THE HOLY TRINITY

THE TRIQUETRA, an ancient symbol of the Holy Trinity. "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"( Matthew 28,19).

Jesus' words affirm the reality of the Trinity. Some people accuse theologians of making up the concept of the Trinity and reading it into Scriptures. As we see here, the concept comes directly from Jesus himself. He did not say baptize them into the names, but into the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The 1st Ecumenical Council of Nicea (325 AD) declared the nature of the Trinity. In Greak terms, it was declared to consist in three hypostaseis in one ousia ( three entities in one being); in the Latin, God was said to be tres personae in una substantia ( three persons in one substance).

THE EAST- WEST SPLIT.  The East was stabilized round the Byzantine monarchy; only in the 7th century it lost great territory to the Muslims.The West was badly overrun by barbarian people. The Goths had been mainly converted to  Christianity, but it was an Arian form of Christianity that had been preached by the great missionary Ulfilas. The destiny of the Northern Christianity was in part determined by the baptism in 496 of Clovis, king of the Franks who helped tame the Goths on behalf of Roman Chriatianity. It was to deal with the Arian heresy that the Western Church, at a Council at Toledo in Spain (447 and 589) and Aquisgranum 809, inserted the clause "filioque" into the Creed.

1."Filioque" ( "And from the Son" = the  Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and from the Son), upsets the balance of the Trinity, which consists in a perfect unity of Persons in which the Father eternally generates the Son and from whom the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds.

2. The formula "Filioque" was added by the West without consultation - the bishop of Rome  was arrogating to himself a role in the formation of new doctrines; only a Council recognised by the whole Church could do this.

These questions, first of doctrine and second of the authority of the Pope, have plagued relations between the two great wings of the Church ever since. (Ninian Smart, The world's religions, Cambridge,1927)

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