Library › Latin: Early Christian Writings › De Ratione Fidei
This short treatise on the rule of faith is by Niceta, bishop of Remesiana in Dacia around 400. It begins with Paul’s advice to Titus that believers should attend to good works and avoid foolish questions and quarrels, and complains of those who, trying to know high things, lose the peace Christ left his Church. Niceta then addresses the doctrine of the Son against Arian teaching, arguing that Christ’s human words and sufferings, undertaken for the world’s salvation, should increase rather than diminish the honour paid to him.
The work is part of Niceta’s catechetical writings, intended to give those preparing for baptism a firm grasp of Trinitarian faith in a region where Arian Christianity remained strong. It shows the typical anti-Arian argument that texts about Christ’s humility refer to his humanity, while the Father’s word at the baptism, This is my beloved Son, establishes his divinity. Niceta’s moderate and practical tone makes the treatise a useful example of how the theology of Nicaea was taught at a pastoral level.
About this edition. The Latin text comes from Corpus Corporum, the Latin text repository of the University of Zurich (edition: Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 52, Parisiis 1846), reused with attribution for non-commercial purposes (CC BY-NC-SA). Every word has been analyzed with LatinCy, a neural language model for Latin — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from Lewis & Short’s A Latin Dictionary.