Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

The accession of Julian brought him back with the rest of the banished bishops, and he made
Constantinople the centre for the dissemination of his views. 309
Somewhere about this period he wrote the work entitled Apologeticus, in twenty-eight
chapters, to which Basil replies. The title was at once a parody on the Apologies of defenders
of the Faith, and, at the same time, a suggestion that his utterances were not spontaneous,
but forced from him by attack. The work is printed in Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. viii. 262, and
in the appendix to Migne’s Basil. Pat. Gr. xxx. 837. 310 It is a brief treatise, and occupies
only about fifteen columns of Migne’s edition. It professes to be a defence of the “simpler
creed which is common to all Christians.” 311
This creed is as follows: “We believe in one God, Father Almighty, of Whom are all
things: and in one only-begotten Son of God, God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, through
Whom are all things: and in one Holy Spirit, the Comforter.” 312 But it is in reality like the
extant Exposition of the Creed, 313 a reading into this “simpler” creed, in itself orthodox and
unobjectionable, of explanations which ran distinctly counter to the traditional and instinctive
faith of the Church, and inevitably demanded corrective explanations and definitions.
In the creed of Eunomius the Son is God, and it is not in terms denied that He is of one
substance with the Father. But in his doctrinal system there is a practical denial of the Creed;
309 Theod., H.E. ii. 25; and Hær. Fab. iv. 3. Philost., H.E. vi. 1.
310 cf. also Basnage in Canisii Lectiones antt. i. 172; Fessler, Inst. Pat. 1. 507. Dorner, Christologie, 1. 853, and
Böhringer, Kirchengeschichte, vii. 62.
311 ἁπλουστέρα καὶ κοινὴ πάντων πίστις. § 5.
312 The Creed of Eunomius. (Adv. Eunom. i. 4.) Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν, Πατέρα παντοκράτορα, ἐξ οὗ τὰ
πάντα· καὶ εἰς ἕνα Μονογενῆ ῾Υιὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, Θεὸν λόγον, τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ιησοῦν Χριστὸν, δι᾽ οὗ τὰ πάντα·
καὶ εἰς ἓν Πνεῦμα ἅγιον, τὸ παράκλητον. Eunom., Apol. § 5. The Creed of Arius and Euzoius. (Soc. H.E. i. 26.)
Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα παντοκράτορα, καὶ εἰς Κύριον Ιησοῦν Χριστὸν, τὸν ῾Υιὸν αὐτοῦ, τὸν ἐξ αὐτοῦ
πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰ& 240·νων γεγεννημενον, Θεὸν Λόγον, δι᾽ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο τά τε ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ
τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τὸν κατελθόντα, καὶ σαρκωθέντα, καὶ παθόντα, καὶ ἀναστάντα, καὶ ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς
καὶ πάλιν ἐρχόμενον κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς· καὶ εἰς τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ εἰς σαρκὸς ἀναστάσιν· καὶ εἰς
ζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰ& 242·νος· καὶ εἰς Βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν· καὶ εἰς μίαν καθολικὴν ἐκκλησιαν τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν
ἀπὸ περάτων ἑ& 241·ς περάτων.
313 Εκθεσις τῆς πίστεως, published in the notes of Valesius to Soc., Ecc. Hist. v. 12. This was offered to
Theodosius after the Council of Constantinople. The Son is πρωτότοκον πάσης κτίσεως, and πρὸ πάσης κτίσεως
γενόμενον, but οὐκ ἄκτιστον. The οὔτε τῷ Υἱ& 254· συνεξισούμενον οὔτε μὴν ἄλλῳ τινὶ συντασσόμενον…
πρῶτον ἔργον καὶ κρὰτιστον τοῦ Μονογενοῦς. cf. St. Aug., De Hær. liv., “Eunomius asserted that the Son was
altogether dissimilar to the Father and the Spirit to the Son,” and Philostrius, De Hær. lxviii., who represents
the Eunomians as believing in three essences descending in value like gold, silver, and copper. Vide Swete,
Doctrine of the Holy Ghost, p. 61.
Dogmatic.
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