of Cyril of Alexandria, from the study he made of the gospel of St. John. On the basis of these texts, they have shown that they have not made the Son the cause (aitian) of the Spirit–they know in fact that the Father is the only cause of the Son and the Spirit, the one by begetting and the other by ekporeusis (procession)–but that they have manifested the procession through him (to dia autou proienai) and have thus shown the unity and identity of the essence…They (the Romans) have therefore been accused of precisely those things of which it would be wrong to accuse them, whereas the former (the Byzantines) have been accused of those things of which it has been quite correct to accuse them (Monothelitism). They have up till now produced no defence, although they have not yet rejected the things that they have themselves so wrongly introduced. In accordance with your request, I have asked the Romans to translate what is peculiar to them (the ‘also from the Son’) in such a way that any obscurities that may result from it will be avoided. But since the practice of writing and sending (the synodal letter) has been observed, I wonder whether they will possibly agree to do this. It is true, of course, that they cannot reproduce their idea in a language and in words that are foreign to them as they can in their mother-tongue, just as we too cannot. In any case, having been accused, they will certainly take some care about this.” Maximus the Confessor, To Marinus (A.D. 655).
“[T]he Holy Spirit (he writes elsewhere), as He is by nature and in the way of essence [the Spirit] of God the Father, so is He also the Son’s by nature and in the way of essence, since He proceeds from the Father essentially and ineffably through the Son, who is begotten.” Maximus the Confessor, Quaestiones ad Thalassium, 63 (ante A.D. 662).
“We believe also that the Holy Spirit, who is the third person in the Trinity, is God, one and equal with God the Father and the Son, of one substance, also of one nature; that He is the Spirit of both, not, however, begotten nor created but proceeding from both.”
Council of Toledo XI (A.D. 675).
“But we must contemplate it as an essential power, existing in its own proper and peculiar subsistence, proceeding from the Father anti resting in the Word, and shewing forth the Word.” John of Damascus, Orthodox Faith, I:7 (A.D. 712).
“Through the Word, the Father produces the Spirit, who manifests him (dia logou proboleus ekphantorikou Pneumatos)…The Holy Spirit is the power of the Father making secrets of the deity known and proceeding from the Father through the Son in a way that he knows, but which is not begetting…The Father is source of the Son and the Holy Spirit….The Spirit is not the Son of the Father, he is the Spirit of the Father, as proceeding from him (ekporeuomenon),…but he is also Spirit of the Son, not as (proceeding) from him, but proceeding through him from the Father. Only the Father is cause (aitios).” John of Damascus, Orthodox Faith, I:12 (A.D. 712).
“I say that God is always Father since he has always his Word coming from himself, and through his Word, having his Spirit issuing from him.” John of Damascus, Against the Manicheans, 5, PG 94:1512B (ante A.D. 749).
“[I]n the Holy Spirit, Lord and giver of Life, proceeding from the Father through the Son.” Council of Nicea II (A.D. 787).
“I believe also that the Holy Spirit, complete and perfect and true God, proceeding from the Father and the Son, co-equal, co-essential, co-omnipotent and co-eternal with the Father and the Son in all respects.” Pope Leo IX [regn. 1049-1054], Symbol of faith (A.D. 1053).