On the difference be The Latin text of the old Roman Creed first appears in RUFINUS, Expositio Symboli Apostolici, towards the end of the fourth century (compare the Appendix to the Opp. Cypriani, ed. John Fell, Oxon. 1682, fol. pp. 17 sqq.), but it must be much older (see note 3 below). The faithful transmission of the Creed in the Church of the City of Rome is testified by Ambrose, Epistola ad Siricium Pap.: Credatur Symbolo Apostolorum, quod Ecclesia Romana intemeratum semper custodit et servat;' and by Vigilius of Thapsus, Contra Entych. 1. IV. c. 1: Romæ . . a temporibus Apostolorum usque ad nunc ... ita fidelibus Symbolum traditur.' Compare Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, pp. 3, 30, 42, 43. tween the old Roman form and the enlarged received text, see Vol. I. pp. 21, 22. 2 With the early Roman form the Creed of the Church of Hippo Regius, as given in the second column from the genuine expositions of St. AUGUSTINE ( De Fide et Symbolo ; De Genesi ad literam; Enchiridion de Fide, Spe et Caritate), almost literally agrees; so also the Creed of Ambrose, as far as it is quoted in his Tractatus in Symbolum Apostolorum (Hahn, p. 16). The close connection of Augustine with the Church of Rome and the Church of Milan (where he was baptized, 387) accounts for the agreement. In his genuine works, however, he never gives the Creed continuously, but, like Rufinus, mixed with the exposition in which it is imbedded, and at times it is difficult to separate it from the writer's own words. See Hahn, pp. 13-15, and especially Heurtley, pp. 32-47. The former adopts the reading de Spiritu S. et virg. Mar.; tertia die for tertio; and omits in vitam eternam. The Greek text is to be found in Epiphanius, Hares. LXXII. Opp. ed. Petav. Tom. I. p. 836; ed. Oehler in Corp. hæreseol. Tom. II. Pt. III. p. 52. It was inserted in a letter written by MARCELLUS OF ANCYRA to Julius I., Bishop of Rome, about 341 (or 337, as Hahn and Caspari assume), with a view to prove his orthodoxy against the Eusebians, who, under the impeachment of heresy, had previously deposed him. (As regards the chronology, see Zahn, Marcellus von Ancyra, Gotha, 1867, p. 68.) It occurs also, in Anglo-Saxon letters, in the Psaltery of King Athelstan (d. 941), to which Ussher first called attention. See a facsimile in Heurtley, p. 80, and the copy and comments in Caspari, Vol. III. pp. 5 sqq. The Greek text of Marcellus differs from the Latin of Rufinus only by the omission of the predicate rarépa (Father) in the first article (which may be an error of the copyist), and by the addition of the last two words, Zwyr alúviov (which occur also in the creed of Petrus Chrysologus of Ravenna). It was heretofore regarded as a translation of the Roman Creed, but Caspari, with a vast amount of learning (Vol. III. pp. 28 sqq.), has made it almost certain that it is the original Creed of the Roman Church, in which the Greek language prevailed during the first two centuries. It was probably transplanted to Rome from Asia Minor early in the second century. It is simpler and older than the rules of faith of Tertullian and Irenæus. (c) THE APOSTLES' CREED, ACCORDING TO RUFINUS AND FORTUNATUS. A.D. 390-570. ECCLESIA AQUILEJENSIS. CIRC. A.D. 390.1 Credo in DEO PATRE omnipotente [invisibili et impassibili].3 Et in JESU CHRISTO, unico Filio ejus, Domino nostro; qui natus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine; crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato, et sepultus; [descendit in inferna] ;* tertia die resurrexit a mortuis; sedet ad dexteram Patris; et mortuos. Et in SPIRITU SANCTO; VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS. CIRC. A.D. 570.2 Credo in DEUM PATREM omnipotentem. Et in JESUM CHRISTUM, unicum Filium; qui natus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine; sanctam ecclesiam; remissionem peccatorum; [hujus] carnis resurrectionem. NOTES. crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato; descendit ad infernum; sedet ad dexteram Patris; Credo in SANCTO SPIRITU 5 sanctam ecclesiam ; remissionem peccatorum; resurrectionem carnis. 1 Taken from RUFINUS (d.410), Expos. Symboli Apost. (in Cyprian's Op., ed. Fell, Appendix, pp. 17 sqq.; also in Jerome's Works). Comp. Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, etc., pp. 30 sqq.; Denzinger, Enchirid., p. 2; and Heurtley, Harmonia Symb., pp. 26 sqq. Hahn and Heurtley add the chief comments of Rufinus. He gives it as the Creed of the Church of Aquileja, where he was baptized ('illum ordinem sequimur, quem in Aquilejensi ecclesia per lavaori gratiam suscepimus'). There are, however, two other Creeds used in the churches of the province of Aquileja, of uncertain (possibly of earlier) date, which are more in harmony with the old Roman form, and omit invisibili et impassibili in the first article, hujus before carnis in the last article, and the clause descendit ad inferna. They were found and first published by De Rubeis (Venice, 1754), in his Dissertationes. . . de Liturgicis Ritibus Ecclesiæ Forojuliensis, pp. 242, 243, 249; then by Walch, 1. c. p. 54 sq.; Hahn, p. 39; and Heurtley, pp. 30 sqq. From the Expositio Symboli of Venantius Honorius Clemens FORTUNATUS, an Italian presbyter, afterwards Bishop of Poitiers in France, d. about 600. He follows Rufinus very closely, and evidently made use of his Exposition. See Hahn, 1. c. p. 33, and Heurtley, pp. 54– 56. The Commentary on the Athanasian Creed, which Muratori and Waterland ascribe to the same author, is by an unknown Fortunatus of a later age. See Vol. I. pp. 34-37. 3 This is the oldest reading, as also in Jesu Christo, and in Spiritu Sancto. So Vallarsius (ed. of Jerome), Baluze (the Bened. editor of Cyprian), Walch, and Hahn. Other copies correct the ablative into the accusative: in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, invisibilem et impassibilem, in Jesum Christum. So the first printed ed. of 1468, the Bened. ed. of Jerome, Pamelius, Fell, Heurtley. On the article on the Holy Spirit, the majority of authorities agree in reading the ablative, which is confirmed by Fortunatus. The addition of the attributes invisible and impassible, which are not found in any other form, have a polemical reference to the heresy of the Patripassians and Sabellians, as Rufinus remarks (§ 5). * Rufinus (§ 18): 'Sciendum sane est quod in Ecclesiæ Romanæ Symbolo non habetur additum "Descendit ad inferna:" sed neque in Orientis Ecclesiis habetur hic sermo: vis tamen verbi eadem videtur esse in eo quod “sepultus" dicitur.' 5 Here Venantius adheres to the old Aquileian form, while in the first and second articles he uses the accusative. So also in his Commentaries: 'Ergo una divinitas in trinitate, quia dixit Symbolum; Credo in Deum Patrem, et in Jesum Christum, et in Spiritu Sancto." See Hahn, p. 36; Heurtley, p. 55. The exceptional hujus is thus explained by Rufinus (§ 43): 'Ita fit ut unicuique animæ non confusum aut extraneum corpus, sed unum quod habuerat reparetur; ut consequenter possit pro agonibus præsentis vitæ cum anima sua caro vel pudica coronari, vel impudica puniri.' (d) AN OLD ITALIAN (PSEUDO-AMBROSIAN) FORM OF THE APOSTLES' CREED. ABOUT A.D. 350. Credimus in DEUM PATREM om- We believe in GoD THE FATHER tertia die resurrexit a mor- on the third day he rose from the tuis; ascendit in cælos; dead; ascended into the heavens; sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris; sitteth on the right hand of God the Father; inde venturus est judicare vivos from thence he shall come to judge F NOTES. 1. This baptismal creed was copied, together with an Exhortatio sancti Ambrosii ad neophytos de Symbolo, by Dr. Caspari from two MSS. in the Vienna Library, and published in the second volume of his Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, Vol. II. (1869), pp. 128 sqq. It is inserted in this Exhortation, not in broken fragments, as is usual with ante-Nicene writers, but continuously, with a connecting itaque after credimus (p. 134). The Exhortation was directed against the heresy of Arianism, and borrows an expression (Deus de Deo, lumen de lumine) from the Nicene Creed, but makes no allusion to the Pneumatomachian controversy and its settlement in 381. It seems, therefore, to belong to the middle of the fourth century (350-370). Caspari denies the authorship of Ambrose (who was opposed to committing the creed to writing), and is inclined to assign it to Eusebius of Vercelli or Lucifer of Cagliari, in Sardinia, where the symbol may have been in use. 2. The symbol resembles the older Italian forms of Rome, Milan, and Ravenna. With the Roman it omits the articles descendit ad inferna, communionem sanctorum, and vitam æternam; but, unlike the Roman, it has catholicam after ecclesiam, and the peculiar clause sæculorum omnium et creaturarum regem et conditorem. A similar addition occurs in the Symbol of Carthage (universorum creatorem, regem sæculorum, invisibilem et immortalem). 3. Other Italian forms of the Western Creed, see in Hahn, pp. 6 sqq. THE GRADUAL FORMATION OF THE APOSTLES' CREED. This Table shows the date of the several Articles and the verbal variations of the Apostles' Creed, as far as they can be ascertained, from the earliest rules of faith to the eighth century, or from Irenæus to Pirminius. The first occurrence of any word or phrase of the Creed is marked by small capitals. |