6 JULY 1872, Page 3

The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol has come upon an

early MS. of the Athanasian Creed in the public library at Utrecht,— a very early copy he believes, as early as the seventh century at least, which contains the damnatory clauses in their perfection. Canon Swainson does not think it is so old, but if the opinion of the palaeographer who assigns it to the seventh century is con- firmed, as we believe it will be, we suppose nobody will have the courage to object to clauses which go back as far as the seventh century. The Right Rev. Bench would, we fear, almost prefer to be damned under a creed as old as the seventh century, to being saved under one of later date. But the world in general is not so obsequious to dates.