NI' •NE CREED, a detailed statement of doctrine, which forms part of the liturgy of the 1?..inati, Oriental, and Anglican churches, and is also received as a formulary by many of the other Protestant communions. It was drawn up principally by Hosius of Cordoba, and is called by the name of the council of Nice, although nearly one-half of its present clauses formed no part of the original Nicene formulary ; while, on the other hand, that document contained a series of anathemas condemnatory of specific statements of Arius, which find no place in the present so-called Nicene creed. The distinctive characteristic of the creed drawn up in the council was the word Homoonaeos. (See HoatoousiaN.) Its clauses correspond (except in a few verbal details) with those of the modern formulary as far as the words "I believe in the Holy Ghost;" after which fol low the anathemas referred to above. The remaining clauses of the present creed, although they seem to have been in public use earlier, were formally added in the first council of Constantinople (381), with the exception of the clause, "And from the Son," which was introduced in various churches of the west in the 5th and 6th centuries; and ultimately its formal embodiment in the creed, has continued a subject of Contro versy with the Greeks to the present day. See GREEK Cuuncu. This creed appears
to have been used in the public liturgy from the latter part of the 5th century. Its position in the lithurgy varies in the different rites. In the Roman liturgy it is read on all Sundays. feasts of our Lord, of the blessed Virgin Mary, apostles' days, and all the principal festivals, but not on week-days, or the minor saints' days.
Several Arian creeds, in opposition to that of Nice, were drawn up at Sirmium and elsewhere (see LusEnfus), but none of them met with general acceptance.