A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

350 A Source Book for Ancient Church Historyhimself sent after He had ascended into the heavens and sat at [319]the right hand of the Father, from thence He is coming to judgeboth the quick and the dead.But the word “substance,” which was simply inserted by theFathers and not being understood was a cause of scandal to thepeople because it was not found in the Scriptures, it hath seemedgood to us to remove, and that for the future no mention whateverbe permitted of “substance,” because the sacred Scripturesnowhere make any mention of the “substance” of the Father andthe Son. Nor must one “subsistence” [hypostasis] be named inrelation to the person [prosopon] of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.And we call the Son like the Father, as the Holy Scriptures callHim and teach. But all heresies, both those already condemned,and any, if such there be, which have arisen against the documentthus put forth, let them be anathema.(c) Hilary of Poitiers. De Synodis, §§ 88, 89, 91. (MSL, 10:540.)That the Homoiousian party meant substantially the same bytheir term homoiousios as did the Homoousians or the Niceneparty, by their term homoousios.Hilary was of great importance in the Arian controversy inbringing the Homoiousian party of the East and the Niceneparty of the West to an agreement. The Eastern theologians,who hesitated to accept the Nicene term, were eventuallyinduced to accept, understanding by the term homoousios thesame as homoiousios. See below, § 70.§ 88. Holy brethren, I understand by homoousios God of God,not of an unlike essence, not divided, but born; and that the Sonhas a birth that is unique, of the substance of the unknown God,that He is begotten yet co-eternal and wholly like the Father.The word homoousios greatly helped me already believing this.