be likely to have correct information on such a matter,1 and it was finally accepted and ratified by the assembled Fathers in addition to the Creed of Nicæa. "We, therefore," so runs the definition of faith, "declare that the exposition of the right and blameless faith by the three hundred and eighteen holy and blessed Fathers, who were assembled at Nicæa in the time of the then Emperor Constantine of pious memory, should have the first place; and that those things should also be maintained which were defined by the hundred and fifty holy Fathers of Constantinople, for the taking away of the heresies which had then sprung up, and the confirmation of the same, our Catholic and Apostolic Faith." This definition was followed by the recital of both creeds-(1) the original Nicene, and (2) the enlarged Constantinopolitan form of it.

On a review of the whole evidence on both sides, it would seem quite clear that even if the Council of Constantinople made itself in any way responsible for the creed generally associated with it, it never intended it to supersede the creed put forth at Nicæa, or to come into general circulation as the creed of the Church universal. The silence of all the early authorities is conclusive on this point. But its recognition at Chalcedon may very possibly imply that it really received some sort of sanction at Constantinople as an orthodox creed.2 But that is all that can be claimed for it. Before Chalcedon there is no trace of its general use; and even after this Council it only gradually made its way into general circulation. It probably superseded the true Nicene Creed, owing to its use in the euchar

1 See Lumby, The History of the Creeds, pp. 78-81.

2 Hort argues that it may have been recognised at Constantinople as the Creed of Cyril of Jerusalem, whose authority was apparently impugned at the Council. See Two Dissertations, etc., pp. 97-107. According to Kunze, it was brought forward as the Baptismal Creed of Nectarius.

istic service, which dates in the East from about the middle of the sixth century;1 in the West from some time later. The confusion of name, and the transfer to the enlarged creed of the title Nicene, would appear to belong to a still later period.

Appended are two forms of the creed-(1) the Greek text as commonly received in the East since Chalcedon, and (2) the Latin version which has been current in the Western Church since the Council of Toledo, 589.

“Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν πατέρα παντοκράτορα, ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς, ὁρατῶν τε πάντων καὶ ἀοράτων. Καὶ εἰς ἕνα κύριον Ἰησοῦν χριστὸν τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ, τὸν ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων, φῶς ἐκ φωτός, Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ, γεννηθέντα οὐ ποιηθέντα, ὁμοούσιον τῷ πατρί· δι ̓ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο· τὸν δι' ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν κατελθόντα ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν καὶ σαρκωθέντα ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ Μαρίας τῆς παρθένου καὶ ἐνανθρωπήσαντα, σταυρωθέντα τε ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐπί Ποντίου Πιλάτου καὶ παθόντα καὶ ταφέντα, καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ κάτα τὰς γραφὰς, καὶ ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐράνους, καὶ καθεζόμενον ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ πατρὸς, καὶ πάλιν ἐρχόμενον μετὰ δόξης κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς· οὗ τῆς βασιλείας οὐκ ἔσται τέλος. Καὶ εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, τὸ κύριον καὶ τὸ ζωοποιὸν τὸ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, τὸ σὺν πατρὶ καὶ υἱῷ συμπροσκυνούμενον καὶ συνδοξαζόμενον, τὸ λαλῆσαν διὰ τῶν προφήτων· εἰς μίαν ἁγίαν καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν. ὁμολογοῦμεν εν βάπτισμα εἰς ἄφεσιν

1 I.e., from the time of the Emperor Justin, see Zaccaria, Bibliotheca Ritualis, vol. II. civ. Previously to this the true Nicene Creed had been used in some parts of the East.

2 Spain adopting it first in 589.

The enlarged creed was carefully distinguished from the Nicene at Toledo (see above, p. 216), but is confused with it and definitely termed Nicene in Charlemagne's Capitulare of 787 (quoted above, p. 221).

ἁμαρτιῶν, προσδοκῶμεν ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν καὶ ζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος. ἀμήν.”

"Credo in unum Deum Patrem Omnipotentem, Factorem cœli et terræ, atque visibilium omnium et invisibilium: Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, et ex patre natum ante omnia sæcula, Deum de Deo, Lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero, genitum non factum, consubstantialem Patri: Per quem omnia facta sunt, Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de cœlis, et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est, crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato: passus et sepultus est, et resurrexit tertia die secundum Scripturas, et ascendit in cœlum, sedet ad dexteram Patris. Et iterum venturus est cum gloria judicare vivos et mortuos : cujus regni non erit finis. Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem, qui ex Patre Filioque procedit, qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur, qui locutus est per prophetas. Et unam sanctam Catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum, et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi sæculi. Amen."

In comparing the English translation with this, three points deserve attention.

1. "By whom all things were made." As Bishop Lightfoot has pointed out, the expression in the English "fails to suggest any idea different from the other expression in the creed, 'Maker of heaven and earth, which has before been applied to the Father." 1 In the original, however, a distinction is accurately marked, and the preposition used (Sià, not vπo, Latin per) describes the Son as the mediate agent of creation, through whom all things were made. The creed thus faithfully repro

1 1 Lightfoot, On a Fresh Revision of the New Testament, p. 122.

duces the teaching of Scripture, in which this preposition Sià is specially used of the divine Word. Eg. S. John i 3: "All things were made by (dá) Him"; ver. 10, "the world was made by Him" (di avтoû).1

2. "The Lord and Giver of life." Again to the English reader the phrase is ambiguous, and might be taken to mean the Lord of life and the Giver of the life; whereas in the original it is quite clear, "The Lord (Tò KúρLOV used absolutely, expressing the Divinity of the Spirit), and the Life-giver (rò (WoTolóv).

3. "One Catholic and Apostolic Church." In this clause there is no English equivalent to the word åyíav, or sanctam. It is generally thought that the omission of the word "holy" in the translation first made for the English Prayer-Book of 1549 was simply due to a printer's error. But if so, it is strange that the blunder was never corrected in any of the subsequent editions of the Prayer-Book. And it has been plausibly argued that the omission was deliberate, not because the Reformers made light of holiness as a note of the Church, for the word "holy" is retained in the corresponding article in the Apostles' Creed, "the holy Catholic Church" but because they imagined on critical grounds that it had no place in the true text of the creed. It is certainly the case that the word was wanting in the creed as given in some of the early editions of the Councils which were accessible to them, and they may have thought that they were restoring a truer text than that which had been previously in use.* However this may be, whether the omission was intentional or due to inadvertence, there is no doubt that it is wrong, and that we ought to read this article with the

1 Cf. 1 Cor. viii. 6; Col. i. 16; Heb. i. 2.

* See an article on "The Anglican Version of the Nicene Creed," Church Quarterly Review, vol. viii. p. 372.

four notes of the Church plainly expressed: "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church."

IV. The Athanasian Creed.

As the Apostles' Creed was not composed by the apostles, and the Nicene Creed is not the Creed of Nicæa, so the Athanasian Creed is not the work of Athanasius. Not only is the creed indebted (as will presently be shown) for much of its language to the works of Augustine written some years after the death of Athanasius, but also there can be no question that the original language of the creed is Latin, whereas Athanasius wrote in Greek. "It is certain," says Lumby, "that whoever peruses the various Greek versions of the creed which are extant cannot fail to abandon the notion that the original language of this composition was Greek. The unusual words and strange constructions betray the hand of translators, and those not of great skill. That this may be apparent from different versions, the first two verses are subjoined. .. They vary widely from one another, as will be seen, and bear no trace whatever of a common Greek original. It is, therefore, impossible to believe that any such original ever existed." 1

"1

Quicunque vult salvus esse, ante omnia opus est ut teneat Catholicam fidem; quam nisi quisque integram inviolatamque servaverit, absque dubio in æternum peribit."

“ (1) Εἴ τις θέλει σωθῆναι, πρὸ πάντων χρὴ αὐτῷ τὴν καθολικὴν κρατῆσαι πίστιν· ἣν εἰ μή τις ὑγιῆ καὶ ἄμωμον τηρήσειε, πάσης ἀμφιβολίας εκτός εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ἀπολεῖται.

“(2) Τῷ θέλοντι σωθῆναι πρὸ πάντων ἀνάγκη τὴν 1 The History of the Creeds, p. 189.