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CPG
Actual Author or Source  unknown
Source of Attribution to Julius I  Pseudo-Isidorian forgery
Text  Latin: pseudoisidor.mgh.de
Other Translations
Source of Information Thompson, Correspondence of Julius I, xxxv-xxxvi, xli, 186

The creed drawn up in the sacred Roman council by the most blessed Pope Julius and the rest of the bishops of the true faith:

1. In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It was the fourth year of the emperorship of Constantius and Constans, on October 8th, the sixth year of the indiction, and the holy and most blessed Pope Julius was presiding over the apostolic see of the city of Rome as overseer of the most holy and venerable Gospels in the church of the Lord God and of our Savior Jesus Christ, which is called the Constantinian Church. There were also other venerable men who were seated there and listening together with him: Benedict, bishop of Aquileia; Rufus, the most holy bishop of Cartanianus; Agapitus, bishop of the church of Ravenna; Julius, bishop of the church of Milan; Lucianus, bishop of Maurienne; and the remaining 116 bishops with them. The aforementioned Julius, most holy bishop of the city of Rome, said:
2. “To the holy see and the apostolic synod gathered in agreement and in one accord by the will and grace of God in the indivisible fellowship of the Holy Spirit in this ancient and nurturing city of Rome for the holy confirmation and correction of our faith and instruction in the blameless way of Christians. As you know, most blessed brothers, it is necessary that we all think and teach in agreement about the nature of God Most High and the Wisdom of the Father, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, with everyone desiring that there be a human and divine nature in him, as the voice of truth attests. For ‘If anyone will confess me before men, I also will confess him before my Father who is in heaven.
3. “‘But if anyone denies me and my words, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven’ (Mt 10:32,33).
4. “Because of this it is necessary that we first put down the creed of the 318 fathers confirmed in the synod of Nicaea and then faithfully deal with the things which are necessary.”
5. Everyone responded to this with one voice, “We have come together here so that we may first do these things according to the will of God and that we may begin from the foundation of Christ Jesus and that we may once more work at dealing with the oppression of the brothers. For, as long as they are so gravely afflicted, we are not able to rest or sleep, because as long as there are members vexed the whole rest of the body cannot have any peace or rest at all.”
6. For this is the creed drawn up in the general synod of Nicaea:
7. “We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible,
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only Son from the father, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father. Through him all things where made, both those in heaven and those on earth. Because of us men and because of salvation he descended and became incarnate and became a man. He suffered, and on the third day he rose. He ascended into heaven and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
And in the Holy Spirit.
8. But as for those who say, “There was when he was not,” or “He did not exist before he came to be,” or “He was made out of things which did not exist or out of another substance or essence,” or say that the Son of God is either created or changeable, the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes such people.
9. The 318 both acknowledged and confirmed this venerable creed and they explained it with the Scriptures in agreement and in one accord.
10. For also our Lord, when he sent his disciples to preach, said, “Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
11. We affirm that we not only both hold and understand these things in this way, but also that we have held and understood them in this way for a long time, and that we will stand on this faith until death, anathematizing every heresy with a synod.
12. We truthfully testify before the almighty God and our Lord Jesus Christ that we have understood all these things with our hearts and minds (as a result of this we have come to know our very selves) and now we understand and speak it.
13. For since these things have already been touched on in this way, the unbegotten nature of the Father is foreign to the Son, but it must be preached that the Son is consubstantial with the Father. For the Son of God has no equality with made creatures but is similar in every way to only the Father, the begetter, and he is not from another substance or essence, if you will, but from the Father.
14. Accordingly, before everything the impious and wicked and godless doctrines of Arius and those who agreed with him were investigated. And under that circumstance it was decided by a vote of all to anathemize his impious sect and at the same time also the wicked and godless words and names which he used, blaspheming the Son of God and saying that he exists out of things which did not exist and also, “There was when he was not,”
15. (For how was there and how also was he not?)
16. and saying that according to free will the Son of God was capable of vice and virtue and calling him a creature and a product.
17. Therefore the holy, universal council anathematized all these silly, blasphemous wives’ tales and it did not accommodate what it heard from the impious sect and its swelling or the understanding and sense of the wicked.
18. Since you have already heard or will hear all these things which happened concerning that council and how it ended, let us not perhaps seem to be railing at a man who carries worthy reproaches because of his offense.
19. For it agreed that those who divide the Word from the substance and divinity of the Father and make him foreign to the Father are divided from the catholic church and are foreign to the Christian name.
20. Therefore let them be anathema also to us and everyone, because they seem to be hagglers of the Word of truth.
21. For the apostolic command is, “If anyone announces to beyond what you have received, let him be anathema” (Gal 1:9).
22. Therefore declare that no one have fellowship with them.
23. For light has no fellowship with darkness (2 Cor 6:14).
24. Drive them far away from everything, for Christ has no union with Belial (2 Cor 6:15).
25. Watch out, dearest brothers, that you do not write to them or receive their writings.
26. At the same time also strive, dearest brothers and fellow ministers, as if you were present to give consent to our council in spirit and declare your subscription, that by all our fellow ministers everywhere one harmony is preserved.
27. But let us reject and cast far beyond the borders of the catholic church those who do not affirm that Christ is God but say, “He is not true God,” who do not affirm he is a son but say, “He is not a true son,” so that the begotten is not at the same time unbegotten.
28. For they profess how they understand his begetting by saying, “What has been begotten has been made,” and in that, since Christ was before the ages, they gave him a beginning and an end which is not in time but which he has before the ages.
29. Let us at the same time pray both for all of us and for the rest of the oppressed brothers that they themselves may be uprooted unharmed and we may be preserved blameless so that those things which are well-pleasing may endure having been made firm through our Lord Jesus Christ, of God the Father in the Holy Spirit, according to his good will, just as we believe. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
30. The eternal consubstantial Trinity is Jesus.
Given November 1 in the year of the most noble consuls Felicianus and Maximianus.

Translated by AMJ

Last updated: 8-31-2012

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