Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Coucy-le-Château" to "Crocodile"

Chapter I: THE ANCIENT CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM.--The three creeds which may be

Text size

called oecumenical, although the measure of their acceptance by the universal church has not been uniform, represent three distinct types provided for the use of the catechumen, the communicant, and the church teacher respectively. The Apostles' Creed is the ancient baptismal creed, held in common both by East and West, in its final western form. The Nicene Creed is the baptismal creed of an eastern church enlarged in order to combine theological interpretation with the facts of the historic faith. Its use in the Eucharist of the undivided Church has been continued since the great schism, although the Eastern Church protests against the interpolation of the words "And the Son" in clause 9. The Athanasian Creed is an instruction designed to confute heresies which were current in the 5th century.

Apostles' Creed.

1. _The Apostles' Creed._--The increased interest which has been shown in the history of all creed-forms since the latter part of the 19th century is due in a great measure to the work of the veteran pioneer, Professor P. Caspari of Christiania, who began the herculean task of classifying the enormous number of creed-forms which have been recovered from obscure pages of early Christian literature. In England we owe much to Professors C. A. Heurtley and Swainson. In Germany the monumental work of Professor Kattenbusch has overshadowed all other books on the subject, providing even his most ardent critics with an indispensable record of the literature of the subject.

The majority of critics agree that the only trace of a formal creed in the New Testament is the simple confession of Jesus as the Lord, _or_ the Son of God (Rom. x. 9; 1 Cor. xii. 3). While the apostles were agreed on an outline of teaching (Rom. vi. 17) which included the doctrine of God, the person and work of Christ, and the person and work of the Holy Spirit, it does not appear that they provided any summary, which would cover this ground, as an authoritative statement of their belief. The tradition which St Paul received included, so to speak, the germ of the central prayer in the Eucharist (1 Cor. xi. 23 ff.), and no doubt included also teaching on conduct, "the way of a Christian life" (1 Thess. iv. 1; Gal. v. 21). The creed in all its forms lies behind worship, which it preserves from idolatry, and behind ethics, to which it supplies a motive power which the pre-Christian system so manifestly lacked. Whether the first creed of the primitive Church was of the simple Christological character which confession of Jesus as the Lord expresses, or of an enlarged type based on the baptismal formula (Matt. xxviii. 19), makes no difference to the statement that the faith which overcame the world derived its energy from convictions which strove for utterance. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. x. 10).

When St Paul reminds Timothy (1 Tim. vi. 13) of his confession before many witnesses he does not seem to imply more than confession of Christ as king. He calls it "the beautiful confession" to which Christ Jesus had borne witness before Pontius Pilate, and charges Timothy before God, who quickeneth all things, to keep this commandment. Some writers, notably Professor Zahn,[5] piecing together this text with 2 Tim. i. 13, ii. 8, iv. 1, 2, reconstructs a primitive Apostles' Creed of Antioch, the city from which St Paul started on his missionary journeys. But there is no mention of a third article in the creed, beyond a reference to the Holy Ghost in the context of 2 Tim. i. 14, which would prove the apostolic use of a Trinitarian confession imaginable as the parent of the later Eastern and Western forms. The eunuch's creed interpolated in Acts viii. 57, "I believe that Jesus is the Son of God," since the reading was known to Irenaeus, probably represents the form of baptismal confession used in some church of Asia Minor, and supplies us with the type of a primitive creed. This theory is confirmed by the evidence of the Johannine epistles (1 John iv. 15, v. 5; cf. Heb. iv. 14).

From this point of view it is easy to explain the occurrence of creed-like phrases in the New Testament as fragments of early hymns (1 Tim. iii. 16) or reminiscences of oral teaching (1 Cor. xv. 1 ff.). The following form which Seeberg gives as the creed of St Paul is an artificial combination of fragments of oral teaching, which naturally reappear in the teaching of St Peter, but finds no attestation in the later creeds of particular churches which would prove its claim to be their parent form:

"The living God who created all things sent His Son Jesus Christ, born
of the seed of David, who died for our sins according to the
scriptures, and was buried, who was raised on the third day according
to the scriptures, and appeared to Cephas and the XII., who sat at the
right hand of God in the heavens, all rule and authority and power
being made subject unto Him, and is coming on the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory."

The evidence of the apostolic fathers is disappointing. Clement (_Cor._ lviii. 2) supplies only parallels to the baptismal formula (Matt. xxviii. 19). Polycarp (_Ep._ 7) echoes St John. But Ignatius might seem to offer in the following passage some confirmation of Zahn's theory of a primitive creed of Antioch (_Trall._ 9): "Be ye deaf, therefore, when any man speaketh to you apart from Jesus Christ, who was of the race of David, who was the Son of Mary, who was truly born and ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died in the sight of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth; who, moreover, was truly raised from the dead, His Father having raised Him, who in the like fashion will so raise us also who believe on Him--His Father, I say, will raise us--in Christ Jesus, apart from whom we have not true life."

The differences, however, which divide this from the later creed forms are scarcely less noticeable than their agreement, and the evidence of the Ignatian epistles generally (_Eph_. xviii.; _Smyrn._ i.), while it confirms the conclusion that instruction was given in Antioch on all points characteristic of the developed creed, e.g. the Miraculous Birth, Crucifixion, Resurrection, the Catholic Church, forgiveness of sins, the hope of resurrection, does not prove that this teaching was as yet combined in a Trinitarian form which classified the latter clauses under the work of the Holy Ghost.

At this point a word must be said on the important question of interpretation. While we may hope for eventual agreement on the history of the different types of creed forms, there can be no hope of agreement on the interpretation of the words Holy Spirit between Unitarian and Trinitarian critics. Writers who follow Harnack explain "holy spirit" as the gift of impersonal influence, and between wide limits of difference agree in regarding Christ as Son of God by adoption and not by nature. Amid the chaos of conflicting opinions as to the original teaching of Jesus, the Gospel within the Gospel, the central question "What think ye of Christ?" emerges as the test of all theories. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord save in the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. xii. 3). Belief in the fact of the Incarnation of the eternal Word, as it is stated in the words of Ignatius quoted above, or in any of the later creeds, stands or falls with belief in the Holy Ghost as the guide alike of their convictions and destinies, no mere impersonal influence, but a living voice.

If the essence of Christianity is winnowed down to a bare imitation of the Man Jesus, and his religion is accepted as Buddhists accept the religion of Buddha, still it cannot be denied that the early Christians put their trust in Christ rather than his religion. "I am the life," not "I teach the life," "I am the truth," not merely "I teach the truth," are not additions of Johannine theology but the central aspect of the presentation of Christ as the good physician, healer of souls and bodies, which the most rigid scrutiny of the Synoptic Gospels leaves as the residuum of accepted fact about Jesus of Nazareth. To say more would be out of place in this article, but enough has been said to introduce the exhaustive discussion by Kattenbusch (ii. 471-728) of the meaning of the theological teaching both of the New Testament and of the earliest creeds.

To return within our proper limits. Kattenbusch, with whom Harnack is in general agreement, regards the Old Roman Creed, which comes to light in the 4th century, as the parent of all developed forms, whether Eastern or Western. Marcellus, the exiled bishop of Ancyra, is quoted by Epiphanius as presenting it to Bishop Julius of Rome c. A.D. 340. Ussher's recognition of the fact that this profession of faith by Marcellus was the creed of Rome, not of Ancyra, is the starting-point of modern discussions of the history of the creeds. Some sixty years later Rufinus, a priest of Aquileia, wrote a commentary on the creed of his native city and compared it with the Roman Creed. His Latin text is probably as ancient as the Greek text of Marcellus, because the Roman Church must always have been bilingual in its early days. It was as follows:

I. 1. I believe in God (the) Father almighty;
II. 2. And in Christ Jesus His only Son our Lord,
3. who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
4. crucified under Pontius Pilate and buried
5. the third day He rose from the dead,
6. He ascended into heaven,
7. sitteth at the right hand of the Father,
8. thence He shall come to judge living and dead.
III. 9. And in the Holy Ghost,
10. (the) holy Church,
11. (the) remission of sins,
12. (the) resurrection of the flesh.

This Old Roman Creed may be traced back in the writings of Bishops Felix and Dionysus (3rd century), and in the writings of Tertullian in the 2nd century.

Tertullian calls the creed the "token" which the African Church shares with the Roman (_de Praescr._ 36): "The Roman Church has made a common token with the African Churches, has recognized one God, creator of the universe, and Christ Jesus, of the Virgin Mary, Son of God the Creator, and the resurrection of the flesh." The reference is to the earthenware token which two friends broke in order that they might commend a stranger for hospitality by sending with him the broken half. Their creed became the passport by which Christians in strange cities could obtain admission to assemblies for worship and to common meals. The passage quoted is obviously a condensed quotation of the Roman Creed, which reappears also in the following (_de Virg. vel._ i.):

"The rule of faith is one altogether ... of believing in one God
Almighty, maker of the world, and in His Son Jesus Christ, born of
Mary the Virgin, crucified under Pontius Pilate; the third day raised
from the dead, received in the heavens, sitting now at the right hand
of the Father, about to come and judge quick and dead through the
resurrection also of the flesh."

There are many references in Tertullian to the teaching of the Gnostic Marcion, whose breach with the Roman Church may be dated A.D. 145. He seems to have still held to the Roman creed interpreted in his own way. An ingenious conjecture by Zahn enables us to add the words "holy Church" to our reconstruction of the creed from the writings of Tertullian. In his revised New Testament Marcion speaks of "the covenant which is the mother of us all, which begets us in the holy Church, to which we have vowed allegiance." He uses a word used by Ignatius of the oath taken on confession of the Christian faith. It follows that the words "holy Church" were contained in the Roman Creed.[6]

While all critics agree in tracing back this form to the earliest years of the 2nd century, and regard it as the archetype of all similar Western creeds, there is great diversity of opinion on its relation to Eastern forms. Kattenbusch maintains that the Roman Creed reached Gaul and Africa in the course of the 2nd century, and perhaps all districts of the West that possessed Christian congregations, also the western end of Asia Minor possibly in connexion with Polycarp's visit to Rome A.D. 154. He finds that materials fail for Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt. Further, he holds that all the Eastern creeds which are known to us as existing in the 4th century, or may be traced back to the 3rd, lead to Antioch as their starting-point. He concludes that the Roman Creed was accepted at Antioch after the fall of Paul of Samosata in A.D. 272, and was adapted to the dogmatic requirements of the time, all the later creeds of Palestine, Asia Minor and Egypt being dependent on it.

On the other hand, Kunze, Loofs, Sanday, and Zahn find evidence of the existence of an Eastern type of creed of equal or greater antiquity and distinguished from the Roman by such phrases as "One" (God), "Maker of heaven and earth," "suffered," "shall come again in glory." Thus Kunze reconstructs a creed of Antioch for the 3rd century, and argues that it is independent of the Roman Creed.

_Creed of Antioch._

I. 1. I believe in one and one only true God, Father Almighty, maker
of all things, visible and invisible.

II. 2. And in our Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, the only-begotten and
first born of all creation, begotten of Him before all the
ages, through whom also the ages were established, and all
things came into existence;
3. Who for our sakes, came down, and was born of Mary the Virgin.
4. And crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried,
5. And the third day rose according to the scriptures,
6. and ascended into heaven.
7.
8. And is coming again to judge quick and dead.
9. [The beginning of the third article has not been recorded.]
10.
11. Remission of sins.
12. Resurrection of the dead, life everlasting.

Along similar lines Loofs selects phrases as typical of creeds which go back to a date preceding the Nicene Council.

A. Creed of Eusebius of Caesarea, presented to the Nicene Council.

B. Revised Creed of Cyril of Jerusalem.

C. Creed of Antioch quoted by Cassian.

D. Creed of Antioch quoted in the Apostolic Constitutions.

E. Creed of Lucian the Martyr (Antioch).

F. Creed of Arius (Alexandria).

1. One (God), A, B, C, D, E, F.
Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible
(or a like phrase), A, B, C, D, E.
2. Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, the only begotten (or a like phrase),
A, B, C, D, E, F.
3. Crucified under Pontius Pilate, B, C, D (A, E, F omit because
they are theological creeds. Loofs thinks that the baptismal
creeds on which they are based may have contained the words).
5. Rose the third day, A, B, D, E (F omits "the third day" being
a theological creed; the translation of C is uncertain).
6. Went up, A, B, D, E, F.
+ and ... and ... and, A, B, C, D, E, F.
8. And is coming, B, C, D, E, F; and is about to come, A;
+ again, A, C, D, E, F(B?); + in glory, A, B; with glory, D, E.
10. + Catholic, B, D, F (A, C, E?)
12. + life eternal, B, C; + life of the age to come, D, F.

Sanday (_Journal Theol. Studies_, iii. 1) does not attempt a reconstruction on this elaborate scale, but contents himself with pointing out evidence, which Kattenbusch seems to him to have missed, for the existence of creeds of Egypt, Cappadocia and Palestine before the time of Aurelian. He criticizes Harnack's theory that there existed in the East, that is, in Asia Minor, or in Asia Minor and Syria as far back as the beginning of the 2nd century, a Christological instruction ([Greek: mathema]) organically related to the second article of the Roman Creed, and formulas which taught that the "One God" was "Creator of heaven and earth," and referred to the holy prophetic spirit, and lasted on till they influenced the course of creed-development in the 4th century. He asks, is it not simpler to believe that there was a definite type in the background?

Another English student, the Rev. T. Barns, engaged specially in work upon the history of the creed of Cappadocia, points out the importance of the extraordinary influence of Firmilian of Caesarea in the affairs of the church of Antioch in the early part of the 3rd century. He is led to argue that the creed of Antioch came rather from Cappadocia than Rome. Whether his conclusion is justified or not, it helps to show how strongly the trend of contemporary research is setting against the theory of Kattenbusch that the Roman Creed when adopted at Antioch became the parent of all Eastern forms. It does not, however, militate against the possibility that the Roman Creed was carried from Rome to Asia Minor and to Palestine in the 2nd century. It is evidently impossible to arrive at a final decision until much more spade work has been done in the investigation of early Eastern creeds. Connolly's study of the early Syrian creed (_Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft_, 1906, p. 202) deserves careful consideration. His reconstruction of the creed of Aphraates is interesting in relation to the other traces of a Syriac creed form existing prior to the 4th century.

[I believe] in God the Lord of all, that made the heavens and the
earth and the seas and all that in them is; [And in our Lord Jesus
Christ] [the Son of God,] God, Son of God, King, Son of the King,
Light from Light, (Son and Counsellor, and Guide, and Way, and
Saviour, and Shepherd, and Gatherer, and Door, and Pearl, and Lamb,)
and first-born of all creatures, who came and put on a body from Mary
the Virgin (of the seed of the house of David, from the Holy Spirit),
and put on our manhood, and suffered, _or_ and was crucified, went
down to the place of the dead, _or_ to Sheol, and lived again, and
rose the third day, and ascended to the height, _or_ to heaven, and
sat on the right hand of His Father, and He is the Judge of the dead
and of the living, who sitteth on the throne; [And in the Holy
Spirit;] [And I believe] in the coming to life of the dead; [and] in
the mystery of Baptism (of the remission of sins).

The probable battle-ground of the future between the opposing theories lies in the writings of Irenaeus. He has most of the characteristic expressions of the Eastern creeds. He inserts "one" in clause 1 and 2. He has the phrases "Maker of heaven and earth," "suffered," and "crucified," with "under Pontius Pilate" after instead of before it. Probably also he had "in glory" in clause 8. But there is always the possibility to be faced that Irenaeus drew his creed from Rome rather than Asia Minor. Kattenbusch does not shrink from suggesting that he shows acquaintance with the Roman Creed, and that Justin Martyr also knew it, in which case all the so-called Eastern characteristics have been imprinted on the original Roman form, and are not derived from an Eastern archetype. But the ordinary reader need not feel concern about the future victory of either theory. The plain fact is that the same facts were taught in Palestine, Asia Minor and Gaul, whether gathered up in a parallel creed form or not. The contrast which Rufinus draws between the Roman Creed and others, both of the East and the West, is justified. In comparison with them it was guarded more carefully from change.[7] We have yet to inquire how it received the additions which distinguish the derived form now in use as the baptismal creed of all Western Christendom. Some had already found an entrance into Western creeds. We find "suffered" in the creed of Milan, "descended into hell" in the creed of Aquileia, the Danubian lands and Syria; the words "God" and "almighty" were shortly added to clause 7 in the Spanish creed; "life everlasting" had stood from an early date in the African creed. The creed of Caesarius of Arles (d. 543) proves that these variations had all been united in one Gallican creed together with "catholic" and "communion of saints," but this Gallican form still lacked "Maker of heaven and earth" and the additions in clause 7.

Two newly-discovered creeds help us greatly to narrow down the limits of the problem. The creed of Niceta of Remesiana in Dacia proves that c. A.D. 400 the Dacian church had added to the Roman Creed "maker of heaven and earth," "suffered," "dead," "Catholic," "communion of saints" and "life everlasting." Parallel to it is the Faith of St Jerome discovered in 1903 by Dom. Morin.[8]

_The Faith of St Jerome_.

"I believe in one God the Father almighty, maker of things visible and
invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of
God, God of God, Light of Light, almighty of almighty, true God of
true God, born before the ages, not made, by whom all things were made
in heaven and in earth. Who for our salvation descended from heaven,
was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered by
suffering under Pontius Pilate, under Herod the King, crucified,
buried, descended into hell, trod down the sting of death, rose again
the third day, appeared to the apostles. After this He ascended into
heaven, sitteth at the right of God the Father, thence shall come to
judge the quick and the dead. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, God not
unbegotten nor begotten, not created nor made, but co-eternal with the
Father and the Son. I believe (that there is) remission of sins in the
holy catholic church, communion of saints, resurrection of the flesh
unto eternal life. Amen."

This creed may be the form which Jerome mentions in one of his letters (_Ep._ 17, n. 4) as sent to Cyril of Jerusalem. It is important as connecting the creeds of East and West. Since Jerome was born in Pannonia we may conjecture that he is inserting Nicene phrases from the Jerusalem creed into his baptismal creed, and that this form added to Niceta's creed proves that the creed of the Danube lands possessed the clauses "maker of heaven and earth" and "communion of saints."

The first occurrence of the completed form is in a treatise (_Scarapsus_) of the Benedictine missionary Pirminius, abbot of Reichenau (c. A.D. 730). The difficulty hitherto has been to trace the source from which the clause "maker of heaven and earth" has come into it. It has been known that the forms in use in the south of France approximated to it but without those words. In the 6th century we find creed forms in use in Gaul which include them, but include also other variations distinguishing them from the form which we seek. The missing link which has hitherto been lacking in the evidence has been found by Barns in the influence of Celtic missionaries who streamed across from Europe until they came in touch with the remnants of the Old Latin Christianity of the Danube. The chief documents of the date A.D. 700, which contain forms almost identical with the received text, are connected with monasteries founded by Columban and his friends: Bobbio, Luxeuil, S. Gallen, Reichenau. From one of these monasteries the received text seems to have been taken to Rome. Certainly it was from Rome that it was spread. We can trace the use of the received text along the line of the journeys both of Pirminius and Boniface, and there is little doubt that they received it from the Roman Church, with which Boniface was in frequent communication. Pope Gregory II. sent him instructions to use what seems to have been an official Roman order of Baptism, which would doubtless include a Roman form of creed. Pirminius, who was far from being an original writer, made great use of a treatise by Martin of Braga, but substituted a Roman form of Renunciation, and refers to the Roman rite of Unction in a way which leads us to suppose that the form of creed which he substituted for Martin's form was also Roman. It seems clear, therefore, that the received text was either made or accepted in Rome, c. A.D. 700, and disseminated through the Benedictine missionaries. At the end of the 8th century Charlemagne inquired of the bishops of his empire as to current forms. The reply of Amalarius of Trier is important because it shows that he not only used the received text, but also connected it with the Roman order of Baptism. The emperor's wish for uniformity doubtless led in a measure to its eventual triumph over all other forms.

Nicene Creed.

2. _The Nicene Creed_ of the liturgies, often called the Constantinopolitan creed, is the old baptismal creed of Jerusalem revised by the insertion of Nicene terms. The idea that the council merely added to the last section has been disproved by Hort's famous dissertation in 1876.[9] The text of the creed of the Nicene Council was based on the creed of Eusebius of Caesarea, and a comparison of the four creeds side by side proves to demonstration their distinctness, in spite of the tendency of copyists to confuse and assimilate the forms.[10]

The revised Jerusalem Creed was quoted by Epiphanius in his treatise _The Anchored One_, c. A.D. 374, some years before the council of Constantinople (A.D. 381). We gather that it had already been introduced into Cyprus as a baptismal creed. Hort's identification of it as the work of Cyril of Jerusalem is now generally accepted. On his return from exile in A.D. 362 Cyril would find "a natural occasion for the revision of the public creed by the skilful insertion of some of the conciliar language, including the term which proclaimed the restoration of full communion with the champions of Nicaea, and other phrases and clauses adapted for impressing on the people positive truth." Some of Cyril's personal preferences expressed in his catechetical lectures find expression, e.g. "resurrection of the _dead_" for "flesh."

The weak point in Hort's theory was the suggestion that the creed was brought before the council by Cyril in self justification. The election of Meletius of Antioch as the first president of the council carried with it the vindication of his old ally Cyril. Kunze's suggestion is far more probable that it was used at the baptism of Nektarius, praetor of the city, who was elected third president of the council while yet unbaptized. Unfortunately the acts of the council have been lost, but they were quoted at the council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451, and the revised Jerusalem Creed was quoted as "the faith of the 150 Fathers," that is, as confirmed in some way by the council of Constantinople, while at the time it was distinguished from "the faith of the 318 Fathers" of Nicaea. One of the signatories of the Definition of Faith made at Chalcedon, in which both creeds were quoted in full, Kalemikus, bishop of Apamea in Bithynia, refers to the council of Constantinople as having been held at the ordination of the most pious Nektarius the bishop. Obviously there was some connexion in his mind between the creed and the ordination.

The reasons which brought the revised creed into prominence at Chalcedon are still obscure. It is possible that Leo's letter to Flavian gave the impulse to put it forward because it contained a parallel to words which Leo quoted from the Old Roman Creed, "born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary," "crucified and buried," which do not occur in the first Nicene Creed. If, as is probable, it was from the election of Nektarius the baptismal creed of Constantinople, we may even ask whether the pope did not refer to it when he wrote emphatically of the "common and indistinguishable confession" of all the faithful. Kattenbusch supposes that Anatolius, bishop of Constantinople, or his archdeacon Aetius, who read the creed at the 2nd session of the council, took up the idea that through its likeness to the Roman Creed it would be a useful weapon against Eutyches and others who were held to interpret the Nicene Creed in an Apollinarian sense. But Kunze thinks that it was not used as a base of operations against Eutyches because there is some evidence that Monophysites were willing to accept it. Certainly it won its way to general acceptance in the East as the creed of the church of the imperial city; regarded as an improved recension of the Nicene Faith. The history of the introduction of the creed into liturgies is still obscure. Peter Fullo, bishop of Antioch, was the first to use it in the East, and in the West a council held by King Reccared at Toledo in 589. The theory of Probst that it had been used in Rome before this time has not been confirmed. King Reccared's council is usually credited with the introduction of the words "And the Son" into clause 9 of the creed. But some MSS.[11] omit them in the creed-text while inserting them in a canon of the faith drawn up at the time. Probably they were interpolated in the creed by mistake of copyists. When attention was called to the interpolation in the 9th century it became one cause of the schism between East and West. Charlemagne was unable to persuade Pope Leo III. to alter the text used in Rome by including the words. But it was so altered by the pope's successor.

The interpolation really witnessed to a deep-lying difference between Eastern and Western theology. Eastern theologians expressed the mysterious relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son in such phrases as "Who proceedeth from the Father and receiveth from the Son," rightly making the Godhead of the Father the foundation and primary source of the eternally derived Godhead of the Son and the Spirit. Western theologians approached the problem from another point of view. Hilary, starting from the thought of Divine self-consciousness as the explanation of the coinherence of the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father, says that the Spirit receives of both. Augustine teaches that the Father and the Son are the one principle of the Being of the Spirit. From this it is a short step to say with the _Quicumque vult_ that the Spirit proceeds from the Son, while guarding the idea that the Father is the one fountain of Deity. Since Eastern theologians would be willing to say "proceeds from the Father through the Son," it is clear that the two views are not irreconcilable.

Athanasian Creed.

3. _The Athanasian Creed_, so called because in many MSS. it bears the title "The Faith of S. Athanasius," is more accurately designated by its first words _Quicumque vult_.[12] Its history has been the subject of much controversy for years past, but no longer presents an insoluble problem. Critics indeed agree on the main outline. Until 1870 the standard work on the subject was Waterland's _Critical History of the Athanasian Creed_, first published in 1723. Having traced "the opinions of the learned moderns" from Gerard Vossius, A.D. 1642, "who led the way to a more strict and critical inquiry," Waterland passed in review all the known MSS. and commentaries, and after a searching investigation concluded that the creed was written in Gaul between 420 and 430, probably by Hilary of Arles.

In 1870 the controversy on the use of the creed in the Book of Common Prayer led to fresh investigation of the MSS., and a theory known as the "Two-portion theory" was started by C. A. Swainson, developed by J. R. Lumby, and adopted by Harnack. Swainson thought that the _Quicumque_ was brought into its present shape in the 9th century. The so-called profession of Denebert, bishop-elect of Worcester, in A.D. 798 presented to the archbishop of Canterbury (which includes clauses 1, 3-6, 20-22, 24, 25), and the Treves fragment (a portion of a sermon in _Paris bibl. nat. Lat._ 3836, _saec._ viii., which quoted clauses 27-34, 36-40), seemed to him to represent the component parts of the creed as they existed separately. He conjectured that they were brought together in the province of Rheims c. 860.

This theory, however, depended upon unverified assumptions, such as the supposed silence of theologians about the creed at the beginning of the 9th century; the suggestion that the completed creed would have been useful to them if they had known it as a weapon against the heresy of Adoptianism; the assertion that no MS. containing the complete text was of earlier date than c. 813. This was Lumby's revised date, but the progress of palaeographical studies has made it possible to demonstrate that MSS. of the 8th century do exist which contain the complete creed.

The two-portion theory was vigorously attacked by G. D. W. Ommanney, who was successful in the discovery of new documents, notably early commentaries, which contained the text of the creed embedded in them, and thus supplied independent testimony to the fact that the creed was becoming fairly widely known at the end of the 8th century. Other new MSS. and commentaries were found and collated by the Rev. A. E. Burn and Dom Morin. In 1897 Loofs, summing up the researches of 25 years in his article _Athanasianum_ (_Realencyclopadie f. prot. Theol. u. Kirche_, 3rd ed. ii. p. 177), declared that the two-portion theory was dead.

This conclusion has never been seriously challenged. It has been greatly strengthened by the discovery of a MS. which was presented by Bishop Leidrad of Lyons with an autograph inscription to the altar of St Stephen in that town, some time before 814. As M. Delisle at once pointed out (_Notices et extraits des manuscrits_, 1898), this MS. supplies a fixed date from which palaeographers can work in dating MSS. The _Quicumque_ occurs in a collection of materials forming an introduction to the psalter. The suggestion has been made that Leidrad intended to use the _Quicumque_ in his campaign against the Adoptianists in 798. But the phrases of the creed seem to have needed sharpening against the Nestorian tendency of the Adoptianists. It is more probable that Leidrad was interested in the growing use of the creed as a canticle, and was consulted in the preparation of the famous Golden Psalter, now at Vienna, which contains the same collection of documents as an introduction. This MS. may now without hesitation be assigned to the date 772-788. The earliest known MS. is at Milan (_Cod. Ambros._ O, 212, _sup._), and is dated by Traube as early as c. 700.

There is a reference to the _Quicumque_ in the first canon of the fourth council of Toledo of the year 633, which quotes part or the whole of clauses 4, 20-22, 28 f., 31, 33, 35 f., 40. The council also quoted phrases from the so-called _Creed of Damasus_, a document of the 4th century, which in some cases they preferred to the phrases of the _Quicumque_. Their quotations form a connecting link in the chain of evidence by which the use of the creed may be traced back to the writings of Caesarius, bishop of Arles (503-543). Dom Morin has now demonstrated ("Le Symbole d'Athanase et son premier temoin S. Cesaire d'Arles," _Rev. Benedictine_, Oct. 1901) that Caesarius used the creed continually as a sort of elementary catechism. The fact that it exactly reproduces both the qualities and the literary defects of Caesarius is a strong argument in favour of Morin's suggestion that he may have been the author. Further, Caesarius was in the habit of putting some words of a distinguished writer at the head of his compositions, which would account for the fact that the name of Athanasius was subsequently attached to the creed.

The use, however, of the _Quicumque_ by Caesarius as a catechism may be explained by the suggestion that it had been taught him in his youth, so that his style had been moulded by it. He was not an original thinker. Moreover, the creed is quoted by his rival Avitus, bishop of Vienne 490-523, who quotes clause 22, as from the Rule of Catholic Faith, but was not likely to value a composition of Caesarius so highly. Morin does not deal fully with the arguments from internal evidence which point back to the beginning of the 5th century as the date of the creed. If the creed-phrases needed sharpening against the revived Nestorian error of the Adoptianists, it is scarcely likely to have been written during the generation following the condemnation of Nestorius in 431. Burn suggests that it was written to meet the Sabellian and Apollinarian errors of the Spanish heretic Priscillian, possibly by Honoratus, bishop of Arles (d. 429). He suggests further that the _Creed of Damasus_ was the reply of that pope to Priscillian's appeal. This would explain the quotation of the two documents together by the council of Toledo, since the heresy lasted on for a long time in Spain. But the theory has been carried to extravagant lengths by Kunstle, who thinks that the creed was written in Spain in the 5th century, and soon taken to the monastery of Lerins. There are phrases in the writings of Vincentius of Lerins and of Faustus, bishop of Riez, which are parallel to the teaching of the creed, though they cannot with any confidence be called quotations. They tend in any case to prove that the _Quicumque_ comes to us from the school of Lerins, of which Honoratus was the first abbot, and to which Caesarius also belonged.

The earliest use of the _Quicumque_ was in sermons, in which the clauses were quoted, as by the council of Toledo without reference to the creed as a whole. From the 8th century, if not from earlier times, commentaries were written on it. The writer of the Oratorian Commentary (Theodulf of Orleans?) addressing a synod which instructed him to provide an exposition of this work on the faith, writes of it, as "here and there recited in our churches, and continually made the subject of meditation by our priests." It was soon used as a canticle. Angilbert, abbot of St Riquier (c. 814), records that it was sung by his school in procession on rogation days. It passed into the office of Prime, apparently first at Fleury. In the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. it was "sung or said" after the Benedictus on the greater feasts, and this use was extended in the second Prayer Book. In 1662 the rubric was altered and it was substituted for the Apostles' Creed. It has no place in the offices of the Eastern Orthodox Church, but is found, without the words "And the Son" of clause 22, in the appendix of many modern editions. In the Russian service books it appears at the beginning of the psalter.

The controversy on its use in modern times has turned mainly on the interpretation of the warning clauses. No new translation can put an end to the difficulty. While it is true that the Church has never condemned individuals, and that the warnings refer only to those who have received the faith, and do not touch the question of the unbaptized, there is a growing feeling that they go beyond the teaching of Holy Scripture on the responsibility of intellect in matters of faith.[13]

On the other hand the creed is a valuable statement of Catholic faith on the Trinity and the Incarnation, and its use for students and teachers at least is by no means obsolete. The special characteristic of its theology is in the first part where it owes most to the teaching of Augustine, who in his striving after self-knowledge analysed the mystery of his own triune personality and illustrated it with psychological images, "I exist and I am conscious that I exist, and I love the existence and the consciousness; and all this independently of any external influence." Such a riper analysis of the mystery of his own personality enabled him to arrive at a clearer conception of the idea of divine personality, "whose triunity has nothing potential or unrealized about it; whose triune elements are eternally actualized, by no outward influence, but from within; a Trinity in Unity."[14]

Previous Next

Comments

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Coucy-le-Château" to "Crocodile"Chapter I: THE ANCIENT CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM.--The three creeds which may be

0%31 min left in chapter