Tho soul of him went into helle, Up he rose in flesshe and felle He stegh till heven with woundis wide, Now sittes opon his fader right syde, In mageste; Thethin shal he come us alle to deme In his manhede, Qwyk and ded, alle that has ben In Adam sede, Wel I trow in tho holi gost, And holi kirc that is so gode; And so I trow that housel es Up-risyng als-so of my flesshe, And lyf with-outen ende. See Simmons, The Lay Folk's Mass-Book, p. 20. Other old English (prose) translations may be seen in Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, vol. iii. (ed. 2) p. 251. CHAPTER III THE NICENE CREED § 1 The Council of Nicœa THE Nicene Creed as we know and use it is not verbally identical with that which was actually drawn up at Nicæa, but it is so closely connected with it that its name may well be justified. It is Nicene' in the sense that it contains the great formula which was then inserted in the Creed, and that it guards and maintains the faith which was then defined against Arianism. In order, therefore, to understand and appreciate it, it is necessary to start with a brief account of the rise of the Arian heresy, and of the proceedings at the Council of Nicæa. The Arian heresy was first propounded about the year 319, when Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, who had been trained in the school of Lucian of Antioch, charged his bishop Alexander with teaching Sabellianism, or the denial of the eternal distinction of the Persons in the Godhead. Sabellianism, which had |