[I will be trying to get back into the swing of regular writing. In lieu of something original, here is a quick and simple translation of a fun 4th century text I haven't been able to find in translation online. It purports to be the record of a debate between the homoian Germinius of Sirmium and a Nicene layman in the mid-4th century. While clearly written from a Nicene perspective (and so not an official transcript from the diocesan chancery), the content seems highly locally specific and faithfully reflects mid-4th century Trinitarian debates. There is in my judgment little reason to doubt its basic authenticity as a picture of the theological debate within Sirmium at this period.
Also it's a lot of fun I think.]
The debate of Heraclianus the layman with Germinius, the bishop of Sirmium, about the Faith of the Council of Nicaea and the Faith of the Council of Ariminium of the Arians. This occurred in the city of Sirmium before all the people, on Friday, January 13, AD 366.
They led out Heraclianus and Firmianus and Aurelianus before all the people, with the bishop seated on his cathedra with all the clergy before all the people, at least those who were of age of the people.
Germinius said to Heraclianus: "Why did you see fit to persuade people to support the homoousios, which vain men cobbled together?"
Heraclianus said: "And so three hundred and more bishops were 'vain'?"
Germinius: "What does he want the homoousios to mean?"
Heraclianus: "You, you preach among this people as a stumbling-block, and you learned to speak in Greek."
Germinius: "Eusebius [of Vercelli], that condemned exile, taught you this, and Hilary, who now has come back from exile."
Heraclianus: "I speak by the right and authority of the Divine Scriptures. Why do you dish up these things to me, to drive me out of the way of truth? We are contending about the divine laws! The possibility of speaking and debating is right here."
Germinius: "You as who, wicked slave? Are you a priest, or a deacon?"
Heraclianus: "I am neither a priest nor a deacon, but although I am the least of all Christians, I speak in defense of my life."
Germinius: "See how much he talks! Will no one draw his teeth?"
Then Iovinianus the deacon and Marinus the lector struck him.
Heraclianus: "This adds to my happiness and my glory."
Germinius: "Speak, Heraclianus! I baptized you: what did you receive from me?"
Heraclianus: "I received from you: 'in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.' I did not receive: 'in the greater god and in the lesser god and this created thing.' You also speak like this about the Holy Spirit."
Germinius: "If the Spirit was not created, Paul the Apostle lied, who said: 'All things were created through Christ in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible' [Colossians 1:16]. If, therefore, the Spirit was not created through him, therefore not all things were created through him."
Heraclianus: "If you command, I will speak."
Germinius: "Speak!"
Heraclianus: "It was written in Isaiah the Prophet: 'Hear me, Jacob, and Israel, whom I call. I am the First and I am for eternity: and my hand established the earth, my right hand solidified the sky. I will call them all, and they will come together, and all will be gathered together and listen. Who has announced these things to them? Because I love you, I have done your will against Babylon, that the seed of the Chaldeans be taken away. I have spoken, I have called, I have brought him and made his way prosperous. Come to me and hear these things. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, nor in a shadowy part of the earth: when these things happened, I was there. And now the Lord has sent me and his Spirit. Thus says the Lord, who freed you, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord, who have shown you the way in which you should walk. And if you had listened to my commandments, your peace would have become like the light, and your justice like the waves of the sea, and your seed like the sand' [Isaiah 48:12-18]. Speak, therefore, now, you, bishop: about whom were these things written?"
Germinius: "You speak yourself."
Heraclianus: "It is right for you to speak: it is fitting for me to listen."
Germinius: "These things were written about the Father."
Heraclianus: "And the Father, by whom was he sent?"
Germinius was silent for more than one hour.
Heraclianus: "Evidently they were spoken about the Son of God and the Spirit of the Living God. Look, you have the Trinity proven, its divinity declared through the mouth of the Holy Prophet Isaiah."
And when Heraclianus had said these things, Germinius began to praise him, saying: "You have a good heart and you are wellborn, and we have known you from your infancy; be converted to our Church.
To which also many others were saying: "Lord bishop! He himself was the one who fought against the heretics of dark Photinus. How now has he himself become a heretic?"
Germinius said: "I myself explained my faith to Eusebius and demonstrated it and satisfied him. As the Son of God himself says, 'The Father, who sent me, is greater than I' [John 14:28]. And: 'I have not come to do my own will, but the will of the Father, who sent me' [John 6:38]. For also about the Holy Spirit it is written: 'Unless I go away to my Father, the Spirit, the Paraclete, will not come to you' [John 16:7]. And: 'He does not speak from himself. He will receive from me and will announce it to you' [John 16:13] (These words he was saying to the people.) I myself have the true Faith, which is like this: I say the Father is unborn, invisible, immortal, without beginning, without end. But the Son I say has a beginning before the ages from the Father, God from God, Light from Light, but I do not say that he is the same as the Father is. For he himself says, 'The Father who sent me is greater than I.' And: 'I have not come to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.' The Holy Spirit I say is the Prince of the Angels and Archangels. For as the Son is not similar to the Father in every respect, so neither is the Holy Spirit to the Son."
Heraclianus: "The Father is greater, but in name only. For Paul the Apostle says: 'Christ is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God' [1 Corinthians 1:24]. Do you not believe that the particular Power of God is both the Son of God and True God? For this Power is also the whole of God, and through this same power we know that all powers were made. For it is written: 'By the Word of God the heavens were made firm, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their power' [Psalm 33:6] Understood, therefore, that through one power are all the powers in the heavens and on the earth and under the earth: through one power they came forth out of nothing."
Germinius: "Therefore do you say that the Son is the same as the Father is?"
Heraclianus: "Thus it is written in the Gospel of John. When Philip the Apostle said, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us,' Jesus responded, 'So much time I am with you, and you have not known me, Philip? Whoever sees me, sees also my Father, and I and the Father are one. How do you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?' [John 14:8-9]. Understand, therefore, that the Son is the same as the Father."
And Germinius was silent. But Theodorus the priest spoke up and said: "It is written where the Son of God says that 'concerning the day and the hour no one knows, neither the Angels, nor the Archangels, nor the Son, but the Father has set it in his own power' [Matthew 24:36]. How, therefore, do you say that the Son is the same as the Father?"
Heraclianus: "What sort of God do you preach, who is ignorant about day and hour?"
Theodorus said in confusion: "Thus it is written."
Heraclianus: "Have you not read that 'the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive?' [2 Corinthians 3:6]
But when this one was silent, confounded and humiliated, Agrippinus said: "It is written in the Apostle Paul: 'When he has handed over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has made vain every principality and every power and virtue. It is right for him to reign until he has put all enemies under his feet; for he puts everything under his feet. Last of all the enemy death will be destroyed. When, however, he says, that all things have been put under him, manifestly this is besides the one who put all things under him. When, however, all things have been put under him, then also the Son himself will be put under him who put all things under him, that God may be all in all' [1 Corinthians 15:24-28].
Heraclianus: "If it must be understood like that, as you say, therefore God has a being belonging to a future time, for the end, because it does not now exist. For if thus it is written: 'That God may be all in all'... Therefore your faith is empty, you presume in vain to preach a God before time. How is that? I ask you: Is there one divinity, or two?"
Agrippinus: "There is one."
Heraclianus: "You spoke well. Therefore, the divinity which is subjected is no longer the paternal divinity."
But he said: "You deny that the Son is subject to the Father?"
Heraclianus: "By will, not by necessity. For so that you may know, that it was by will also that he washed the feet of his own disciples. For also in another place it is written: 'The Spirit of the Prophets has been made subject to the prophets' [1 Corinthians 14:32]. Therefore, because it is written, are the prophets greater than the Divine Spirit of God? For also in another place Paul the Apostle writes to Timothy: 'Every divinely-inspired writing is useful for teaching, for correction.' How, therefore, do you say that the Son of God is created, and also say that he speaks through the prophets, and the Paraclete speaks through the Apostles, who is called the Advocate? If therefore the Son has been established as God before the ages, as you say, and the Holy Spirit was created through him, now therefore every Scripture is not divinely inspired. And what will we do about about the multitude of such great testimonies? First Isaiah the Prophet, who says, 'Who will declare his ancestry?' [Isaiah 53:8] For also John the Evangelist says, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' [John 1:1]. Is the Word of God able to be created? If he is a Word, whose Word is he? For also, concerning the Holy Spirit, Paul the Apostle says: 'No one sees the things which are in God except for the Spirit of God, who even discerns the depths of God' [1 Corinthians 2:11]. Who therefore is this Spirit, who knows the things which are in God? Is he not with God? Also it is written in Isaiah: 'Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?' [Isaiah 40:13]. If the Spirit of God is created, then he himself was at one time without spirit, although it is written in the Apostle Paul: 'We have not received a spirit of this world, but a spirit who is from God' [1 Corinthians 2:12]. And again he says, 'You are the letter of God, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God' [2 Corinthians 3:3]. And again he says: 'The Lord is Spirit; where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, there is God' [2 Corinthians 3:17]."
At this Agrippinus did not speak any more.
Germinius: "See how he blasphemes in calling the Holy Spirit God, although it is written: 'That no one is able to say that Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit' [1 Corinthians 12:3]. For also David says: 'The Lord says to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make all your enemies your footstool' [Psalm 110:1].
Heraclianus: "I already said a little before that this was by will, not by necessity. For also concerning the Son of God it is written: 'I am going to my God and to your God, to my Father and to your Father' [John 20:17]. And in another place he says: 'I praise you, Lord, Father of Heaven and Earth' [Matthew 11:25]. Therefore is the Son of God not Lord and God, because he calls the Father Lord and God? Therefore, although these things are written, you do not blush to call him Lord and God. Why therefore were you ashamed to say that the Holy Spirit is God, although it is written, 'God is Spirit' [John 4:24]? And if anything human person has blasphemed against him, he will be forgiven neither here, nor in the future. It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha than for those who sin against the Holy Spirit. For also Peter the Apostle said that the Holy Spirit is God, saying to Ananias and Saphira, his wife, who had committed fraud about the price of their field which they had sold. Then Blessed Peter said to Ananias: 'Who has persuaded you to lie to the Holy Spirit? You did not lie to a man, but to God' [Acts 5:3]. And immediately he fell down onto the ground and died."
Germinius: "How is the Holy Spirit God when it is written in Jeremiah: 'This is our God, and no other will be esteemed beside him. He has discovered the whole way of discipline and has given it to his own child, Jacob, and Israel, his own beloved. After these things he was seen on the earth and lived with men' [Baruch 3:35-36].
Heraclianus: Through ignorance you spoke well, showing that he prophesied that the Son is truly God, that God has lived among men. For so that you know that the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father together with the Holy Spirit, understand that besides this Trinity no god is to be feared, worshiped, or honored."
Germinius: "Therefore Christ is brother to the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit?"
Heraclianus: "We do not believe that. For as the Father is one, one also are the Son and the Holy Spirit, one strength. For also the three are one."
Germinius: "How do you prove this?"
Heraclianus: "Through the Apostle Paul."
Germinius: "Where is this written?"
Heraclianus: "In his Letter to the Ephesians."
Germinius: "Read."
Heraclianus: "'You are one body and one spirit, as you also have been called in your hope of one calling. One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God the Father of all, who is above all and in all for us' [Ephesians 4:4-6]."
Germinius: "Heraclianus, how do you arrange these things about the Faith?"
Heraclianus: "For when a ray proceeds from the sun, it is a portion from the whole; but the sun will be in the ray, because it is the ray of the sun, nor is the substance separated, but extended, as light is kindled from light. The material remains whole, undiminished; even if you draw even more portions from it you will have made them share its qualities. In the same way also, because this has been accomplished concerning God, also the Son of God is God, and both are one. In the same way also concerning the Holy Spirit and concerning God as a measure. Therefore he made another step, not a status; he did not divide, but proceeded. Therefore that Son of God, as was always preached before, descended into a certain virgin and in her womb was formed as flesh, is born as a human being mixed with God. Flesh ordered by spirit is born, grows up, speaks, and is Christ. This is my Faith."
When Heraclianus had said these things, Germinius was filled with anger and indignation and began to shout and to say: "He is a heretic, because he says that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are the whole of God. He is a homoousian; do not hold his Faith."
And he demanded of the people, saying: "Let no one, no servant or handmaiden of God, meet with him, breathe upon him, because now he is dead." And he was swearing with an oath that he would banish him into exile.
Heraclianus said: "The God who freed Israel from the hand of the King of the Amorites and the King of Basan, and who freed Paul from the hand of the Samaritans, he himself will free me from your hands."
And when he said these things, all the priests and deacons further said: "Let him not go out from here unless he has anathematized those bishops whom he named, whose Faith he said he holds."
For this was said to Heraclianus and Firmanus with all the brothers. But they did not do this thing.
Germinius said: <...> "It is not written."
And thus they dismissed them. And when they had dismissed them, a part of those comrades were shouting: "Let them be handed over to the governor and let them be killed, because they have made a sedition, and from one people have made two!"
And they were trying to compel them to subscribe to the Faith of the heretics. And they were repeating this at the top of their lungs, saying: "Let them be handed over to the governor and let them be killed!"
Then Germinius said: "Do not do this, brothers! They do not know what they are saying. If bishops have been led astray, how much more men like this?"
And others were trying to compel them to humiliate themselves under their power. And this is what they did. And they escaped from their hands even to the present day.
