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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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11 Pages
Page 9
11. The 'Tome' signed at Antioch.
And after this Tome was sent off from Alexandria, thus signed by the aforesaid, [the recipients] in their turn signed it:
I Paulinus hold thus, as I received from the fathers, that the Father perfectly exists and subsists, and that the Son perfectly subsists, and that the Holy Spirit perfectly subsists. Wherefore also I accept the above explanation concerning the Three Subsistences, and the one Subsistence, or rather Essence, and those who hold thus. For it is pious to hold and confess the Holy Trinity in one Godhead. And concerning the Word of the Father becoming Man for us, I hold as it is written, that, as John says, the Word was made Flesh, not in the sense of those most impious persons who say that He has undergone a change, but that He has become Man for us, being born of the holy Virgin Mary and of the Holy Spirit. For the Saviour had a body neither without soul, nor without sense, nor without intelligence. For it were impossible, the Lord being made Man for us, that His body should be without intelligence. Wherefore I anathematise those who set aside the Faith confessed at Nicaea, and who do not say that the Son is of the Father's Essence, and coessential with the Father. Moreover I anathematise those who say that the Holy Spirit is a Creature made through the Son. Once more I anathematise the heresy of Sabellius and of Photinus [3704] , and every heresy, walking in the Faith of Nicaea, and in all that is above written. I Karterius [3705] pray for your health.
[3704] See Prolegg. ch. ii. S:3 (2) ad fin. This is remarkable as the first Eastern condemnation of Photinus by name from the Nicene side. He had been condemned at Sirmium in 347, and under pressure from the East apparently at Milan in 345 and 347, as well as in the Councils of Antioch in 344, and Sirmium in 351 (supr. pp. 463, 464). On the document of Paulinus, see Epiph. Haer. lxxvii. 20, 21, also Dr. Bright's note.
[3705] Bishop of Antaradus on the Syrian coast (D.C.B. i. 410 (3)); see de Fuga, 3, and Hist. Ar. 5. note 6a.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athanasius/letter-antioch.asp?pg=9
