Contra Errores Graecorum

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Contra errores Graecorum, ad Urbanum IV Pontificem Maximum (Against the Errors of the Greeks, to Pope Urban IV) is a lengthy 1263 essay by Roman Catholic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas. In this essay, Aquinas argues that the Greeks don't accept universal jurisdiction of the Pope because their pneumatology (doctrine of the Holy Spirit) is defective, as evidenced, he says, in their rejection of the filioque clause, which states that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This essay was influential among the participants in the 1274 Council of Lyons. Pope Urban IV had asked Aquinas to prepare this document, in preparation for that council. The essay is divided into two parts; the first part has 32 chapters and the second part has 41 chapters. An introductory letter to Pope Urban precedes the first chapter of the first part.

The 1968 Leonine edition is available in Latin at the Corpus Thomisticum Website. [1]

[edit] Contents

While there seems to be no complete English translation available online, as of May 2007, Ecclesia Triumphans Catholic Apologetics webmaster Antoine Valentim has translated the first 10 chapters of the first part of the essay: [2]

  1. How it should be understood when it is said that the Son comes from the Father as an effect from a cause (Quomodo intelligitur hoc quod dicitur quod filius habet a patre sicut causatum a causa).
  2. How it should be understood when it is said that the Son is second, after the Father, and the Holy Spirit is third (Quomodo intelligitur cum dicitur, quod filius sit secundus a patre, et spiritus sanctus sit tertius).
  3. How it should be understood when it is said that the Holy Spirit is the third light (Quomodo intelligitur hoc quod spiritus sanctus sit tertium lumen).
  4. How it should be understood when it is said that essence is begotten in the Son, and spirated in the Holy Spirit (Quomodo intelligitur, quod essentia sit genita in filio, et spirata in spiritu sancto).
  5. How it should be understood when it is said that Jesus is the Son of the Father's essence (Quomodo intelligitur quod Iesus dicitur filius paternae essentiae).
  6. How it should be understood when it is said that what naturally belongs to the Father, naturally belongs to the Son (Quomodo intelligitur, quod quae sunt propria naturaliter patris, sunt propria filii).
  7. How it should be understood when it is said that the perfection of the Father does not lack anything from either the Son or the Holy Spirit (Quomodo intelligitur quod pater neque filio neque spiritu sancto indiget ad sui perfectionem).
  8. How it should be understood when the Holy Spirit is called unbegotten (Quomodo intelligitur quod spiritus sanctus dicatur ingenitus).
  9. How it should be understood when the Holy Spirit is said to be the middle between the Father and the Son (Quomodo intelligitur quod spiritus sanctus dicitur medius patris et filii).
  10. How it should be understood when it is said that the Holy Spirit is the image of the Son (Quomodo intelligitur hoc quod dicitur, quod spiritus sanctus sit imago filii).