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The whole doctrine of the Trinity has been extensively dealt with by the Fathers who opposed the Arian heresy. The classical writings are the following: St. Athanasius, Contra Arianos Orationes Quatuor (on the Divinity of the Son; see Card. Newman’s annotated translation), and Ad Serapionem Epistolæ Quatuor (on the Divinity of the Holy Ghost); St. Basil, Contra Eunomium (especially the solution of philosophical and dialectical objections—the genuineness of the last two books is questioned), and De Spiritu Sancto ad Amphilochium; St. Gregory of Nyssa, Contra Eunomium; Didymus, De Trinitate and De Spiritu Sancto; St. Cyril of Alexandria, Thesaurus de SS. Trinitate; St. Hilary of Poitiers, De Trin. (a systematic demonstration and defence of the dogma); St. Ambrose, De Fide Trinitatis (specially the consubstantiality of the Son), and De Spiritu S.; St. Augustine, De Trinitate—the latter part of this work (bks. viii.–xv.), in which St. Augustine goes farther than his predecessors, is the foundation of the great speculations of the Schoolmen. St. Anselm first summed up and methodically arranged in his Monologium the results obtained by St. Augustine; Peter Lombard and William of Paris (opusc. de Trinitate) developed them still further; Richard of St. Victor, in his remarkable treatise De Trinitate, added many new ideas. The doctrine received its technical completion at the hands of Alexander of Hales, i., q. 42 sqq.; St. Bonaventure in l. i., Sent.; and St. Thomas, esp. I., q. 27 sqq.; C. Gentes, l. iv., cc. 2–26, and in Qq. Dispp. passim. All the work of the thirteenth century was summed up by Dionysius the Carthusian in l. i., Sent. After the Council of Trent, we have excellent treatises, positive and apologetic: Bellarmine, De Verbo Dei; Gregory of Valentia, De Trinitate; Petavius; Thomassin; but the best of all the positive scholastic treatises is Ruiz, De Trinitate. Among modern authors, Kuhn, Franzelin, and Kleutgen deserve special mention. On the Divinity of the Son, see Canon Liddon’s Bampton Lectures. Cardinal Manning has written two valuable works on the Holy Ghost: The Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost; The Internal Mission of the Holy Ghost. For the history of the Dogma, see Card. Newman’s Arians; Schwane, History of Dogma (in German), vols. i., ii.; and Werner, History of Apologetic Literature (in German).

We shall treat first of the Dogma itself as contained in Scripture and Tradition; and afterwards we shall give some account of the attempts of the Fathers and Schoolmen to penetrate into the depths of the mystery.