REGULÆ FIDEI

ECCLESIÆ ANTE-NICÆNÆ ET NICÆNÆ.

ANTE-NICENE AND NICENE RULES OF FAITH

AND BAPTISMAL CREEDS.

REGULÆ FIDEI ECCLESIÆ ANTE-NICÆNÆ ET NICÆNÆ

ANTE-NICENE AND NICENE RULES OF FAITH AND BAPTISMAL CREEDS.

REGULÆ FIDEI

ECCLESIÆ ANTE-NICÆNÆ ET NICÆNÆ.

Ante-Nicene and Nicene Rules of Faith and Baptismal Creeds.

Introductory Remarks.

The Rules of Faith and Baptismal Confessions which we find among the ecclesiastical writers of the second and third centuries mark the transition from the Bible to the Œcumenical Creeds. They contain nearly all the articles of the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, and some are even more full, especially those of the East; for the Greek Church was, at an early period, disturbed by heretical speculations and perversions, and had a greater talent and taste for metaphysical theology than the less learned but more sober, practical, and steady Church of the West. I have included here also some creeds of the fourth century, to facilitate the comparison with the Apostles' and the Nicæno-Constantinopolitan symbols. In addition to the valuable collections of Hahn (Bibliothek der Symbols und Glaubensregeln, 1842) and Heurtley (Harmonia Symbolica, 1858, and De Fide et Symbolo, 1869), I have examined the more recent works of Caspari (Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols and der Glaubensregel, 1866–75, 3 vols.), Lumby (History of the Creeds, 1873), Swainson (Literary History of the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds, 1875), and Hort (Two Dissertations, etc., 1876).