CONFESSIONS OF FAITH 



CONFIDENTIALITY 



409 



: li. and are significant and important features 

 in ii> lii>l..i\ . 



Prior t<> tin- era f the Reformation in Kurope, 

 the piiMic formularies of the Christian church 

 were generally termed creeds. It was tlie rise of 

 1'iotestantiMii that evoked confessions of faith as 

 we now 1 1 IK ! r-t a in I the name. Among the first to 

 formulate these were the SWJHH at Zurich, where, 

 in l.VJ.'l, /\vingli wrote liis Si.rl if si-n-n Articles or 

 I'nitrl iisi'iiis. To Luther .and Philip Melanchthon, 

 lio\\e\er, is due the honour of drawing up the first 

 iiutlioritative evangelical formulary, the Augsburg 

 I'unffsmuH (q.v.), \v the adoption of which the 

 Lutheran princes, with their states, in 1530, finally 

 broke with Rome. It was followed hy the Apology 

 of the A ugsburg Confession, drawn up hy Melanch- 

 i IK >n, and recognised as a confession in 1532. Later 

 confessions of that church are the A rticles of Smal- 

 cald, prepared in 1537, the Saxon Confession, and 

 the Wurtemberg Confession, both published in 

 1551. But these were superseded in 1580 on the 

 adoption of the Form of Concord (Formula Con- 

 ci>n /ire), which is the most representative symbol 

 of the Lutheran Church. 



The German Reformed Church, which sprang up 

 side by side with the Lutheran, and stood midway 

 between it and the Calvinistic bodies, issued in 

 1530 the Tetrapolitan Confession, so called because 

 sent forth in name of the four cities of Stras- 

 burg, Constance, Memmingen, and Lindau. It was 

 written chiefly by Bucer. Among other confessions 

 official ly recognised by this church, or local portions 

 of it, were the Confession of Anhalt ( 1581 ) ; the 

 Confession of Nassau (1578) ; the Consensus of the 

 Ministry of Bremen ( 1598 ) ; the Hessian and Heidel- 

 berg Confessions (1607); and the Declaration of 

 TAorn(1645). 



In Switzerland, the labours of Zwingli were 

 followed by the publication in 1534 of the First 

 Confession of Basel, prepared by CEcolampadius 

 and Myconius. To it succeeded in 1536 the 

 Second Confession of Basel, better known as the 

 First Helvetic Confession. It was superseded in 

 1566 by the more comprehensive Second Helvetic 

 Confession, which was written by Bullinger, and 

 obtained official sanction in Scotland, Hungary, 

 France, and Poland. Calvin left his mark on con- 

 fessional literature in, among others, the Consensus 

 of Zurich ( 1549 ) ; in the Consensus of Geneva ( 1552 ), 

 which is a treatise written mainly in defence of the 

 doctrine of predestination ; and in the Gallimii 

 Confession, which he prepared in conjunction with 

 his pupil, Antoine de la Roche Chandieu (Sadeel). 

 The latest Swiss confession is the Helvetic Consensus 

 Formula, written in 1675, by Heidegger of Zurich. 

 It is thoroughly Calvinistic, and was drawn up in 

 defence of the conclusions of the Synod of Dort. 



The Gallican Confession, was adopted by the 

 French Reformed Church in 1559, and after revision 

 was ratified at the Synod of Rochelle in 1571, 

 whence it is sometimes called the Confession of 

 Rochelle, 



The Belgic Confession, drawn up principally by 

 (luitlo de Bres in 1561, has since then been, and 

 still is, the authoritative standard of the Dutch 

 and Belgian Reformed churches. The Anninian 

 controversy occasioned the meeting of the Synod of 

 Dort in 1618, and the issuing of the Canons of Dort 

 in the following year. These canons were adopted 

 as symbolical by the Dutch and French Reformed 

 churches. 



But confessions have not been peculiar to the 

 Protestant Church. Influenced by the Reforma- 

 tion, the Greek Church adopted the Orthodox Con- 

 fession of Mogilas, the metropolitan of Kief (died 

 1647 ), who drew it up in a catechetical form as a 



S'otective measure against both Protestant and 

 oman Catholic churches. Recast by Syriga, the 



metropolitan of N ica-a, it became in 1672 the confes- 

 sion <>t tin- whole Creek Church. At the name time 

 the anti-Calvinintic Confession of Dositheus wa 

 promulgated hy the Synod of Jerusalem. Similarly, 

 the Roman Catholic Church publuhed the Canons 

 ami Decrees of the Council of Trent in 1564, to 

 which were added in 1854 the decree of Piun IX. 

 on the Immaculate Conception, and in 1K"0 the 

 Vatican Decrees. See ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



In Britain the chief confessions are the Scots 

 Confession, consisting of twenty-five articles, drawn 

 up by John Knox in 1560, and adopted by the 

 Church and kingdom of Scotland ; the Thirty-nine 

 Articles of the Church of England, adopted in 1562 ; 

 the Irish Articles, one hundred and four in number, 

 prepared by Archbishop Usher, and adopted by the 

 Irian Church in convocation at Dublin in 1615, 

 but superseded by the Thirty-nine Articles of the 

 Church of England in 1635 ( see ARTICLES ) ; and 

 the Westminster Confession of Faith, emitted in 

 1647 by the Westminster Assembly of Divines (see 

 WESTMINSTER ). This confession lias become iden- 

 tified with Presbyterianism among all the English- 

 speaking populations of the globe. Its theology 

 was also adopted with some modifications by the 

 Congregational ists and a section of the Baptists. 

 It was ratified by the English parliament in 1647, 

 but in England its influence waned with the de- 

 cline of Presbyterianism during the Common- 

 wealth and the reign of Charles II. By Scotland, 

 in furtherance of the uniformity agreed upon in 

 the Solemn League and Covenant, the Westmin- 

 ster Confession was cordially received and adopted 

 in place of that of 1560. It was approved by the 

 General Assembly in 1647, with the modification 

 of but one section regarding the magistrate's 

 power circa sacra, was ratified by parliament in 

 1649 and again in 1690, and continues to be the 

 common symbol of the Church of Scotland and 

 of the churches which have seceded from her com- 

 munion, save in the case of the United Presby- 

 terian Church, which in 1879 modified its accept- 

 ance of the Confession by a Declaratory Statement 

 regarding certain of its doctrines. 



The Westminster Confession consists of thirty- 

 three chapters, is thoroughly Calvinistic in its 

 teaching, and is in many parts stated in terms 

 designed to counteract the principal errors of the 

 time. Beginning with the canon of Scripture, it 

 surveys the entire field of theology, deals also with 

 the relations of the state to the church, the con- 

 stitution of the church itself, and concludes with 

 the topics of death, the resurrection, and the last 

 judgment. Its precise logic, its clear, dignified and 

 powerful diction, and its constant reference to 

 Scripture in proof of its statements, tended greatly 

 to beget that influence to which it attained. 



Confessions of faith are now the subject of a 

 voluminous literature which is fully utilised in the 

 History of the Creeds of Christendom (3 vols. 1876), 

 by Dr Philip Schaft'of New York, and his Httrmonii 

 of the Reformed Confessions (1877). A valuable 

 historical appendix, with special reference to the 

 Presbyterian Church, is given in the Report of the 

 Second General Council or the Presbyterian Alliance 

 ( 1880 ). See also under CREEDS. 



Confessor. See CANONISATION. 



Confidentiality* in Law. The most common 

 instance of confidentiality is in the case of tlio-e 

 communications between a client and his legal 

 adviser which neither of them can be called on to 

 produce in a suit, and upon which no action of 

 il;una.u r escan bp founded. The privilege applies to 

 letters written by the lawyer to nis client relating 

 to a suit which is either pending or contemplated ; 

 but to what extent it covers other business com- 

 munications is a question on which there are 



