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.]

Twelve Responsories for Epiphany

 The Twelve Responsories used for Epiphany. They are also used in full for the Sunday within the Octave of Epiphany (this upcoming Sunday), as well as for the Octave Day of Epiphany; for days within the Octave, other than Sunday, only three are used.

Western Orthodox Gradual Project, So Far, Part 1

 This is what we have so far using the new corrected Psalter translation:

First Sunday after Trinity

Second Sunday after Trinity

Third Sunday after Trinity

Fourth Sunday after Trinity

Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Sixth Sunday after Trinity

Seventh Sunday after Trinity

Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Ninth Sunday after Trinity

Tenth Sunday after Trinity 

Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

 

There are various other scattered files I am collating. 

Mass Proper Chants for Vigil of Epiphany

Ninth Sunday after Trinity Mass Chant Propers

 Mass Chant Propers for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity.

Example of Alleluia with verse:

Eighth Sunday after Trinity Mass Proper Chants

 Mass Proper Chants for Eighth Sunday after Trinity in pdf via google drive. 

Example of Offertory with verses:

Responsory "In principio Deus antequam"

 Responsory "In principio Deus antequam", sung at Vigils during the Reading of the Wisdom Books [Proverbs, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Sirach):

Fourth Sunday after Trinity Mass Chant Propers

 Mass Proper Chants for Fourth Sunday after Trinity via google drive.  

Example from the Introit:

Western Rite Orthodox Epistle Tone

This is the common Western Rite Orthodox Epistle Tone;  various examples of the beginning, whether it is from Romans, Galatians, or cases of the Prophets, like Isaias; the reading example is from Ecclesiasticus 31:

Third Sunday after Trinity Mass Chant Propers

Third Sunday after Trinity Mass Chant Propers [includes Offertory with verses and Communion antiphon with verse], via google drive:

 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TRHdjZxsleNBnbi0cufW83j4RNTjlYgT?usp=sharing 

Example of Alleluia with verse:

Second Sunday after Trinity Mass Proper Chants

Second Sunday after Trinity Mass Chant Propers via google drive upload in pdf: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YeNE2YQ9G0HJO34twkK-ciokmWodddrl?usp=sharing

example of Gradual and verse:

Offertory and Communion Chants for Third Sunday in Advent

 

Gradual for Third Sunday in Advent

 

Introit for Third Sunday in Advent

 Introit:

Images from Late 10th Century Sacramentary of Bishop Warmund of Ivrea

 Here are some of the images you can find via google images from the Sacramentary of Warmund, Bishop of Ivrea, circa 1000 AD.  Ivrea is in the extreme north-western part of modern Italy.  The first image is the Coronation of a King by a Bishop, the second is the Consecration of a Bishop by a Metropolitan with other Bishops participating, and the third is the Consecration of Christ on Holy Thursday by a Bishop. 

 

From the Anglo-Saxon Pentiential

From the Old English Handbook for Confessors:

"Concerning the priest's discretion

He who is the physician of men's souls and the counsellor of their deeds must consider that distinction and that difference: how he shall assign penance to men for their deeds, and yet not condemn them or cause them to despair. When one wishes to confess his misdeeds to him, first listen to him patiently (and learn) how his condition might be advised. If he wishes and knows how to confess his deeds humbly, and you perceive that his sins cause him sorrow, instruct him kindly and compassionately. If he does not know how to confess his deeds and to consider his offenses, ask him about his condition, and wrest the offenses from him, and search out his deeds, and be mindful yourself that you must never pass judgment in the same way on the powerful and the lowly, the free and the enslaved, the old and the young, the well and the sickly, the humble and the proud; the strong and the weak, those in orders and lay people. In every act a prudent judge must distinguish wisely how it was done, and where and when. At no time is wrongdoing allowed, and nevertheless one must also most earnestly be on guard against it during festival seasons and in times of fasting and in festival places. And always, as one is mightier or greater of rank, so must he repent wrongdoing more deeply before God and before the world. For the powerful and the weak are not able to lift up a similar burden, nor the one who is well. And therefore one must take the measure of and discreetly distinguish between after After this let him arise humbly to his confession and then say, first:"I believe in God the great Father, Ruler of all things, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit; and I believe in life after death; and I believe that I will arise on Doomsday, and all this I believe will come to pass through God's power and mercy."And then, with contrite mind and humbly, let him say his confession to his confessor, bending humbly; and say thus "I confess to Almighty God and to my confessor, the spiritual physician, all the sins that ever through cursed spirits, have happened to me in defilement, in deed or in thought, with men or with women or with any creature, natural or unnatural sins of the body. "I confess greediness in eating both before and after time." "I confess all covetousness and envy, and calumnies and deceits, lies and evil boasts, and idle words and wrongful choices, and every ornament that has ever contributed to the injury of my body. "I confess that I was too often a worker of sins, and a helper of sins, and an accomplice of sins, and a teacher of sins. "I confess the mortal sins of my mind, and false oaths, and strife, and pride, and disregard of God's commandments. "I confess all that I have ever seen with my eyes in covetousness or calumny, or heard with my ears to ill use, or said to ill use with my mouth. "I confess to you all the sins of my body, for skin, for flesh, for bone, for sinews, for veins, for gristle, for tongue, for lips, for gums, and for teeth, for hair, and for marrow, for everything soft or hard, wet or dry. "I confess that I have kept to my baptism worse than I promised to my Lord, and my rank, which I ought to have kept in praise of God and his holy ones and for my own eternal salvation, I have held unworthily. "I confess that I have often neglected my canonical hours and sworn false oaths on my Lord's life, and taken my Lord's name in vain. "For all that I ask for my Lord's forgiveness, that the devil may never charge me with fault, so that I (might be) without confession and repentance of my sins. "So today I confess all my sins before the Lord Savior Christ, who rules heaven and earth, and before this holy altar, and this reliquary, and before my confessor and the Lord's masspriest, and am in pure and true confession, and with good will for the repenting of all my sins, and afterwards to desist from those that ever I might commit. "And you, Christ the Savior, be merciful to my soul and forgiving and blot out my sins and my offenses that ever I did, late or early, and lead me to your high kingdom so that I might dwell there with your holy and chosen ones in eternity ever without end. "Now I ask you humbly, priest of the Lord, that you be my witness on Doomsday, so that the devil might not obtain power over me, and so that you be my intercessor with the Lord, so that I might be able to repent all my sins and offenses, and cease from such things. For that may the Lord, he who lives and reigns ever without end in eternity, sustain me. Amen.

And if anyone does something wrong unintentionally, that is not like the one who does wrong wilfully and intentionally; and also he who is the involuntary agent of that in which he does wrong, he is always deserving of protection and the milder judgment, because he was the unwilling agent of that which he did. Let each one distinguish each deed truly before God and before the world.

http://www.anglo-saxon.net/penance/index.php?p=TOEH201_115

 "It is fitting that the priest should ponder the repentance of sinful men, according to the bishop's judgment; and he should never hesitate, neither for the rich nor for the poor, to prescribe correctly for them as the book teaches him. For the Savior says that if the priest does not wish to prescribe penance for the sinful one for his sins, that he (the Savior) would afterwards ask him (the priest) about the soul. That is, the Savior will hold the priest responsible for the lost soul. [Ezekiel 3:18: If, when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die: thou declare it not to him, nor speak to him, that he may be converted from his wicked way, and live: the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand.] St. Isidore said that it was his opinion that a man's true confession and conversion on his last day would be acceptable to God, for the Savior said, "On whatever day of life a man turns to a good life, he shall live and shall not die." [see Ezekiel] On that account genuine conversion is not to be shunned in whatever time that it might be; for God sees every man's mind and knows the secrets of every man's heart."

[Old English Penitential]
http://www.anglo-saxon.net/penance/index.php?p=TOEP482_1b

Hamilton 552, 11th Century Latin Psalter with Uninterpolated Latin Credo

 Uninterpolated Credo in 11^th Century Latin liturgical book from Germany (though, this Psalter may have a connection with Durham, England?):

https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN736607951&PHYSID=PHYS_0399&DMDID=DMDLOG_0006

MS Hamilton 552:

http://musmed.eu/source/8815

is an 11^th Century Medieval Psalter Book, with additional Divine Office prayers, etc. It contains, at the end of the Psalter, like other Medieval Psalters, various Canticles, as well as versions of the Credo; often one only sees the Apostles’ Creed. In this particular Latin Psalter from 11^th Century Germany, on page 339, however, there is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (Symbol), in an unadulterated form, in Latin (but with transliterated Greek interlinear).

 Thus it reads in the section concerning the Holy Ghost:

[Latin]

“Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et Vivificantem, Qui ex Patre Procedit, Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur, Qui locutus est per Prophetas.”

[And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Lifegiver, Who from the Father Proceedeth, Who with the Father and the Son together is adored and glorified, Who spake through the Prophets.]

At the very least, historiography will have to admit that there were several places and traditions in the West even in the 11^th century that resisted any interpolation.

10th Century Pontifical of Poitiers and Filioque Interpolation in Interlinear Latin

 This is the 10^th century Pontifical of Poitiers. In the section for Making of a Catechumen, at the giving of the Creed, we have the Creed written in Greek in Latin letters, and then, an interlinear Latin translation.

In the transliterated Greek it just reads (on fol. 55v) as:

“Ke is to Penuma to Agion to Kyrrion ke Zoopion to ek tu Patros ek Porreugomenon.”

[“And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life-Giver, from the Father Proceeding.”]

In the Latin interlinear text, however, we notice something curious. In the original Latin text it just reads as:

“Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et Vivificantem, ex Patre Procedens.”

[“And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life-Giver, from the Father Proceeding.”]

However, you notice that a later hand, with darker ink, has tampered with the text, so that we have the following emendation:

“Qui” added to before “ex” and “Filioque” added immediate after “Patre” and the original “procedens” has been erased, and the form “procedit” put in its place.

The Gelasian form of the Latin Symbol generally read simply as “ex Patre Procedens” or sometimes "Procedentem".

Nevertheless, the Pontifical was made in the 10^th Century in Poitiers, for the Bishop of that City, and the original 10^th Century text simply had the Credo in Greek (with the interlinear gloss having a faithful translation, absent a much later interpolation).

HOWEVER, if we go only to the page after the Greek Credo is completed (56v), things get even better. There, the Credo is to be recited formally in Latin (while the interlinear text in Latin was not a formal recitation), with the formal Latin Symbol / Credo in the relevant section saying:

“Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et Vivifcatorem, ex Patre Procedentem.”

“And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, from the Father Proceeding.”]

No interpolation was attempted. So, what happened? Well, whoever took the book, and much later interpolated the interlinear Latin, apparently didn’t do a very thorough job; he simply added the forbidden “Filioque” only to the interlinear, and left the formal Latin a page later uncorrupted!

When was the interlinear text corrupted? My guess is in the 11^th Century when other cataclysmic changes happened.

Greek and Latin Credo in 10th Century Cod. Sang. 318 and the Filioque

 Cod. Sang. 318 is a 10^th Century Cantatorium / Gradual from St. Gallen Monastery in Switzerland. In the section that gives the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol of Faith in Greek and Latin, see page 21:

https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/csg/0381/21/0/

In Latin it simply reads as:

“Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et Vivificantem, Qui ex Patre Procedit.”

[“And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who from the Father Proceedeth.”]

In the transliterated Greek it reads much the same, except, I believe, a later hand has added “ke Yio” (and the Son) so that it follows “ek tu Patros.”

That is, in a slightly less darker ink, a little off to the side a later hand interpolate the manuscript, so, instead of reading originally as “Ke is to Penumato Agion to Kyrrion ke Zoopion ton ek tu Patros ek poreugomenon,” after “ton ek tu Patro” the phrase “ke Yio” is added.”

But, yet the later hand forgot to interpolate the Latin Symbol, instead leaving it uncorrupted as “Qui ex Patre Procedit.”

Often, when later redactors go over books, it is not too difficult to tell when they start adding things; something seems strangely out of place, a phrase off to the side that is evident, a lighter or even different color ink, etc.

Yet, this is an important testimony that the Latin variant of the Credo that reads “Qui ex Patre Procedit” instead of “Ex Patre Procedentem” did exist without a Filioque interpolation.

11th Century Subiaco Missal with Uninterpolated Credo

 Yet another example of an uncorrupted book from the 11th century.

For reference purposes:

Here is BAV, Vat. Lat. 04770, or the Subiaco Missal (yes, that Subiaco, famed after St. Benedict's Monastery founded there), of about 1025.
https://usuarium.elte.hu/book/1584/view

https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.lat.4770

If we turn to the section that has the Making of a Catechumen service, part of Baptism, specifically on pages 97v and r we find the Credo recited first in Greek (in transliterated Latin letters), and then in Latin.

The transliterated Greek contains the Credo with simply "from the Father Proceeding".

If you look on the next page, for the formally recited Latin text, it reads:
"Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et Vivificantem, ex Patre Procedentem, Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur."
["And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life-Giver, from the Father Proceeding, Who with the Father and the Son together is adored and glorified."]

This is another example of an uninterpolated Credal text in the Latin West prior to the Great Schism. Subiaco was an important monastery centre, since it was where St. Benedict founded his first monastery.

Greek Credo in 11th Anglo-Saxon Pontifical

I have mentioned previously the 11th century Anglo-Saxon Pontifical known as CCCC Ms. 163.  It is Pontifical of a Continental type, and such, but, had some usage in 11th century England; associated with Abp. Ealdred of York. 

For our purposes, we have our attention turned to the section that deals with the Making of Catechumens, as it contains the singing of the Credo in Greek, and then, again, in Latin.   Go to page 46 [which is listed as page 43 in the actual manuscript]. 

What is interesting is that the Credo in Greek not only has musical notation, but, it simply reads in the following Latin transliteration of the Greek:

"Ke is to Penumato Agion tu Kyrion kezoopion to ek tu Patros ekporeugomenon ton si Patri ke Io sin proskynumenon ke in doxa, zomenon tolalisan diaton profiton."

That is:

"And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life-Giver, Who from the Father Proceedeth, Who with the Father and the Son togenther is worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the Prophets." 

Now, in the next page, we have the Credo in Latin, and, unfortunately, the Credo is recited with the notorious interpolation in Latin with the well-known "qui ex Patre Filioque Procedit..." 

Of course, that the Credo was sung in Greek without the Filioque should tell us something.  The simple explanation that they copied a text and had no idea what it says doesn't seem satisfying, seeing that there ARE, in fact, 11th century Western books that have the Greek transliterated Credo but add a "ke Io" right after "ek tu Patros..."  While Greek may have not been as well-known as it should have been, this didn't mean there weren't Greek grammar books, and some individuals who understood the basics of the language.  

If some in the 11th century knew enough Greek to add the Filioque in Greek to a Latin transliterated Credo in some cases, then they could tell when they were looking at an untampered Greek Credo in Latin transliterated.  There are various speculative explanations for why they would keep the Greek Credo untampered with even in the second half of the 11th century in England; but, all we can say is that it was recited as such still in some places.