Trino Deo et símplici

[KjetilK]

This could perhaps be posted in another forum, but this seemed to be the closest one.

In Eterna Christi munera, a hymn to Sta. Sunniva, the Patron Saint of Western Norway, the last verse is, as is normal, a glorification of the triune God. But one thing struck me the other day. In the Norwegian translation (I can’t find it online anymore), the first sentence is translated “du trefaldige og eine Gud,” which in English would roughly be “you triune and one God” (which sounds better in Norwegian than in English).

The latin, however, seems to say more, not merely that God is triune and one, but triune and simple: “Trino Deo et símplici.”

Am I just reading this wrong (etymology can be dangerous), or is this a statement that God is not merely one, but simple? Is this a straight forward expression of the doctrine of divine simplicity (which was, and is, the Roman Catholic view of God, and would be taught at the time, in the 12th or 13th century)?

 

[Tyrel]

I generally dislike it when people post responses apparently just for the sake of getting a word in edgewise, but without providing any real insight on the subject. I see that far too often on these forums. However, I may be about to do that same thing - your question has been left hanging for a while so I’ll just give you my two cents and you can take it for whatever it’s worth.

Translations are often difficult, and often deeper connotations are lost in translations, even between closely related languages (like English to French). If the Norwegian translators did translate simplici (or any cognate) as eine, a term which translates pretty much univocally to the English word ‘one,’ then their translation certainly is losing something from the latin (unless there’s some queer fact about Latin as it was used in the period and place this prayer was originally written of which I’m unaware, but I doubt that). It loses just as much as an English translation with the word ‘one’ would be losing.

If the Latin says ‘simplici’ or any cognate, and especially if it was written after the scholastic influence in the 13th century, then certainly the word was intended to carry more significance than the affirmation that God is ‘eine’. Although St. Sunniva was from the 10th century, the closest I’ve been able to find (from cursory searches) for a date of origin for the hymn indicates that it was published in 1590, which makes it next to certain that the word simplici is pregnant with more meaning than can be conveyed by the word ‘eine.’

 

[Expatreprocedit]

I believe this issue came up in the Western Church in the 8th-9th century in a controversy between Hincmar of Rheims and a monk named Gottshalk. You may be interested in a book named Trina Deitas by George Tavard.