NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Dogmatic.The accession of Julian brought him back with the rest of the banished bishops, and he madeConstantinople the centre for the dissemination of his views. 309Somewhere about this period he wrote the work entitled Apologeticus, in twenty-eightchapters, to which Basil replies. The title was at once a parody on the Apologies of defendersof 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, andin the appendix to Migne’s Basil. Pat. Gr. xxx. 837. 310 It is a brief treatise, and occupiesonly about fifteen columns of Migne’s edition. It professes to be a defence of the “simplercreed which is common to all Christians.” 311This creed is as follows: “We believe in one God, Father Almighty, of Whom are allthings: and in one only-begotten Son of God, God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, throughWhom are all things: and in one Holy Spirit, the Comforter.” 312 But it is in reality like theextant Exposition of the Creed, 313 a reading into this “simpler” creed, in itself orthodox andunobjectionable, of explanations which ran distinctly counter to the traditional and instinctivefaith 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 onesubstance with the Father. But in his doctrinal system there is a practical denial of the Creed;xxxiv309 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, andBöhringer, 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 τὰπάντα· 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 αὐτοῦπρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰ& 240·νων γεγεννημενον, Θεὸν Λόγον, δι᾽ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο τά τε ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶτὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τὸν κατελθόντα, καὶ σαρκωθέντα, καὶ παθόντα, καὶ ἀναστάντα, καὶ ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺςκαὶ πάλιν ἐρχόμενον κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς· καὶ εἰς τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ εἰς σαρκὸς ἀναστάσιν· καὶ εἰςζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰ& 242·νος· καὶ εἰς Βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν· καὶ εἰς μίαν καθολικὴν ἐκκλησιαν τοῦ θεοῦ τὴνἀπὸ περάτων ἑ& 241·ς περάτων.313 Εκθεσις τῆς πίστεως, published in the notes of Valesius to Soc., Ecc. Hist. v. 12. This was offered toTheodosius after the Council of Constantinople. The Son is πρωτότοκον πάσης κτίσεως, and πρὸ πάσης κτίσεωςγενόμενον, 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 wasaltogether dissimilar to the Father and the Spirit to the Son,” and Philostrius, De Hær. lxviii., who representsthe Eunomians as believing in three essences descending in value like gold, silver, and copper. Vide Swete,Doctrine of the Holy Ghost, p. 61.55