PREFACE.

THE Author's object in the following pages has

been to exhibit, in chronological order, and after the manner of a Harmony, a Collection of the more important Creeds which have come down to us belonging to the ancient Western Church. He has continued the series till the Creed became fixed in the exact type now in use as the normal Confession of the whole of Western Christendom. Thenceforward, confining himself to the English Church, he has endeavoured to trace the changes which a formula so familiar, no longer varying as to its subject-matter, underwent in language, in our own country, till it came to be expressed in the very words in which we now recite it.

He has not included within his plan the Creed to which St. Athanasius's name is commonly attached, nor any of the Confessions of faith drawn up by Councils, much less any put forth merely by individuals. His aim has been to exhibit those formulæ only which may reasonably be regarded as normal Creeds, authoritatively in use in this or the other particular Church, whether for the

instruction of Catechumens before baptism and for customary rehearsal after baptism, or for the Interrogatories used at the actual time of baptism.

The Formulæ used for the instruction of Catechumens before baptism and for rehearsal afterwards often differed in the same church from those used interrogatively at the time of baptism. The two classes are accordingly arranged separately.

The Author is not aware of the existence of any work of precisely the same description. Archbishop Usher, in his Treatise De Symbolis, has a valuable Collection of Ancient Creeds, Eastern as well as Western. Suicer, in his Thesaurus, under the word Zuußolov, has availed himself largely of Usher's work. Bingham's Collection is well known. But the writer who has brought together the greatest number of these formularies is Walch, in his Bibliotheca Symbolica, published in 1770°.

a De Romanæ Ecclesiæ Symbolo Apostolico Vetere, aliisque Fidei formulis, tum ab Occidentalibus tum ab Orientalibus, in prima Catechesi et Baptismo proponi solitis, Diatriba. Works, vol. vii. pp. 297, &c.

b Origines Ecclesiasticæ, book x. c. 4.

Summary Reviews of the several Articles of the Western Creed, corresponding more or less to the Historical Review which forms Part IV of the present Treatise, are given in the First of Vossius's Dissertationes De Tribus Symbolis; in Grabe's Annotations on the IVth, Vth, and VIth chapters of Bp. Bull's

Walch's plan however, while it is more extensive as to place, is more contracted as to time, than the one which is here adopted. He takes in the Creeds of Eastern as well as of Western Christendom, the Creeds of individual writers and of Councils as well as of Churches, heretical Creeds as well as orthodox: but he confines himself, for the most part, within the limits of the five first centuries, thus stopping short of the period at which the Creed attained its present completeness. Moreover his principle of classification is such as to prevent him from exhibiting the Creeds either of the Western or of the Eastern branch of the Church in one continuous series chronologically arranged. Indeed he is not, in every instance, solicitous to ascertain the dates of the Creeds which he produces. Nor does he appear to have at all contemplated a Harmony. And he has made no distinction,-nor has any other writer that the Author is aware of,-between the Interrogative Creeds used at baptism and the Declarative Creeds. But his work is a storehouse of useful matter: and the Author is under repeated obligations to him, not only for directing him, in some instances, to Creeds which

Judicium Ecclesiæ Catholicæ; and, more recently, in an elaborate note appended to the Treatise on Prescription against Heretics, in the Translation of Tertullian, published in the Library of the Fathers.

he might not otherwise have met with, but also for pointing out, through his careful allegation of the writers whom he has consulted, not a few sources of valuable information.

For several early English Creeds the Author is indebted to Maskell's Monumenta Ritualia.

The Reader will find in the Appendix a Nicene Creed in Greek words, but Roman letters, interlined with a Latin version, from a manuscript Gelasian Sacramentary, of the eighth century, published by Muratori, and also two ancient English versions of the same Creed, one, it is believed, never before published. These are not strictly within the limits of the present treatise ; but they border upon them too closely to make an apology for their insertion necessary.

The Author avails himself of this opportunity to express his thanks to the Delegates of the University Press for having kindly undertaken the publication of his work.

CHRIST CHURCH,

March 13, 1858.