healed. Augustine expresses himself with his usual roundness ami perspicuity upon a point that was a re- sult ,,| scriptural reasonings collected into one focus of light (lh J', in. i\, 29; xv, 17 i. The concluding chap-
ters of his work are filled with statements of the pro- cession of the Holy Spirit, and a comparison of these with the more shadowy lines of the Creed satisties the
judgment that Augustine was indebted to the Creed, and not the ( reed to Augustine. Then again i instances by way of illustration the union of a spiritual ami a material nature in the individual man: "As the reasonable soul anil tlesh is one man. so God and .Man is one ( hrist." The illustration is exactly to the point ; but. Augu8tlne follows out the idea ill a strain of subtle argumentation that runs through six books of Ids work; finding points of analogy between the doctrine of a Trinity in Unity and the unity of the mind existing in different states; and falling into modes of expression that arc exactly square with others in the Cm d : " I lac igitur tria, memoria intelligentia voluntas, quoniam non sunt tres vita? sed una vita: nee tres mentes sed una mens: consequents! utique nee tres substantia' sunt sed una substantia" </'. /'///,. x. 18). Both tin Creed and Augustine argue from man's bodily and mental con- stitution, but the convincing simplicity of the former and the strained scholastic reasoning of the latter con- vince the mind that here .-i-r.-iin the Creed was the ar- chetype. Diverging, therefore, at this point from Wa- terland, who dales the Creed A.D. 420, four years alter the publication of the work / '< Trinitate, we may now see whether we can assign a prior date for its composi- tion.
It should be borne in mind once more that the Apolli- narian heresy is the latest form of error of which the Creed takes cognizance. Hut that heresy never took root in the churches of the West: therefore no newly appointed GalHcan bishop would have gone out of his way to condemn it. as Waterland supposes Hilary to have done on his appointment to the see of Aries. " li is hardly in keeping with the mild -credo' of a newly installed prelate. But in the year A.I). 401 we can point to a most popular and zealous bishop of \\ , stem Gaul, apostolical in his labors among the benighted population of the Nervii and Morini (Pas de Calais) as well as in his self-inflicted poverty t Paulin. Nol. Ep.. 18 ad Victric), who was accused publicly of teaching her- esy, and that evidently of Apollinaris ; who also gave account of his faith in a confession that, without any great degree of improbability, may be identified wiih this exposition of the catholic faith. This eminent son of the Church was Victricius, confessor and bishop of Rouen, who at the close of the 4th century was consid- erably advanced in years" (Harvey, Hist, and 'rim-], of Creeds, p. 578). The terms of this confession are sketched out by Paulinus of N'ola {Ep. 37 ad Victric 3, 4), and they harmonize remarkably with those of the Creed [ibid, p. 5, 6). There are historical reasons fox believing that this confession was presented at Home between A.D. •"•'.»'.» and -hi:.' when Anastasius was pope I Harvey. I list, and TheoL of Creeds). But the name of Victricius was in time expunged, and it then stood as the production of Anastasius. Hence, since one com- mentator terms it " bides Anastasii." ami a codex as- cribes it to Anas/Aasius. il is highly probable that this name was connected with the Creed at an earlier date than that of Athanasiiis. into which it easilj passed. The name of Athanasius is tirst placed at the bead in a copy of the 8th century, which leaves a wide margin of three hundred years for I he change of title. The earliest MS. (( ot Ionian, now lost) assium d no name to the Creed, but simply styled it " Fides Catholica." as does also Ye- iianlius Forlunalus in his commentary. The reasons for
assigning it to Victricius have ben thus summed up:
"(l.l Its careful, well-considered terms are more
consistent with the mature age of Victricius, who had
attained the honor of confessor forty years before the dale now assigned to the Creed, in 401, than with the youth of Hilary, who was only eieht-and-t u etity years of age when he is supposed DJ Waterland to have com- posed the hymn on his advancement to the episcopate. (2.) Its style, though Dot that of an apology in vindica-
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tion of the writer's faith, agrees well with the supposi- tion that he was accused of the errors that he anathe- matizes. (3.) Its matter is exactly parallel with the subjects upon which Victricius, if we may judge from the expressions of Paulinus, was called to defend him- self. With respect to both of these particulars, the sup- position that Hilary should have been the author is sin- gularly unsatisfactory to the judgment. His exposition of faith on entering upon his episcopal office would scarcely have been pointed with anathemas which the history of his time persuades us were not required. In- deed, the Creed can only be assigned to Hilary upon the supposition that Apollinarianism infested the Galil- ean Church at the date of his appointment to the see of Aries — a supposition wholly contrary to fact. But since we know that Pelagian tenets had then taken a firm root in the south of France, we know also the di- rection that any inaugural exposition by Hilary must have taken. (4.) Again, if Hilary had been the author of the Creed, his name must have commanded respect, and he would scarcely have met with such hard words from pope Leo I as may be found in his epistle to the French bishops, A.D. 445 : e. g. ' Non est hoc . . . sa- lubritatem impendere diligentiie pastoralis, sed vim in- ferre latronis et furis. . . . Potest forsitan ad depravan- dos vestra? sanctitatis animos Hilarius pro suo more mentiri" (Leo, Ep. 10). On the other hand, the highly probable communication between Victricius and Anas- tasius, and the preparation of a confession of faith by the Gallican confessor, indicate the process whereby the name of Athanasius may have been placed at length, by assimilation, at the head of the Creed. For these reasons, therefore, it is considered that the authorship of the Creed may be referred to the confessor Victricius, bishop of Rouen ; and that the date of the production may be assigned to the year 401" (Harvey, On the Three Creeds, p. 583). See Waterland, On the A thanasian Creed ; Harvey, Hist, and Theol. of the Three Creeds ; Blunt, Annotated Prayer-book, which latter work should be consulted with reference to its liturgical use. — Blunt, Diet, of Theol. s. v. See Creed.