TRACTATUS.

THE preceding Documents exhibit the Creed as it was professed in the Eastern and Western Churches respectively antecedently to the close of the fifth century, though yet the Creeds of Nicea and Constantinople, Eastern as they are in origin and in type, are Creeds of the Church Universal. The Treatises which follow are Commentaries upon the Creed by writers of both divisions of the Church.

I. The first, on the Creed of Jerusalem, is from the Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril, which were delivered by him, then a presbyter, and soon afterwards bishop of that Church, to the Catechumens whom he was preparing for baptism. Cyril goes over the Creed twice in these Lectures, the first time in a summary way in a single lecture, afterwards at length and in detail throughout several. It is the former of these which is here given.

St. Cyril's Lectures were delivered in the year 348. II., III. St. Augustine belonged to the Church of Western Africa. He was born at Tagaste in Numidia, A.D. 354; was baptized by St. Ambrose at Milan, on Easter Eve, 387; was ordained a presbyter of the Church of Hippo Regius, in Numidia, in 390; and five years afterwards was consecrated bishop of the He died August 28, A.D. 430.

same.

Of the two treatises here given, the former is, as he

mentions in his Retractations, a discourse which he delivered, while yet a presbyter, (A.D. 393,) at Hippo Regius, in the presence of the whole of the African Episcopate, who were holding a Council in that city. It was afterwards, at the instance of his friends, reduced to writing and published.

The second treatise is of a more familiar kind, and affords an admirable specimen of his mode of preaching ad populum. It is a sermon addressed to candidates for baptism. Its date may be placed at about the year 400.

IV. Of Rufinus mention has been made in the notice prefixed to the Creed of Aquileia, of which Church he was a presbyter. He was evidently familiar with St. Cyril's Exposition, of which he makes frequent use. He was baptized in 369, and died about 410. The date of his Commentary may be set down as about A.D. 400.

V. The tract of Venantius Fortunatus is a Commentary on the Athanasian Creed: and it supplies the earliest external testimony to the date of that formulary.

Venantius was born and educated in the north of Italy; but having travelled into France he settled at Poictiers, and somewhere about the year 560 was ordained priest, and afterwards consecrated bishop of that Church. He was still living in the year 600. His Commentary may be dated at about the year 570.

VI., VII. The two remaining treatises relate not to the Creed as a whole, but to a single portion of it, the third Article. They were called forth by the heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches. Cyril of Alexandria's letter by the former, Leo's by the latter.

Both Cyril's letter and Leo's receive in the Definitio Fidei of the Council of Chalcedon the deliberate sanction of that Council, as St. Cyril's had before received that of the Council of Ephesus as well as that of the Alexandrian Synod of which it was the utterance. They are to be regarded therefore as expositions, stamped with the authority of the Universal Church, of the Article to which they relate. In this respect they stand upon a higher footing than the expositions of individual Fathers, however venerable their names. Their dates are respectively, Cyril's Epistle to Nestorius, A.D. 430, Leo's to Flavian, A.D. 449.

See p. 22, above.

b Routh's Opuscula, vol. ii. p. 94.

42

S. CYRILLI HIEROSOLYMITANTI EPISCOPI

CATECHESIS QUARTA.

ΚΑΤΗΧΗΣΙΣ

Δ ́ ΦΩΤΙΖΟΜΕΝΩΝ.

Εν Ἱεροσολύμοις σχεδιασθεῖσα, περὶ τῶν δέκα δογμάτων. Καὶ ἀνάγνωσις ἐκ τῆς πρὸς Κολοσσαεῖς· “ Βλέπετε μή τις ὑμᾶς ἔσται ὁ συλαγωγῶν διὰ τῆς φιλοσοφίας καὶ κενῆς ἀπάτης, κατὰ τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, κατὰ τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου,” καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς.

1. ΜΙΜΕΙΤΑΙ τὴν ἀρετὴν ἡ κακία, καὶ τὸ ζιζάνιον βιάζεται σῖτος νομισθῆναι, σχήματι μὲν πρὸς τὸν σῖτον ἐξομοιούμενον, ἐκ δὲ τῆς γεύσεως ὑπὸ τῶν διακριτικῶν ἐξελεγχόμενον. Καὶ ὁ Διάβολος μετασχηματίζεται εἰς ἄγγελον φωτὸς, οὐκ ἵνα ἐπανέλθῃ ὅπου καὶ ἦν, (ὥσπερ γὰρ ἄκμων, ἀνήλατον τὴν καρδίαν κτησάμενος, ἀμετανόητον λοιπὸν ἔχει τὴν προαίρεσιν) ἀλλ ̓ ἵνα τοὺς ἰσάγγελον βίον πολιτευομένους ἀβλεψίας σκότει καὶ ἀπιστίας λοιμώδει περιβάλλῃ καταστάσει. Πολλοὶ λύκοι περιάγουσιν ἐν ἐνδύμασι προβάτων, προβάτων μὲν ἐνδύματα κεκτημένοι, οὐ μὴν καὶ ὄνυχας καὶ ὀδόντας· ἀλλὰ τὴν ἥμερον περικείμενοι δορὰν, καὶ τῷ σχήματι τοὺς ἀκάκους ἀπατῶντες, τὸν φθοροποιὸν τῆς ἀσεβείας ἐκ τῶν ὀδόντων προσχέουσιν ἰόν. Χρεία τοίνυν θείας ἡμῖν χάριτος, καὶ νηφαλίου διανοίας, καὶ βλεπόν των ὀφθαλμῶν, ἵνα μὴ, ζιζάνιον ὡς σῖτον φαγόντες, ἐξ ἀγνοίας βλαβῶμεν, μήτε τὸν λύκον πρόβατον ὑπολαβόντες, θηρευθῶμεν, μήτε ἄγγελον ἀγαθοποιὸν τὸν ὀλεθροποιὸν Διάβολον ὑποπτεύσαντες, καταποθῶμεν. “ Περιέρχεται γὰρ ὡς λέων ὠρυόμενος, ζητῶν τίνα καταπίῃ,” κατὰ τὴν γραφήν. Διὰ τοῦτο