Philip Schaff · 14 of 85

The French Confession of Faith. A.D. 1559.

CONFESSIO FIDEI GALLICANA.

[This Confession was prepared by Calvin and his pupil, De Chandieu, revised and approved by a synod at Paris, 1559, delivered by Beza to Charles IX. at Poissy, 1561, adopted by the Synod of La Rochelle, 1571 (hence also called the 'Confession of Rochelle'), and solemnly sanctioned by Henry IV.

The French original, with the old spelling, is printed in Beza's Histoire ecclésiastique des églises réformées, in Niemeyer's Collectio (pp. 313–320), and by Dr. Heppe, in the Zeitschrift für die historische Theologie, Gotha, 1875, pp. 524 sqq., from a MS. copy in Geneva. A Latin version of 1566 in the Corpus et Syntagma Confess., and in Niemeyer (pp. 329–339). A German translation, Heidelberg, 1562, and in Böckel.

We give the authoritative text, in modern spelling, from the edition published by the Société des livres religieux, at Toulouse, 1864: Confession de foi et discipline ecclésiastique des églises réformées de France. The Preface we have supplied in its original form, as reprinted by Niemeyer, and in Calvin's Opera, Vol. IX. p. 737. The shorter French recension, which has only thirty-five Articles, is reprinted in Calvin's Opera, Vol. IX. pp. 738–752, with the changes of the later edition.

The English translation was kindly prepared for this work by Miss Emily O. Butler, of New York. An older version is in Quick's Synodicon, 1692, Vol. I.]