Symbols of the Faith

SYMBOLS OF THE FAITH. - Formulas that express in summary fashion the truths of the faith.

I. NOTION

The word "s." [symbol], if derived from the Greek σύμβολον, means a tally, a token of recognition; if derived instead from συμβολή it means a contribution. The Fathers, however, had recourse preferably to the first derivation, especially after Rufinus and St. Augustine, in explaining why by this term the rule or profession of faith required for admission to Baptism is designated.

The name of s. is already applied commonly to that profession by St. Cyprian (Ep., 69, 7), while the more ancient Fathers used the expressions regula veritatis

(κανών τῆς ἀληθείας), regula or doctrina fidei, tessera, sacramentum (cf. St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres., III, ch. 9, no. 4; Tertullian, De praescript., ch. 6). Some recent authors (G. C. Van Noort, Tractatus de fontibus revelationis, 3rd ed., Amsterdam 1920, p. 113) distinguish the s. from professions of faith, considering the former as abbreviated formulas of faith and professions of faith instead as more developed formulas, but for the most part the two designations are used interchangeably (Denz-U, 26 and Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole und Glaubensregel der alten Kirche, 3rd ed., Breslau 1897).

II. ORIGIN

The symbols of the faith trace their origin to the internal needs of the early Christian communities. Already in the mission entrusted by Jesus to the Apostles (Mt. 23:19-20) it was implicit that the teachings to be imparted had to have a well-defined formula. Moreover, the baptismal formula prescribed by Christ himself is a profession of faith in the Most Holy Trinity. Apart, then, from the question concerning the origins of the "Apostles' Creed" (v. below), it is no wonder that from the earliest times short, easy, precise doctrinal formulas arose in the Church, later called symbols, which were to serve both to maintain uniformity of faith and also to ascertain the faith of those who were to be admitted into the Church.

As these formulas gradually developed, they became, consciously or not, also the basis of polemics or of apologies (cf. the Dialogue with Trypho of St. Justin and the Adversus haereses of St. Irenaeus), while the need to combat heresies suggested from time to time the addition or the emphasizing of one or another thought. These precisions multiplied over the course of the centuries, and to the denials of heretics the Church always opposed the professions of faith of her symbols.

The symbols of the faith, therefore, far from constituting a set of empty, arid and lifeless formulas, are rather to be considered as a tangible manifestation of the Church's own vitality. The fact that the Church prescribes such frequent use of them in her liturgy already says in itself how much they serve to strengthen the bonds that unite the followers of Christ in the unus Dominus, una fides, unum baptismum (Eph. 4:5). Here the principal ones are listed.

III. THE APOSTLES' CREED

An ancient profession of faith of the Roman Church. It appears in two appreciably different forms: the text in use in the liturgy and a shorter but more ancient text (cf. Denz-U, 226).

1. Origin

The Apostles' Creed is the result of an evolution determined by the internal needs of the Christian communities, and particularly by the creative impulse of the liturgy. From apostolic times, in fact, an explicit profession of faith was required for admission to Baptism; hence the need to summarize for the faithful the principal Christian truths in a brief and precise formula, easy to understand, which would also serve to discern, in the face of tenacious heretical propaganda, true from false doctrine. The most ancient formula known is that used by the eunuch of the Queen of Ethiopia: "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (Acts 8:37). From apostolic times, however, other more widespread formulas were known which contained the most important truths of the Redemption, such as that in 1 Cor. 15:3-4: "I delivered to you among the first things what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that he was buried, and that he has been raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures." Similar confessions of a Christological character are encountered later, toward the end of the 1st century, in St. Ignatius of Antioch (Eph., 18, 2; Smirn., 1, 1). Alongside the Christological formulas there are also formulas of a Trinitarian character, whose rise was determined by Jesus' command: "Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 18:19). A characteristic example of a profession of faith of the Trinitarian type, somewhat expanded, is found in the apocryphal Epistula Apostolorum recently discovered and published, whose origin is traced back to c. 180: "Credo in Patrem omnipotentem; et in Jesum Christum, Salvatorem nostrum, in Spiritum Sanctum Paraclitum; in Sanctam Ecclesiam, et in remissionem peccatorum" (Denz-U., 1). Analogous formulas in St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haer., I, 10, n. 48) and in the liturgy of the Der Balyzeh papyrus. Perhaps from the middle of the 2nd century the need was felt to add new elements of a Christological character. In this regard, the fact was important that the thanksgiving (Preface) of the Eucharistic liturgy included from its origins a widespread confession of Christ (cf. Justin, I Apol., 61, 3, 10, 13; Irenaeus, Adv. Haer., I, 10).

Thus in Rome there came about the redaction of a type of creed that contained the clause expanded with regard to Christ, and therefore in a certain way altered the symmetrical balance of the primitive creed of a Trinitarian character. This formula, which then crystallized into the form comprising c. 12 articles, is known toward the end of the 4th century under the precise designation of Creed of the Apostles or Apostles' Creed. This qualification, attributed to the baptismal profession of faith of the Roman Church, is encountered for the first time in the letter, certainly drafted by St. Ambrose, sent by the Synod of Milan (393) to Pope Siricius (PL. 16, 1126).

2. The primitive Apostles' Creed

The Apostles' Creed in its complete primitive text was handed down for the first time in Greek by Marcellus of Ancyra, in a letter to Pope Julius (c. 340), and in Latin by St. Nicetas of Remesiana and by Rufinus of Aquileia (both c. 400); to the latter goes back the first affirmation of a strictly apostolic origin of the Roman Creed with all its articles. The Apostles, relates Rufinus, before separating to preach the Gospel, would have compiled by agreement this summary of their future preaching, which they called a Creed and which they established as the rule of truth to be handed on to new believers (Comm. in Symbolum apostol., 2: PL. 21, 337). Rufinus says he learned these particulars from his elders (tradunt maiores nostri), and his account was successful in the West throughout the Middle Ages; and since the articles were 12, in the 6th century it was claimed that each of these was to be attributed to one of the Apostles (PL. 39, 2189-90). Great therefore was the surprise of the Latin Fathers at the Council of Ferrara of 1438, when, having invoked against the Greeks the authority of the Apostles' Creed, they heard themselves answered by Mark Eugenicus, archbishop of Ephesus, that the Greek Church had never known a Creed of the Apostles. It is useless to insist on the legendary character of the Rufinian tradition.

However, if the Apostles' Creed is not strictly an apostolic work, it nevertheless goes back to a very ancient epoch. In fact it is found almost in its entirety in Tertullian (De virgin. velandis, 1; Adversus Praxeam, 2; De praescript. haeret., 13 and 36); and there are sure elements of it in St. Hippolytus (cf. B. Capelle, Le Symbole romain au second siècle, in Revue bénéd., 39 [1927], p. 33 ff.), in St. Irenaeus (Adv. haer., I, 10), in St. Justin (Dial. cum Tryph., 76, 85, 116; I Apol., 61), and perhaps also St. Ignatius (Ad Trall., 9). Hence it is highly probable, as the judgment of Batiffol (Littérature grecque, Paris 1898, p. 70) and of Burn (The Apostles Creed, London 1906, p. 30) holds, that its date is fixed around 100-20. Vacant (DThC, I, coll. 1675-76) traces back to the Apostles, and precisely to the founders of the Roman Church, as a baptismal institution, at least the essential part of our Creed, that is, the explicit profession of faith in the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. The other secondary elements would come from later additions that completed its various articles.

According to the most recent Catholic critics, the Roman Creed could be considered as the result of the fusion of two formulas, both apostolic, the one Trinitarian, the other Christological, and it could be said that this Creed is the summary of the essential features of the primitive catechesis on the two great mysteries of Christianity. These formulas, used at first separately, would have been united, within the framework of the Trinitarian formula, at the beginning of the 3rd century for the purpose of more effectively combating nascent monarchianism (cf. P. Lebreton, La formation du Symbole des Apôtres, in Rech. de sc. rel., 13 [1923], pp. 349-53). It is certain that the ancient formula of the Apostles' Creed was the basis of all the other baptismal creeds of the West; one cannot conversely demonstrate that it was so also for the Eastern creeds.

3. Current text

The current textus receptus differs appreciably from that of Rufinus of Aquileia. From this, in fact, composed of 12 articles (while the textus receptus consists of 14), the following phrases are missing: "Creator of heaven and earth," "was conceived," "suffered," "died," "descended into hell," "omnipotent," "catholic," "the communion of saints," "eternal life." Of the current formula the most ancient attestation is found in the Expositio vel traditio Symboli, contained in the Missale gallicanum vetus: since in this Expositio the hand of St. Caesarius (d. 543) is evidently manifest, the textus receptus was already in use in southern Gaul at that date.

It is not well known by whose work and in what circumstances the variants referred to above flowed into it, which before the 6th century are already found scattered now in one, now in another of the creeds in use in certain great Churches. Obscure too is the place where this elaboration was carried out. Vacandard thinks in Gaul, Hahn in a Church of upper Italy, Burn in the Church of Rome or perhaps in an influential monastery such as that of Bobbio; all, however, agree in affirming that the diffusion of the current text in the West, whatever its provenance, could come about only through the prestige of the Roman Church.

4. Authority of the apostolic S

The apostolic S. always retained in the baptismal liturgy that place of honor which it held there from the earliest centuries. Moreover, knowledge of it was always regarded as a fundamental element of the Christian life. For this reason the medieval synods recommend to priests that they teach and comment on it for the faithful and have them recite it aloud in the parish churches (cf. M. Righetti, Manuale di storia liturgica, I, Milan 1945, pp. 173-74). It was considered of particular efficacy against diabolical temptations (St. Ambrose, De virg., 3, 5; St. Athanasius, Vita s. Antonii, 25); the Ritual still prescribes its recitation during exorcisms. It was soon introduced into the Divine Office; it is found in all the psalters of the 8th and 9th centuries (S. Bäumer, Hist. du Bréviaire, I, Paris 1905, p. 377).

Guglielmo Zannoni

IV. IL S. NICENO-COSTANTINOPOLITANO: v. NICEA, I. Primo Concilio di.

V. IL S. CALCEDONESE: v. CALCEDONIA.

VI. IL S. ATANASIANO: v. QUICUMQUE VULT.

VII. OTHER SYMBOLS OF THE FAITH

After the four most important ones cited above, there follow: 1) the Toledan Creed (Denz-U, 26, 275), a profession of faith of the Synod of Toledo (v.) of 675; 2) the Creed of Leo XI (Denz-U, nos. 343-49). It is found in the letter Congratulatur vehementer, of 13 April 1053, addressed to Peter, patriarch of Antioch. This profession of faith is more or less the one that is pronounced, in the form of question and answer, in the consecration of bishops; 3) the Professio fidei Waldensibus praescripta (Denz-U, 26, 420, 7) of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), which sets forth, among other things, the faith in the Church's sacramental doctrine and in the individual Sacraments; 4) the Creed of Leo IX is expanded in the Symbolum Lateranense (Denz-U, 428 ff.) composed at the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, under Innocent III. The expansion concerns principally the doctrine on the Most Holy Eucharist; 5) a further development of the Creed of Leo IX is found in the Professio fidei Michaelis Paleologi (Denz-U, 461 ff.) prescribed by Pope Clement IV in 1267 to the emperor Michael Palaiologos, and which the latter deposited at the Second Council of Lyon (1274) before Pope Gregory X. It concerns particularly the doctrines on the Sacraments, on the primacy of the Roman Church and on the Last Things. On 1 September 1385 it was prescribed by Urban VI to all those who passed from the dissident Church to the Catholic Church. 6) The last of the great creeds is the Professio fidei Tridentina (Denz-U, 494 ff.), which briefly and clearly summarizes the content of the Council of Trent. This profession was expanded with additions of the Vatican Council and in this final form, with the title of Professio fidei Catholicae, stands at the beginning of the CIC. It is prescribed for admission to almost all ecclesiastical offices and for every change of office or benefice, as for clerics before the subdiaconate and for confessors and preachers before receiving the faculty to exercise these functions (CIC, can. 1406). In these circumstances there was added to it the Iusiurandum contra errores modernismi, promulgated by Pius X in the motu proprio: Sacrorum Antistitum of 1 September 1920 (Denz-U, 2145-47).

VIII. DOGMATIC VALUE

Here we speak only of the official s., such as those listed above, not of the professions of faith that are encountered so frequently in the ancient writers. The latter are undoubtedly venerable formulas, but their importance concerns only the history of dogmas.

There can be no doubt about the dogmatic value of the most ancient s., the Apostles', the Nicene, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan, the Chalcedonian and the Athanasian. Apart from the formal acknowledgments of the Popes and Councils, the mere fact of their having become an integral part of the liturgy (in Baptism, in the Breviary, in priestly Ordination and in the ordinary prayers, in the Holy Mass), already reveals an official consecration on the part of the authentic magisterium of the Church, according to the well-known saying: lex orandi, lex credendi.

The other s. or professions of faith all present the formal approval of the Pope; therefore, like the preceding ones, they are entitled to the qualification of official documents of the Catholic faith. Some reservations, on the other hand, are made about the anti-modernist oath, not all of whose parts seem uniform as regards their doctrinal value. Since it presupposes, in fact, previous doctrinal documents, the individual affirmations must be analyzed in themselves and their doctrinal value depends on the value of the documents to which they refer (v. also SILLABO). It must finally be noted that the dogmatic value of the s. d. f. concerns only what forms the direct teaching of the s. themselves, and not what is a simple explanation or an accessory affirmation; consequently, the comparison of the union of body and soul, which the Athanasian S. uses to explain the substantial unity of Christ, must be understood in this latter sense.

Guglielmo Zannoni