Friday, December 11, 2009

Decrees of St. Damasus I (AD 366-384)


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From Denzinger's Enchiridion Symbolorum (or "Sources of Catholic Dogma")


COUNCIL OF ROME, 382*

The Trinity and the Incarnation *


[Tome of DAMASUS *]

58 [After this Council, which was assembled in the city of Rome by the Catholic bishops, * they made additions concerning the Holy Spirit]. And because afterwards this error became so fixed that they even dared to say with sacrilegious words that the Holy Spirit was made by the Son:

59 (1) We anathematize those who proclaim quite freely that he is not of one power and substance with the Father and the Son.

60 (2) We anathematize those also who follow the error of Sabellius, saying that the same one is Father as well as Son.

61 (3) We anathematize Arius and Eunomius who with equal impiety, though in different terms, declare that the Son and Holy Spirit are creatures.

62 (4) We anathematize the Macedonians who, springing from the root of Arius, have changed not the perfidy, but the name.

63 (5) We anathematize Photinus who, renewing the heresy of Ebion, confesses that the Lord Jesus Christ was of Mary only.

64 (6) We anathematize those who say (there are) two Sons, one eternal, and the other after the assumption of flesh from the Virgin.

65 (7) We anathematize those who say that instead of the rational and intellectual soul of man, the Word of God dwelt in a human body, although the Son Himself and Word of God was not in His own body instead of a rational and intellectual soul, but assumed our soul without sin (that is the rational and intellectual soul) and saved it.

66 (8) We anathematize those who contend that the Word, the Son of God, has extension or collection (of members) and is separate from the Father, is unsubstantial, and will have an end.

67 (9) Those also who have moved from churches to churches, we hold as not belonging to our communion until they return to those cities in which they were first established. But if one is ordained in the place of one who is living, while another is moving, let him who has left his own city be without the dignity of the priestly office until his successor rests in the Lord.

68 (10) If anyone does not say that the Father does always exist, the Son does always exist, and the Holy Spirit does always exist, he is a heretic.

69 (11) If anyone does not say that the Son was begotten of the Father, that is, of the divine substance of Him Himself, he is a heretic.

70 (12) If anyone does not say that the Son of God is true God just as [His] Father is true God [and] He is all-powerful and omniscient and equal to the Father, he is a heretic.

71 (13) If anyone says that because He was established in the flesh when He was on earth, He was not in heaven with the Father, he is a heretic.

72 (14) If anyone says, that in the passion of the cross God felt pain, and not the body with the soul which the Son of God Christ had assumed-the form of a servant, which He had taken upon himself [cf. Phil. 2:7], as says the Scripture-, he does not think rightly.

73 (15) If anyone does not say that He sits at the right hand of the Father, in the flesh, in which He will come to judge the living and the dead, he is a heretic.

74 (16) If anyone does not say that the Holy Spirit, just as the Son, is truly and properly of the Father, of divine substance, and is true God, he is a heretic.

75 (17) If anyone does not say that the Holy Spirit can do all things and knows all things and is everywhere just as the Son and the Father, he is a heretic.

76 (18) If anyone says that the Holy Spirit is a creature, or was made by the Son, he is a heretic.

77 (19) If anyone does not say that the Father made all things through the Son and His Holy Spirit, that is, the visible and the invisible; he is a heretic.

78 (20) If anyone does not say that there is one divinity of Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, one sovereignty, one majesty, one power, one glory, one dominion, one kingdom, and one will and truth, he is a heretic.

79 (21) If anyone does not say there are three true persons of Father, and of Son, and of Holy Spirit, equal, immortal, containing all things visible and invisible, ruling all things, judging all things, vivifying all things, creating all things, saving all things, he is a heretic.

80 (22) If anyone does not say that the Holy Spirit ought to be adored by every creature just as the Son and Father, he is a heretic.

81 (23) If anyone thinks well of the Father and the Son, but does not rightly esteem the Holy Spirit, he is a heretic, because all heretics who think erroneously about the Son [ of God I and the [ Holy ] Spirit are found in the perfidy of the Jews and the pagans.

82 (24) But if anyone divides,* saying that God [Christ's] Father, and God His Son, and God the Holy Spirit are gods, and does not thus say God on account of the one divinity and power which we believe and know (to be) the Father's, and the Son's, and the Holy Spirit's, but taking away the Son or the Holy Spirit, thus believes that the Father alone is called God, or in this manner believes God one, he is a heretic in every respect, nay rather a Jew, because the name of gods was attached and given both to angels and to all the saints from God, but of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit because of their one and equal divinity, not the name of gods, but of God is declared and revealed to us, in order that we may believe, because we are baptized only in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit and not in the names of archangels or angels, as heretics, or Jews, or even demented pagans.

This then is the salvation of Christians, that believing in the Trinity, that is, in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, [and] baptized in this, we believe without doubt that there is only one true divinity and power, majesty and substance of the same


The Holy Spirit*

["Decree of DAMASUS" from the acts of the Roman Synod, in the year 382]

83 It has been said: We must first treat of the sevenfold Spirit, which reposes in Christ, the Spirit of wisdom: "Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God" [1 Cor. 1:24]. The Spirit of understanding: "I will give thee understanding, and I will instruct thee in this way, in which thou shalt go" [Ps. 31:8]. The Spirit of counsel: "And his name shall be called angel of great counsel" [ Is. 9:6: LXX]. The Spirit of power (as above): "The power of God and the wisdom of God" [1 Cor. 1:24]. The Spirit of knowledge: "on account of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the apostle" [Eph. 3:19]. The Spirit of truth: "I am the way and the life and the truth" [ John 14:6]. The Spirit of fear [of God]: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" [Ps. 110:10] . . . [ there follows an explanation of the various names of Christ: Lord, Word, Flesh, Shepherd, etc.] . . . For the Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of the Father or not only the Spirit of the Son, but the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. For it is written: "If anyone love the world, the Spirit of the Father is not in him" [1 John 2:15; Rom. 8:9]. Likewise it is written: "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" [Rom. 8:9]. When the Father and the Son are mentioned in this way, the Holy Spirit is understood, of whom the Son himself says in the Gospel, that the Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father [John 15:26], and "he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you" [ John 16:14.]


The Canon of Sacred Scripture *

[From the same decree and the acts of the same Roman Synod]

84 Likewise it has been said: Now indeed we must treat of the divine Scriptures, what the universal Catholic Church accepts and what she ought to shun.

The order of the Old Testament begins here: Genesis one book, Exodus one book, Leviticus one book, Numbers one book, Deuteronomy one book, Joshua Nave one book, Judges one book, Ruth one book, Kings four books, Paralipomenon two books, Psalms one book, Solomon three books, Proverbs one book, Ecclesiastes one book, Canticle of Canticles one book, likewise Wisdom one book, Ecclesiasticus one book.

Likewise the order of the Prophets. Isaias one book, Jeremias one book, with Ginoth, that is, with his lamentations, Ezechiel one book, Daniel one book, Osee one book, Micheas one book, Joel one book, Abdias one book, Jonas one book, Nahum one book, Habacuc one book, Sophonias one book, Aggeus one book, Zacharias one book, Malachias one book.

Likewise the order of the histories. Job one book, Tobias one book, Esdras two books, Esther one book, Judith one book, Machabees two books.

Likewise the order of the writings of the New and eternal Testament, which the holy and Catholic Church supports. Of the Gospels, according to Matthew one book, according to Mark one book, according to Luke one book, according to John one book.

The Epistles of Paul [the apostle] in number fourteen. To the Romans one, to the Corinthians two, to the Ephesians one, to the Thessalonians two, to the Galatians one, to the Philippians one, to the Colossians one, to Timothy two, to Titus one, to Philemon one, to the Hebrews one.

Likewise the Apocalypse of John, one book. And the Acts of the Apostles one book.

Likewise the canonical epistles in number seven.Of Peter the Apostle two epistles, of James the Apostle one epistle, of John the Apostle one epistle, of another John, the presbyter, two epistles, of Jude the Zealot, the Apostle one epistle, see n. 162 ff. *

The canon of the New Testament ends here.

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