This " Creed," to use its scholastic title, first appeared in Latin, the Greek copies that exist being independent versions from that language. The age also of the old- est Latin MSS. exceeds that of the Greek exemplars by several centuries. The oldest Latin copy is referred by archbishop Usher to the beginning of the 7th century, and was in the Cottoniari collection (De Symb. Prof, ii, 3). The Treves MS., acephalous, is of nearly equal antiquity. Five MSS. of the 8th century are known : the Ambrosian of Milan; the Cottonian in king Athel- stan's Psalter, referable with certainty to A.D. 703, and professing to be " Fides St. Athanasii Alexandrini ;" the Colbertine, copied in Saxon character from the Treves MS. shortly after the middle of the century, and, like the original, imperfect at the beginning; the Paris MS. of equal date, also in Saxon character; and the copy written in letters of gold which was presented by Char- lemagne, while only king of France, to Adrian I on his accession to the pontificate, A.D. 772. It is still pre- served at Vienna. The Greek copies are of much later date, and Montfaucon had never seen one that was more than three hundred years old (Diatribe, p. 727).
The earliest form in which this "expositio fidei" is found is the commentary of Venantius Fortunatus in the middle of the 6th century, showing that it was then
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of popular use. The fourth Council of Toledo also (A.D.633) adopted many of its more striking expres- sions. Rome, distrustful of novelties, only admitted it after long delay, as Waterland says, aboul A.I). !);i0. Thus it was accepted by the churches of the Weai "as soon as. nr sooner than, the Niceuc ( Jreed."
This dogmatic composition has a direct hearing on the Apollinarian error, which was condemned by pope Damasus, A.D.375. This heresy bad much in common with the Eutj chian error of the middle of the 5th cen- tury: but the latter had certain distinguishing features of which do notice is taken in the treed, and for this reason the clauses that contravene both errors may be safely applied to Apollinarian notions: we need not look for its origin therefore so low as the Eutychian period ( Harvey, Hist, and Theol. of Cads, p. 549 557 ). in which the dying embers of Apollinarianism kindled up again. Neither can its product ion range later than the Nestorian controversy, which commenced with the first year of the patriarchate of Nestorius (A.D. 128), and led to the Council of EpheSUS (A.I). 431) ; other- wise i In crucial term Scotokoc must as certainly have found its way into it as that the term bflOOVOlOQ was made the "lapis Lydius" of orthodoxy by the Nicene fathers; hence this "expositio fidei" must have been written before the year A.P. 428 t Waterland. Harvey). But by how many years did it anticipate the council? There are undeniable points of resemblance between many of its expressions and the terms used by Augus- tine in his work h, TrimtcOe (A.D. 416; Harvey, p. 562 564); which furnished the copy, the father or the Creed? Waterland affirms the former, but reasons quite as cogent point to the latter conclusion. Augustine says that the phrases used by him in defining the three Persons of the Godhead were adopted also by catholic writers his predecessors; and, in fact, the writer of the Creed may have borrowed the corresponding terms, in some few cases, from Tertullian, but abundantly from Ambrose. The Creed, then, so tar as its phraseology is concerned, is quite as likely to have been written be- tween A.D. 381, when Ambrose completed his work 1><> Spiritu Sancto, and A.l >. 416, when Augustine put forth his work De Trimtate, as after this latter date.
Further, the rudimental statements of the Creed are more fully developed in the work of Augustine. The Creed simply says, "The Holy Ghost is of the Father and the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding." The most unbending Greek theolo- gian would have allowed the statement to pass unchal- lenged. E. t:. Cyril of Alexandria says of the Holy Spirit. •■ For he is termed the Spirit of Truth, and Christ is truth; and he proceeds (irpox&Tcu) from him, as in fact he does from God and the father" {Ep. Synod.; comp. Harvey, \'in<l<x Cathol, i. 188). Thus also Ba- sil says "the Spirit proceeds from Gcd, not by genera- tion as the Son. but as the Spirit of his mouth ;" where it is manifestly intended that as the spirit proceeds from <;,„l the Father, so also he proceeds from Cod tin- Word. Ambrose makes the matter more plain: " Dei Spirit us et Spiritus Christi et in Patre est. et in Filio, quia oris est spiritus" (Ambrose, lh Spir. Sand, i, 11, 37, 111: iii. 6). There is an Augustinian definiteness also in those oilier words of Ambrose: " El si Spirilimi dicas, et Deum Patrem, a quo procedil Spiritus, et Fili- um, quia Filii quoque est Spiritus, nuncupasti" (ibid.). The third Person was universally acknowledged to be of the lather and of the Son. and his origination was allowed to be by procession; that which was denied was his process,, ,u from the Son as well as the Father, instead ol from the bather by the Son. Hut the work ■iii originated all the discussion that followed. and in lad led t" that schism between the churches "\ lie I I and of the West which has never again been