{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/209/2090092.htm","path":"chr/ecf/209/2090092.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/209/2090092.htm","text":"Chapter X.\u2014Concerning the Trisagium (\u201cthe Thrice Holy\u201d).\nThis being so 2040 , we declare that the addition which the vain-minded Peter the Fuller made to the Trisagium or \u201cThrice Holy\u201d Hymn is blasphemous 2041 ; for it introduces a fourth person into the Trinity, giving a separate place to the Son of God, Who is the truly subsisting power of the Father, and a separate place to Him Who was crucified as though He were different from the \u201cMighty One,\u201d or as though the Holy Trinity was considered passible, and the Father and the Holy Spirit suffered on the Cross along with the Son. Have done with this blasphemous 2042 and nonsensical interpolation! For we hold the words \u201cHoly God\u201d to refer to the Father, without limiting the title of divinity to Him alone, but acknowledging also as God the Son and the Holy Spirit: and the words p. 54b \u201cHoly and Mighty\u201d we ascribe to the Son, without stripping the Father and the Holy Spirit of might: and the words \u201cHoly and Immortal\u201d we attribute to the Holy Spirit, without depriving the Father and the Son of immortality. For, indeed, we apply all the divine names simply and unconditionally to each of the subsistences in imitation of the divine Apostle\u2019s words. But to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him: and one Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things, and we by Him 2043 2044 . And, nevertheless, we follow Gregory the Theologian 2045 when he says, \u201cBut to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things, and one Holy Spirit, in Whom are all things:\u201d for the words \u201cof Whom\u201d and \u201cthrough Whom\u201d and \u201cin Whom\u201d do not divide the natures (for neither the prepositions nor the order of the names could ever be changed), but they characterise the properties of one unconfused nature. And this becomes clear from the fact that they are once more gathered into one, if only one reads with care these words of the same Apostle, Of Him and through Him and in Him are all things: to Him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen 2046 .\nFor that the \u201cTrisagium\u201d refers not to the Son alone 2047 , but to the Holy Trinity, the divine and saintly Athanasius and Basil and Gregory, and all the band of the divinely-inspired Fathers bear witness: because, as a matter of fact, by the threefold holiness the Holy Seraphim suggest to us the three subsistences of the superessential Godhead. But by the one Lordship they denote the one essence and dominion of the supremely-divine Trinity. Gregory the Theologian of a truth says 2048 , \u201cThus, then, the Holy of Holies, which is completely veiled by the Seraphim, and is glorified with three consecrations, meet together in one lordship and one divinity.\u201d This was the most beautiful and sublime philosophy of still another of our predecessors.\nEcclesiastical historians 2049 , then, say that once when the people of Constantinople were offering prayers to God to avert a threatened calamity 2050 , during Proclus\u2019 tenure of the office of Archbishop, it happened that a boy was snatched up from among the people, and was taught by angelic teachers the \u201cThrice Holy\u201d Hymn, \u201cThou Holy God, Holy and Mighty One, Holy and Immortal One, have mercy upon us:\u201d and when once more he was restored to earth, he told what he had learned, and all the people sang the Hymn, and so the threatened calamity was averted. And in the fourth holy and great \u0152cumenical Council, I mean the one at Chalcedon, we are told that it was in this form that the Hymn was sung; for the minutes of this holy assembly so record it 2051 . It is, therefore, a matter for laughter and ridicule that this \u201cThrice Holy\u201d Hymn, taught us by the angels, and confirmed by the averting of calamity 2052 , ratified and established by so great an assembly of the holy Fathers, and sung first by the Seraphim as a declaration of the three subsistences of the Godhead, should be mangled and forsooth emended to suit the view of the stupid Fuller as though he were higher than the Seraphim. But oh! the arrogance! not to say folly! But we say it thus, though demons should rend us in pieces, \u201cDo Thou, Holy God, Holy and Mighty One, Holy and Immortal One, have mercy upon us.\u201d\nText, \u03b2\u03bb\u03ac\u03c3\u03c6\u03b7\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd. Variant, \u03b2\u03bb\u03b1\u03c3\u03c6\u03b7\u03bc\u03af\u03b1\u03bd.\n53b:2042\nThese words which refer to the Holy Spirit are absent in R. 2930 and in 1 Cor. viii., but are present in other Codices and in Basil, De Spirit. Sancto, and in Greg. Nazianz., Orat. 39, and further in the Damascene himself in Parallel, and elsewhere, and could not be omitted here.\n54b:2045 54b:2046 54b:2047 54b:2048 54b:2049\nEpist. ad Petrum Fullonem; Theoph., Ad Arn. 5930.\n54b:2050\nSee Niceph. Call., Hist. xviii. 51.\n54b:2051\nConc. Chal., Act. 1, at the end.\n54b:2052\nIn Cod. S. Hil. is written above the line \u1f22 \u03b8\u03b5\u03b7\u03bb\u03ac\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 \u1f40\u03c1\u03b3\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c0\u03b1\u03cd\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9, which explains the author\u2019s meaning.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. IX: John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.: Concerning the Trisagium (\u201cthe Thrice Holy\u201d).","type":"page"}