Folio 65

Council of Rome, 382

printed p. 33 · pdf p. 65

The Holy Spirit1

["Decree of DAMASUS" from the acts of the Roman Synod, in the year 382]

83. It has been said: We must first treat of the sevenfold Spirit, which reposes in Christ, the Spirit of wisdom: Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God [I Cor. 1:24]. The Spirit of understanding: I will give thee understanding, and I will instruct thee in this way, in which thou shalt go [Ps. 31:8]. The Spirit of counsel: And his name shall be called angel of great counsel [Is. 9:6: LXX]. The Spirit of power (as above): The power of God and the wisdom of God [I Cor. 1:24]. The Spirit of knowledge: on account of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the apostle [Eph. 3:19]. The Spirit of truth: I am the way and the life and the truth [John 14:6]. The Spirit of fear [of God]: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom [Ps. 110:10] . . . [there follows an explanation of the various names of Christ: Lord, Word, Flesh, Shepherd, etc.] . . . For the Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of the Father or not only the Spirit of the Son, but the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. For it is written: If anyone love the world, the Spirit of the Father is not in him [I John 2:15; Rom. 8:9]. Likewise it is written: Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his [Rom. 8:9]. When the Father and the Son are mentioned in this way, the Holy Spirit is understood, of whom the Son himself says in the Gospel, that the Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father [John 15:26], and he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you [John 16:14.]

The Canon of Sacred Scripture2

[From the same decree and the acts of the same Roman Synod]

84. Likewise it has been said: Now indeed we must treat of the divine Scriptures, what the universal Catholic Church accepts and what she ought to shun.

  1. C. H. Turner, Latin lists of the canonical books: The Journal of Theological Studies 1 (1900) 556 ff. ML 19, 787 B ff.: Jf 251 c. Add. 700; cf. ML 59, 157 A ff.; Hrd I 775 D ff.: Z II 259 ff.—This and what follows concerning the canon of the Scripture are the first part of a very celebrated document "De libris recipiendis vel non recipiendis," which is called "Decretum GELASII" [see n. 162 ff.]. Andr. Thiel. [Epp. Rom. PP. 44 ff.] especially contends that this, conceived and edited by DAMASUS, was in truth repeated by GELASIUS; and Turner [1 c. 554] holds (this) as certain, Ed. Schwartz (Zeitschr. f. neutest. Wissenschaft 29 [1930] 161 ff.) as probable, who says that the words referred to in n. 83 "Spiritus enim Sanctus . . . Nominato itaque Patre et Filio intelligitur Spiritus" were interpolated from St. Augustine's tract, on John 9, n. 7 in opposition to Dobschüts, Das Decretum Gelasianum (Leipzig: 1912), p. 4 245 f. ↩

  2. Turner l. c.; ML 19 700 B ff. (cf. 59, 157 A ff.); Msi VIII 145 C ff. ↩