Maclear and Williams on Article VIII: Of the Three Creeds

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i. Connection. From the Bible the Articles pass on to the three Creeds, which serve as a guide in reading the Holy Scriptures, and gather up in the logical form of Doctrine the truths, which the Bible reveals in the popular form of life and fact1.

ii. The Object of the Eighth Article is to assert the Catholic and conservative character of the English Refer- mation2, to show that the aims of those chiefly concerned in it had never been to found a novel Church, or system of their own, or to break away from the rest of Christendom, but to follow in the footsteps of the Primitive Church, and

by us committed to their spiritual charge, that they ought and must most constantly believe and defend all those things to be true, which be compre- hended in the whole body and canon of the Bible, and also in the three Creeds or Symbols.” Art. I. of the X. Articles of 1536.

to vindicate and re-affirm the truths of Christianity, as they were current in the purest days of the Faith1.

iii. Analysis. The Article consists of two parts : —

(i) First it states that the three Creeds “ought thoroughly to be received and believed ” ;

(ii) It states the ground for their reception to be, because ” they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.”

iv. The Order in which the Creeds are enumerated deserves attention. First we have the Nicene Creed, of which it is remarked in the Ten Articles of 1536 that “it is said daily in the Mass2.” Then follows ” Athanasius’s Creed,” which in the Sarum Breviary was appointed to be sung daily at Prime, after the Psalms and before the Prayers3. Last of all we have ” that which is commonly called the Apostles’ Creed,” ” the common Creed,” as it is termed in the Ten Articles, “which every man useth4.”

v. Origin of Creeds. The first preaching of the Gospel was not merely a preaching of love or of exalted morality, but of a series of supernatural facts, having refer-

intervals of about a month throughout the year.

ence to the Person and Work of our Lord and Saviour. He Himself before His Ascension gave His Apostles a Formula, intended both for actual use and as a basis of instruction (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20). This Formula became the model and suggested the outline of the ancient Creeds1, which in time became not only a source of definite instruc- tion, but the Symbolum or Watchword, by which the true soldier of Christ was distinguished from those, who did not believe in Him. The Eastern and Western Churches, while they, each and all, made the Baptismal Formula, as taught by our Lord, the ground-work of the Creeds2, developed the Articles of their belief each in its own way and reflected therein the respective characteristics of Eastern and Western Christianity3.

vi. The Nicene Creed is not only the most ancient, but the only one of the three Symbols of doctrine, which, with the exception of a single clause4, is acknowledged alike by the Greek, the Latin, and the Anglican Churches, and the various Communities which have broken off from the Roman centre. The constant repetition of this Symbol in the Eucharistic Office arose in the Eastern Church as a safeguard against the Arian heresy, and from the East gradually passed into the Churches of the West. To this day it is ” sung or said ” in all countries of the civilized world, and so long as faith in the eternal Deity of Christ lives, it will be regarded with reverence and with grati- tude5.

answer of the Church to the Lord’s 4 On the Filioque clause see final revelation of the Name of God. Introduction to the Creeds, p. 32, and ‘As we are baptized, so (writes S. p. 206 n.

Basil) must we believe’; Set /uas 5 Schaffs History of the Creeds, ii. jnrrtfrr6ai fiiv ws Trap(\dj3ofi:v, p. 652. “At this day, after fifteen irMSTtvav Si us /3a7T7if6/iie0a.” Pro- centuries have passed away, from one

vii. The Quicunque vult, or “Confession of our Christian Faith, commonly called the Creed of S. Athana- sius,” has been the subject of much discussion. It is now generally agreed that the tradition, which ascribed it to this great Eastern father1, must be abandoned as unten- able. It is manifestly a Latin and not a Greek composition, written in Gaul2 by a student of S. Augustine’s teaching, who was so steeped in the spirit of his works, that he has in some clauses reproduced his expressions word for word3. It was not set forth by any General Council ; it was never used as a Baptismal Creed. Indeed it is not so much a Creed, as an Expositio Symboli, or exposition of the doc- trines of the Apostles’ Creed, and was intended at first for the use and instruction of the Clergy, and afterwards was gradually adopted in the Church as a Canticle or ” Creed Hymn,” expressing the Catholic Faith on the great subjects of the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God4. This places it in the same list with such compositions as the Te Dcum, which is likewise a Creed in the form of a Psalm5.

viii. Structure. As to its structure it is neither more nor less than an enlargement of the Western Formula, the so-called “Apostles’ Creed6.” It consists of three parts:

extremity of the civilized world to the nowhere found in the genuine writings

other, in the lonely hamlets of the of Athanasius or of his contempor-

Alps, in unknown isles of the ocean aries.

discovered by modern science, when 2 Its doctrine of the double pro-

the solemnity of the Sunday lifts to- cession of the Holy Spirit would alone

wards heaven brows bent earthward suffice to mark its Western origin,

by labour, is heard a concert of rustic 3 For the parallel passages see

voices repeating in one and the same Waterland’s Critical History, pp.

tone this Hymn of the Divine Unity : 176 — 191; see Introduction to the

I believe in one God the Father Al- Creeds, p. 36.

mighty,” etc. De Broglie, L’ltglise ct 4 See Procter’s History of the Book

V Empire Romain an ±ieme siecle, ii. of Common Prayer, p. 246.

p. 68, quoted by Bp Forbes On the 5 See the Introduction to the Creeds,

Articles, pp. 136, 137. p. 38.

1 No Greek copy of it is known to 6 Dr Heurtley’s History of the

exist earlier than A.D. 1200, and it is Earlier Formularies of Faith, p. 1 18.

(a) The First Part, Articles 1 — 26, contains the Augustinian doctrine respecting the Blessed Trinity; {b) The Second, Articles 27 — 35, contains a summary of the doctrine re- garding the nature of our Lord as laid down at the Council of Chalcedon, and guards the great verity of His Incarna- tion from the perversions of heresy; (c) The remainder of the Formula, Articles 36 — 42, repeats Articles iv., v., vi., vii. of the Apostles’ Creed nearly in the very words of the latter ; it omits Articles ix. and x., there being no controversy with regard to the subjects they touch upon, while in Articles xi. and xii. it expresses itself in fuller and more precise language than we find used in the more familiar Creed.

ix. The Apostles’ Creed, which is named last in the Article, was constantly repeated in the mediaeval office of Matins, Prime, and Compline, but, unlike the Athanasian Creed, was said together with the Lord’s Prayer privately by the Choir before the Lections at Matins, and inaudibly by the priest at the beginning of the Prayers at Prime and Compline1. It is the product of the Western Catholic Church within the first four centuries, but it is not till A.D. 750 that we find it in a shape entirely identical with our present formula. ” The basis of this document, the local Creed of the early Church of Rome, is substantially a product of the second century. But the Churches which derived their faith from Rome, or acknowledged the primacy of the Roman See, felt themselves under no obligation to adhere to the letter of the Roman Creed ; and it received at their hands not only verbal changes, but important additions, involving in some cases new Articles of belief. The process was gradual, and some of the new

clauses do not appear before the sixth century, whilst others are as late as the seventh1.”2

x. The term Symbolum Apostolorum or Apostoli- cum was originally ” the designation not of one formulary, as distinguished from others, but of the Creeds generally. It implied that the doctrine set forth, though not necessarily couched in the very words delivered by the Apostles, was at least Apostolic doctrine, such as the Apostles taught, such as they handed on. But when distinctive names came to be given to particular Formularies, ’ Symbolum Nicasnum,’ ’ Symbolum Constantinopolitanum,’ then the Western Formulary, which hitherto had had no distinctive name, retained the appellation which had once been common to all, and which thus became itself distinctive3.” The idea that it received its name from the fact that, before they set forth on their several Missions, each one of the Apostles contributed to it an Article, rests on no authority. It received its name mainly owing to the causes just stated, and also, perhaps, because, as the Church of Rome was the only Church in the West certainly deemed to have been founded by an Apostle, and its See was called the Apostolic See, so its Creed was known as the Apostolic or Apostles’ Creed*.

xi. Ground of reception of the Creeds. Of these Creeds the Article says they are ” thoroughly to be re- ceived and believed : for they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scripture.” Here we have another illustration of the profound reverence for the Bible, as the inspired Word of God and the sole authority for doctrine, which is so dominant a feature of the Articles5. There is throughout a special jealousy for the

3 Hcurtley’s History of the Earlier

5 See Bp Forbes On the Articles,

authority of Holy Scripture, and here it is once more set forth as the one Rule of Faith. The Church of England does not claim acceptance for the Creeds simply on the ground that they have been handed down by the Church, but because they agree with the teaching of Holy Scripture1. Scripture and the Creeds thus stand in mutual relation to each other2. Those truths, which the Bible sets forth in the popular form of life and fact, the Creeds gather up in the logical form of doctrine. They mark out the great verities, which the Church believes the Scriptures to teach, and guard them against arbitrary interpretation by indi- viduals or particular bodies of professed believers3. The Bible is thus regarded as the sole Source of the Rule of Faith ; the Creeds witness to the Church’s interpretation of the Bible, with which they must agree, and beyond which they cannot go4.

p. 91. The source of error, says Pope Leo in his famous Tome, is that when men are “hindered by some obscurity in knowing the truth, they run not to Prophets, or Apostles, or Evangelists, but to themselves”; they will not “labour in the broad field of Holy Scripture. ” S. Leo, Ep. xxviii. 1, 1.

2 In other words the Church, as the interpreter of Scripture, can only in- terpret what is […] sus Christ, says the Gospel in every

page, is the Son of God I ask of the

Church’s authority what is the sense of this word Son of God? and the Church answers me with a voice, which has always been the same for eighteen hundred years: that the ex- pression has to be taken in its most ab- solute sense,… in the sense of a perfect filiation, which places the Son on an

equality of wisdom, power, virtue, ma- jesty and glory with God the Father.” Didon, Belief in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, p. 69, E.T. ed. 1894.

4 “The decisions of Nicsea simply express in a new form, without sub- stantial addition, the Apostolic teach- ing as it is represented in the New Testament. They express it in a new form for protective purposes, as a legal enactment protects a moral principle. They are developments only in the sense that they represent the Apostolic teaching worked out into formulas by the aid of a terminology which was

supplied by Greek dialectics The

Apostolic language is a mine from which, first taught and guided by the Creed of the Church, we can draw a continual and inexhaustible wealth of positive teaching.” Gore’s Bampton Lectures, pp. 96, 97, Ed. 1891.

Articles IX.— XVII I.

The Articles in this Group deal with Men as individuals, and the Divine Plan for their salvation. They treat of

(a) The nature of Original Sin (Art. ix.), its effect on the human will, and the need of divine Grace (Art. x.) ; the ground of man’s Justification before God (Art. xi.), and the true value of Good Works, whether following (Art. xii.) or preceding Justification (Art. xiii.) ;

(/3) The impossibility of Works of Supererogation (Art. xiv.), for none has escaped the universal corruption of sin, save our Lord, “the Lamb without spot” (Art. xv.), Who came to take away the sin of the world, and can cleanse from all sin, even that committed after Baptism (Art. xvi.) ;

(y) The Scriptural Doctrine of Predestination, and its rela- tion to the eternal purpose of God (Art. xvii.), Who wills to connect man’s salvation not, in the way of Nature, with any law or sect a man professeth, but in the way . of Grace with the all-meritorious sacrifice of His Blessed Son (Art. xviii.).

Notes

• See Westcott’s Historic Faith, pp. 11, 23.
• Hardwick, Hist. Articles, p. 245. “As touching the chief and principal articles of our faith, sith it is thus agreed as hereafter follnweth by the whole clergy of this our realm, we will that all bishops and preachers shall instruct and teach our people,
• See Hardwick’s History of the Articles, p. 10.
• Procter’s History of the Book of Common Prayer, p. 247, Ed. 1889. In the Roman Breviary it is ap- pointed to be used on Sundays only.
• See Procter’s History of the Book of Common Prayer, pp. 245, 248 ; Freeman’s Principles of Divine Ser- vice, i. p. 303. The number of times appointed for the recitation of the “Quicunque Vult ” was not altered till 1549. Then it was appointed to be used on the six Festivals of Christ- mas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity. In 1552 seven Saints’ days were added to these six festivals ; so that this Confession of our Christian Faith should be used at
• ” For nearly three centuries and a half the Apostles’ Creed has held its place in the Book of Common Prayer as the Creed of Baptism, of the Catechism, and of the daily offices. Even in the Middle Ages it was known to a relatively large number of the English laity through the instructions of the Clergy and the versions circu- lated in Primers. The English Re- formers inherited a reverent esteem for the Credo, and gave it in their new Order of 1549 a place of honour equal to that which it held in the Breviary and the Manual.” Prof. Swete, The Apostles’ Creed in its Relation to Primitive Christianity, p. 9.
• See Introduction to the Creeds, fessor Swete, The Apostles’ Creed, pp. 9, 10. p. 19.
• ” The Baptism.il Creed rests upon 3 See the Introduction to the Creeds, the Baptismal words. It was the pp. 41, 42, 43.
• Procter, But. Common Prayer, p. 248.
• See Introduction to the Cn cJs, p. 2$. Formularies of Faith, pp. 8, 9.
• Professor Swete’s Apostles’ Creed, pp. is, 16.
• See Bishop Browne On the Articles, p. 215.
• ” The Bible is the sole source of the faith: the Church is the interpreter. The Church is the primary teacher of the truth to her children, but she sends them to the Scriptures to verify it for themselves.” Gore’s Rom. Cath. Claims, p. 58.
• “Dogma is not a substitute for truth, but a guide to its apprehension. To accept a dogma on the Church’s external authority is only the first step to apprehending it for ourselves.” Gore’s R. C. Claims, p. 68.