Shield of the Trinity
A medieval teaching diagram: three circles on a circle and one at its centre, joined by six bands. It is a figure of words as much as of geometry, lettered here as the manuscripts letter it: Pater, Filius and Spiritus Sanctus in the outer circles, Deus at the centre, est along the three inner bands and non est along the three outer ones.
In the faith
Read along the bands it states the faith of the Athanasian Creed: the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father. One God in three persons, set down so a child could trace it.
Sources
- Athanasian Creed
- Peter of Poitiers, Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi, manuscripts of the early thirteenth century