We know through the grace of God that the
holy Church is called a virgin, as the Apostle says, “… I betrothed you to one
husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,” but in that one virgin
herself, virgins in the plural are also named. For we read, “Virgins will be
brought to the King after her.” Nor is there any doubt that there
is one Church which is spread throughout the whole world which is called by the
Apostle, “the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.”
Still this is one Church in such a way that in it many are called churches. For
the blessed Apostle himself says, “And I was unknown personally to the churches
of Judea that are in Christ.” But also he says that he sent a brother to the
Corinthians “who is praised in all the churches.” He revealed in the beginning
of the same letter that he had also written to the churches of Galatia. Showing
that his faithful are a light, our Lord says to his disciples, “You are the
light of the world,” and yet the blessed James does not hesitate to call the
children of God lights, saying, “… All good giving and every perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of lights.…” Therefore, in all of these
we find the word both in the singular and in the plural; the plural because the
very quality of the nature shows that all creatures are separable; but singular
because in order that there be one soul, one spirit, one virgin, one Church,
one light, this that one Trinity has brought about by its grace; this in nature
as well as in the persons is inseparable in such a way that whatever there is
said about the one as well as about the three persons in the singular is not
said in the plural. Therefore, the persons of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit cannot be separated, for whom one name by nature is so fitting that
there cannot be a plural in the three persons; with the exception of this by
which they are called persons, there can be no other name in the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit which is not given in the singular only. But scarcely
could the inadequacy of human speech find this one so that at least it would
say that there are three persons; so that if even this were not said, that
there is a Trinity would not be believed and from that complete silence, a
danger to faith would be born. (Fulgentius, Letter 14: The Letter of Fulgentius to
Ferrandus, in Fulgentius: Selected
Works [trans. Robert B. Eno; The Fathers of the Church 95; Washington, D.C.:
The Catholic University of America Press, 1997], 505-6)
