put forth by the most venerable and most authoritative of all the Ecumenical Councils, namely the Council of Nicaea. For a time that was the only Creed which had received Ecumenical sanction; yet the local Churches of the East felt quite free to use their own traditional local Creeds, and to enlarge them by inserting clauses taken sometimes from the Nicene Creed and sometimes from other sources. There seems good reason to believe that the Constantinopolitan Creed is really the Creed of the Church of Jerusalem enlarged about the year 363 by S. Cyril of Jerusalem,' and quoted eleven years later by S. Epiphanius in the 119th chapter of his Ancoratus.2 This enlarged Creed of Jerusalem is almost word for word the same as the Creed which we now commonly call the Constantinopolitan Creed. The original Nicene Creed had been interpolated at Constantinople and perhaps elsewhere, with additional clauses before the time of the Council of Chalcedon, and it is recited in the Chalcedonian definition in an interpolated form.* 3 All these facts make it quite clear that local Churches in the fourth and fifth centuries, that is to say in the corrected an inaccuracy into which I fell, and have set forth the evidence somewhat more fully than I did at S. Petersburg. 1 See Dr. Hort's Two Dissertations, 1876, pp. 73-97, and Dr. A. E. Burn's text-book, The Nicene Creed, pp. 27-29. 2 P. G., xliii. 232. The Ancoratus was published in 374, seven years before the Council of Constantinople, the second Ecumenical. 3 Compare Hort (Two Dissertations, pp. 112-115). For example, in the Nicene Creed as quoted by the Council of Chalcedon, the words "of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary" are interpolated after "was incarnate"; and the words "and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate" are interpolated after "and was made man"; and the words "of whose kingdom there shall be no end" are interpolated after "to judge both the quick and the dead." I give these merely as specimens, for there are several other interpolations, besides some omissions. Compare Mansi ii. 668 with Mansi viii. 109, 112. age of the great Fathers of the Church, felt themselves at liberty to add clauses to the Creeds which they had inherited from earlier times, or which they had received from Ecumenical Councils. And if this is granted, why should it be regarded as ultra vires for the Churches of England, Spain, Gaul, and Germany, and finally for the Church of Rome, to add the Filioque clause to the Constantinopolitan Creed? Of course a local Church has no right to add a heretical clause to any Creed. But it has already been admitted that the Filioque clause, if it is regarded as equivalent to the formula, Per Filium, is not heretical, but is perfectly orthodox. At the close of the Conference the presiding Bishop, the Bishop of Kholm, authorized me to tell my audience at my lecture in the evening that, though the Russians and the English differ in the wording of their respective formulas, yet the Conference had, after hearing explanations, concluded that the two Churches are agreed as to the substance of the teaching concerning the Eternal Procession of the Holy Ghost. It is much to be hoped that the good work which the newly formed Russian Society has begun will go on and prosper, and finally in God's good time result in the re-establishment of intercommunion between the Churches of the Eastern Communion and the Churches of the Anglican Communion. But if this blessed consummation is ever to be reached, both sides will need to be actuated by a peace-making spirit, ready to recognize substantial unity amid superficial diversity, and many prayers will have to be offered, and many opportunities for friendly intercourse will have to be secured and utilized. For more than eight centuries and a half the separation has lasted; but God is evidently creating now in both Communions a desire for re-union; and He who has begun this good work will know how to bring it to a successful issue, unless we mar His loving designs by lack of zeal or other unfaithfulness. "For the welfare of God's holy Churches, and for the union of them all, let us pray to the Lord." S. EDWARD'S HOUSE, WESTMINSTER, September 28, 1912. F. W. PULLER, S.S.J.E. 1 From a diaconal suffrage which occurs more than once in the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom. Three of the chapters of this book have already appeared in the ENGLISH CHURCH REVIEW (see the August, September, and October numbers of that periodical). 1 THE LEGAL AND SPIRITUAL CONTINUITY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH BEFORE AND AFTER ITS REFORMA- TION (PART I.) 93 |