Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/85

 TRINITY

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TRINITY

I' lation of anything, we affirm that it regards some- ihing other than itself. The whole perfection of the (lodhead is contained in the one infinite Divine Iv-^scnce. The Father is that Essence as it eternally roRards the Son and the Spirit; the Son is that lisence as it eternally regards the Father and the Spirit; ihi' Holy Spirit is that Essence as it eternally regards th.' Father and the Son, Hut the eternal regard h\ which each of the Three Persons is constituted is nut an addition to the infinite perfection of the God-

hra.l.

I'he theory of relations also indicates the solution ! • the difficulty now most frequently proposed by anil-Trinitarians. It is urged that since there are Three Persons there must be three self-conscious- II 'sses: but the Divine mind ex hypothesi is one, and ill lefore can pos.sess but one self-consciousness; in DiluT words, the dogma contains an irreconcilable cntitradiction (cf. Menegoz, "Etude sur la Trin- ii'", 5). This whole objection rests on a petitio lunicipii: for it takes for granted the identification of person and of mind with self -consciousness. This iili iitification is rejected liy Catholic philosophers as al'niiether misleading. Neither person nor mind is I If-fonsciousness; though a person must needs pos- ,, ,, self-consciousness, and consciousness attests the I M.sience of mind (see Pekson.\lity). Granted that m the infinite mind, in which the categories are transcended, there are three relations which are sub- .-istent realities, distinguished one from another in \'irlue of their relative opposition, then it will follow that the same mind will have a three-fold conscious- nr-s. knowing itself in three ways in accordance with i;~ three modes of existence. It is impossible to I -'alilish that, in regard of the infinite mind, such a supiiosition involves a contradiction.

The question was raised by the Scholastics: In what .sense are we to understand the Divine act of prni^ration? As we conceive things, the relations cf paternity and filiation are due to an act by which th>' Father generates the Son; the relations of spira- Unn and procession, to an act by which Father and Snn breathe forth the Holy Spirit. St. Thomas n plies that the acts are identical with the relations of generation and spiration; only the mode of expres- sion on our part is different (I. C2. xli, a. 1, ad 2'^'^). This is due to the fact that the forms alike of our thought and our language are moulded upon the material world in which we live. In this world orig- ination is in every case due to the cITccting of a change b\ an agent. We call the effecting of the change action, and its reception passion. Thus, action and passion are different from the permanent relations ronsequent on them. But in the Godhead origina- tion is eternal: it is not the result of change. Hence ilio term signifying action denotes not the produc- tion of the relation, but purely the relation of the Originator to the Originated. The terminology is unavoidable because the limitations of our experience force us to represent this relation as due to an act. Indeed throughout this whole subject we are hampered by the imperfection of htnnan language as an instru- ment wherewith to express verities higher than the facts of the world. When, for instance, we say that the Son pos,sesses filiation and spiration, the terms seem to suggest that these are forms inherent in Him as in a subject. We know, indeed, that in the Divine Persons there can be no composition: they are absolutely simple. Yet we are forced to speak thus; for the one Personality, notwithstanding its simplicity, is related to both the others, and by differ- ent rclatif)ns. We cannot express this save by attrib- uting to Him filiation and spiration (I, Q. xxxii, a. 2). D. Divine Misxion. — It has been seen that every ac- tion of God in regard of the created world proceeds from the Three Persons indifTerently. In what sense, then, are we to understand such texts aa " God sent ... his

Son into the world" (John, iii, 17), and "the Paraclete Cometh, whom I will .send you from the Father" (John, XV, 26)? What is meant by the mission of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? To this it is answered that mis- sion supposes two conditions: (1) That the person sent should in some way proceed from the sender and (2) that the person sent should come to be at the place indicated. The procession, however, may take place in various ways — by command, or counsel, or even origination. Thus wo say that a king sends a messenger, and that a tree sends forth buds. The second condition, too, is satisfied either if the person sent comes to be somewhere where jireviously he was not, or if, although he was already there, he comes to be there in a new manner. Though God the Son was already present in the world by rea,son of His Godhead, His Incarnation made Him present there in a new way. In virtue of this new presence and of His procession from the Father, He is rightly said to have been sent into the world. So, too, in regard to the mission of the Holy Spirit. The gift of grace renders the Blessed Trinity present to the soul in a new manner, viz., as the object of direct, though inchoative, knowledge and as the object of experi- mental love. By reason of this new mode of pres- ence common to the whole Trinity, the Second and the Third Persons, inasmuch as each receives the Divine Nature by means of a procession, may be said to be sent into the soul.

(See also: Holy Ghost; Logos; Arianism; Mo- NARCHiANs; Tritheists; Unitarians.)

Among tlie vcr.v numerous patristic works on this sul>iect, the following call for special mention: .St. .\TnAN\rtirs. Orntiones quatuor contra Arianos; Idem, Libtr •!■ 7 ■ /' ,'. ' s,, ', Suncto; St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oraliov 1 Imuvmus

.Alex., Lihri III de Trinilate; Idim, / - 'i. St.

Hilary op Poitiers, Libri XII '!■ /o / ', >i \i .a stine, Libri XV tie Trinitute; St. John Damascenk, Liber ilr Trinitate; Idem, De JUie ortkodoxa, I.

Among the medieval theologians: St. Anselm, Lib. I. de Me Trinitatis; Richard of St, \'ictor. Libri VI de Trinitate; St. Thomas, .Summ«. l,',".' ^ o m; Bessarion, Lt6er rfe 5ptrt(u Sancto contra Marrm / ' .,.

Among more rtT^ ■ i i rwius, De Trinitate (Venice,

1721); Thomassini ~ /' ;■ ./..»im; Tract. <lc. Trin. (Paris,

1S65); Franzelin. /'. /)-.' 1' H ■. Wi.a., i ;,-,, ,, i.hiac,

Ilistoire de In doprnt ' <rthnh,yi. , II ]I[ i'lf, loi. |)i lOr.N-oN, Etudes sur la Trunt, i|',,n-, Isaji Iiukii..- /. o,,mes du dogme de la Truiil,. I il'r.ns, laldi; Hii/. /) - V n ■nlskhre des hi. Johannes von Dama.tku.s (Padcrborn. IDimi: Xkwman, Causes of the Rise and Success of Arianism in TheoL Tracts, (London. LSM).

Among Protestant writers should be mentioned: BnLL, Defensio Fidei NicamcE (Oxford, 18.5) : Dobner. Doctrine of the Person of Christ (translation), I (Edinburgh, 1891).

G. H. Joyce.

Trinity College, an institution for the higher

education of Catholic women, loctited at Washington, D. C, and empowered under the terms of its charter (1897) to confer degrees. The college originated in the desire of the Sisters of Notre Dame de \amur, who had been thirty-five years established in the city of Washington, to open a select day-school in the suburb of Brookland. Before requesting the neces- sary ecclesiastical sanction, it was proposed to Ihcm by the authorities of the Catholic I'niversity to make the new school a college etjual in efficiency to the women's colleges already established in the United States. Cardinal Gibbons, chancellor of the univer- sity, heartily endorsed this project, "persuaded", he wrote, "th:il su<-h :in institution, working in union with, though entirely indc|)endi-nl of, the CathoUc University, will do incaliaililile good in the cause of higher education" (.5 April, 1S97). Sister Julia, then provincial superior of I he Sisters of Notre Dame, secured a tract of thirty-three acres lying between Michigan and Lincoln Avenues, Brof)kland. The corner-stone was l:iid on .S Deeember, ISiii); the South Hall of (he building was (ledic:it('<l by Cardinal Gibbons, on 22 November, l'.)f)0, ;ind the stnicture was completed in 1010. It contains residence halls for two hundred students, lecture rooms, laboratories,