of the Eucharist, which obtained in the monasteries of Marseilles and Lerins, and which he describes as the Alexandrine to discriminate it from the other families of the Cursus, passed into Ireland'. St. Patrick is said to have visited Lerins and spent some time there2, but the tradition, though possibly true, does not appear to rest upon any reliable evidence.

To sum up the grounds upon which the authorship of the Athanasian Creed may be attributed to St. Vincent of Lerins-he flourished at the epoch when from external and internal evidence it appears to have emanated; there is no other writer of the same epoch to whom it can be ascribed with any degree of probability; between it and his Commonitorium there exist several coincidences of phraseology, which seem to indicate that both works were by the same hand; and the principles avowed by him, particularly as to the necessity of holding the Catholic Faith, are such as we should expect to find in the author of the Quicunque. I do not venture to assert that the evidence I have produced is conclusive and demonstrative. It is a case in which we could scarcely look for such evidence. But I think I may without exaggeration describe it as highly probable and this is no small matter, if Bishop Butler was right in saying that to us probability is the very guide of life. It is not superfluous to add that of all the authors to whom the Creed has been attributed, Vincent of Lerins is the only one to whom it has been attributed with any degree of probability. I have previously alluded to the fact that the evidence alleged by Waterland for the authorship of Hilary of Arles does not bear examination.

Mabillon, Disquisitio de Cursu Gallicano, 3. See also Warren's Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p. 79.

2 Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic Church, pp. 48 and 170.

The same may be said of the hypothesis of Quesnel, which ascribed the Creed to Vigilius Tapsensis, and of the theory broached about five and twenty years ago by Mr. Ffoulkes, which represented it as compiled by Paulinus Archbishop of Aquileia in or a little before the year 800.

See Quesnelli, dissertatio II. de variis fidei libellis, § xvi. It was first printed in his edition of Leo's works. It is also printed in Galland's De vetustis Canonum Collectionibus dissertationum Sylloge, tom. i. p. 833; and in Migne, Patrol. Latina, tom. lvi. p. 1065. He was answered by Antelmi, who ascribed the Quicunque to Vincent of Lerins in his treatise Nova de Symbolo Athanasiano disquisitio, Paris, 1693, and also by the Ballerini, Observationes in dissertationem II. Paschasii Quesnelli, § iii. De auctore Symboli quicunque, printed in their edition of Leo the Great. See Migne, tom. Ivi. pp. 1071-1075. Also Galland's Sylloge, tom. i. pp. 845, 846.

CHAPTER IV.

TITLES.

IN the earliest MS. copy of the Athanasian Creed extant-Ambrosian Library, O. 212, of the eighth century -it has no title. It is the same also in another very early MS. which is placed about 800 A. D. or a little earlierthe Paris MS. Latin 4858. The same is the case with the very interesting Psalter in the Paris MS. Latin 13159, which certainly belongs to the age of Charlemagne, and in all probability was executed between the years 795 and 800; but in this instance the omission of the title is devoid of any significance, as the leaf on which the Creed commences has clearly been inserted in order to supply the place of the original one, which must have been lost (with possibly one or two more) in consequence of some injury done to the book, and it is written in a different hand from that found in the book generally. Hence we cannot be certain whether or not the title was omitted originally1. The earliest title applied to the Creed appears to have been Fides Catholica. We have an instance of its being so entitled as early as the sixth century-in the Epistola Canonica, if the Ballerini are right, as they probably are, in

1 See Part I. chap. iii. 5.

thinking that that document refers to our Creed1. Further, it is so described in the headings of all the oldest Commentaries. Thus the so-called Fortunatus Commentary in the Oxford Bodleian MS. Junius 25 is headed Expositio in Fide Catholica,' and in the Paris Latin MS. 1008, 'Expositio super Fidem Catholicam,' and in the two Paris Latin MSS. 2826 and 17448 similarly, 'Expositio super Fide Catholica,' where the mark of contraction over the final e and a may have been omitted inadvertently, and in the Milan MS. M. 79 it is headed 'Expositio Fidei Catholice Fortunati,' where no doubt the expositio is referred to as the work of Fortunatus, not the Fides Catholica. Again, the Paris Commentary is headed in the Paris Latin MS. 1012, Fides Chatholica cum expositione.' Again, the Troyes Commentary is headed in the Troyes MS. 804, 'Expositio fidei catholicae.' Also the Commentary lately edited by M. Cuissard from an Orleans MS., and believed by him to be the work of Theodulf, is headed Explanatio fidei catholicae.' The Milan MS. already mentioned as containing a copy of the Fortunatus Commentary contains two other Commentaries on the Quicunque, each having the same title, Expositio Fidei Catholice.' This same title is also applied to two more Commentaries-both distinct it must be remembered from any previously mentionedwhich are severally found in two Milanese MSS., T. 103 and I. 152, both Milanese Liturgical books, written, as Dr. Ceriani assured me, in Milan". It is worth noting that there is a uniformity of title in all the five Commentaries in Milan MSS., the Creed being described in all simply as

1 See above, Part I. ii. 1. Also the Tractate of the Ballerini, De auctore Symboli Quicunque, among Editorum Observationes in Dissertationem II. Paschasii Quesnelli printed in their edition of St. Leo, and Galland's Dissertationum Sylloge, tom. i.

2 See above, Part I. iv. 9 and 12.

'Fides Catholica.' And this is continued in the headings of Commentaries as late as the thirteenth century. Thus the Stavelot Commentary is headed in the Paris Latin MS. 12020 of the twelfth century, 'Tractatus de Fide Catholica,' and Necham's Commentary in the Bodleian, late thirteenth century MS., Auct. D. 2. 9, 'Expositio Fidei Catholice a Magistro Alexandro edita.'

And not only in the headings of Commentaries, but in other documents, we have evidence of the early application of the title Fides Catholica' to the Quicunque. It was thus described by Theodulf Bishop of Orleans at the end of the eighth or beginning of the ninth century, both in his Capitula and in his Capitulare addressed to his clergy. So also in the Catachesis Theotisca preserved in a Wolfenbüttel MS. of the middle of the ninth century 1. So also in the heading of a Prayer to be said after the recital of the Quicunque-'Oratio post Fidem Catholicam '—which occurs in the Paris Latin MS. 13388 of the ninth century, a manual of devotion formerly the property of the Abbey of St. Germain des Près at Paris, where it was no doubt used. And it is so described in the Utrecht Psalter, which, though modern palaeography forbids us to regard it like our ancestors as executed in the time of Gregory the Great, may still be safely assigned to the first half of the ninth century: indeed, it is considered by Sir E. M. Thompson to have been written at the beginning of that century and to be the exact copy of an older codex 2. It is so described also in another Psalter of the ninth century -Parker 272, O. 53. And this title was never dropped entirely, in proof of which let me adduce three notable

1 See above, Part I. v. 3.

2 Handbook of Palaeography, by Sir E. M. Thompson, pp. 64 and 189. 3 Above, I. iii. 15.