Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/389

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 367 mysterious questions of theological science. These barbarians despised, in their turn, the restless and subtle levity of the Orientals, the authors of every heresy ; and blessed their own simplicity, which was content to hold the tradition of the apos- tolic church. Yet, in the seventh century, the synods of Spain, and afterwards of France, improved or corrupted the Nicene creed, on the mysterious subject of the third person of the Trinity.^ In the long controversies of the East, the nature and Proceerion of generation of the Christ had been scrupulously defined ; and the Ghost" ^ well-known relation of Father and Son seemed to convey a faint image to the human mind. The idea of birth was less analogous to the Holy Spirit, who, instead of a divine gift or attribute, was considered by the Catholics as a substance, a person, a God ; he was not begotten, but, in the orthodox style, he proceeded. Did he proceed from the Father alone, perhaps hij the Son ? or from the Father and the Son ? The first of these opinions was asserted by the Greeks, the second by the Latins ; and the addition to the Nicene creed of the word Jtlioque kindled the flame of discord between the Oriental and the Gallic churches. In the origin of the dispute the Roman pontiffs affected a character of neutrality and moderation ; "* they condemned the innovation, but they acquiesced in the sentiment of their Trans- alpine brethren ; they seemed desirous of casting a veil of silence and charity over the superfluous research ; and, in the correspondence of Charlemagne and Leo the Third, the Pope assumes the liberality of a statesman, and the prince descends to the passions and prejudices of a priest.^ But the orthodoxy of Rome spontaneously obeyed the impulse of her temporal policy ; and the filioque, which Leo wished to erase, was tran- scribed in the symbol, and chaunted in the liturgy, of the 2 The mysterious subject of the procession of the Holy Ghost is discussed in the historical, theological, and controversial sense, or nonsense, by the Jesuit Petavius (Dogmata Theologica, torn. ii. 1. vii. p. 362-440). [Technically, the Greeks were right. The filioque was an innovation on the symbolum recognized by the first four Councils.] of pure silver, on which he inscribed the text of both creeds (utroque symbolo), pro amore et cautela orthodo-xae fidei (Anastas. in Leon. III. in Muratori, tom. iii. pars i. p. 208). His language most clearly proves that neither the filioque nor the Athanasian creed were received at Rome about the year 830. 5 The Missi of Charlemagne pressed him to declare that all who rejected the Ulioque, at least the doctrine, must be damned. All, replies the Pope, are not capable of reaching the altiora mysteria ; qui potuerit, et non voluerit, salvus esse non potest (Collect. Concil. tom. ix. p. 277-286). The /o/«er?V would leave a large loop-hole of salvation !
 * Before the shrine of St. Peter he placed two shields of the weight of 94^ pounds