Confessional sources for the nine traditions

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Only classic formulations are used. Modern revisions and liberalised positions are not. Status labels follow the conventions: verified means the wording was checked against the online text linked here; to verify means the wording is not yet checked and the item carries less weight.

Tradition	Standards used	Text checked against
Catholic	Trent; earlier councils	(see category files)
Orthodox	Confession of Dositheus (1672); the seven councils	(see category files)
Oriental Orthodox	Severus of Antioch; Timothy Aelurus; Coptic, Syriac, Armenian and Ethiopian liturgies; Armenian sources	Thin. No single confession exists. Checked so far: Severus, Select Letters (Brooks’s translation), Timothy Aelurus testimonia, the Armenian Badarak, and Nerses Shnorhali, I Confess with Faith. Coptic sources now checked directly: the Liturgy of St Basil (copticchurch.net reference edition), the Coptic Synaxarium, Bishop Mettaous, Sacramental Rites in the Coptic Orthodox Church, and Pope Shenouda III, Comparative Theology and Salvation in the Orthodox Concept (1978, popeshenouda.org.eg). Shenouda is 20th-century but states the standing Coptic position, not a revision of it; he is used only where no older text was located, and the date is given in each cell. Cells not covered by these texts are marked not assessed with the reason.
Lutheran	Book of Concord (1580)	(see category files)
Anglican	Thirty-Nine Articles (1571); 1662 Book of Common Prayer; the Homilies	Articles, 1662 Catechism, 1662 Burial
Presbyterian	Westminster Confession (1646); Larger and Shorter Catechisms	WCF, WLC, WSC
Reformed Baptist	Second London Baptist Confession (1689)	1689 (chapters 1, 3, 6, 8–11, 17, 18, 21, 22, 26, 28–32 checked)
General Baptist	Standard Confession (1660); An Orthodox Creed (1679, Thomas Monck)	Standard Confession; Orthodox Creed in the 1679 printing, using the archive’s OCR, which is rough and partial
Anabaptist	Schleitheim (1527); Dordrecht (1632); Menno Simons	Schleitheim, Dordrecht. Menno Simons, Foundation book (baptism and Supper chapters checked)

Authority: verified texts

Presbyterian. WSC Q. 2: the Word of God “is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him”. WCF I.10 makes the Spirit speaking in Scripture the supreme judge of “all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers” (verified).
Reformed Baptist. 1689 1.1: “The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience” (verified).
General Baptist. Orthodox Creed art. 37 (checked against the OCR): “The Authority of the holy Scripture, dependeth not upon the Authority of any Man, but only upon the Authority of God”, and whatever is not read in it “nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required”. Standard Confession art. 23: “the holy Scriptures is the rule whereby Saints both in matters of Faith, and conversation are to be regulated” (verified). Orthodox Creed art. 38 (“Of the three Creeds”), verified against the BaptistTheology.org transcription of the 1679 printing (Madison Grace, from the original, not Crosby’s abridgement): “The Three Creeds, (viz.) Nicene Creed, Athanasius his Creed, and the Apostles Creed, (as they are commonly called) ought throughly to be received, and believed. For we believe they may be proved by most undoubted Authority of holy Scripture”. It makes the Orthodox Creed the only Baptist confession that embeds the three creeds.
Anglican. Art. VI: “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man”. Art. XXI: General Councils “may err, and sometimes have erred”. Art. VIII receives the three creeds (all verified).
Anabaptist. Schleitheim and Dordrecht ground every article in Scripture. Dordrecht V: the New Testament may not be altered, added to or taken from by “angel nor man” (verified). There is no formal doctrine of tradition.
Oriental Orthodox. Scripture is read within the tradition of the first three councils (Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus) and of the fathers, especially Cyril of Alexandria, as received by Severus and Timothy Aelurus. To verify: no primary text was checked in this pass.

Presbyterian, Reformed Baptist and General Baptist compared

They agree on:

justification by faith alone. WCF XI.1 and 1689 11.1 are nearly word for word the same, and the Standard Confession art. 6 says faith is “accounted unto them for righteousness”.
substitutionary atonement (Q, A3–A4).
Scripture as the rule (see above).
rejection of the Mass as a sacrifice: 1689 30.2 says “nor any real sacrifice made at all”.
rejection of purgatory, of the veneration of relics and images, and of prayer for the dead: 1689 22.4 says prayer is made “not for the dead”.

They differ on:

Point	Presbyterian (WCF)	Reformed Baptist (1689)	General Baptist (1660/1679)
Baptism: subjects	Infants of believers (WCF XXVIII.4)	“Those who do actually profess repentance” (29.2)	Believers only: infant sprinkling is “that Scriptureless thing … (falsly called Baptisme)” (SC art. 11)
Baptism: mode	“Dipping … is not necessary” (XXVIII.3)	“Immersion, or dipping … is necessary” (29.4)	“Baptise (that is in English to Dip)” (SC art. 11); Orthodox Creed 28: “by Immersion or Dipping” (checked against the OCR)
Ecclesiology	Presbyterian church government by synods and councils (WCF XXXI); visible church includes believers’ children	Gathered congregations of “visible saints” (26.2); each congregation self-governing	Gathered congregations ordained “by Fasting, Prayer, and Laying on of Hands” (SC art. 5); laying on of hands for all the baptised (SC art. 12); messengers between churches
Atonement extent	Particular (WCF VIII.5, 8)	Particular (1689 8.8)	General: Christ “gave himself a ransome for all … tasting death for every man” (SC art. 3)
Predestination	Double decree: others “foreordained to everlasting death” (WCF III.3)	Softer wording: “others being left to act in their sin to their just condemnation” (3.3)	Election of “such as believe”, yet “not … from fore-seen faith” (SC art. 8); reprobation of the ungodly “considered as such” (art. 9)
Perseverance	Saints “can neither totally nor finally fall away” (XVII.1)	Same (17.1) The two standards differ. SC art. 18: true believers “may nevertheless for want of watchfulness, swerve and turn aside … and become as withered Branches”. Orthodox Creed art. 36: the elect “shall certainly persevere unto Eternal Life”, and art. 29: the invisible church “can never fall away” (both checked against the OCR)
Infants dying	Elect infants saved (WCF X.3)	Same (10.3)	All dying infants saved, “only subject to the first death” (SC art. 10)

WCF clause numbers rechecked against opc.org (verified): XXVIII.4, “Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one, or both, believing parents, are to be baptized”; XXXI (“Of Synods and Councils”); VIII.5, Christ “hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father; and purchased … for all those whom the Father hath given unto him”; VIII.8, “To all those for whom Christ hath purchased redemption, he doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same”; X.3, “Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated, and saved by Christ, through the Spirit”. 1689 8.8 and 10.3 rechecked against the1689confession.com (verified): 8.8, “To all those for whom Christ has obtained eternal redemption, He does certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same”; 10.3, “Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit”.

Note on the Oriental Orthodox sources

The non-Chalcedonian churches (Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Syriac) have no early-modern confession comparable to Trent or Westminster. Their positions are inferred from the liturgies and from Severus of Antioch and Timothy Aelurus. Those positions are broadly the same as Eastern Orthodox ones on the sacraments, relics and the afterlife, with two differences. They did not receive Chalcedon (451) or Nicaea II (787). And the Armenian church had a historical strand wary of images: Vrtanes Kertogh (Vrt’anês K’ert’ogh), catholicosal locum tenens c. 604–607, wrote Against the Iconoclasts (Yałags patkeramartic’), defending church images of Christ, the Virgin, saints and the Cross against an Armenian iconoclast strand (secondary-attested: Sirarpie Der Nersessian; Armenian text at armenianart.org; scholarly discussion in Bogoslovskii vestnik and the Pan-Armenian Digital Library). Also verified from liturgies and fathers:

the real presence and sacrifice in the Armenian Badarak: “holy and precious body and blood … propitiation and remission of sins”; “Son of God, Who art sacrificed to the Father for reconciliation”
prayer for the departed: “grant rest to the souls of us that are fallen asleep”
the procession of the Spirit “from the Father alone” and the Eucharist as “the Holy Sacrifice” (Nerses)
Severus’s one-nature Christology, his rejection of “Leo’s impious letter”, and his preaching on “the commemoration of the martyrs”

Since then, images, purgatory, free will, election, perseverance, the millennium, Antichrist and final punishment have been sourced from Pope Shenouda III (20th c.; see the source row above), several of them from official-site lecture summaries, which are labelled as such. Cells with no source located are not assessed, so the Oriental Orthodox scores rest on fewer cells than the other traditions’ (see the coverage table on the scores page).

Confessional texts checked on 2026-10-17

Quoted for S02.3, S04.3 and S08.3 (verified in English against the editions linked in the table above):

Trent V.4 (hanover.edu ct05): infants, “even though they be sprung from baptized parents”, are baptised “for the remission of sins”, which is “from a tradition of the apostles”. Trent XIII ch. 8 (ct13): “some receive it sacramentally only, to wit sinners”.
Vatican I, Pastor aeternus ch. 4: “such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the church, irreformable”.
Dositheus (crivoice), Decree 10: “a mortal man cannot universally and perpetually be head of this Catholic Church”; Decree 17: the Body “enters into the mouths and stomachs of the communicants, whether pious or impious”.
Augsburg Confession IX: “children are to be baptized who, being offered to God through Baptism are received into God’s grace”. Formula of Concord, Epitome VII.16: “not only the true believers … but also the unworthy and unbelievers, receive the true body and blood of Christ; however … for judgment”. Treatise 56: “the decisions of Synods are the decisions of the Church, and not of the Popes” (bookofconcord.org).
Articles XIX, XXI, XXVII, XXIX (churchofengland.org).
WCF XXVIII.4, XXIX.8; WCF (1646 numbering) XXXI.4 and XXV.6; WLC 166 (opc.org). 1689 26.4, 29.2, 30.7–8 (the1689confession.com).
Orthodox Creed (1679) XXVIII, XXXIII, XXXIX (archive.org OCR).
Schleitheim 1: “This excludes all infant baptism”. Menno Simons, ‘Concerning Baptism’ (mennosimons.net): baptism “is no more applicable to infants, than circumcision was to the females of the Israelites”.
Shenouda III, Comparative Theology (copticchurch.net): “There is no doubt that baptism was symbolised by circumcision in the Old Testament”; “we baptise little children on the belief of their parents”. Coptic baptism rite (copticchurch.net): “Baptism is a spiritual circumcision”.

Quoted for S14.4, S11.3, S24.3 and T09.3:

Trent V.5: concupiscence is not “truly and properly sin in those born again, but because it is of sin, and inclines to sin”. Trent VI can. 4: free will “cannot refuse its consent, if it would” is condemned. Trent XXIV can. 10: “better and more blessed to remain in virginity”.
Benedictus Deus (1336, papalencyclicals.net): the purified “see the divine essence with an intuitive vision and even face to face”. Florence (papalencyclicals.net): “straightaway received into heaven and clearly behold the triune God”.
Dositheus 3 (grace “of use only to the willing”), 6, 16, 18.
AC II, XXVII.61; Apology II.36, XXI.9; FC SD II.60.
Arts. IX, X, XIV, XVII; Book of Common Prayer, Burial of the Dead.
WCF VI.5, X.1, XVI.4, XXXII.1; 1689 6.5, 10.1, 16.4, 31.1.
Orthodox Creed XV, XXI, XLIX.
Shenouda III, Comparative Theology (saints “departed to Paradise, living with Christ”); lecture “The Problem of Election or Rejection” (official-site summary).

Quoted for F04.4, S03.3 and S06.5:

Trent VII (sacraments in general, canons 6, 8; Baptism, canon 4); Trent XIII ch. 1: Christ “always sitteth at the right hand of the Father in heaven, according to the natural mode of existing”.
Dositheus 15 and 17.
AC VIII, XIII (bookofconcord.org); Large Catechism IV (bookofconcord.org); Formula of Concord, Epitome VIII (bookofconcord.org).
Arts. IV, XXV, XXVI; 1662 Black Rubric (end of the Communion office).
WCF VIII.3, VIII.4, VIII.7, XXVII.3, XXVII.4, XXVIII.6, XXVIII.7, XXIX.7; 1689 8.7, 29.1, 30.7.
Orthodox Creed XXVII, XXVIII; Schleitheim 1.

Quoted for F10.4, S05.3 and S13.3:

Trent VI ch. 15; Trent XXII canon 3. Roman Catechism (1566), Part I, Art. V, Donovan translation (wikisource).
Dositheus 17. Peter Mogila, Orthodox Confession (1643) I, Q. 49 and III, Q. 17–18 (maksimologija.org).
Augsburg Confession XXIV; Apology XXIV; Smalcald Articles III.3.43 (bookofconcord.org); Formula of Concord, Epitome IX and Solid Declaration IX.
Arts. III, XVI, XXXI.
WCF XV.4, XVII.1, XXIX.2; Westminster Larger Catechism 50; 1689 8.4, 17.1, 30.2.
Orthodox Creed XXXIII, XXXVI.

Quoted for S18.4 and S17.3:

Trent VI canon 23; Trent XXV, Decree on Indulgences.
Peter Mogila, Orthodox Confession (1643) I, Q. 38 (maksimologija.org).
Smalcald Articles II.2.24 (bookofconcord.org).
Arts. XIV, XV, XXII.
WCF XIII.2, XVI.4; Westminster Larger Catechism 149; 1689 13.2, 16.4.