INDEX

principles, they are not three substances, but are so in another sense.

IX That Proclus A 5th-century Neoplatonist philosopher. bears witness that Plato perceived three Kings in his Epistle: and concerning the names by which the ineffable Principle is described, namely God the Father.

X Likewise concerning those three from the most profound theology of Proclus, who interprets the mysteries of Plato: and that the Platonists establish three principles, of which the first begets the second, and the third is the state original: "habitus" of them both.

XI Concerning the three subsistences subsistentiis: individual existences or persons, or principles, from Plotinus: and that there are neither more nor fewer. And that this knowledge is divine rather than demonstrable by reason.

XII The profound theology of Plotinus concerning the three subsistences: and that all wisdom and the Divinity of the Second comes from the First.

XIII Concerning the threefold Divinity, from Numenius A 2nd-century philosopher who linked Plato to Pythagoras and Hebrew thought.: and that one must speak of these things holily and purely: and concerning their mutual and indivisible substance.

XIIII Concerning the triune God and the threefold Divinity from Calcidius, in which sense the views of the higher Platonists are declared. And that the First is the Supreme Good, the Second is Mind, Providence, and Eternal Wisdom, and the Third is the Shaper and Soul of the World. And that they openly and distinctly confess these three persons and hypostases hypostases: the distinct persons of the Trinity.

XV Concerning the second Hypostasis, that is, the Mind that creates the world, from Anaxagoras; a description of his divine nature, and that from this he creates things visible and invisible, just as modern religion does.

XVI Confirmation from Pletho Gemistus A Byzantine scholar who revived Platonism in the West. that the Magical Referring to the "Chaldean Oracles" or Zoroastrian lore. teachings speak of the Trinity, of a first and second Creator or God: and that Bessarion A 15th-century Cardinal and humanist. also saw and confirmed these things: that the Arab Avicenna saw this order of the Trinity among the Platonists, but did not perceive it correctly in every respect: and that the Intelligence of the first sphere is the same as the Soul of the World.

XVII That according to the author Suidas, Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary Egyptian sage. wrote of the threefold Divinity and the everlasting Trinity, which alone he called the eternal and inseparable substance; and that he says creation existed through the Word of God, just as Moses does.

XVIII That Saint Augustine openly bears witness that the Platonists wrote of the three persons.

XIX Concerning the three Hypostases, from the oracle of Apollo: and that among the ancients, all things were written in verse: and that the mysteries of the ancient Philosophers could have flowed from these oracles.

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BOOK THREE.

CHAPTER I Concerning the whole Divinity: and that all people, by an instinct of nature, name God in the singular in every age: and examples from Plato, Aristotle, Homer, and Demosthenes.

II That for a similar reason, the poets who succeeded Homer spoke—and indeed more divinely—concerning the one God and those things which are truly preached about him.

III The same proof from the ancient Philosophers, concerning the divine praises celebrated by them: that there is one God, that he is the Mind and Animation of the Universe, the beginning, the middle, and the end; from Pythagoras, Archytas, Philolaus, Asclepius, Acmon, and Mercury Hermes.