the identification absolute. Perhaps the
Roman theologians of that age were more concerned than the Protestants
to draw a line round necessary truths. This attempt was made by Dr Henry
Holden (_Div. Fidei Analysis_, 1652) in connexion with the word
"articles.[9]"

Decreta.

Another term to be considered is _decretum_, the old Latin equivalent
for [Greek: dogma]. Another of Luther's assertions branded by the pope
in 1520--the twenty-ninth--claimed liberty _judicandi conciliorum
decreta_. On the other hand, the Augsburg Confession protests its
loyalty to the _decretum_ of Nice. What Protestantism saw in the distant
past, Trent naturally recognized in the present. Every one of its own
findings is a _decretum_--except five, among the sacramental chapters,
each of which is headed _doctrina_. Holden again quotes the (indefinite)
_decretum_ of the Council of Basel regarding the Immaculate Conception.

Dogmata in revived use.

The word "dogma" was however to revive, and, with more or less success,
to differentiate itself from "doctrine." Early writers of the modern
period, Protestant or Roman Catholic, use it frequently of heretics;
thus the Augsburg Confession protests that the Protestants have
carefully avoided _nova dogmata_. A Roman Catholic writer, Jan Driedo of
Louvain, revives the reference to _Ecclesiastica dogmata--De
ecclesiasticis scripturis et dogmatibus_ (1533)--using the word, though
not exclusively yet emphatically, of teachings _extra canonem scripturae
sacrae_. Philip Melanchthon's preface to his _Loci communes_ (ed. 1535)
protests that he has not expressed himself _de ullo dogmate_--on any
point of doctrine--without careful consideration of what has been said
before him. Richard Hooker (d. 1600) in bk. viii. of _Eccl. Polity_
(pub. 1648 or perhaps 1651) quotes Thomas Stapleton, the Roman Catholic
(_De principiis doctrinalibus fidei_, 1579), on the royal right or duty
to enforce "dogmas," and adds a gloss of his own--"very articles of the
faith,"--a surprising and probably isolated usage. Many identified
Dogmas and Articles by levelling down or broadening out; but Hooker
levels up. The statement of the Council of Trent (1545-1562) may be
quoted here. The Council will rely chiefly upon Scriptures[10] _in
reformandis dogmatibus et instaurandis in ecclesia moribus_; the Roman
reply to the two sets of _articuli_ of Augsburg, and the Roman
counterpart to the (later) Protestant assertion that the Bible[1