have been at Rome itself that the additions were made, and that they spread from thence to other parts of the Western Church. However this may be, it is remarkable that we nowhere meet with the Creed in the exact form in which it is now used by us, as by the Church of Rome, until towards the middle of the eighth century. The earliest writer who gives it totidem verbis as we have it is Pirminius or Priminius, a bishop who laboured in France and Germany during the first half of the eighth century (720-750). In a work of his entitled Scarapsus, he transcribes the Creed in full, giving it in the very words in which it is now current throughout the West,2 and assigning each article to one or other of the Apostles. But even later than this there were variations in the forms used in some places, and it was only gradually that the longer form superseded the older Roman Creed everywhere. On the Continent this was largely due to the influence of Charlemagne, so that it would appear that from about 800 A.D. its use became general. In England the use of the older form lingered some time longer. It had probably been brought to our shores by Augustine, and there are clear traces of its use in the ninth century, though the fuller form was also employed, and from the date of the Norman Conquest it is probable that the English Church fell into line and adopted the 1 The Apostles' Creed (1906), p. 51; cf. the same writer's Introduction (1899), cap. ix. 2 It should perhaps be stated that whereas the current text has ad inferos in the article on the descent into hell, the text of Pirminius has ad inferna. exclusive use of the Creed, which by that time had become the accepted one of the whole of the Western Church. Yet even so, it is curious to find that there still remains in our Prayer Book at least one trace of a slightly different form, of the use of which there are indications in Ireland and France in early days. The wording of the interrogative Creed contained in the Baptismal Services and the Visitation of the Sick differs in several points from that which stands in the order for Mattins and Evensong. This will be at once apparent when the two forms are placed side by side: THE CREED AS CONTAINED IN I believe in God the Father Al- THE CREED AS CONTAINED IN Dost thou believe in God the And in Jesus Christ His only And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord, begotten Son our Lord? Who was conceived by the And that He was conceived by Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Was crucified, dead, and He descended into hell; He ascended into heaven, of God the Father Almighty; the Holy Ghost; Born of the Virgin Mary; That He suffered under Pontius Was That He went down into hell, That He ascended into heaven, 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; Amen. this way. 6 And from thence shall come again at the end of the world, And dost thou believe in the The holy Catholic Church; Some of the differences are obviously mere variations of translation, as went down' for 'descended,' 'Remission' for 'Forgiveness,' and 'Flesh' (a more accurate rendering of the Latin carnis) for Body.' But there are others which cannot be accounted for in way. Only begotten' for 'only' is probably a mere variety of translation, as the Latin unicus is the recognised equivalent of the Greek μovoyevýs, but it may possibly point to a difference of text in the creed translated, as in some Gallican Creeds we find unigenitum for unicum.1 The omission of the words 'from the dead' may, again, be due to similar influence, as they are wanting in a certain number of Gallican Creeds.2 The insertion of 'after death' in the last article comes immediately from the old English baptismal service, in which, according to the Sarum Manual, a short interrogative Creed was used, in the following form : 1 See Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, pp. 75, 77, 79. 2 lb., pp. 71, 73, 77, 80, 'Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth? Dost thou also believe in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord [who was] born and suffered? Dost thou believe also in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and everlasting life after death?'1 2 6 This, too, is probably due ultimately to Gallican influences, as there are traces of the occurrence of the words post mortem in a few Gallican Creeds, as well as in the very curious Irish Creed contained in the famous manuscript of the seventh century, known as the Bangor Antiphonary. Again,' in the clause on the return to judgment, may be taken from the form of examination of the sick in the old English services, where we have the word 'iterumque venturum ad judicandum vivos et mortuos,' but what is the origin of the words 'at the end of the world' it is not possible to say. No explanation of their appearance seems to be forthcoming, and the precise origin of the English form of Creed which appears for the first time in the ministration of public Baptism in the Prayer Book of 1549 remains among the unsolved problems connected with Cranmer's revision of that service.4 1 See Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, vol. i. (2nd ed.) p. 23. 4 For other unexplained signs of Gallican influence in this service see Frere and Proctor, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, p. 571. The later additions to the old Roman Creed require a fuller notice than has yet been given of them, in order that the reader may understand their meaning, and the reasons for their introduction into the Creed; and to these we may now return. They may conveniently be divided into three groups : (1) The words 'conceived,'' suffered,' 'dead,' 'God . Almighty,' are quite obviously natural amplifications, made perhaps for the sake of completeness, or half-unconsciously introduced from the catechetical instruction given to catechumens. It is impossible to attach any special significance to their presence or absence, save that wherever they are found they mark a comparatively late type of creed; and in this connection it is interesting to notice that conceived,' 'dead,' and God . . . Almighty,' as well as He descended into hell,' and 'the Communion of Saints,' are all to this day absent from the Nicene Creed, even in its enlarged form; and that it thus preserves the more ancient type of Creed. In the same group may also be placed the words 'the life everlasting,' the omission |