Life of St Athanasius the Great and Account of Arianism

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128 Pages (Part I)

Page 31

The compromise of Callistus was only partially successful. On the one hand the strictly modalist Sabellius, who from about 215 takes the place of Cleomenes at the head of Roman Monarchianism (his doctrine of the huiopator, of the Trinity as successive prosopa, 'aspects,' of the One God, pure modalism as defined above) scorned compromise (he constantly reproached Callistus with having changed his front, Hipp.) was excommunicated, and became the head of a sect. And the fierce opposition of Hippolytus failed to command the support of more than a limited circle of enthusiastic admirers, or to maintain itself after his death. On the other hand (the process is quite in obscurity: see Harnack^1, p. 620) the theology of Hippolytus and Tertullian eventually gained the day. Novatian, whose 'grande volumen' (Jer.) on the Trinity represents the theology of Rome about 250 a.d., simply 'epitomises Tertullian,' and that in explanation of the Rule of Faith. As to the Generation of the Son, he drops the 'quando Ipse [Pater] voluit' of Tertullian, but like him combines a (modified) 'subordination' with the 'communio substantiae'--in other words the homoousion. Monarchianism was condemned in the West; its further history belongs to the East (under the name of Sabellianism first in Libya: see pp. 173, sqq.). But the hold which it maintained upon the Roman Church for about a generation (190-220) left its mark. Rome condemned Origen, the ally of Hippolytus; Rome was invoked against Dionysius of Alexandria; (Rome and) the West formulated the homoousion at Nicaea; Rome received Marcellus; Rome rejected the treis hupostaseis and supported the Eustathians at Antioch; it was with Rome rather than with the prevalent theology of the East that Athanasius felt himself one. (Cf. also Harnack, Dg. 1^1, p. 622 sqq.) Monarchianism was too little in harmony with the New Testament, or with the traditional convictions of the Churches, to live as a formulated theology. The 'naive modalism' of the 'simplices quae major semper pars credentium est' (Tert.) was corrected as soon as the attempt was made to give it formal expression [17] .

[17] But only at Aquileia was the rule of faith adapted by the insertion of impassibilis.

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