The Confession of the Faith of the Fathers of the Synod of Milan

 

Confession of Faith of St. Mansuetus of Milan and the Synod held in 679, and sent to the Emperor Constantine IV to confirm the Orthodox Faith:

The Confession of the Faith of the Fathers of the Synod of Milan We do profess that we believe the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, that is to say, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, One God; so One as to be Three, and so Three as to be One: the Trinity in Distinct and Discrete Persons, to wit, the Father, from Whom are all things; the Son, by Whom are all things; the Holy Ghost, in Whom are all things; yet of One Godhead, One Essence, and One Substance: indeed in Three Subsistences or Persons, that the Father may be Father, the Son be Son, and the Holy Ghost be the Holy Ghost; but in One Nature and One Substance, that One God, and Only, and Supreme, may be believed; not introducing three, as Arius blasphemeth, who preached three gods, one more excellent, another less, and another inferior. But we confess the Holy Trinity in Unity, and the Unity in the Holy Trinity. For when we say the Almighty Father, the very appellation of This Fatherly Name hath respect unto the Person of the Son; and when we say the Eternal Son, it is referred unto the Person of the Eternal Father; and when we name the Holy Ghost, we shew that He Proceedeth from the Person of the Eternal Father. And when we say God the Father Almighty, the Mystery of This Name cannot be made void. For when we say Father, we shew forth the Son; and when we say Son, we declare the Father; and when we say the Eternal Father, we shew forth the Eternal Son. For if we find not the beginning of This Fatherly Name, when He was called Father, it is consequently shewn that neither do we find the beginning of the Begotten. We beseech that reason be given us, when the Father obtained this appellation, that He should be called Father; whether in time, or without time: let some man tell us when first He began to be so called. And if he shall be able to approve this, there shall be no doubt that from that beginning of the fatherly name the Son took His beginning, when the Father was so named. But if he shall fail, yea rather because he doth fail, and cannot prove nor assign the beginning of the fatherly name, when the Father began to be, let him therefore with us confess the Holy Trinity Co-Essential and Consubstantial, neither that the Father was before the Son, nor the Son after the Father, nor the Holy Ghost inferior; because, while the beginning of the Fatherly Name is not found, we know not by what reason a beginning should be ascribed unto the Son. For when we say the Everlasting God the Father, we shew the Everlasting God the Son. Therefore we profess the Holy Trinity in One Nature, and One Essence, and One Substance, and in Three Subsistences, or Persons. Moreover, we believe that the Very Word of God, that is, the Son of the Father, was Begotten without beginning: the Same, One of the Three Subsistences of the Holy Trinity, the Eternal Son, for the Dispensation wrought for us and for our salvation, came down from heaven; the Word of God Incarnate, and made Man within the Virgin’s Womb, Uniting unto Himself the Truth of our Nature from Holy and Glorious Virgin Mary, the Birthgiver of God; Perfect God and Perfect Man in Two Natures, namely of Godhead and Manhood; Consubstantial with God the Father according to the Godhead, and the Selfsame Consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; not divided into two Sons, but One and the Same Son of God and of Man, in the Truth of Two Natures, in One Subsistence or Person, the Union, namely, of Godhead and Manhood having been made; so that out of Two Perfect Natures there are not two Sons, but One and the Same Son of God and of Man, Remaining what He was, He began to be what He was not, when the Son of the Eternal Father without beginning was made the Son of Man. Therefore also Our Lord Jesus Christ is One, having in Himself the Perfection of the Divine Nature and the Perfection of the Human Nature; and He is Indeed Only-Begotten as the Word, as being Born of God the Father, and First-Born among many brethren; for the Son of God was made the Son of Man. Wherefore we also confess Two Nativities of This Same Only-Begotten Word of God: One before the ages, Begotten of the Father Incomparably; but in the last days the Incarnation of This Same from the Holy Glorious Ever-Virgin Mary, the Birthgiver of God. He Who Shone forth from the Father, Beyond Understanding, was Born of the Mother, Super-Rationally; and, being Truly God, was Truly made Man. Therefore we properly and truly confess the Holy and Glorious Mary, ever-Virgin, to be the Birthgiver of God; not because God the Word took beginning from her, but because in the last days the Only-Begotten God the Word, Who was before the ages, was Incarnate of her, and was made Man, and, whereas in His Own He was Invisible, in ours He was made Visible; and whereas He was Impassible God, He disdained not to be Passible Man, and, being Immortal, to be subject unto the laws of death. And that Very God and Lord, Who according to the Flesh was Born in Bethlehem, and was made like unto men, sin excepted, and was Crucified for men under Pontius Pilate, Him do we confess to be God, Him Man, Him the Son of God, Him the Son of Man, Him from Heaven, Him from Earth, Him Impassible, Him Passible. For the True God, Who was Begotten of God the Father Ineffably, Unspeakably, Incomprehensibly, the Very Same in time was Born of Holy Mary the Virgin, the Same Our Lord Jesus Christ, One of the Holy Trinity, to be Glorified Together with the Father and the Holy Ghost. Neither did the Holy Trinity receive the addition of a fourth Person; but we do truly confess that Our Lord Jesus Christ hath Two Natures in One Subsistence of Godhead and Manhood, without confusion, without change. Thus likewise the Rule of Piety instructeth us that He hath Two Natural Wills and Two Natural Operations, as being Perfect God and Perfect Man, One and the Selfsame Our Lord Jesus Christ: the Same Born, the Same Suffered, the Same Crucified, the Same Buried, the Same Rising Again, and Ascending into the Heavens, Sitting at the Right Hand of the Father, and Coming to Judge the quick and the dead; Whose Kingdom shall have no end. https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Epistola_%28Damianus_Ticinensis%29 [Note: some of the text diverts, interestingly, into an Anti-Arian polemic; since the Monothelites did not embrace Arianism, we might wonder why? the answer, is that, though the Statement was Sent to the Emperor Constantine IV, or appended to a Letter to him, it must be remembered that various portions of the Lombard population in Northern Italy still embraced Arianism, even if many were converting to Orthodoxy; therefore, it makes sense that a Synod held at Milan would want to make a more general statement of Orthodox Doctrine, not just on the question of the Wills and Operations in Christ, but also to further confirm the Doctrine of the Trinity, to give it wider application in Northern Italy.]

Conciliar Condemnation of Iconoclasm before Seventh Ecumenical Council

    It would be incorrect to assert that there were not a series of Councils held by Bishops which condemned Iconoclasm prior to the Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787 (i.e. the Second Council of Nicea).  In fact, almost as soon as the heresy arose, condemnations of the heresy, not just by individuals, but by Synods transpired.  Let us give a few examples below. 

    In the 720s, Emperor Leo III the Isaurian published edicts ordering the removal and destruction of iconography, in league with heretical bishops; this was opposed by Patriarch St. Germanus.  However, Patriarch St. Germanus was expelled by the heretics, and in his place the Pseudo-Patriarch Anastasius, a supporter of iconoclasm, was put in his place.  This called forth massive resistance, breaking of communion, and the eventual anathematization of iconoclasm in a formalized setting at the 731 Synod of Rome.  The 8th Century Liber Pontificalis contains the following entries relevant to this, first beginning with Pope St. Gregory II.