Chapter 15

There are numerous editions of his works, among which may be noticed:Œuvres(1772), with preface and “éloge,” by Joseph de la Porte;Œuvres(1828), containing D’Alembert’sÉloge de Crébillon(1775); andThéâtre complet(1885) with a notice by Auguste Vitu. A complete bibliography is given by Maurice Dutrait, in hisÉtude sur la vie et le théâtre de Crébillon(1895).

His only son,Claude Prosper Jolyot Crébillon(1707-1777), French novelist, was born at Paris on the 14th of February 1707. His life was spent almost entirely in Paris, but the publication ofL’Écumoire, ou Tanzaï et Neadarné, histoire japonaise(1734), which contained veiled attacks on the bullUnigenitus, the cardinal de Rohan and the duchesse du Maine, brought Crébillon into disgrace. He was first imprisoned and afterwards forced to live in exile for five years at Sens and elsewhere. With Alexis Piron and Charles Collé he founded in 1752 the gay society which met regularly to dine at the famous “Caveau,” where many good stories were elaborated. From 1759 onwards he was to be found at the Wednesday dinners of the Pelletier, at which Garrick, Sterne and Wilkes were sometimes guests. He married in 1748 an English lady of noble family, Lady Henrietta Maria Stafford, who had been his mistress from 1744. Their life is said to have been passed in much affection and mutual fidelity; and there could be no greater contrast than that between Crébillon’s private life and the tone of his novels, the immorality of which lent irony to the author’s tenure of the office of censor, bestowed on him in 1759 through the favour of Mme de Pompadour. He died in Paris on the 12th of April 1777. The most famous of his numerous novels are:Les Amours de Zéokinizul, roi des Kofirans(1740), in which “Zéokinizul” and “Kofirans” may be translated Louis XIV. and the French respectively; andLe Sopha, conte moral(1740), where the moral is supplied in the title only. This last novel is given by some authorities as the reason for his imprisonment.

HisŒuvreswere collected and printed in 1772. See a notice of Crébillon prefixed to O. Uzanne’s edition of hisContes dialoguésin the series ofConteurs du XVIIIesiècle. Crébillon’s novels might be pronounced immoral to the last degree if it were not that two writers slightly later in date surpassed even his achievements in this particular. André Robert de Nerciat (1739-1800) produced under a false name a number of licentious tales, and was followed by Donatien, marquis de Sade.

CRÈCHE(Fr. for a “crib” or cradle), the name given to a day-nursery, a public institution for the feeding and care of infants while the mothers are engaged in work outside their homes, or are otherwise prevented from giving them proper attention. Infants are usually admitted when over a month old, and are kept till they are capable of looking after themselves. The advantages of such institutions are that the attention of skilled and trained nurses is given to the children, the food is better and more adapted to their needs than that given in their homes, the surroundings are cleaner and healthier, and habits of discipline and cleanliness are instilled, which, in many cases, react on the mothers. The nurseries are usually under medical supervision, and the small fees charged, which average in London from 3d. to 4d. a day, and on the continent of Europe about 2d., are much less than the cost to the mother who places her young children under the care of neighbours when at work or away from home. Institutions of this kind were started in France in 1844, and have been established in the majority of the large towns on the continent of Europe. In the industrial centres of France and Germany they have helped to check infantile mortality. The state or municipality in nearly every case grants subsidies, but few are maintained entirely by public authorities; voluntary contributions are depended upon for the main support, and the organization and management are left in the hands of private societies and charitable institutions, although some outside official supervision with regard to the number of infants admitted to each institution, air-space, and ventilation and general hygienic conditions is considered useful. In Great Britain the establishment of such institutions has been left almost entirely to private initiative; and in comparison with the continent the provision is inadequate and unsatisfactory, Paris having nearly double the proportion of accommodation for infants to the population that is provided in London. The National Society of Day Nurseries was founded in 1901 for the purpose of providing a bureau where information may be found of good methods of founding and managing a crèche.

See theReport of the Consultative Committee upon the School Attendance of Children below the Age of Five, issued by the Board of Education (1908).

CRÉCY(Cressy), a town of northern France, in the department of Somme, on the Maye, 12 m. N. by E. of Abbeville by road. It is famous in history for the great victory gained here on the 26th of August 1346 by the English under Edward III. over the French of King Philip of Valois. After its campaign in northern France, the English army retired into Ponthieu, and encamped on the 25th of August at Crécy, the French king in the meantime marching from Abbeville on Braye. Early on the 26th Edward’s army took up its position for battle, and Philip’s, hearing of this, moved to attack him, though the French army marched in much disorder, and on arrival formed only an imperfect line of battle. The English lay on the forward slope of a hillside, with their right in front of the village of Crécy, their left resting on Wadicourt. Two of the three divisions or “battles” were in first line, that of the young prince of Wales (the Black Prince) on the right, that of the earls of Northampton and Arundel on the left; the third, under the king’s own command, in reserve, and the baggage was packed to the rear. Each battle consisted of a centre of dismounted knights and men-at-arms, and two wings of archers. The total force was 3900 men-at-arms, 11,000 English archers, and 5000 Welsh light troops (Froissart, first edition, the second gives a different estimate). The French were far stronger, having at least 12,000 men-at-arms, 6000 mercenary crossbowmen (Genoese), perhaps 20,000 of themilice des communes, besides a certain number of foot of the feudal levy. Along with these served a Luxemburg contingent of horse under John, king of Bohemia, and other feudatories of the Holy Roman Empire, and the whole force was probably about 60,000 strong.

The day was far advanced when the French came upon the English position. Philip, near Estrées, decided to halt and bivouac, deferring the battle until the army was better closed up, but the indiscipline of his army committed him to an immediate action, and he ordered forward the Genoese crossbowmen, while a line of men-at-arms deployed for battle behind them; the rest of the army was still marching in an irregular column of route along the road from Abbeville. A sudden thunderstorm caused a short delay, then the archers and the crossbowmen opened the battle. Here, for the first time in continental warfare, the Englishlong-bow proved its worth. After a brief contest the crossbowmen, completely outmatched, were driven back with enormous loss. Thereupon the first line of French knights behind them charged down upon the “faint-hearted rabble” of their own fugitives, and soon the first two lines of the French were a mere mob of horse and foot struggling with each other. The archers did not neglect the opportunity, and shot coolly and rapidly into the helpless target in front of them. The second attack was made by another large body of knights which had arrived, and served but to increase the number of the casualties, though here and there a few charged up to the English line and fell near it, among them the blind king of Bohemia, who with a party of devoted knights penetrated, and was killed amongst, the ranks of the prince of Wales’s men-at-arms. The battle was now one long series of desperate but ill-conducted charges, a fresh onslaught being made as each new corps of troops appeared on the scene. The English archers on the flanks of the two first line battles had been wheeled up, the centres of dismounted men-at-arms held back, so that the whole line resembled a “herse” or harrow with three points formed by the archers (see sketch). Each successive body of the French sought to come to close quarters with the men-at-arms, and exposed themselves therefore at short range to the arrows on either flank. Under these circumstances there could be but one issue of the battle. Though sixteen distinct attacks were made, and the fighting lasted until long after dark, no impression was made on the English line. At one moment the prince was so far in danger that his barons sent to the king for aid. Even then Edward was not disquieted and he sent a mere handful of knights to the prince’s battle, saying, “Let the boy win his spurs.” The left battle of the English, hitherto somewhat to the rear, moved up into line with the prince, and the French attack slackened. By midnight the army of France was practically annihilated; 1542 men of gentle blood were left dead on the field and counted by Edward’s heralds, the losses of the remainder are unknown. Some fifty of the victors fell in the battle. The story that the Black Prince adopted from the fallen king of Bohemia the crest and motto now borne by the princes of Wales lacks foundation (seeJohn, King of Bohemia). A memorial to the French and their allies was erected, by public subscription in France, Luxemburg and Bohemia, in 1905.

See H. B. George,Battles of English History(London, 1895), and C. W. C. Oman,A History of the Art of War; The Middle Ages(London, 1898).

CREDENCE,orCredence Table, a small side-table, originally an article of furniture placed near the high table in royal or noble houses, at which the ceremony of thepraegustatio, Italiancredenziare, the “assay” or tasting of food and drink for poisons was performed by an official of the household, thepraegustatororcredentiariusas he was called in Medieval Latin. Both the ceremony and the table were known ascredentia(Lat.credere, to believe, trust), Ital.credenza, Fr.crédence. After the need for the ceremony had disappeared the name still survived, and the table developed a back and several shelves for the display of plate, and gradually merged into the buffet (q.v.). It is, however, as an article of ecclesiastical furniture that the credence table is most familiar. It takes the form of a small table of wood or stone, sometimes fixed and sometimes merely a shelf above or near the piscina. It usually stands on the south or Epistle side of the altar, and on it are placed, in the Roman Catholic Church, the cruets containing the wine and water, the chalice, the candlesticks to be carried by the acolytes, and other objects to be used in the ceremony of the Mass. The use of such a table, to which earlier the name ofparatoriumoroblationariumwas given, appears to have come into use when the personal presentation of the oblations at the Mass became obsolete. When the pope celebrates Mass a special credence table on the Gospel side of the altar is used, and the ceremony of tasting for poison in the unconsecrated elements is still observed. In some churches in England the old credence tables still exist, as at the church of St Cross near Winchester, where there is a fine stone 15th-century example; more frequent are examples of the stone shelf near the piscina. There are some carved wooden ones surviving, one type being with a semicircular top and three legs placed in a triangle with a lower shelf. The formal use of the credence table for the unconsecrated elements and the holy vessels before the celebration has been revived in the English Church.

CREDENTIALS(lettres de créance), a document which ambassadors, ministers plenipotentiary, and chargés d’affaires hand to the government to which they are accredited, for the purpose, chiefly, of communicating to the latter the envoy’s diplomatic rank. It also contains a request that full credence be accorded to his official statements. Until his credentials have been presented and found in proper order, an envoy receives no official recognition. The credentials of an ambassador or minister plenipotentiary are signed by the chief of the state, those of a chargé d’affaires by the foreign minister.

CREDI, LORENZO DI(1459-1537), Italian artist, whose surname was Barducci, was born at Florence. He was the least gifted of three artists who began life as journeymen with Andrea del Verrocchio. Though he was the companion and friend of Leonardo da Vinci and Perugino, and closely allied in style to both, he had neither the genius of the one nor the facility of the other. We admire in Da Vinci’s heads a heavenly contentment and smile, in his technical execution great gloss and smoothness of finish. Credi’s faces disclose a smiling beatitude; his pigments have the polish of enamel. But Da Vinci imparted life to his creations and modulation to his colours, and these are qualities which hardly existed in Credi. Perugino displayed a well-known form of tenderness in heads, moulded on the models of the old Umbrian school. Peculiarities of movement and attitude become stereotyped in his compositions; but when put on his mettle, he could still exhibit power, passion, pathos. Credi often repeated himself in Perugino’s way; but being of a pious and resigned spirit, he generally embodied in his pictures a feeling which is yielding and gentle to the verge of coldness. Credi had a respectable local practice at Florence. He was consulted on most occasions when the opinion of his profession was required on public grounds,e.g.in 1491 as to the fronting, and in 1498 as to the lantern of the Florentine cathedral, in 1504 as to the place due to Michelangelo’s “David.” He never painted frescoes; at rare intervals only he produced large ecclesiastical pictures. The greater part of his time was spent on easel pieces, upon which he expended minute and patient labour. But he worked with such industry that numbers of his Madonnas exist in European galleries. The best of his altar-pieces is that which represents the Virgin and Child with Saints in the cathedral of Pistoia. A fine example of his easel rounds is in the gallery of Mainz. Credi rivalled Fra Bartolommeo in his attachment to Savonarola; but he felt no inclination for the retirement of a monastery. Still, in his old age, and after he had outlived the perils of the siege of Florence (1527), he withdrew on an annuity into the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, where he died. The National Gallery, London, has two pictures of the Virgin and Child by him.

CREDIT(Lat.credere, to believe), in a general sense, belief or trust. The word is used also to express the repute which a person has, or the estimation in which he is held. In a commercial sense credit is the promise to pay at a future time for valuable consideration in the present: hence, a reputation of solvency and ability to make such payments is also termed credit. In bookkeeping credit is the side of the account on which payments are entered; hence, sometimes, the payments themselves.

The part which credit plays in the production and exchange of wealth is discussed in all economic text-books, but special reference may be made to K. Knies,Geld und Kredit(1873-1879), and H. D. Macleod,Theory of Credit(1889-1891). See also Hartley Withers,The Meaning of Money(1909).

CRÉDIT FONCIER,in France, an institution for advancing money on mortgage of real securities. Due to a great extent to the initiative of the economist L. Wolowski, it was created by virtue of a governmental decree of the 28th of February 1852. This decree empowered the issue of loans at a low rate of interest, secured by mortgage bonds, extending over a long period, and repayable by annuities, including instalments of capital. On its inception it had a capital of 25,000,000 francs and took the titleof Banque Foncière de Paris. The parent institution in Paris was followed by similar institutions in Nevers and Marseilles. These two were afterwards amalgamated with the first under the title of Crédit Foncier de France. The capital was increased to 60,000,000 francs, the government giving a subvention of 10,000,000 francs, and exercising control over the bank by directly appointing the governor and two deputy-governors. The administration was vested in a council chosen by the shareholders, but its decisions have no validity without the approval of the governor. The Crédit Foncier has the right to issue bonds, repayable in fifty or sixty years, and bearing a fixed rate of interest. A certain number of the bonds carry prizes. The loans must not exceed half the estimated value of the property mortgaged, upon which the bank has the first mortgage. The bank also makes advances to local bodies, departmental and communal, for short or long periods, and with or without mortgage. Its capital amounts to £13,500,000. Its charter was renewed in 1881 for a period of ninety-nine years.

In 1860 the Crédit Foncier lent its support to the foundation of an organization for supplying capital and credit for agricultural and allied industries. This Crédit Agricole rendered but trifling services to agriculture, however, and soon threw itself into speculation. Between 1873 and 1876 it lent enormous sums to the Egyptian government, obtaining the money by opening credit with the Crédit Foncier and depositing with it the securities of the Egyptian government. On the failure of the Egyptian government to meet its payments the Crédit Agricole went into liquidation, and the Crédit Foncier suffered severely in consequence. The impracticability of the credit system to aid agriculture as worked by the Crédit Agricole was very marked, and, as a consequence, the financing of agricultural associations is now entirely in the hands of the Banque de France.

TheCrédit Mobilieris an institution for advancing loans on personal or movable estate. It was constituted in 1871, on the liquidation of the Société Générale de Crédit Mobilier, founded in 1852, which it absorbed.

CRÉDIT MOBILIER OF AMERICA,a construction company whose operations in connexion with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad gave rise to the most serious political scandal in the history of the United States Congress. The company was originally chartered as the Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency in 1859. In March 1864 a controlling interest in the stock was secured by Thomas Durant, vice-president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and the Pennsylvania legislature authorized the adoption of the name Crédit Mobilier of America. Durant proposed to utilize it as a construction company, pay it an extravagant sum for the work, and thus secure for the stockholders of the Union Pacific, who now controlled the Crédit Mobilier, the bonds loaned by the United States government. The net proceeds from the government and the first mortgage bonds issued to the construction company were $50,863,172.05, slightly more than enough to pay the entire cost of construction. According to the report of the Wilson Congressional Committee, the Crédit Mobilier received in addition, in the form of stock, income bonds, and land grant bonds, $23,000,000—a profit of about 48%. The defenders of the company assert that several items of expense were not included in this report, and that the real net profit was considerably smaller, although they admit that it was still unusually large. The work extended over the years 1865-1867. During the winter of 1867-1868, when adverse legislation by Congress was feared, it is alleged that Oakes Ames (q.v.), a representative from Massachusetts and principal promoter of the Crédit Mobilier, distributed a number of shares among congressmen and senators to influence their attitude. Shares were sold at par when a few dividends repaid a purchaser at this price. Some in fact received dividends without any initial outlay at all. As the result of a lawsuit between Ames and H. S. McComb, some private letters were brought out in September 1872 which gave publicity to the entire proceedings. The House appointed two investigating committees, the Poland and the Wilson committees, and on the report of the former (1873) Ames and James Brooks of New York were formally censured by the House, the former for disposing of the stock and the latter for improperly using his official position to secure part of it. Charges were also made against Schuyler Colfax, then vice-president but Speaker of the House at the time of the transaction, James A. Garfield, William D. Kelley (1814-1880), John A. Logan, and several other members either of the House or of the Senate. The Senate later appointed a special committee to investigate the charges against its members. This committee, on the 27th of February 1873, recommended the expulsion from the Senate of James W. Patterson, of New Hampshire; but as his term expired within five days no action was taken. The evidence was exaggerated by the Democrats for partisan purposes, but the investigation showed clearly that many of those accused were at least indiscreet if not dishonest. The company itself was merely a type of the construction companies by which it was the custom to build railways between 1860 and about 1880.

See J. B. Crawford,The Crédit Mobilier of America(Boston, 1880), and R. Hazard,The Crédit Mobilier of America(Providence, 1881), both of which defend Ames; also the histories of the Union Pacific Railroad Company by J. P. Davis (Chicago, 1894) and H. K. White (Chicago, 1895); and for a succinct and impartial account, James Ford Rhodes,History of the United States, vol. vii. (New York, 1906). The Poland and Wilson reports are to be found inHouse of Representatives Reports, 42nd Congress, 3rd session, Nos. 77 and 78, and the report of the Senate Committee inSenate Reports, 42nd Congress, 3rd session, No. 519.

CREDITON,a market town in the South Molton parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, 8 m. N.W. of Exeter by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3974. It is situated in the narrow vale of the river Creedy near its junction with the Exe, between two steep hills, and is divided into two parts, the east or old town and the west or new town. The church of Holy Cross, formerly collegiate, is a noble Perpendicular building with Early English and other early portions, and a fine central tower. The grammar school, founded by Edward VI. and refounded by Elizabeth, has exhibitions to Oxford and Cambridge universities. Shoe-making, tanning, agricultural trade, tin-plating, and the manufacture of confectionery and cider have superseded the former large woollen and serge industries. In 1897 Crediton was made the seat of a suffragan bishopric in the diocese of Exeter.

The first indication of settlement at Crediton (Credington,Cryditon,Kirton) is the tradition that Winfrith or Boniface was born there in 680. Perhaps in his memory (for the great extent of the parish shows that it was thinly populated) it became in 909 the seat of the first bishopric in Devonshire. It was probably only a village in 1049, when Leofric, bishop of Crediton, requested Leo IX. to transfer the see to Exeter, as Crediton was “an open town and much exposed to the incursions of pirates.” At the Domesday Survey much of the land was still uncultivated, but its prosperity increased, and in 1269 each of the twelve prebends of the collegiate church had a house and farmland within the parish. The bishops, to whom the manor belonged until the Reformation, had difficulty in enforcing their warren and other rights; in 1351 Bishop Grandison obtained an exemplification of judgments of 1282 declaring that he had pleas of withernam, view of frank pledge, the gallows and assize of bread and ale. Two years later there was a serious riot against the increase of copyhold. Perhaps it was at this time that the prescriptive borough of Crediton arose. The jury of the borough are mentioned in 1275, and Crediton returned two members to parliament in 1306-1307, though never afterwards represented. A borough seal dated 1469 is extant, but the corporation is not mentioned in the grant made by Edward VI. of the church to twelve principal inhabitants. The borough and manor were granted by Elizabeth to William Killigrew in 1595, but there is no indication of town organization then or in 1630, and in the 18th century Crediton was governed by commissioners. In 1231 the bishop obtained a fair, still held, on the vigil, feast and morrow of St Lawrence. This was important as the wool trade was established by 1249 and certainly continued until 1630, when the market for kersies is mentioned in conjunction with a saying “as fine as Kirton spinning.”

See Rev. Preb. Smith, “Early History of Credition,” inDevonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, Transactions, vol. xiv. (Plymouth, 1882); Richard J. King, “The Church of St Mary and of the Holy Cross, Credition,” inExeter Diocesan Architectural Society, Transactions, vol. iv. (Exeter, 1878).

CREDNER, CARL FRIEDRICH HEINRICH(1809-1876), German geologist, was born at Waltershausen near Gotha, on the 13th of March 1809. He investigated the geology of the Thüringer Waldes, of which he published a map in 1846. He was author of a work entitledÜber die Gliederung der oberen Juraformation und der Wealden-Bildung im nordwestlichen Deutschland(Prague, 1863), also of a geological map of Hanover (1865). He died at Halle on the 28th of September 1876.

His son,Carl Hermann Credner(1841- ), was born at Gotha on the 1st of October 1841, educated at Breslau and Göttingen, and took the degree of Ph.D. at Breslau in 1864. In 1870 he was appointed professor of geology in the university of Leipzig, and in 1872 director of the Geological Survey of Saxony. He is author of numerous publications on the geology of Saxony, and of an important work,Elemente der Geologie(2 vols., 1872; 7th ed., 1891), regarded as the standard manual in Germany. He has also written memoirs on Saurians and Labyrinthodonts.

CREE,a tribe of North American Indians of Algonquian stock. They are still a considerable tribe, numbering some 15,000, and living chiefly in Manitoba and Assiniboia, about Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan river. They gave trouble by their constant attacks upon the Sioux and Blackfeet, but are now peaceable and orderly.

SeeHandbook of American Indians(Washington, 1907).

CREECH, THOMAS(1659-1700), English classical scholar, was born at Blandford, Dorsetshire, in 1659. He received his early education from Thomas Curgenven, master of Sherborne school. In 1675 he entered Wadham College, Oxford, and obtained a fellowship in 1683 at All Souls’. He was headmaster of Sherborne school from 1694 to 1696, and in 1699 he received a college living, but in June 1700 he hanged himself. The immediate cause of the act was said to be a money difficulty, though according to some it was a love disappointment; both of these circumstances no doubt had their share in a catastrophe primarily due to an already pronounced melancholia. Creech’s fame rests on his translation of Lucretius (1682) in rhymed heroic couplets, in which, according to Otway, the pure ore of the original “somewhat seems refined.” He also published a version of Horace (1684), and translated theIdylls of Theocritus(1684), theThirteenth Satireof Juvenal (1693), theAstronomiconof Manilius (1697), and parts of Plutarch, Virgil and Ovid.

CREEDS(Lat.credo, I believe), orConfessions of Faith. We are accustomed to regard the whole conception of creeds,i.e.reasoned statements of religious belief, as inseparably connected with the history of Christianity. But the new study of comparative religion has something to teach us even here. The sayinglex orandi lex credendiis true of all times and of all peoples. And since we must reckon praise as the highest form of prayer, such an early Christian hymn as is found in 1 Tim. iii. 16 must be acknowledged to be of the nature of a creed: “He who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, received up in glory.” It justifies the expansion of the second article of the developed Christian creed from the standpoint of the earliest Christian tradition. It also supplies a reason for including in our survey of creeds some reference to pre-Christian hymns and beliefs. The pendulum has swung back. Rather than despise the faulty presentation of truth which we find in heathen religions and their more or less degraded rites, we follow the apostle Paul in his endeavour to trace in them attempts “to feel after God” (Acts vii. 27). Augustine, the great teacher of the West, was true to the spirit of the great Alexandrians, when he wrote (Ep.166): “Let every good and true Christian understand that truth, wherever he finds it, belongs tohisLord.”

We are not concerned with the question whether the earliest forms of recorded religious consciousness such as animism, or totemism, or fetishism, were themselves degradations of a primitive revelation or not.1We are only concerned with the fact of experience that the human soul yearns to express its belief. The hymn to the rising and setting sun in theBook of the Dead(ch. 15), which is said by Egyptologists to be the oldest poem in the world, carries us back at once to the dawn of history.

“Hail to thee, Ra, the self-existent.... Glorious isthine uprising from the horizon. Both worlds areillumined by thy rays.... Hail to thee, Ra, when thoureturnest home in renewed beauty, crowned and almighty.”

“Hail to thee, Ra, the self-existent.... Glorious is

thine uprising from the horizon. Both worlds are

illumined by thy rays.... Hail to thee, Ra, when thou

returnest home in renewed beauty, crowned and almighty.”

In a later hymn Amen-Ra is confessed as “the good god beloved, maker of men, creator of beasts, maker of things below and above, lord of mercy most loving.” A similar note is struck in the Indian Vedas. In the more ethical religion of the Avesta the creator is more clearly distinguished from the creature: “I desire to approach Ahura and Mithra with my praise, the lofty eternal, and the holy two.”2The Persian poet is not far from the kingdom into which Hebrew psalmists and prophets entered.

The whole history of the Jewish religion is centred in the gradual purification of the idea of God. The morality of the Jews did not outgrow their religion, but their interest was always ethical and not speculative. The highest strains of the psalmists and the most fervent appeals of the prophets were progressively directed to the great end of praising and preaching the One true God, everlasting, with sincere and pure devotion. The creed of the Jew, to this day, is summed up in the well-remembered words, which have been ever on his lips, living or dying: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deut. vi. 4).

The definiteness and persistence of this creed, which of course is the strength also of Mahommedanism, presents a contrast to the fluid character of the statements in the Vedas, and to the chaos of conflicting opinions of philosophers among the Greeks and Romans. As Dr J. R. Illingworth has said very concisely: “The physical speculations of the Ionians and Atomists rendered a God superfluous, and the metaphysical and logical reasoning of the Eleatics declared Him to be unknowable.”3Plato regarding the world as an embodiment of eternal, archetypal ideas, which he groups under the central idea of Good, identified with the divine reason, at the same time uses the ordinary language of the day, and speaks of God and the gods, feeling his way towards the conception of a personal God, which, to quote Dr Illingworth again, neither he nor Aristotle could reach because they had not “a clear conception of human personality.” They were followed by an age of philosophizing which did little to advance speculation. The Stoics, for example, were more successful in criticizing the current creed than in explaining the underlying truth which they recognized in polytheism. The final goal of Greek philosophy was only reached when the great thinkers of the early Christian Church, who had been trained in the schools of Alexandria and Athens, used its modes of thought in their analysis of the Christian idea of God. “In this sense the doctrine of the Trinity was the synthesis, and summary, of all that was highest in the Hebrew and Hellenic conceptions of God, fused into union by the electric touch of the Incarnation.”4

Space does not permit enlargement on this theme, but enough has been said to introduce the direct study of the ancient creeds of Christendom.

I.The Ancient Creeds of Christendom.—The three creeds which may be called oecumenical, although the measure of their acceptance by the universal church has not been uniform, represent three distinct types provided for the use of the catechumen, the communicant, and the church teacher respectively. The Apostles’ Creed is the ancient baptismal creed, held in common both by East and West, in its final western form. The Nicene Creed is the baptismal creed of an eastern church enlarged in order to combine theological interpretation with the facts of the historic faith. Its use in the Eucharist of the undivided Church has been continued since the great schism, although the Eastern Church protests against the interpolationof the words “And the Son” in clause 9. The Athanasian Creed is an instruction designed to confute heresies which were current in the 5th century.

1.The Apostles’ Creed.—The increased interest which has been shown in the history of all creed-forms since the latter part of the 19th century is due in a great measure to the work of the veteran pioneer, Professor P. Caspari of Christiania,Apostles’ Creed.who began the herculean task of classifying the enormous number of creed-forms which have been recovered from obscure pages of early Christian literature. In England we owe much to Professors C. A. Heurtley and Swainson. In Germany the monumental work of Professor Kattenbusch has overshadowed all other books on the subject, providing even his most ardent critics with an indispensable record of the literature of the subject.

The majority of critics agree that the only trace of a formal creed in the New Testament is the simple confession of Jesus as the Lord,orthe Son of God (Rom. x. 9; 1 Cor. xii. 3). While the apostles were agreed on an outline of teaching (Rom. vi. 17) which included the doctrine of God, the person and work of Christ, and the person and work of the Holy Spirit, it does not appear that they provided any summary, which would cover this ground, as an authoritative statement of their belief. The tradition which St Paul received included, so to speak, the germ of the central prayer in the Eucharist (1 Cor. xi. 23 ff.), and no doubt included also teaching on conduct, “the way of a Christian life” (1 Thess. iv. 1; Gal. v. 21). The creed in all its forms lies behind worship, which it preserves from idolatry, and behind ethics, to which it supplies a motive power which the pre-Christian system so manifestly lacked. Whether the first creed of the primitive Church was of the simple Christological character which confession of Jesus as the Lord expresses, or of an enlarged type based on the baptismal formula (Matt. xxviii. 19), makes no difference to the statement that the faith which overcame the world derived its energy from convictions which strove for utterance. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. x. 10).

When St Paul reminds Timothy (1 Tim. vi. 13) of his confession before many witnesses he does not seem to imply more than confession of Christ as king. He calls it “the beautiful confession” to which Christ Jesus had borne witness before Pontius Pilate, and charges Timothy before God, who quickeneth all things, to keep this commandment. Some writers, notably Professor Zahn,5piecing together this text with 2 Tim. i. 13, ii. 8, iv. 1, 2, reconstructs a primitive Apostles’ Creed of Antioch, the city from which St Paul started on his missionary journeys. But there is no mention of a third article in the creed, beyond a reference to the Holy Ghost in the context of 2 Tim. i. 14, which would prove the apostolic use of a Trinitarian confession imaginable as the parent of the later Eastern and Western forms. The eunuch’s creed interpolated in Acts viii. 57, “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God,” since the reading was known to Irenaeus, probably represents the form of baptismal confession used in some church of Asia Minor, and supplies us with the type of a primitive creed. This theory is confirmed by the evidence of the Johannine epistles (1 John iv. 15, v. 5; cf. Heb. iv. 14).

From this point of view it is easy to explain the occurrence of creed-like phrases in the New Testament as fragments of early hymns (1 Tim. iii. 16) or reminiscences of oral teaching (1 Cor. xv. 1 ff.). The following form which Seeberg gives as the creed of St Paul is an artificial combination of fragments of oral teaching, which naturally reappear in the teaching of St Peter, but finds no attestation in the later creeds of particular churches which would prove its claim to be their parent form:

“The living God who created all things sent His Son Jesus Christ, born of the seed of David, who died for our sins according to the scriptures, and was buried, who was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and appeared to Cephas and the XII., who sat at the right hand of God in the heavens, all rule and authority and power being made subject unto Him, and is coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

The evidence of the apostolic fathers is disappointing. Clement (Cor.lviii. 2) supplies only parallels to the baptismal formula (Matt. xxviii. 19). Polycarp (Ep.7) echoes St John. But Ignatius might seem to offer in the following passage some confirmation of Zahn’s theory of a primitive creed of Antioch (Trall.9): “Be ye deaf, therefore, when any man speaketh to you apart from Jesus Christ, who was of the race of David, who was the Son of Mary, who was truly born and ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died in the sight of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth; who, moreover, was truly raised from the dead, His Father having raised Him, who in the like fashion will so raise us also who believe on Him—His Father, I say, will raise us—in Christ Jesus, apart from whom we have not true life.”

The differences, however, which divide this from the later creed forms are scarcely less noticeable than their agreement, and the evidence of the Ignatian epistles generally (Eph. xviii.;Smyrn.i.), while it confirms the conclusion that instruction was given in Antioch on all points characteristic of the developed creed,e.g.the Miraculous Birth, Crucifixion, Resurrection, the Catholic Church, forgiveness of sins, the hope of resurrection, does not prove that this teaching was as yet combined in a Trinitarian form which classified the latter clauses under the work of the Holy Ghost.

At this point a word must be said on the important question of interpretation. While we may hope for eventual agreement on the history of the different types of creed forms, there can be no hope of agreement on the interpretation of the words Holy Spirit between Unitarian and Trinitarian critics. Writers who follow Harnack explain “holy spirit” as the gift of impersonal influence, and between wide limits of difference agree in regarding Christ as Son of God by adoption and not by nature. Amid the chaos of conflicting opinions as to the original teaching of Jesus, the Gospel within the Gospel, the central question “What think ye of Christ?” emerges as the test of all theories. “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord save in the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor. xii. 3). Belief in the fact of the Incarnation of the eternal Word, as it is stated in the words of Ignatius quoted above, or in any of the later creeds, stands or falls with belief in the Holy Ghost as the guide alike of their convictions and destinies, no mere impersonal influence, but a living voice.

If the essence of Christianity is winnowed down to a bare imitation of the Man Jesus, and his religion is accepted as Buddhists accept the religion of Buddha, still it cannot be denied that the early Christians put their trust in Christ rather than his religion. “I am the life,” not “I teach the life,” “I am the truth,” not merely “I teach the truth,” are not additions of Johannine theology but the central aspect of the presentation of Christ as the good physician, healer of souls and bodies, which the most rigid scrutiny of the Synoptic Gospels leaves as the residuum of accepted fact about Jesus of Nazareth. To say more would be out of place in this article, but enough has been said to introduce the exhaustive discussion by Kattenbusch (ii. 471-728) of the meaning of the theological teaching both of the New Testament and of the earliest creeds.

To return within our proper limits. Kattenbusch, with whom Harnack is in general agreement, regards the Old Roman Creed, which comes to light in the 4th century, as the parent of all developed forms, whether Eastern or Western. Marcellus, the exiled bishop of Ancyra, is quoted by Epiphanius as presenting it to Bishop Julius of Rome c.A.D.340. Ussher’s recognition of the fact that this profession of faith by Marcellus was the creed of Rome, not of Ancyra, is the starting-point of modern discussions of the history of the creeds. Some sixty years later Rufinus, a priest of Aquileia, wrote a commentary on the creed of his native city and compared it with the Roman Creed. His Latin text is probably as ancient as the Greek text of Marcellus, because the Roman Church must always have been bilingual in its early days. It was as follows:

This Old Roman Creed may be traced back in the writings of Bishops Felix and Dionysus (3rd century), and in the writings of Tertullian in the 2nd century.

Tertullian calls the creed the “token” which the African Church shares with the Roman (de Praescr.36): “The Roman Church has made a common token with the African Churches, has recognized one God, creator of the universe, and Christ Jesus, of the Virgin Mary, Son of God the Creator, and the resurrection of the flesh.” The reference is to the earthenware token which two friends broke in order that they might commend a stranger for hospitality by sending with him the broken half. Their creed became the passport by which Christians in strange cities could obtain admission to assemblies for worship and to common meals. The passage quoted is obviously a condensed quotation of the Roman Creed, which reappears also in the following (de Virg. vel.i.):

“The rule of faith is one altogether ... of believing in one God Almighty, maker of the world, and in His Son Jesus Christ, born of Mary the Virgin, crucified under Pontius Pilate; the third day raised from the dead, received in the heavens, sitting now at the right hand of the Father, about to come and judge quick and dead through the resurrection also of the flesh.”

There are many references in Tertullian to the teaching of the Gnostic Marcion, whose breach with the Roman Church may be datedA.D.145. He seems to have still held to the Roman creed interpreted in his own way. An ingenious conjecture by Zahn enables us to add the words “holy Church” to our reconstruction of the creed from the writings of Tertullian. In his revised New Testament Marcion speaks of “the covenant which is the mother of us all, which begets us in the holy Church, to which we have vowed allegiance.” He uses a word used by Ignatius of the oath taken on confession of the Christian faith. It follows that the words “holy Church” were contained in the Roman Creed.6

While all critics agree in tracing back this form to the earliest years of the 2nd century, and regard it as the archetype of all similar Western creeds, there is great diversity of opinion on its relation to Eastern forms. Kattenbusch maintains that the Roman Creed reached Gaul and Africa in the course of the 2nd century, and perhaps all districts of the West that possessed Christian congregations, also the western end of Asia Minor possibly in connexion with Polycarp’s visit to RomeA.D.154. He finds that materials fail for Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt. Further, he holds that all the Eastern creeds which are known to us as existing in the 4th century, or may be traced back to the 3rd, lead to Antioch as their starting-point. He concludes that the Roman Creed was accepted at Antioch after the fall of Paul of Samosata inA.D.272, and was adapted to the dogmatic requirements of the time, all the later creeds of Palestine, Asia Minor and Egypt being dependent on it.

On the other hand, Kunze, Loofs, Sanday, and Zahn find evidence of the existence of an Eastern type of creed of equal or greater antiquity and distinguished from the Roman by such phrases as “One” (God), “Maker of heaven and earth,” “suffered,” “shall come again in glory.” Thus Kunze reconstructs a creed of Antioch for the 3rd century, and argues that it is independent of the Roman Creed.

Creed of Antioch.

Along similar lines Loofs selects phrases as typical of creeds which go back to a date preceding the Nicene Council.

A. Creed of Eusebius of Caesarea, presented to the Nicene Council.

B. Revised Creed of Cyril of Jerusalem.

C. Creed of Antioch quoted by Cassian.

D. Creed of Antioch quoted in the Apostolic Constitutions.

E. Creed of Lucian the Martyr (Antioch).

F. Creed of Arius (Alexandria).

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