«QUICUMQUE VULT». — Symbol entered into the Roman Breviary under the name of the Athanasian Creed, because for some time it was held to have been composed by s. Atanasio.
The Latin text, transmitted by manuscripts of the 8th century, is the original, whereas the Greek text is a translation. Modern criticism is unanimous on this point; opinions differ, however, in determining the date of composition and the author. Once the ancient opinion attributing it to s. Atanasio as early as the 7th century had been discarded, scholars attempted to discover the true author among the Latin Fathers. In the 17th century J. Anselmi was the first to think of Vincenzo di Lérins; this opinion was taken up and strengthened two centuries later by G. D. W. Ommaney and, although challenged from the outset by B. Montfaucon, it continued to have followers down to our own days. Others proposed Onorato di Arles (d. 429), Ilario di Arles (d. 449), Fulgenzio di Ruspe (d. 533), Cesario di Arles (d. 542), Martino di Braga (d. ca. 580), Eusebio di Vercelli (d. ca. 371), and Ambrogio di Milano (d. 397).
A decisive step toward determining the time and place of the Symbol’s emergence was taken by dom G. Morin, who identified Cesario di Arles as the first witness to this formula of faith, establishing the year 542 as the terminus ante quem. Thanks to the recent discovery (1940) of the booklet Excerpta Vincentii Lirinenis, it is now possible to specify that certain characteristic articles of the Q. V. work. This considerably confirms the opinion that Lérins should be regarded as the birthplace of the Q. V. Vincenzo di Lérins therefore has an advantage over all the Fathers who may be brought into comparison, with regard to the formulas that came to enlarge the Q. V. In particular, the most distinctive section on Christology is contained in what is most personal to Vincenzo in his Excerpta. He is therefore the most immediate precursor of the Q. V. Moreover, reliable testimony to the existence of the Symbol is found in a homily by s. Cesario di Arles, whose immediate precursor was s. Vincenzo di Lérins. Thus, the limits within which the Q. V. was gradually elaborated lie between 542, the date of the death of s. Cesario, and the years 434–40, the date of publication of the Excerpta. It may not be rash to place this date in the second half of the 5th century.
In the liturgy the Q. V. Pentecost, when no commemoration of a double feast or an octave is made in the Sunday Office.