The Creed of Constantinople

And now the emperor returned from the West. He appointed a prefect over Constantinople, Honoratus by name, and abolished the office of proconsul. But the Acacians got to the emperor ahead of the bishops and slandered them, persuading him not to accept the creed they had proposed. This annoyed the emperor so much that he resolved to scatter them. So he published an edict ordering that any of them who were liable to fill certain public offices should no longer be exempt from the duties that went with them. For several of them were liable to be called to serve in various official ranks, both under the city’s magistrates and under the presidents and governors of the provinces. While these bishops were being harassed in this way, Acacius’s supporters stayed on at Constantinople for a considerable time and held another synod. They sent for the bishops of Bithynia, and about fifty gathered on this occasion, among them Maris, bishop of Chalcedon. These confirmed the creed read at Ariminum, the one with the names of the consuls set at its head. There would be no need to repeat it here if some additions had not been made to it; but since they were, it may be useful to copy it out in its new form: [a]

“We believe in one God the Father Almighty, from whom are all things; and in the only Son of God, begotten of God before all ages and before every beginning, through whom all things visible and invisible were made. He is the only Son, born of the Father, the only one from the only one, God from God, like the Father who begot him, according to the Scriptures; and no one knows his begetting except the Father alone who begot him. “We know that this only Son of God, sent by the Father, came down from the heavens, as it is written, to destroy sin and death; that he was born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary according to the flesh, as it is written, and lived among his disciples; and that, when the whole plan of salvation had been fulfilled according to his Father’s will, he was crucified and died, was buried, and went down to the lower parts of the earth, at whose presence Hades itself trembled. He also rose from the dead on the third day, lived among his disciples again, and when forty days were completed was taken up into the heavens. He sits at the right hand of the Father, from where he will come on the last day, the day of the resurrection, in his Father’s glory, to repay everyone according to his works. “We believe also in the Holy Spirit, whom the only Son of God himself, Christ our Lord and God, promised to send to the human race as the Comforter, as it is written, ‘the Spirit of truth.’ He sent him to them after he was received into the heavens. “But the term ousia, that is, substance or essence, which the fathers used in a very simple and understandable sense, has caused offense, because the people did not understand it. So we have thought it right to reject it, since it is not found even in the sacred writings, and to have no mention of it made in the future, since the holy Scriptures nowhere speak of the substance of the Father and of the Son. Nor should the ‘subsistence’ of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit even be named. But we say that the Son is like the Father, in the way the sacred Scriptures declare and teach. Let all heresies, therefore, that have already been condemned or have lately arisen, and that are opposed to this statement of the faith, be anathema.” [e]

These things were agreed on at Constantinople at that time. And now that we have at last wound our way through the maze of all these various forms of the faith, let us count them up. After the one published at Nicaea, two others were put forward at Antioch at the dedication of the church there. A third was presented to the emperor in Gaul by Narcissus and those who went with him. The fourth was sent by Eudoxius into Italy. Three forms of the creed were published at Sirmium, one of which, with the consuls’ names set at its head, was read at Ariminum. The Acacian party produced an eighth at Seleucia. The last was the creed of Constantinople, with its clause forbidding any mention of “substance” or “subsistence” in speaking of God. Ulfilas, bishop of the Goths, gave his assent to this creed, although he had earlier held to the creed of Nicaea; for he was a disciple of Theophilus, bishop of the Goths, who was present at the Nicene council and signed what was decided there. Let this be enough on these matters. [h]