than this was gained, in so
far as the Antignostic interpretation of the formula, and consequently a
"doctrine," was indeed in some measure involved in the _lex_. The extent
to which this was the case depended, of course, on the individual
community or its leaders. All Gnostics could not be excluded by the
wording of the confession; and, on the other hand, every formulated
faith leads to a formulated doctrine, as soon as it is set up as a
critical canon. What we observe in Irenaeus and Tertullian must have
everywhere taken place in a greater or less degree; that is to say, the
authority of the confessional formula must have been extended to
statements not found in the formula itself.

We can still prove from the works of Clement of Alexandria that a
confession claiming to be an apostolic law of faith,[56] ostensibly
comprehending the whole essence of Christianity, was not set up in the
different provincial Churches at one and the same time. From this it is
clearly manifest that at this period the Alexandrian Church neither
possessed a baptismal confession similar to that of Rome,[57] nor
understood by "regula fidei" and synonymous expressions a collection of
beliefs fixed in some fashion and derived from the apostles.[58] Clement
of Alexandria in his Stromateis appeals to the holy (divine) Scriptures,
to the teaching of the Lord,[59] and to the standard tradition which he
designates by a great variety of names, though he never gives its
content, because he regards the whole of Christianity in its present
condition as needing to be reconstructed by gnosis, and therefore as
coming under the head of tradition.[60] In one respect therefore, as
compared with Irenaeus and Tertullian, he to some extent represents an
earlier standpoint; he stands midway between them and Justin. From this
author he is chiefly distinguished by the fact that he employs sacred
Christian writings as well as the Old Testament, makes the true Gnostic
quite as dependent on the former as on the latter and has lost that
naive view of tradition, that is, the complete content of Christianity,
which Irenaeus and Tertullian still had. As is to be expected, Clement
too assigns the ultimate authorship of the tradition to the Apostles;
but it is characteristic that he neither does this of such set purpose
as Irenaeus and Tertullian, nor thinks it necessary to prove that the
Church had presented the apostolic tradition intact. But as he did not
extract from the