Section 849
VI. In the sixth century were a sort of heretics called Bo-o-nosians
Who held that Christ was not the proper but adoptive Son; against whom dustinian bishop of Valae in Spain wrote;[4506] and Arianism spread and prevailed under the Gothic kings in several parts. Fulgentius speaks of the tenets of the Arians in this time, that the Word or Son of God was not of the same substance with the Father.[4507] This author wrote an answer to ten objections of theirs: to the first, concerning diversity of words and names used, he replies, "When Father and Son are named, in these two names a diversity of words is acknowledged, but neither by those two different words the nature of both is signified, for the diversity of those names does not divide the natures, but shows the truth of the generation, as from one true Father, we know that one true Son exists." To the second objection, concerning the ineffability of generation, he observes, "because the generation of the Son is unspeakable, it is not unknowable, nor does it follow, because it cannot be declared, that it cannot be known."[4508]
Chilpericus, king of the Franks, endeavored to revive the Sabellian heresy, but was opposed by Gregory Furnensis:[4509] besides Fulgentius and Gregory, there were others in this age who asserted and defended the eternal generation and Son-ship of Christ, as Fortunatus, Cassiodorus, Gregorius Magnus, and others;[4510] and even by a synod consisting of Gothic bishops,[4511] in number sixty three. In the same century the famous Boetius declares his faith in God the Father, in God the Son, and in God the holy Ghost; that the Father has a Son begotten of his substance, and co-eternal with him, whose generation no human mind call conceive of.[4512]