3. THE CREED, OR DECREE, OF CHALCEDON, In succession to Gnostic, Sabellian, Arian, and Apollinarian heresy, the opposed opinions of Nestorius, who had already been condemned at Ephesus, A.D. 431, and Eutyches were the occasion of the fourth General Council, which met at Chalcedon, A.D. 451, at the summons of Theodosius II. Nestorius and Eutyches had been dignitaries of the Church of Constantinople, the former Patriarch, the latter Archimandrite. Like Apollinaris of Laodicea, they raised Christological problems not foreclosed by the conciliar decisions against Gnostic, Sabellian, and Arian doctrine,-problems relating not to the eternal but to the incarnate life and personality of the Saviour of Men. Apollinaris denied to the Word made Flesh a rational human soul, holding that He merely assumed a human body and animal soul (†vɣn äλoyos). Nestorius objected, not unnaturally, to the unscriptural title, Mother of God (OEOTÓKos), applied to the Mother of the Lord by those who vigorously pressed to its literal consequences the Nicene doctrine, and he sought relief in the doctrine of the separateness of the Divine and human natures associated in Christ's person. Eutyches held that the human nature was absorbed in the Divine, so that it could be said, "God is born," "God suffered," "God died." The lines of orthodox doctrine had been traced by Pope Leo I., the Great, A.D. 448, in his letter to Flavianus, the Patriarch of Constantinople, on "the Incarnation of the Word," and these were followed closely at Chalcedon. The Chalcedonian Symbol is preceded by a reaffirmation of the Creeds of the three hundred and eighteen and one hundred and fifty holy Fathers, which would have sufficed but for the emergence of the new errors of Apollinaris, Nestorius, and Eutyches, and is followed by a solemn anathema against any other creed for the use of converts. It runs as follows: patres, unum eundemque confiteri Filium et Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum consonanter omnes docemus, eundem perfectum in deitate et eundem perfectum in humanitate; Deum uerum et hominem | uerum eundem ex anima rationali et corpore; consubstantialem Patri secundum deitatem, consubstantialem nobis eundem secundum humanitatem, per omnia nobis similem, absque peccato; 1. We then following | Sequentes igitur sanctos | the Holy Fathers all with one consent teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in godhead and also perfect in manhood'; 2. true God and at the | same time truly man of a reasonable soul and body ; 3. consubstantial with | the Father according to His godhead, and consubstantial with us according to His manhood, in all things like unto us apart from sin; 4. begotten both before all worlds of the Father according to His godhead, and also in these latter days, on account of us and our salvation, of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to His manhood; 5. one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division, separation ; 6. the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved and concurring in one person and one substance, not parted or divided into two per ante sæcula quidem de Patre genitum secundum deitatem; in nouissimis autem diebus eundem propter nos et propter nostram salutem ex Maria uirgine, Dei genetrice secundum humanitatem ; unum eundemque Christum, Filium, Dominum, unigenitum, in duabus naturis inconfuse, immutabiliter, indiuise, inseparabiliter agnoscendum ; nusquam sublata differen- | tia naturarum propter unitionem magisque salua proprietate utriusque naturæ, et in unam personam atque subsistentiam concurrente, non in duas personas partitum aut diuisum, sed unum eundemque Filium et uni sons but one and the same Son, and onlybegotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; 7. according as the us, and the creed of genitum, Deum Verbum, sicut ante Prophetæ de eo καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν Υἱὸν και μονογενῆ, Θεόν Λόγον, Κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστον καθάπερ ἄνωθεν οἱ Προφῆται περὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ αὐτὸς ἡμᾶς ὁ Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς ἐξεπαίδευσε καὶ τὸ τῶν πατέρων ἡμῖν καραδέδωκε σύμβολον. Paragraph 2 is particularly directed against Apollinaris, paragraph 4 against Nestorius, and paragraph 5 against Eutyches. In paragraph 3 it is remarkable that consubstantiality is the term used to link Christ not only with the Father, in respect of divinity, but also with mankind, in respect of humanity. IV. THE GLORIA IN EXCELSIS AND TE DEUM. In the public worship of the Church the expanding Apostolic Faith expressed itself not only in the expanding forms of the Apostles' Creed, but in parallel forms of praise. To the brief formula of baptism corresponded the simple Gloria: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen." By the fourth century the fuller Gloria in Excelsis was familiar in varying forms as a Greek Hymn: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill among men. We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee. We give thee thanks because of thy great glory. O Lord, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty, And Holy Spirit. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, O thou who takest away the sins of the world, O thou who takest away the sins of the world, Receive our prayer, O thou who sittest at the right hand of the Father, Have mercy upon us. For thou art alone holy, To the glory of God the Father.1 The Te Deum is a free paraphrase and adaptation of the Apostles' Creed, composed or pieced together from Greek and Latin liturgical materials, the Gloria in Excelsis principally, with lines from the Psalter, e.g. Ps. xxviii. 9, cxlv. 2, cxxiii. 3, xxxiii. 22, xxxi. 1, probably in the fourth century. Of authorship it is scarcely possible to speak in regard to a compilation of the kind, and tradition was silent till the ninth century. Thereafter it was ascribed to Ambrose of Milan assisted by Augustine on the day of his baptism, or to Hilary of Poitiers, or, as by Irish tradition in the tenth century, to Niceta of Remesiana in Dacia, a contemporary of Ambrose. The third view has much to be said in its favour. All that we know of Niceta and his work harmonizes with the slender tradition in his favour. Dom. G. Morin and Dr. A. E. Burn, two eminent authorities, are satisfied that he was most probably the composer, and certainly it is hard to explain the lateness of the tradition in support of Ambrose or Hilary, if a churchman so well known as either was the real author. "We assume," says Dr. Burn, "that Niceta sent or brought it to Italy, possibly in time to be sung by S. Ambrose and S. Augustine in 386, or in the last decade of the century. It may have been passed on by Paulinus to his friends at Lerins. From Lerins it came into the possession of the Celtic Church 1 From the text in Codex Alexandrinus, cent. v. in Ireland, possibly through S. Patrick." But it is not possible to claim anything like certainty for the tradition. At the beginning of the sixth century the Hymn was familiar and well established. With the Apostles' Creed it has held an assured place from that time in the reverence and affection of the Christian world as a noble Song of Faith voicing the praise of the Universal Church. In his writing on The Three Symbols or Confessions of the Faith of Christ Luther reckons it as third to the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, and speaks of it as, whether sung or not by Ambrose and Augustine after the latter's baptism, "a fine symbol or confession, to whomsoever it may belong, composed in song-form, not only to confess the right faith, but also to praise and thank God withal." The received Latin text, and the accepted English version, are as follows: Te Deum laudamus, te Dominum | We praise thee, O God, we acknowconfitemur. ledge thee to be the Lord. Te æternum Patrem omnis terra All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting." ueneratur. Tibi omnes Angeli, tibi cæli et To thee all Angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein, uniuersæ potestates, Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim inces- To thee Cherubim and Seraphim sabili uoce proclamant : continually do cry: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth: Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory. The glorious company of the laudabilis The goodly fellowship of the Pro phets praise thee: Te Martyrum candidatus laudat The noble army of Martyrs praise Te per orbem terrarum sancta con- The holy Church throughout all fitetur Ecclesia, the world doth acknowledge thee : 1 Introd to Creeds, p. 275. Lit. "We praise thee as God, we confess thee Lord, All the earth doth worship thee as Father everlasting." 3 Lit, "white-robed," |