Green on Article VIII: Of the Three Creeds

“Comprehended in the whole body and canon of the Bible, and also in the three Creeds or Symbols ; whereof one was made by the Apostles, and is the common creed which every man useth : the second was made by the holy council of Xice, and is said daily in the Mass ; and the third was made by Athanasius, and is comprehended in the Psalm ‘ Quicunque vult.’ ”

§ 2 .—OBJECT.

To assert the Catholic character of the English Reformation the three ancient Creeds of Catholic Christendom are retained without addition or alteration. By thus accepting the three Creeds, all those heresies, whether of ancient or of modern growth, are condemned which assail the cardinal truths of the Christian Religion. The order in which the Creeds are named in the Article is not without significance. The Nicene Creed appropriately stands first as being the most ancient, and also the most universally used.

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§ 3.— EXPOSITION.

(1.) The Three Creeds are to be Received.

The Three Creeds, Nicene Creed, Athanasius’s Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles’, ought thoroughly to he received and believed.

From the very earliest times those who were baptized were required to make public profession of their faith. The early addition to the New Testament text in Acts viii. 37 1 affords an example of a formula of this kind : — EiVe Se 6 Qi\i7T7rog “ Ef 1 ncrTeveig e o\r]g Trjg KapSlag e^ecTTiv.” ’A.7 roKpiOe’ig $e ehre , “ TYicrTevu* tov viov tov

[…] jT - V / »

60V 6ivai TOV itjcrow J^piCTTOV.

Traces of early Creeds are also discernible in the follow¬ ing passages of the Epistles : —

[…]

The recently recovered Apology of Aristides (second century) contains a passage which reads like a quotation from a Christian Creed of that period, or at any rate indicates that the Apologist was familiar with some form of Creed : —

“The Christians then reckon the beginning of their religion from Jesus Christ, Who is named the Son of God Most High, and it is said that God came down from heaven, and from a Hebrew virgin took and clad Himself with flesh, and in a daughter of man there dwelt the Son of God. This Jesus, then, was born of the tribe of the Hebrews : and He had twelve disciples, in order

1 The passage is not found in the MSS. NABC, and was probably inserted from an early form of baptismal profession.

2 This is the reading of KAC, and is adopted in the Revised Version. Other MSS. give Geos.

that a certain dispensation of His might be fulfilled. He was pierced by the Jews : and He died and was buried : and they say that after three days He rose and ascended into heaven.”

References to statements of doctrine as being in use in Apos¬ tolic times may be seen in such passages as i Tim. iv. 6, vi. 20 ; 2 Tim. i. 13 (yiroTvirwo-iv eye vyiaivovTiov Xbywv).

The earliest name given to the form of profession of Christian faith was crv/af3oXov 1 — i.e., a sign or watchword by which believers were distinguished from those who did not accept Christianity. Such forms were at first no doubt very simple ; but with the spread of the Church, the Christianising of Greek thought, and the rise of false teachers, came the necessity for precise and detailed statements of the Faith ; hence our Creeds in their present form.

The Nicene Creed.

The Council of Nicaea was summoned in 325 a.d. by the Emperor Constantine, with the view of allaying the dissensions in the Church to which the heresy of Arius had given rise. Eusebius of Caesarea presented to the Council the Confession of Faith which had been in use for very many years in the churches of Palestine : —

[…]

IhcFTevoiaev Kal ei$ ev II vev/JLa f’A.yiov.

This Creed, however, seemed to the Council not to speak decidedly enough on the very point in dispute ; certain clauses were therefore added by the assembled bishops,2 under the guidance of Athanasius, in order to affirm in

1 See the Latin Version of the Article.

2 The bishops present at the Council of Nicma numbered three hundred and eighteen in all, besides their attendant clergy.

unmistakable language that the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity is true God, of one essence with the Father. These clauses were : —

[…]

6/j.oovctiov Tip II arpL.

At the same time an anathema was appended which ran as follows : —

T’ W ‘i’TT ^ 1 ? \

[…]

The Council of Constantinople (a.d. 381), at which one hundred and fifty bishops were present, added clauses treating of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, in view of the false teaching of Macedonius. The concluding clauses were

also adopted at the same time, while the anathema was omitted, and a few unimportant changes were made in the wording of the earlier part of the Creed. As supposed to have been put forth by the Council of Constantinople the Creed ran thus : —

[…]

T7- ’ ’ ’ TT ~ ’ f/ A ’ TZ t ’ ’

[…]

E*V (jJiav dyiav KaOoXtKtjv kcu cnroo-ToXnctiv ’E/c/cA^cnai’.

’ OjuLoXoyoviuev ev /3oL7TTicrjUia el$ acpeonv a/mapTicov.

IIpoo-SoKcojuLev amcTTacriv veKpcov.

[…]

The form of the Nicene Creed in use in the Western Church differs from the above in that it has two additional clauses, both traceable as far back as the third Council of Toledo, A.D. 589: —

[…]

(b) Filioque, giving expression to the doctrine of the double procession of the Holy Spirit, and never accepted by the Eastern Church.

(See notes on Art. V. p. 45).

The Athanasian Creed.

In the rubric in the Prayer Book enjoining its use this Creed is entitled a “ Confession of our Christian Faith, commonly called the Creed of Saint Athanasius.” The authorship is thus not directly ascribed to him, and although we meet with the ascription of its composition to Athanasius as early as the sixth century, there is every reason for concluding that it was not composed by him, but was called Athanasian rather because it contains and enforces the great truths which that Father spent his life in defending. Internal evidence points to the period between 420 and 450 a.d. as the time of the composition of this Creed.

(a) Its form and style indicate that the Creed was originally drawn up by a Latin writer, and that it originated, not in the Eastern, but in the Western Church. The facts that the earliest traces of its public use are found in the Galli- can Church, and that the oldest MSS. have been found in France, support this conclusion.

( b ) The phraseology is evidently borrowed in several places from the writings of S. Augustine of Hippo. In view of

this it would he difficult to suppose that the Creed was composed much before 420 a.d.

( c ) On the other hand, although the language of the Creed excludes Eutychianism,1 there is no express or distinct condemnation of that heresy ; we may fairly argue, there¬ fore, that it was drawn up before the Eutychian heresy came to a head and was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon (45 1 A.D.), since otherwise we should expect the doctrine of the two distinct Natures in Christ to be more distinctly stated.2

To the question, “Who wrote this Creed?” no certain answer can be given, but scholars have associated it with the names of the following writers of note in the Western Church : —

Hilary, Bishop of Arles, 429.

Yincentius of Lerins, 434.

Vigilius of Tapsus, 484.

It should be noted that the Athanasian Creed is very different, as well in its origin as in its character, from the other two Creeds which are named with it in the Article. It did not grow out of the form of profession made by Christian converts at Baptism, nor was it drawn up by any Council ; and, as the title given to it in some MSS. indicates,3 it partakes more of the nature of a Hymn or Psalm, than of a Creed in the proper sense of the word. It does not simply lay down the outlines of the Christian Eaith, but it is rather the outpouring of a devout and thoughtful soul, pondering, and with loving faith dwelling and enlarging upon, the deep mysteries of the Triune Being of God, and of the Incarnation.

The Apostles’ Creed.

In its present form this Creed is not traceable further back than about the middle of the eighth century, when we meet with it in the writings of Pirminius,4 who gives it as the form used in the Baptismal Service. Though it

1 See v. 34 : —

“Unus omnino, non confusione Substantiae.”

2 Cf, e.g ., v. 33 : —

“ Unus autem, non conversione Divinitatis in carnein Sed adsumptione Ilumanitatis in Deum.”

3 “ Hynmus S. Athanasii de Trinitate.”

4 Very little is known of Pirminius, but lie is said to have laboured as a missionary in Germany.

does not appear till about 750 a.d. in the precise form with which we are familiar, the Creed is in reality the product of a much earlier age, having grown up in the Western Church within the first four centuries. We meet with the substance of it in the writings of Irenseus and of Tertullian.

The Creed given by Irenaeus 1 (a.d. 180) as expressing the faith of the Church in Germany, Spain, the Celtic nations, the East, Libya, Egypt, and in “ the central parts of the earth,” runs as follows : —

[…]

Tertullian, in his treatise “ De Virginibus Velandis,” gives the following Articles of Christian belief : —

“ In unicum Deum Omnipotentem, Mundi conditorem ; Et Filium Ejus, Jesum Christum, natum ex Virgine Maria, crucifixum sub’ Pontio Pilato, tertia die resus- citatum a mortuis, receptum in coelis, sedentem nunc ad dexteram Patris, venturum judicare vivos et mor- tuos per carnis etiam resurrectionem.”

S. Augustine, in his treatises “ De Fide et Symbolo ” and “ Sermo ad Catechumenos,” has preserved the Baptismal Creed as used in his day (the close of the fourth century). In the “ De Fide et Symbolo ” it is thus given : —

“ Credimus in Deum Patrem Omnipotentem.

“ Et in Jesum Christum, Filium Dei Patris unigenitum, Dominum nostrum, qui natus est per Spiritum Sanc¬ tum ex Virgine Maria. Sub Pontio Pilato crucifixus est, et sepultus. Tertio die resurrexit a mortuis ; in

1 Adv. ITacr. III. iii. § 4.

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coelum ascendit ; sedet ad dexteram Patris, inde ven- turus et judica turns vivos et mortuos.

“ Credimus in Spiritum Sanctum : sanctam Ecclesiam utique catholicam ; remissionem peccatorum, et carnis resurrectionem.”

The Creed given in the “ Sermo ad Catechumenos ” differs little from the above. Besides a few minor variations, the clause on the Passion is rather fuller : —

[…]

There is also an additional clause at the conclusion : —

“ In vitam aeternam.”

From the Commentary of Rufinus, a presbyter of Aquileia, we gather two forms of the Creed as used about the end of the fourth century in the Churches of Aquileia and Rome respectively. It is in the Aquileian Creed as given by Rufinus that we first meet with the clause “ Descendit ad inferna.”

About the middle of the sixth century we have a rather fuller form of the Creed which appears in sermons ascribed to Eusebius Gallicanus. The most important variations from the earlier forms given above are : —

(i.) The addition of the words “ conceptus est” :

“ Conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto.”

(ii.) The expansion of the clause on the Ascension :

“ Sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris Omnipotentis.”

(iii.) The addition of the article, “ Sanctorum communionem .” From the foregoing sketch it appears that the Apostles’ Creed lias reached its present form by a gradual process, but that its main substance is traceable to the Baptismal profession of very early times. While it is post- Apostolic as regards its present form, in its contents it is truly Apostolic, summarising as it does for the use of the faithful the doctrines taught by the Apostles. We do not, therefore, inappropriately name it the Apostles’, or the Apostolic, Creed. Historically there may be another reason for the application of the name. The gradual expansion of the Creed is to be traced in the Western Church, and in this part of the Church it has always been most frequently used. Rome ‘was from an early period the leading see of the West, and often spoken of as the Apostolic See, being the only Church of Western Christendom which was considered to have been founded by an

Apostle. It would thus naturally come about that the Creed most frequently used by it should be entitled the Apostolic, or the Apostles’, Creed.

(2.) The Ground of the Acceptance of the Three Creeds.

For they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.

This clause is added to show that, in enjoining the three Creeds upon her members to be “ thoroughly received and believed ” by them, our Church is acting in accordance with the principle already laid down in Article VI., that nothing is to he required “ that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith ” save what is read in Holy Scripture or “may be proved thereby” (see notes on Art. VI.).

The Church provides for the continual recitation of the Creeds : —

The Nicene Creed in the Communion Service.

The Athanasian Creed on certain stated Festivals and Holy Days.

The Apostles’ Creed in daily Morning and Evening Prayer.

This last is also used as the Baptismal Profession of Faith, and is given in the “ Order for the V isitation of the Sick ” as the rule of faith by which the sick person should prove himself whether he believe as a Christian man should.