NOTES. (1) Justin Martyr, Apol. I. (2) Ib. (3) Arnobius, Adv. Gent. 57. (4) Lactantius, Div. Inst. ii: 7; see ii: 8. 66 (5) "But our Lord Christ surnamed himself Truth, not Custom. It is not so much novelty as truth which convicts the heresies. Whatsoever savours of opposition to truth, this will be heresy, even if it be an ancient custom. They who received Christ set truth before custom." Tertull. De Virg. Vel. 1. Also, Gratian's Decretum, Pars. I. Dist. 8, c. 4, and c. 5, Gregorius Winimundo Aversano, Augustine, de Bapt. c. Donat. iii: 5. On the general question, see Clem. Al. c. Gent. 10, II; Paed. i: 7. Just. Mart. Apol. i: 12: But if you also, like the foolish, prefer custom to truth. Greg. Nyss. Gt. Cat. 18. August. c. Donat. iii: 3, 5; iv: 5. Cyprian, in Ep. 74 ad Pomp. "For custom without truth is only the antiquity of error.' Lact. Div. Inst. says: "Yet no one departs from us, since the truth itself detains him.' Ib., ii: 8: "It is therefore right, especially in a matter on which the whole plan of life turns, that every one should place confidence in himself, and use his own judgment and individual capacity for the investigation and weighing of the truth, rather than through confidence in others to be deceived by their errors, as though he himself were without understanding. God has given wisdom to all alike, that they might be able both to investigate things which they have not heard, and to weigh things which they have heard. Nor, because they preceded us in time, did they also outstrip us also in wisdom; for if this is given equally to all, we cannot be anticipated in it by those who precede us." 66 (6) Irenaeus, Ref. Haer. iii: iv: 1; iv: xxvi: 2; iv: xxxii: 1; iv: xxxiii: 8; V: xx: I. Tertull. De Praescr. Haer., cc. 13, 19, 20, 22, 37, 38, 40, 42. Adv. Marc. iii: 6; v: 5. Clem. Al., Strom., vii: 16. Athanas. Or. in Ar., i: 8; ii: 39, 40; ad Serap., ii: 8; iv: 5. Origen said: 'So, seeing there are many who think they hold the opinions of Christ, and yet some of these think differently from their predecessors, yet as the teaching of the Church, transmitted in orderly succession from the Apostles, and remaining in the Church till the present day, is still preserved, that alone is to be accepted as truth which differs in no respect from ecclesiastical and apostolical tradition." De Princ. Proem. 2. But Origen did not realize that this tradition might change. He could not have written the above words unless he considered himself to be in harmony with this tradition; and yet the time came when he was adjudged an heretic by this very tradition, which, of course, had changed in the meanwhile. This argumentum a traditione" resolves itself ultimately into agreement with any doctrine which a majority of persons may at any time hold. Still further, it resolves itself into the doctrine that orthodoxy is my “doxy," and heterodoxy your “doxy,” as in the classical instance of Athanasius. (7) In Neander, Ch. Hist. viii : 104; Cur Deus Homo. (8) Tert. Apol. (9) In Hooker's Eccles. Polity, v: 63: 1. (10) Cyril, Catech. v: 3. (11) Orig. C. Cels. i: 11. (12) Arnobius, Adv. Gent. ii: 8. See Theoph. ad. Autol., i: 8. "If then the husbandman trusts the earth, and the sick man the physician, will you not place confidence in God?" (13) Neander, Church Hist. in re. (14) Proceedings, 1895. (15) See Encycl. Brit. sub. Galileo. Even that sympathetic account acknowledges that. THE APOSTLES' CREED. Church History has perhaps no greater surprise, or changes the conception of the lay mind in nothing more than that the Apostles' Creed, in the form in which it is used to-day, is not older than Pirminius, A. D. 758, or 433 years after the formulation of the Nicene Creed. It is customary to consider the former the more original Creed, and the latter the younger; but, in point of fact, the relation is reversed. Symbololatry is but a thing of to-day. Creeds until the time of Pirminius were effects, not causes. They were the natural outgrowth of the living faith of the Churches, and varied with the life of the Church. In other words, the Church was the measure, the cause of the Creed. To-day, the case is reversed. The life of the Church is the outgrowth of the Creed, and the Church is unprogressive, having crystallized around one single form of the Creed. In other words, the Creed is the measure, the cause of the Church. I. Within a few years Professor Harnack has written a pamphlet bearing on the history of the Creed commonly referred to as the Apostles' Creed. Mrs. Humphrey Ward translated it into English, but in its new dress it has not become so popular as it deserved to be. A short outline of its main arguments will therefore not be out of place. The basis of the present Apostles' Creed, is the Roman Creed, although more directly the formulary of to-day descends from the Gallican form, which seems to have been based on the former. The Roman Creed is as follows: "I believe in God the Father Almighty. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; Who was born by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried. The third day he rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of the Father, whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Church, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh." The Gallican Creed reads as follows: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth : And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty : From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost: The holy Catholic Church, The Communion of Sainst: The Forgiveness of sins, The resurrection of the Flesh : And the Life everlasting." The African Creed had, in the latter clauses, the following alteration: "The Life everlasting through through the holy Church." The reason that these Creeds were called Apostolic, is well rendered by Pirminius, who recounts at leisure the myth that at Pentecost each of the disciples spontaneously uttered as exclamations one or several of the clauses. This Apostolic origin must have been a Roman innovation, Rufinus, and Ambrose setting it forth at length. But nevertheless the idea cannot have been old, because many provincial Churches recited creeds derived from the form given above, but differing from it. The omission of clauses cannot be traced with certainty. The Roman formulary appears to have been in use from A. D. 250-460; the Gallican form can be traced to Southern Gaul, in the year A. D. 450. The probabilities are that it was descended from the Roman formulary, with the evident additions. Yet the Roman form was probably originated at least by 150 A. D., for it had spread all over the West a short while after. While it lived in the provincial Churches, it died out in Rome itself after A. D. 460. The reason of this was that the Nicene formulation, or rather the Epiphanian Creed, was used in opposition to the Arian barbarians. Then, in Rome itself the French form was introduced, because the Pope was later under the domination of the French. Then the doctrine of Apostolic origin was revived, and applied to the new developed Gallico-Roman formulary. From Gaul came also the so-called "Athanasian Creed," so that France is really responsible for both formularies. Nevertheless, the Gallico-roman form remained elastic till A. D. 750, under the hands of Pirminius, and showed how great an enlargement the Baptismal formula was susceptible of. Dr. Harnack contends that even the earliest form of the Roman Creed to which we have access contained articles of belief in excess of th Apostolic teaching. Such are the miraculous conception, the ascension, and the resurrection of the flesh. Again, the reader must be careful not to import into the simple language of the Creed Nicene and Post-Nicene conceptions, in respect to the Fatherhood of God, the Sonship of Jesus, and the Personality of the Holy Ghost. The descent into hell, and the communion of saints does not even appear in the earliest Roman form. The arguments of Dr. Harnack in respect to the miraculous conception are as follows: |