TO HIS HONORED AND BELOVED COLLEAGUES
IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,
Rev. WILLIAM ADAMS, D.D., LL.D.,
Rev. HENRY B. SMITH, D.D., LL.D.,
Rev. ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK, D.D., LL.D.,
Rev. WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD, D.D., LL.D.,
Rev. GEORGE L. PRENTISS, D.D.,
Rev. CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D.,
THIS WORK IS
Respectfully Dedicated
BY THE AUTHOR
The call for a new edition of this work in less than a year after its publication is an agreeable surprise to the author, and fills him with gratitude to the reading public and the many reviewers, known and unknown, who have so kindly and favorably noticed it in American and foreign periodicals and in private letters. One of the foremost divines of Germany (Dr. Dorner, in the Jahrbüher für Deutsche Theologie, 1877, p. 682) expresses a surprise that the idea of such an œcumenical collection of Christian Creeds should have originated in America, where the Church is divided into so many rival denominations; but he adds also as an explanation that this division creates a desire for unity and co-operation, and a mutual courtesy and kindness unknown among the contending parties and schools under the same roof of state-churches, where outward uniformity is maintained at the expense of inward peace and harmony.
The changes in this edition are very few. The literature in the first volume is brought down to the present date, and at the close of the second volume a fac-simile of the oldest MSS. of the Athanasian Creed and the Apostles' Creed is added.
P. S.
NEW YORK, April, 1878.
This edition differs from the second in the following particulars:
1. In the first volume several errors have been corrected (e.g., in the statistical table, p. 818), and a list of new works inserted on p. xiv.
2. In the third volume a translation of the Second Helvetic Confession has been added, pp. 831 sqq.
P. S.
New York, December, 1880.
The call for a fourth edition of this work has made it my duty to give the first volume once more a thorough revision and to bring the literature down to the latest date. In this I have been aided by my young friend, the Rev. Samuel M. Jackson, one of the assistant editors of my "Religious Encyclopædia." The additions which could not be conveniently made in the plates have been printed separately after the Table of Contents, pp. xiv–xvii.
The second and third volumes, which embrace the symbolical documents, remain unchanged, except that at the end of the third volume the new Congregational Creed of 1883 has been added.
Creeds will live as long as faith survives, with the duty to confess our faith before men. By and by we shall reach, through the Creeds of Christendom, the one comprehensive, harmonious Creed of Christ.
P. S.
New York, May, 1884.
The fifth edition was a reprint of the fourth, without any changes.
Since the appearance of the Creeds of Christendom, 1877, no work has been issued competing with it in scope and comprehensiveness. The valuable collection of W. W. Walker, The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, 1893, and W. J. McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Faith, 1911, are limited to separate Protestant bodies. The extensive collection of Karl Müller, 1903, is confined to the creeds and catechisms of the Reformed Churches. Professor W. A. Curtis of the University of Edinburgh, in his History of the Creeds and Confessions of Faith in Christendom and Beyond, gives the contents of creeds and an account of their origins, not their texts. C. Fabricius, in his Corpus confessionum, etc., 1928, sqq., proposes in connexion with colaborers to furnish not only the texts of the Christian creeds, but also the texts of hymns, liturgies, books of discipline, and other documents bearing on Christian doctrine, worship, and practice. For example, 250 pages of Volume I are devoted to hymns, and 250 pages to "The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1924."
The new material of the present edition is the following:
Volume I. Additions to the literature; notices of the Church of the Disciples and the Universalist and Unitarian Churches; and changes and additions, as, for example, on the primitive creeds and the Russian Church.
Volume II. In the fourth edition Dr. Schaff, in view of the new importance given in Canon Law to papal utterances on doctrine and morals, added one of the important encyclicals of Leo XIII., who was then living. To this encyclical have been added bulls on the Church, by Boniface VIII., 1302, Anglican Orders, by Leo XIII., 1896, "Americanism" and "Modernism" by Pius X., 1907–10, and Pius XI.'s encyclical on Church Union, 1928.
Volume III. Additions giving Recent Confessional Declarations and Terms of Union between Church organizations. The material on the latter subject, so closely akin to the general topic of the book, makes it quite probable that Dr. Philip Schaff, in view of his pronounced attitude on Church fellowship and union, would have included it, were he himself preparing this edition of the Creeds of Christendom.
David S. Schaff.
Union Theological Seminary
New York, January, 1931
Kattenbusch: Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Confessionskunde, Freib., 1892.—Gumlich: Christ. Creeds and Conff., Engl. trans., N. Y., 1894.—Callows: Origin and Development of Creeds, London, 1899. S. G. Green: The Christ. Creed and the Creeds of Christendom, N. Y., 1899.—Skrine: Creed and the Creeds, their Function in Religion, London, 1911.—W. A. Curtis: Hist. of Creeds and Conff. of Faith in Christendom and Beyond, Aberdeen, 1911. An elaboration of the author's art., "Confessions," in Enc. of Rel. and Ethics; includes the principles of Mormonism, Christian Science and Tolstoy.—Hirsch: Art., "Creeds," in Enc. Brit., 14th ed.—The works on Symbolics of Loofs, and Briggs, N. Y., 1914.—Hase: Hdbook of the Controversy with Rome, 2 vols., London, 1906, trans. from Hase's Polemik, ed. of 1900.—Plitt: Grundriss der Symbolen, 7th ed., by Victor Schultze, Erl., 1921.—Mulert: Konfessionskunde, Giessen, 1929.
Hahn, 3rd ed. enlarged, 1897.—C. Fabricius, prof. in Berlin, Corpus confessionum. Die Bekenntnisse des Christenthums. Sammlung grundlegender Urkunden aus allen Kirchen der Gegenwart, Berlin, 1928 sqq.—J. T. Müller: Die symb. Bücker der ev. luth. Kirche, deutsch und latein., 12th ed., 1928.— E. F. Karl Müller: Die Bekenntnisschriften der reform. Kirche, Leip., 1903.—For papal decrees: Acta, sedis sanctae, Rome.—Mirbt: Quellen zur Gesch. des Papsttums und des röm. Katholizismus, 4th ed., 1924.—Denzinger: Enchiridion symbolorum et definitionum, quae a concillis oecum. et summis pontificibus emanarunt, 17th ed. by Umberg, 1928.
A. E. Burn: Facsimiles of the Creeds, etc., London, 1899; Introd. to the Creeds and Te Deum, London, 1901.—Mortimer: The Creeds, App., Nic., Athanas., London, 1902.—A. Seeberg: Katechismus der Urchristenheit, 1903.—Turner: Hist. and Use of Creeds in the Early Centuries of the Church, London, 1906.—Bp. E. C. S. Gibson: The Three Creeds, Oxf., 1908.—Wetzer and Welte: Enc. 2nd ed. V., 676–690.—Loofs: Symbolik, pp. 1–70.—Briggs: Theol. Symbolics, pp. 34–121.—F. J. Badcock: The Hist. of Creeds, App., Nic., and Athanas., London, 1930, pp. 248.
The Apostles Creed: Kattenbusch: Das apostol. Symbol, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1894–1900.—Zahn: Das apostol. Symbol, Erl., 1893, transl. by Burn from 2nd ed., London, 1899.—Harnack, in Herzog Enc., I, 741–55 and separately in Engl. 1901.—H. B. Swete: The App. Creed. Its Relation to Prim. Christianity, Cambr., 1894.—Kunze: Glaubensregel, hl. Schrift und Taufbekenntniss, Leipsic, 1899; Das apostol. Glaubensbekenntniss und das N. T., Berlin, 1911, Engl. trans. by Gilmore, N. Y., 1912.— Künstle: Bibliothek der Symbole, Mainz, 1901.—A. C. McGiffert: The App. Creed. Its Origin, Purpose, etc., N. Y., 1902.—Bp. A. MacDonald (R. C.): The App. Creed. A Vindication of its Apostol. Authority, 1903, 2nd ed., London, 1925.—The App. Creed. Questions of Faith, Lectures by Denney, Marcus Dods, Lindsay, etc., London, 1904.—Popular treatments by Canon Beeching, 1906; W. R. Richards, N. Y., 1906; Barry, N. Y., 1912; Bp. Bell, 1917, 1919; McFadyen, 1927; H. P. Sloan, N. Y., 1930.—Also Bardenhewer: Gesch. der altchr. Lit., 2nd ed., I, 82-90.
The Nicene Creed: Hort: Two Dissertations on the Constan. Creed, London, 1876.—Lias: The Nicene Creed, 1897.—Kunze: Das nic.-konstant. Symbol, Leipsic, 1898.—Harnack, in Herzog Enc. XI., 12–27, and Schaff-Herzog, III, 256–260.—Bp. Headlam: The Nic. Creed. Noting differences between the Rom. and Angl. Churches.
Die Bekenntnisse und wichtigsten Glaubenszeugnisse der griech.-oriental. Kirche (thesauros tes orthodoxias) ed., by Michalcescu, with Introd. by Hauck, Leipsic, 1904. Includes creeds and decrees of the first seven œcum. councils.—Loofs: Symbolik, pp. 77–181.—Adeney: The Gr. and East. Churches, N. Y., 1908.—Fortescue (R. C.): The Orthod. East. Church, last ed., London, 1916.—Langsford-James: Dict. of the East. Orthod. Church, London, 1923.—The art. in Herzog, "Gennadius II," "Jeremias," "Lukaris," etc.—Birkbeck: The Russ. and Engl. Churches, during the last fifty years, London, 1895.—Frère: Links in the Chain of Russ. Ch. Hist., London, 1918.
Bonewitsch: Kirchengesch. Russlands, Leipsic, 1923.—Reyburn: Story of the Russ. Church, London, 1924.—Spinka (prof. in Chicago Theol. Seminary): The Church and the Russ. Revolution, N. Y., 1927.—Hecker (student of Drew and Union Theol. Seminaries and Prof. of Theol., Moscow): Rel. under the Soviets, N. Y., 1927; Soviet Russia in the Second Decade, 1928.—Emhardt: Rel. in Soviet Russia, Milwaukee, 1929.—M. Hindus (b. in Russia): Humanity Uprooted, N. Y., 1929.—Batsell: Soviet Rule in Russia, N. Y., 1930.—The Engl. White Paper, Aug. 12, 1930, which gives a trans. of Soviet regulations "respecting religion in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."
A. Straub (prof. at Innsbruck): de Ecclesia, 2 vols., Innsbr., 1912.—Ryan and Millar: The State and the Church, N. Y., 1902.—F. Heiler (ex-Cath., prof. in Marburg): Der Katholizismus, seine Idee und seine Erscheinung, Munich, 1923.—Döllinger-Reusch: Selbstbiographie des Kard. Bellarmin, with notes, 1887.—Card. Gibbons, d. 1921: The Faith of Our Fathers, 1875.—The works and biographies of Card. Newman, d. 1890, and Card. Manning, d. 1892.—D. S. Schaff: Our Fathers' Faith and Ours, N. Y., 1928.
Buckley, 2 vols., 1852, gives the Reformatory decisions of the council as well as the Decrees and Canons.—Donovan: Profession and Catechism of the C. of Trent, 1920 and since.—Mirbt: Quellen zur Gesch. des Papsttums. Gives large excerpts from the Tridentine standards.—Froude: Lectures on the C. of Trent, 1896.—Pastor: Gesch. der Päpste, vol. vii.—The Ch. Histories of Hergenröther-Kirsch, Funk, etc.
Mirbt, pp. 456–466.—Shotwell-Loomis: The See of St. Peter. Trans. of patristic documents, N. Y., 1927.—Granderath, S.J.: Gesch. des Vat. Konzils, ed. by Kirch, 3 vols., Freib. in Breis., 1903.—Döllinger-Friedrich: Das Papsttum, 1892.—Lord Acton: The Vatican Council in "Freedom of Thought."—Pastor: Hist. of the Popes, vol. x. for Sixtus V.'s ed. of the Vulgate.—Card. Gibbons (a member of the council): Retrospect of Fifty Years, 2 vols., 1906.—The biographies of Manning by Purcell, 2 vols., 1896; Ketteler by Pfulf, 3 vols., Mainz, 1899; Newman by Ward, 4 vols., 1912.— Straub: de Ecclesia, vol. ii., 358–394.—Nielsen: The Papacy in the 19th Cent., vol. ii., pp. 290–374.— Koch: Cyprian und das röm. Primat, 1910.—Schnitzer: Hat Jesus das Papstthum gestiftet? and Das Papstthum keine Stiftung Jesus, 1910.—Count von Hoensbroech (was sixteen years a Jesuit, d. 1923): Das Papstthum in social-kult. Wirsamkeit, 3 vols., 4th ed., 1903.—Lietzmann: Petrus und Paulus in Rom, 2nd ed., 1927.—Koch: Cathedra Petri (dedicated to Schnitzer), Giessen, 1930.
H. E. Jacobs: The Book of Concord or the Symbol. Books of the Ev. Luth. Church, 2 vols., Phil., 1882, 1912.—The Luth. Cyclopedia by Jacobs and Haas, Phil., 1899.—Concordia Cyclopedia, 3 vols., 1927.— Schmid: The Doctr. Theol. of the Ev. Luth. Ch., trans. by Hay and Jacobs, 3rd ed., Phil., 1899.—Luther's Primary Writings, trans. by Buchheim and Wace, 1896.—Luther's Works, Engl. trans., 2 vols., Phil., 1915.—Luther's Correspondence, trans. by P. Smith and Jacobs, 2 vols., 1913-1918.—Lives of Luther by Schaff in "Hist. of Chr. Church," vol. vi.; Jacobs, 1898; Lindsay in "Hist. of the Reformation," 1906; Preserved Smith, 1911; McGiffert, 1914; Boehmer, Engl. trans., 1916; Mackinnon, 4 vols., 1925-1930; Denifle (R. C.), 2 vols., 2nd ed., 1904; Grisar (R. C.), Engl. trans., 3 vols., 1911, 1912.—P. Smith: Age of the Reformation, 1920.—Döllinger: Akad. Vorträge, vol. i, 1872. Written after his repudiation of the dogma of Infallibility.
Editions of the Augsb. Conf. in Latin and German texts by Kolde,Gotha, 1896, 1911 and Wendt, Halle, 1927.—Ficker: Konfutation des Augsb. Bekenntnisses, Leipsic, 1892.—A number of publications bearing on the Augsb. Confession were issued in connexion with the quadricentennial of the Confession's appearance, 1930.
Zwingli: Sämmtliche Werke, ed. by Egli, Köhler, etc., 1904, sqq.—Karl Müller: Die Bekenntnissschriften der reformirten Kirche, Leipsic, 1903. Contains documents not given by Schaff, as Calvin's Genevan Catechism, pp. 117–158; Hungar. Conf. of 1562, pp. 376–448; the Larger Westminster Cat., pp. 612–643; the Nassau Cat. of 1578, pp. 720–738, and the Hesse Cat. of 1607, pp. 822–833.—Lives of Zwingli by Stähelin, 2 vols., Basel, 1897; S. M. Jackson, N. Y., 1901. Also Selections from Zwingli, Phil., 1901.—S. Simpson, N. Y., 1902; Egli in Herzog Encycl., vol. xxi.—Humbel: Zwingli im Spiegel der gleichzeit. schweizer. Lit., 1912.
Art., "Bullinger," by Egli in Herzog Encycl., vol. iii., pp. 536–549.—Bullinger: Diarium, ed. by Egli, Basel, 1904, and Gegensatz der ev. und röm. Lehre, ed. by Kügelgen, 1906.—Art., "Helvetische Konfessionen," by Karl Müller in Herzog Encycl., vol. vii and "Helvetische Konfessionsformeln" by Egli, vol. vii.
Choisy: L’état chr. à Génève au temps de Th. de Bèze, Paris, 1903.—Borgeau: Hist. de l’université de Génève, Paris, 1903.—Lives of Calvin by Schaff in "Hist. of Chr. Ch.," vol. vii.; Kampfschulte, ed. by Goetz, 2 vols., 1899; Doumergue, 7 vols., Lausanne, 1899–1927; W. W. Walker, N. Y., 1906; Reyburn, London, 1914; Lindsay in "Hist. of the Reformation," vol. ii.
The Works of B. B. Warfield, Oxf., 1928 sqq.
Workman and Pope: Letters of J. Hus, London, 1904.—Lives of Huss by Count Lützow, London, 1909; D. S. Schaff, N. Y., 1915, and Huss' de Ecclesia, trans. with Notes, N. Y., 1915.—Kitts: John XXIII. and J. Hus, London, 1910. Müller in Bekenntnisschriften gives in full the Hungar. Confessions and the Bohem. Conf . of 1609.
The Nobla Leycon, with Notes, ed., by Stefano, Paris, 1909.—Comba, father and son: Hist., of the Waldenses in Italy, Engl. trans. 1889; Storia dei Valdesi, 1893.—Jalla: Hist. des Vaudois, Torre Pelice, 1904.
Balogh: Hist. of the Ref. Ch. in Hungary in Ref . Ch. Rev., July, 1906.
Use of Sarum, ed. from MSS. by Frère, 2 vols., Cambr., 1898-1901.—Gee and Hardy: Documents Illustr. of Engl. Ch. Hist.—Prothero: Select Statutes of Elizabeth and James I.—H. E. Jacobs: The Luth. Ch. Movement in Engl., Phil., 1870, 1891.—Lindsay: Hist. of the Reformation, vol. ii., pp. 315–418.—The Hist. of the Engl. Ch. from Henry VIII. to Mary's Death by Gairdner and under Elizabeth and James I. by Frère, 1902, 1904.—Pollard: Henry VIII., London, 1902, Thos. Cranmer, 1904; Wolsey, 1929.
Tiffany: Hist. of the Prot. Bp. Ch., N. Y., 1895.—Hodges: Three Hundred Years of the Ep. Ch. in Am., Phil., 1907.—Cross: The Angl. Episcopate and the Am. Colonies, N. Y., 1902.
Histories of the Scotch Reformation by Mitchell, 1900; Fleming, 1904, 1910; MacEwan, 1913.—Lives of Knox by Cowan, 1905; P. H. Brown, 1905.—A. Lang: J. Knox and the Reformation, 1905.
H. M. Dexter: The Congregationalists of the Last 300 Years, N. Y., 1880.—W. W. Walker: Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, N. Y., 1893; Hist. of the Cong. Churches in the U. S., N. Y., 1894.—J. Brown: The Engl. Puritans, London, 1910.—R. C. Usher: Reconstruction of the Engl. Ch., 2 vols., London, 1910.—W. Selbie: Engl. Sects. Congregationalism, London, 1922.—Orig. Narratives of Early Am. Hist., ed. by Jamieson, N. Y., 1908, sqq.—W. E. Barton: Congr. Creeds and Covenants, Chicago, 1917.
McDonnold: Hist. of the Cumber. Presb. Ch., Nashville, 1888.—Miller: Doctr. of the Cumberl. Presb. Ch., Nashville, 1892.
Vedder: Balthazar Hübmaier, N. Y., 1903.—Newman: Hist. of the Bapt. Chh. in the U. S., N. Y., 1894.—Underhill: Conff. of Faith of the Bapt. Chh. in England in the 17th Century, London, 1854.—McGlothlin: Bapt. Conff. of Faith, Phil., 1911.—Carroll: Baptists and their Doctrines, N. Y., 1913.
Thomas: Hist. of the Soc. of Friends, in "Am. Ch. Hist. Series," N. Y., 1894.—Sharpless: Hist. of Quaker Govt. in Pa., 2 vols., Phil., 1898.—R. M. Jones: The Quakers in the Am. Colonies, London, 1911; The Faith and Practice of the Quakers, 1927.—Holder: The Quakers in Great Britain and Am., N. Y., 1913.
Hamilton: Hist. of the Morav. Ch., Bethlehem, 1900. Also in "Am. Ch. Hist. Series."
The Journal of John Wesley, 8 vols., ed. by Curnock, London, 1910.—Buckley: Hist. of the Methodists in the U. S., N. Y., 1896.—E. S. Tipple: The Heart of Asbury's Journal, N. Y., 1905.—Simon: Revival of Rel. in England in the 18th Cent., London, 1907.—Lidgett and Reed: Methodism in the Modern World, London, 1929.—Rattenburg: Wesley's Legacy to the World, London, 1930.—Allen: Methodism and Modern World Problems, London, 1930.—Lunn: J. Wesley, London, 1929.—Lives of Asbury, by Tipple, N. Y., 1916, and J. Lewis, 1927.
The Creeds of Christendom may be divided into four classes, corresponding to the three main divisions of the Church, the Greek, Latin, and Evangelical, and their common parent. A progressive growth of theology in different directions can be traced in them.
1. The Œcumenical Symbols of the Ancient Catholic Church. They contain chiefly the orthodox doctrine of God and of Christ, or the fundamental dogmas of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation. They are the common property of all churches, and the common stock from which the later symbolical books have grown.
2. The Symbols of the Greek or Oriental Church, in which the Greek faith is set forth in distinction from that of the Roman Catholic and the evangelical Protestant Churches. They were called forth by the fruitless attempts of the Jesuits to Romanize the Greek Church, and by the opposite efforts of the crypto-Calvinistic Patriarch Cyrillus Lucaris to evangelize the same. They differ from the Roman Creeds mainly in the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit, and the more important doctrine of the Papacy; but in the controversies on the rule of faith, justification by faith, the church and the sacraments, the worship of saints and relics, the hierarchy and the monastic system, they are much more in harmony with Romanism than with Protestantism.
3. The Symbols of the Roman Church, from the Council of Trent to the Council of the Vatican (1563 to 1870). They sanction the distinctive doctrines of Romanism, which were opposed by the Reformers, and condemn the leading principles of evangelical Protestantism, especially the supreme authority of the Scriptures as a sufficient rule of faith and practice, and justification by faith alone. The last dogma, proclaimed by the Vatican Council in 1870, completes the system by making the official infallibility of the Pope an article of the Catholic faith (which it never was before).
4. The Symbols of the Evangelical Protestant Churches. Most of them date from the period of the Reformation (some from the seventeenth century), and thus precede, in part, the specifically Greek and Latin confessions. They agree with the primitive Catholic Symbols, but they ingraft upon them the Augustinian theory of sin and grace, and several doctrines in anthropology and soteriology (e.g., the doctrine of atonement and justification), which had not been previously settled by the Church in a conclusive way. They represent the progress in the development of Christian theology among the Teutonic nations, a profounder understanding of the Holy Scriptures (especially the Pauline Epistles), and of the personal application of Christ's mediatorial work.
The Protestant Symbols, again, are either Lutheran or Reformed. The former were all made in Germany from A.D. 1530 to 1577; the latter arose in different countries—Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, Hungary, Poland, England, Scotland, wherever the influence of Zwingli and Calvin extended. The Lutheran and Reformed confessions agree almost entirely in their theology, christology, anthropology, soteriology, and eschatology, but they differ in the doctrines of divine decrees and of the nature and efficacy of the sacraments, especially the mode of Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper.
The later evangelical denominations, as the Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers, Arminians, Methodists, Moravians, acknowledge the leading doctrines of the Reformation, but differ from Lutheranism and Calvinism in a number of articles touching anthropology, the Church, and the sacraments, and especially on Church polity and discipline. Their creeds are modifications and abridgments rather than enlargements of the old Protestant symbols.
The heretical sects connected with Protestantism mostly reject symbolical books altogether, as a yoke of human authority and a new kind of popery. Some of them set aside even the Scriptures, and make their own reason or the spirit of the age the supreme judge and guide in matters of faith; but such loose undenominational denominations have generally no cohesive power, and seldom outlast their founders.
The denominational creed-making period closed with the middle of the seventeenth century, except in the Roman Church, which has quite recently added two dogmas to her creed, viz., the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (1854), and the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome (1870).
If we are to look for any new creed, it will be, we trust, a creed, not of disunion and discord, but of union and concord among the different branches of Christ's kingdom.
Wm. Dunlop (Prof. of Church Hist. at Edinburgh, d. 1720): Account of all the Ends and Uses of Creeds and Confessions of Faith, a Defense of their Justice, Reasonableness, and Necessity as a Public Standard of Orthodoxy, 2d ed. Lond. 1724. Preface to [Dunlop's] Collection of Confessions in the Church of Scotland, Edinb. 1719 sq. Vol. I. pp. v.–cxlv.
J. Caspar Köcher: Bibliotheca theologiæ symbolicæ et catechetiæ itemque liturgicæ, Wolfenb. and Jena, 1761–69, 2 parts, 8vo.
Charles Butler (R.C., d. 1832): An Historical and Literary Account of the Formularies, Confessions of Faith, or Symbolic Books of the Roman Catholic, Greek, and principal Protestant Churches. By the Author of the Horæ Biblicæ, London, 1816 (pp. 200).
Charles Anthony Swainson (Prof. at Cambridge and Canon of Chichester): The Creeds of The Church in their Relations to the Word of God and to the Conscience of the Individual Christian (Hulsean Lectures for 1857), Cambridge, 1858.
Francis Chaponnière (University of Geneva): La Question des Confessions de Foi au sein du Protestantisme contemporain, Genève, 1867. (Pt. I. Examen des Faits. Pt II. Discussion des Principes.)
Karl Leohler: Die Confessionen in ihrem Verhältniss zu Christus, Heilbronn, 1877.
The introductions to the works on Symbolics by Marheineke, Winer, Möhler, Köllner, Gunricke, Matthes, Hofmann, Oehler, contain some account of symbols, as also the Prolegomena to the Collections of the Symbols of the various Churches by Walch, Müller, Niemeyer, Kimmel, etc., which will be noticed in their respective places below.
By œcumenical or general symbols (symbola œcumenica, s. catholica)13 we understand the doctrinal confessions of ancient Christianity, which are to this day either formally or tacitly acknowledged in the Greek, the Latin, and the Evangelical Protestant Churches, and form a bond of union between them.
They are three in number: the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creed. The first is the simplest; the other two are fuller developments and interpretations of the same. The Apostles' Creed is the most popular in the Western, the Nicene in the Eastern Churches.
To them may be added the christological statement of the œcumenical Council of Chalcedon (451). It has a more undisputed authority than the Athanasian Creed (to which the term œcumenical applies only in a qualified sense), but, as it is seldom used, it is generally omitted from the collections.
These three or four creeds contain, in brief popular outline, the fundamental articles of the Christian faith, as necessary and sufficient for salvation. They embody the results of the great doctrinal controversies of the Nicene and post-Nicene ages. They are a profession of faith in the only true and living God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who made us, redeemed us, and sanctifies us. They follow the order of God's own revelation, beginning with God and the creation, and ending with the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. They set forth the articles of faith in the form of facts rather than dogmas, and are well suited, especially the Apostles' Creed, for catechetical and liturgical use.
The Lutheran and Anglican Churches have formally recognized and embodied the three œcumenical symbols in their doctrinal and liturgical standards.14 The other Reformed Churches have, in their confessions, adopted the trinitarian and christological doctrines of these creeds, but in practice they confine themselves mostly to the use of the Apostles' Creed.15 This, together with the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, was incorporated in the Lutheran, the Genevan, the Heidelberg, and other standard Catechisms.
13 The term οἰκουμενικός (from οἰκουμένη, sc. γῆ, orbis terrarum, the inhabited earth; in a restricted sense, the old Roman Empire, as embracing the civilized world) was first used in its ecclesiastical application of the general synods of Nicæa (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), and Chalcedon (451), also of patriarchs, bishops, and emperors, and, at a later period, of the ancient general symbols, to distinguish them from the confessions of particular churches. In the Protestant Church the term so used occurs first in the Lutheran Book of Concord (œcumenica seu catholica).
14 The Lutheran Form of Concord (p. 569) calls them 'catholica et generalia summæ auctoritatis symbola.' The various editions of the Book of Concord give them the first place among the Lutheran symbols. Luther himself emphasized his agreement with them. The Church of England, in the 8th of her 39 Articles, declares, 'The three Creeds, Nicene Creed, Athanasius's Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed, for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.' The American editions of the Articles and of the Book of Common Prayer omit the Athanasian Creed, and the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States excludes it from her service. The omission by the Convention of 1789 arose chiefly from opposition to the damnatory clauses, which even Dr. Waterland thought might be left out. But the doctrine of the Athanasian Creed is clearly taught in the first five Articles.
15 The Second Helvetic Confession, art. 11, the Gallican Confession, art. 5, and the Belgic Confession, art. 9, expressly approve the three Creeds, 'as agreeing with the written Word of God.' In 'The Constitution and Liturgy' of the (Dutch) Reformed Church in the United States the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed are printed at the end. The Apostles' Creed is embodied in the Heidelberg Catechism, as containing 'the articles of our catholic undoubted Christian faith.' The Shorter Westminster Catechism gives it merely in an Appendix, as 'a brief sum of the Christian faith, agreeable to the Word of God, and anciently received in the churches of Christ.'
Gerh. Joan. Voss (Dutch Reformed, b. near Heidelberg 1577, d. at Amsterdam 1649): De tribus Symbolis, Apostolico, Athanasiano, et Constantinopolitano. Three dissertations. Amst. 1642 (and in Vol. VI. of his Opera, Amst. 1701). Voss was the first to dispute and disprove the apostolic authorship of the Apostles', and the Athanasian authorship of the Athanasian Creed.
James Ussher (Lat. Usserius, Protestant Archbishop of Armagh, d. 1655): De Romanæ ecclesiæ Symbolo Apostolico vetere, aliisque fidei formulis, tum ab Occidentalibus tum ab Orientalibus in prima catechesi et baptismo proponi solitis, Lond. 1647 (also Geneva, 1722; pp. 17 fol., and whole works in 16 vols., Dublin, 1847, Vol. VII. pp. 297 sq. I have used the Geneva ed.).
Jos. Bingham (Rector of Havant, near Portsmouth, d. 1723): Origines Ecclesiastici; or the Antiquities of the Christian Church (first publ. 1710–22 in 10 vols., and often since in Engl. and in the Latin transl. of Grischovius), Book X. ch. 4.
C. G. P. Walch (a Lutheran, d. at Göttingen in 1784): Bibliotheca Symbolica vetus, Lemgo, 1770. (A more complete collection than the preceding ones, but defective in the texts.)
E. Köllner: Symbolik aller christlichen Confessionen, Hamburg, 1837 sqq., Vol. I. pp. 1–92.
Aug. Hahn: Bibliothek der Symbole und Glaubensregeln der Apostolisch-katholischen Kirche, Breslau, 1842. A new and revised ed. by Ludwig Hahn, Breslau, 1877 (pp. 300).
W. Harvey: History and Theology of the Three Creeds, Cambridge, 1856, 2 vols.
Charles A. Heurtley (Margaret Prof. of Divinity, Oxford): Harmonia Symbolica: A Collection of Creeds belonging to the Ancient Western Church and to the Mediæval English Church. Oxford, 1858. The same: De fide et Symbolo. Oxon. et Lond. 1869.
C. P. Caspari (Prof. in Christiania): Ungedruckte, unbeachtete und wenig beachtete Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel. Christiania, 1866 to 1875, 3 vols.
J. Rawson Lumby (Prof. at Cambridge): The History of the Creeds. Cambridge,1873; 2d ed. London,1880.
C. A. Swainson (Prof. of Divinity, Cambridge): The Nicene and Apostles' Creeds. Their Literary History; together with an Account of the Growth and Reception of 'the Creed of St. Athanasius.' Lond. 1875.
F. John Anthony Hort (Prof. in Cambridge): Two Dissertations on μονογενὴς θεός and on the 'Constantinopolitan' Creed and other Eastern Creeds of the Fourth Century. Cambridge and London, 1876.
I. See the Gen. Lit. on the Œcum. Creeds, § 6, p. 12, especially Hahn, Heurtley, Lumby, Swainson, and Caspari (the third vol. 1875).
II. Special treatises on the Apostles' Creed:
Rufinus (d. at Aquileja 410, a presbyter and monk, translator and continuator of Eusebius's Church History to A.D. 395, and translator of some works of Origen, with unscrupulous adaptations to the prevailing standard of orthodoxy; at first an intimate friend, afterwards a bitter enemy of St. Jerome): Expositio Symboli (Apostolici), first printed, under the name of Jerome, at Oxford 1468, then at Rome 1470, at Basle 1519, etc.; also in the Appendix to John Fell's ed. of Cyprian's Opera (Oxon. 1682, folio, p. 17 sq.), and in Rufini Opera, ed. Vallarsi (Ver. 1745). See the list of edd. in Migne's Patrol. xxi. 17–20. The genuineness of this Exposition of the Creed is disputed by Ffoulkes, on the Athanas. Creed, p. 11, but without good reason.
Ambrosius (bishop of Milan, d. 397): Tractatus in Symbolum Apostolorum (also sub tit. De Trinitate). Opera, ed. Bened., Tom. II. 321. This tract is by some scholars assigned to a much later date, because it teaches the double procession of the Holy Spirit; but Hahn, l.c. p. 16, defends the Ambrosian authorship with the exception of the received text of the Symbolum Apostolicum, which is prefixed. Also, Explanatio Symboli ad initiandos, ascribed to St. Ambrose, and edited by Angelo Mai in Scriptorum Veterum Nova Collectio, Rom. 1833, Vol. VII. pp. 156–158, and by Caspari, in the work quoted above, II. 48 sq.
Venant. Fortunatus. (d. about 600): Expositio Symboli (Opera, ed. Aug. Luchi, Rom. 1786).
Augustinus. (bishop of Hippo, d. 430): De Fide et Symbolo liber unus. Opera, ed. Bened., Tom. XI. 505–522. Sermo de Symbolo ad catechumenos, Tom. VIII. 1591–1610. Sermones de traditione Symboli, Tom. VIII. 936 sq.
Mos. Amyraldus (Amyraut, Prof. at Saumur, d. 1664): Exercitationes in Symb. Apost. Salmur. 1663.
Isaac Barrow (Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, d. 1677). Sermons on the Creed (Theolog. Works, 8 vols., Oxf. 1830, Vol. IV.–VI).
John Pearson (Bishop of Chester, d. 1686): An Exposition of the Creed, 1659, 3d ed. 1669 fol. (and several later editions by Dobson, Burton, Nichols, Chevallier). One of the classical works of the Church of England.
Peter King (Lord Chancellor of England, d. 1733): The History of the Apostles' Creed, with Critical Observations, London, 1702. (The same in Latin by Olearius, Lips. 1706.)
H. Witsius (Prof. in Leyden, d. 1708): Exercitationes sacræ in Symbolum quod Apostolorum dicitur, Amstel. 1700; Basil. 1739. English translation by Fraser, Edinb. 1823, 2 vols.
J. E. Im. Walch (Professor in Jena, d. 1778): Antiquitates symbolicæ, quibus Symboli Apostolici historia illustratur, Jena, 1772, 8vo.
A. G. Rudelbach (Luth.): Die Bedeutung des apost. Symbolums, Leipz. 1844 (78 pp.).
Peter Meyers (R. C.): De Symboli Apostolici Titulo, Origine et Auctoritate, Treviris, 1849 (pp. 210). Defends the apostolic origin.
J. W. Nevin: The Apostles' Creed, in the 'Mercersburg Review,' Mercersburg, Pa., for 1849, pp. 105, 201, 313, 585. An exposition of the doctrinal system of the Creed.
Michel Nicolas: Le symbole des apôtres, Paris, 1867. Rationalistic.
G. Lisco (jun.): Das apostolische Glaubensbekenntniss, Berlin, 1872. In opposition to its obligatory use in the church.
O. Zöckler: Das apostolische Symbolum, Güterslohe, 1872 (40 pp.). In defense of the Creed.
Carl Semisch (Prof. of Church History in Berlin): Das apostolische Glaubensbekenntniss, Berlin, 1872 (31 pp.).
A. Mücke: Das apostolische Glaubensbekenntniss der ächte Ausdruck apostolischen Glaubens, Berlin, 1873 (160 pp.).
The Apostles' Creed, or Symbolum Apostolicum, is, as to its form, not the production of the apostles, as was formerly believed, but an admirable popular summary of the apostolic teaching, and in full harmony with the spirit and even the letter of the New Testament.
I. Character and Value.—As the Lord's Prayer is the Prayer of prayers, the Decalogue the Law of laws, so the Apostles' Creed is the Creed of creeds. It contains all the fundamental articles of the Christian faith necessary to salvation, in the form of facts, in simple Scripture language, and in the most natural order—the order of revelation— from God and the creation down to the resurrection and life everlasting. It is Trinitarian, and divided into three chief articles, expressing faith—in God the Father, the Maker of heaven and earth, in his only Son, our Lord and Saviour, and in the Holy Spirit (in Deum Patrem, in Jesum Christum, in Spiritum Sanctum); the chief stress being laid on the second article, the supernatural birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. Then, changing the language (credo in for credo with the simple accusative), the Creed professes to believe 'the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.'16 It is by far the best popular summary of the Christian faith ever made within so brief a space. It still surpasses all later symbols for catechetical and liturgical purposes, especially as a profession of candidates for baptism and church membership. It is not a logical statement of abstract doctrines, but a profession of living facts and saving truths. It is a liturgical poem and an act of worship. Like the Lord's Prayer, it loses none of its charm and effect by frequent use, although, by vain and thoughtless repetition, it may be made a martyr and an empty form of words. It is intelligible and edifying to a child, and fresh and rich to the profoundest Christian scholar, who, as he advances in age, delights to go back to primitive foundations and first principles. It has the fragrance of antiquity and the inestimable weight of universal consent. It is a bond of union between all ages and sections of Christendom. It can never be superseded for popular use in church and school.17
At the same time, it must be admitted that the very simplicity and brevity of this Creed, which so admirably adapt it for all classes of Christians and for public worship, make it insufficient as a regulator of public doctrine for a more advanced stage of theological knowledge. As it is confined to the fundamental articles, and expresses them in plain Scripture terms, it admits of an indefinite expansion by the scientific mind of the Church. Thus the Nicene Creed gives clearer and stronger expression to the doctrine of Christ's divinity against the Arians, the Athanasian Creed to the whole doctrine of the Trinity and of Christ's person against the various heresies of the post-Nicene age. The Reformation Creeds are more explicit on the authority and inspiration of the Scriptures and the doctrines of sin and grace, which are either passed by or merely implied in the Apostles' Creed.
II. As to the origin of the Apostles' Creed, it no doubt gradually grew out of the confession of Peter, Matt. xvi. 16, which furnished its nucleus (the article on Jesus Christ), and out of the baptismal formula, which determined the trinitarian order and arrangement. It can not be traced to an individual author. It is the product of the Western Catholic Church (as the Nicene Creed is that of the Eastern Church) within the first four centuries. It is not of primary, apostolic, but of secondary, ecclesiastical inspiration. It is not a word of God to men, but a word of men to God, in response to his revelation. It was originally and essentially a baptismal confession, growing out of the inner life and practical needs of early Christianity.18 It was explained to the catechumens at the last stage of their preparation, professed by them at baptism, often repeated, with the Lord's Prayer, for private devotion, and afterwards introduced into public service.19 It was called by the ante-Nicene fathers 'the rule of faith,' 'the rule of truth,' 'the apostolic tradition,' 'the apostolic preaching,' afterwards 'the symbol of faith.'20 But this baptismal Creed was at first not precisely the same. It assumed different shapes and forms in different congregations.21 Some were longer, some shorter; some declarative, some interrogative in the form of questions and answers.22 Each of the larger churches adapted the nucleus of the apostolic faith to its peculiar circumstances and wants; but they all agreed in the essential articles of faith, in the general order of arrangement on the basis of the baptismal formula, and in the prominence given to Christ's death and resurrection. We have an illustration in the modern practice of Independent or Congregational and Baptist churches in America, where the same liberty of framing particular congregational creeds ('covenants,' as they are called, or forms of profession and engagement, when members are received into full communion) is exercised to a much larger extent than it was in the primitive ages.
The first accounts we have of these primitive creeds are merely fragmentary. The ante-Nicene fathers give us not the exact and full formula, but only some articles with descriptions, defenses, explications, and applications. The creeds were committed to memory, but not to writing.23 This fact is to be explained from the 'Secret Discipline' of the ante-Nicene Church. From fear of profanation and misconstruction by unbelievers (not, as some suppose, in imitation of the ancient heathen Mysteries), the celebration of the sacraments and the baptismal creed, as a part of the baptismal act, were kept secret among the communicant members until the Church triumphed in the Roman Empire.24
The first writer in the West who gives us the text of the Latin creed, with a commentary, is Rufinus, towards the close of the fourth century.
The most complete or most popular forms of the baptismal creed in use from that time in the West were those of the churches of Rome, Aquileja, Milan, Ravenna, Carthage, and Hippo. They differ but little.25 Among these, again, the Roman formula gradually gained general acceptance in the West for its intrinsic excellence, and on account of the commanding position of the Church of Rome. We know the Latin text from Rufinus (390), and the Greek from Marcellus of Ancyra (336–341). The Greek text is usually regarded as a translation, but is probably older than the Latin, and may date from the second century, when the Greek language prevailed in the Roman congregation.26
This Roman creed was gradually enlarged by several clauses from older or contemporaneous forms, viz., the article 'descended into Hades' (taken from the Creed of Aquileja), the predicate 'catholic' or 'general,' in the article on the Church (borrowed from Oriental creeds), 'the communion of saints' (from Gallican sources), and the concluding 'life everlasting' (probably from the symbols of the churches of Ravenna and Antioch).27 These additional clauses were no doubt part of the general faith, since they are taught in the Scriptures, but they were first expressed in local creeds, and it was some time before they found a place in the authorized formula.
If we regard, then, the present text of the Apostles' Creed as a complete whole, we can hardly trace it beyond the sixth, certainly not beyond the close of the fifth century, and its triumph over all the other forms in the Latin Church was not completed till the eighth century, or about the time when the bishops of Rome strenuously endeavored to conform the liturgies of the Western churches to the Roman order.28 But if we look at the several articles of the Creed separately, they are all of Nicene or ante-Nicene origin, while its kernel goes back to the apostolic age. All the facts and doctrines which it contains, are in entire agreement with the New Testament. And this is true even of those articles which have been most assailed in recent times, as the supernatural conception of our Lord (comp. Matt. i. 18; Luke i. 35), the descent into Hades (comp. Luke xxiii. 43; Acts ii. 31; 1 Pet. iii. 19; iv. 6), and the resurrection of the body (1 Cor. xv. 20 sqq., and other places).29
The rationalistic opposition to the Apostles' Creed and its use in the churches is therefore an indirect attack upon the New Testament itself. But it will no doubt outlive these assaults, and share in the victory of the Bible over all forms of unbelief.30
III. I add a table, with critical notes, to show the difference between the original Roman creed, as given by Rufinus in Latin (about A.D. 390), and by Marcellus in Greek (A.D. 336–341), and the received form of the Apostles' Creed, which came into general use in the seventh or eighth century. The additions are inclosed in brackets.
| The old Roman Form. | The Received Form. |
| 1. I believe in God the Father Almighty31 | 1. I believe in God the Father Almighty [Maker of heaven and earth].32 |
| 2. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; | 2. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; |
|
3. Who was born by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary;33 |
3. Who was [conceived] by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary;34 |
| 4. Was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried; | 4. [Suffered]35 under Pontius Pilate, was crucified [dead], and buried |
| [He descended into Hell (Hades)];36 | |
| 5. The third day he rose from the dead; | 5. The third day he rose from the dead; |
| 6. He ascended into heaven; and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; | 6. He ascended into heaven; and sitteth on the right hand of [God] the Father [Almighty];37 |
| 7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. | 7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. |
| 8. And in the HOLY GHOST; | 8. [I believe]38 in the Holy Ghost; |
| 9. The Holy Church; | 9. The Holy [Catholic]39 Church |
| [The communion of saints];40 | |
| 10. The forgiveness of sins; | 10. The forgiveness of sins; |
| 11. The resurrection of the body (flesh).41 | 11. The resurrection of the body (flesh); |
| 12. [And the life everlasting].42 |