The Nicene, or rather the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed, is the next great expres• slot' of doctrinal truth that we meet in the history of the church. It sprang out of the conflict, which had begun even in the 2d c.. as to the dignity and character of Christ. From the beginning, Ebionitism had looked upon Christ as merely a Jewish teacher of distinction; Theodotus and Artemou openly taught such a doctrine in Rome. towards the close of the 2d century. Others, on the contrary, taught a doctrine which identified Christ with God absolutely in such a manner as to destroy all distinction of persons in the Godhead. Monarehianism, as it was called, which held rigorously and formally to the unity of God, was the ruling principle of both doctrines, opposite as were the expressions it assumed in the two cases.
The controversy thus begun in the 2d, perpetuated itself in the 3d c., under various modifications. Paul of Samosata carried out the Unitarian tendency, which reduced Christ to the level of a mere man; Sabellius carried out the same tendency in the oppo site direction, which made Christ not merely divine, of the same substance with the Father, but looked upon him as merely a manifestation of the Father, without any dis tinct personality. Sabellianism recognized a Trinity of manifestations, but not a Trio ity,of essences. God was one and all-comprehending, and the Son and the Spirit were merely m.mes or expressions for the different modes in which he reveals himself. Sabel Ens flourished about the middle of the 3d c., and Paul of Samosata somewhat later. Arius, who was a presbyter of Alexandria, grew up in the midst of these heretical influ ences, and soon distinguished himself in the Alexandrian church for his advocacy of the doctrine that Christ, although in a true sense divine, or the Son of God, was yet not the very God. He denied that he was " of the substance of God," or " without beginning;" he was only the highest of created beings, in a sense divine, but not the same in sub stance with the Father, nor equal with him in power and glory. Athanasius came for ward as the opponent of Arius, and the contest between them raged keen and wide throughout the church.
The council of NiMa was summoned in 325 by Constantine, with the view of set tling this controversy; and the Nicene creed was the result. There were these three parties in the council—the Athanasians, or extreme orthodox party; the Eusebians, or middle party; and the Arians, or heretical party. The heretics were few in num ber, and possessed but little influence; but the Eusebians were a strong party, and for sometime resisted certain expressions of the orthodox or Athanasians,. which seemed to them extreme and unwarranted; but at length the Homoousians, as they were called, carried the day; and Christ was declared not merely to be of like substance (homo ioasios), but of the same substance (honmiousios) with the Father. At the later council of
Constantinople, the additional tenet of the divinity of the Spirit was added, and the creed completed in the form in which it is familiar to the English reader in the commu nion service in the book of common prayer. In it we confess, as has been said, to the holy and undivided Trinity, and distinctly own the divinity of each person. We com memorate the creation of the world by " God the Father Almighty;" we acknowledge Jesus Christ to be our " Lord ;" to have been " begotten" from all eternity; to be " of one substance with the Father," and with him Creator of all things; that "for our sal vation he came down from heaven, was made man, and suffered and died for us." We commemorate his resurrection, ascension, and sitting at God's right hand; express our expectation of his second coining; and declare that "his kingdom shall have no end." We confess to God that he bath appointed baptism for Alio remission of sins, and given us leave "to look for the resurrection of the dead " and "the life of the world to come." The next remarkable monument of doctrinal truth in the church is what is called the Athanasian creed, a product of the 5th c., much later than Athanasius himself, but rep resenting, with great formal minuteness and fidelity, his doctrine of the Trinity, as apprehended and elaborated by the western church. See ATIIANASIAN CIIF.ED.
The Apostles', the Nicene, the Athanasian, may be said to form the great Catholic creeds of the church. After the time of the last-mentioned formula, there is no general symbol of faith that claims our attention till the period of the reformation. Theology continued to be cultivated during the middle ages, and especially during the 12th and 13th centuries, with great assiduity. Scholasticism is nothing else than the vast expres sion of the intellectual labor bestowed upon this subject during these ages, when scarcely any other subject can be said to have engaged men's minds. It was characteristic of scholasticism, however, to work mainly upon the doctrinal data already adopted and authorized by the church, developing these data in endless sentences and commentaries. There was, withal, no real freedom of inquiry, nor life of speculation. But as soon as the eye of free criticism and argument was turned upon Scripture with the reformation, new creeds and confessions began to spring up. On the one hand, Protestantism had to defend its position and its scriptural authority by appeal to its system of belief; and, on the other hand, the church of Rome, after many delays, gave forth at the council of Trent (1545 to 1563), a more extended and detailed statement of its doctrine than was to be found in any previous creed. The decrees of Trent are the fixed authoritative symbol or confession of faith of the church of Rome.