A Golden Chain

Thus much of the burial. Now followeth the third and last degree of Christs humiliation:¹ He descended into hell. It seems very likely that these words were not placed in the Creed at the first, (or as some think) that they crept in by negligence, because above threescore Creeds of the most ancient counsels and fathers want this clause: and among the rest the Nicene Creed. But if the ancient and learned fathers assembled in that Council had been persuaded, or at the least had imagined that these words had bin set down at the first by the Apostles, no doubt they would not in any wise have left them out.² And an ancient writer saith directly, that these words, he descended into hell, are not found in the Creed of the Roman Church, nor used in the churches of the East: and if they be, that then they signify the burial of Christ. And it must not seem strange to any that a word or twain in process of time should creep into the Creed, considering that the original copies of the books of the old and new testament have in them sundry ^avarieties of readings and ^bwords otherwhiles which from the margin have crept into the text. Nevertheless considering that this clause hath long continued in the Creed, and that by common consent of the Catholic Church of God, and •t may carry a fit sense and exposition; it is not as some would have it, to be put forth.

Thus much of the buriall. Nowe followeth the third and last degree of Christs humiliation:¹ He descended into hell. It seemes very likely that these words were not placed in the Creede at the first, (or as some thinke) that they crept in by negligence, because aboue threescore Creeds of the most ancient counsels and fathers want this clause: and among the rest the Nicene Creede. But if the auncient and learned fathers assembled in that Counsell had beene perswaded, or at the least had imagined that these words had bin set down at the first by the Apostles, no doubt they would not in any wise haue left them out.