Editor's Note: Throughout the Church's history, there have been occasions when various Church leaders met to formulate statements and affirmation of Christian doctrine. These formulations often addressed a particular issue or set of issues facing the Church in that time. Some are more general and comprhensive in stating basic Christian doctrine.  Contained in the website's subpages are excerpts from a wide range of formulations from the early Church, as well as those drafted in the last few centuries by Protestant bodies. (These latter articulations reflect this website's affirmation of the Protestant statements on the fundamental doctrine of Justification by Faith, over which the two bodies -- Protestant and Catholic -- have differed starting in the 16th Century with the Protestant Reformation. The reader may wish to read further regarding these differences. For instance, the distinctive Catholic' articulation of the doctrine of Justification in response to the Reformers, in contained in the pronouncements from the Council of Trent (1545-1563).