A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

PRISCILLIANISTS. Certain heretics whose founder was Priscillian, a Spaniard of noble extraction, very wealthy, and endued with much wit, learning, and eloquence. Mark, an Egyptian heretic, having sown the errors of Gnosticism in Gaul, went into Spain, where carnal pleasure, which was the principal article of his doctrine, procured him quickly a great many disciples, the chief whereof was Priscillian, who covered his vanity under the appearance of a profound humility. He taught, besides the abominations of the Gnostics, that the soul was of the same substance with God, and that, descending to the earth, through seven heavens, and certain other degrees of principality, it fell into the hands of the evil one, who put it into the body, which he made to consist of twelve parts, over each of which presided a celestial sign. He condemned the eating of the flesh of animals, and marriage as an unlawful copulation, and separated women from their husbands without their consent; and, according to his doctrine, man’s will was subject to the power of the stars. He confounded the holy persons in the Trinity, like Sabellius, ordered his followers to fast on Sundays and Christmas day, because he believed Christ had not taken true flesh upon him. Lying, a most abominable vice, and so contrary to the God of truth, was a thing tolerated amongst his followers. There was a volume composed by them called Libra, because that in the twelve questions in it, as in twelve ounces, their whole doctrine was explained. Priscillian broached his heresy in the fourth century. He was put to death, with some of his followers, at Treves, in 385, by order of the usurper Maximus, contrary to the earnest instance of St. Martin, bishop of Tours. This was the first instance of the infliction of death for heresy, and at the time excited universal horror among Christians. St. Ambrose refused to communicate with the bishops who had taken part in it, and a synod at Turin excommunicated them.

PROCESSION OF THE HOLY GHOST. As the Father is eternal, without beginning, so is the Son without beginning, the only begotten God of God, Light of light, being very God of very God: in like manner the Holy Ghost, without beginning, has proceeded from the Father and the Son. This is one of the mysteries which must be always incomprehensible, from our inability to comprehend an eternity a parte ante. In all discussions relating to these subjects, we may quote to the objector the wise words of Gregory Nazianzen: “Do you tell me how the Father is unbegotten, and I will then attempt to tell you how the Son is begotten and the Spirit proceeds.”

We will first give the doctrine as stated in the Articles and Creed, and then give from Dr. Hey the history of the controversy which has long subsisted between the Eastern and the Western Church.

Of the Holy Ghost the fifth article says, “The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.”

The same doctrine is declared in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds.

In the Nicene Creed:

“I believe in the Holy Ghost, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son.”

In the Athanasian Creed:

“The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding.”

In the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, various disputes took place with the followers of Macedonius with respect to the nature and procession of the Holy Ghost. It may be particularly mentioned, with a view to what followed, that so soon as the years 430 and 431, in the Councils of Alexandria and Ephesus, it was declared that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Son as well as from the Father. In order to terminate these disputes, the Church in general made a sort of settlement or determination what should be accounted Catholic doctrine; and, to avoid further adjustings of formularies, agreed that nothing should from that time be added to those then under consideration. It is probable that, at that time, the question whether the Holy Ghost should be spoken of as proceeding from the Father and the Son, (Filioque is the famous word,) did not occur to men’s minds. Filioque was not in the creeds, though it was not new. The students in the Western Church seem ere long to have contracted an opinion, that it was proper for them to profess in a creed, that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Son; they, therefore, inserted (or, one might say, restored) Filioque, meaning, probably, no harm; and then the Eastern Church thought as little of complaining as the Western of offending. Afterwards, however, contentions for worldly grandeur produced contentions about theological truth. Rome and Constantinople were rivals, not only for imperial but for spiritual pre-eminence. The patriarch of Constantinople styled himself Episcopus Œcumenicus. Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, was more lowly in the title he assumed; he was “servus servorum” scilicet Dei; but in his pretensions to authority he was equally ambitious. The patriarch was at the head of the Eastern Church, the pope of the Western. This rivalship made the Churches seek occasions for blaming each other, and thus the insertion of Filioque came to be complained of as a breach of faith. It was defended by the Western Church, because the word contained right doctrine: this was enough to make the Eastern Church dispute the doctrine: they did so, and the dispute still subsists, and still causes a separation between the Eastern and Western Churches. One pope (Leo III.) did once, for the sake of peace, order Filioque to be put out of the creed, at the same time ratifying the doctrine which it comprehends; but he could only prevail in those churches which were under his immediate sanction, and that only for a time. The obstinate resistance of the Greek or Eastern Church to the insertion of Filioque, is the more likely to be owing to some worldly consideration, as several of the Greek fathers have the doctrine in their works clearly expressed.—Hey. (See Holy Ghost.)