§ 132. THE ATHANASIAN CREB^D. 693
39. Adscendit ad cgbIcs: sedet ad 39. He ascended into heaven : He sit dorteram (Dei) Patria omnipotentis : teth on the right hand of God, the Fathei
almighty :
40. Inde venturus (est), judicare vivos 40. From whence He shall come '.0 et mortuos. judge the quick and the dead.
41. Ad cuius adventum omnes horai- 41. At whose coming all men maa nes resuvgere habent cum corporibus rise again with their bodies ;
suis;
42. Et reddituri sunt de factis pro- 42. And shall give account for thd? priis rationem. own works.
43. Et qui bona egerunt, ibunt in 43. And they that have done good vitam £Eternam ; qui vero mala, in ignem shall go into life everlasting ; but they seternum. that have done evil, into everlasting fire.
44. Hsec est fides catholica, quam 44. This is the catholic faith ; which nisi quisque fideliter firmiterque ' credi- except a man believe truly and firmly, derit, salvus esse non poterit. he cannot be saved.
The origin of this remarkable production is veiled in mysterious darkness. Like the Apostles' Creed, it is not so much the work of any one person, as the production of the spirit of the church. As tlie Apostles' Creed represents the faith of the ante-Kieene period, and the Nicene Creed the faith of the Nicene, so the Athanasian Creed gives formal expression to the post-Nicene faith in the mystery of the Trinity and the incarnation of God. The old tradition which, since tlie eighth century, has attributed it to Athanasius as the great champion of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, has been long ago abandoned on all hands; for in the writings of Athanasiua ^nd his contemporaries, and even in the acts of the third and fourth ecumenical councils, no trace of it is to be found." It does not appear at all in the Greek church till the eleventh or twelfth century ; and then it occurs in a few manuscripts which bear the manifest character of translations, vary from one another in several points, and omit or modify the clause on the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the
' The Greek copies read either Trttrrcuj alone, or ttkttws re Kal $ePaiwiy or 4m trtfTTecos jSe/Sai'ojs ■wiarevari.
• Ger. Vossius first demonstrated the spuriousness of the tradition in his decisive treatise of 1642. Even Roman divines, like Quesnel, Dupin, Pagi, Tillemont, Montfaucon, and Muiatori, admit the spuriousness. K511iier adduces nineteen proofs against the Athanasian origin of the Creed, two or three of which are perferjtly 8ufli« dent without the rest.
696 THIRD PERIOD. A.D, 311-590.
Son (v. 23).' It implies the entire post-Nicene or Angnstiniar devtlopment of the doctrine of the Trinity, and even the Christological discussions of the fifth century, though it doea not contain the anti-Ncstorian test-word ^eoro/cos^, mother of God. It takes several passages verbally from Augustine's work on the Trinity, which was not completed till the year 415, and from the Commonitorium of Viucentius of Lerinum, 434 ; works which evidently do not quote the passages from an already existing symbol, but contribute them as stones to the building. On the other hand it coutains no allusion to the Monophysite and Monothelite controversies, and cannot well be placed after the sixth oecumenical council, which condemned the Monotheletic heresy (680).
It probably originated during the sixth or seventh century, in the school of Augustine, and in Gaul, where it makes its first appearance, and acquires its first ecclesiastical authority. But the precise author or compiler cannot be discovered, and the various views of scholars concerning him are mere opinions." From Gaul the authority of this symbol spread over the whole of Latin Christendom, and subsequently made its way into some portions of the Greek church in Europe. The various Protestant churches have either formally adopted the Athanasian Creed together with tlie Nicene and the Apostles', Dr at all events agree, in their sj^nbolical books, with its doctrine of the trinity and the person of Christ.'
' Wherever the creed has come into use in the Greek churches, this verse has been omitted as a Latin interpolation.
' Comp. the catalogue of opinions in Watcrland, vol. iii. p. 117; in Kollner; and in my own treatise. The majority of voices have spolcen in favor of Vigilius of Tapsus in Africa, a. d. 484; others for Vincentius of Lerinum, 434; Watcrland for Hilary of Aries, about 430; while otlicrs ascribe it indefinitely to the Nortli African, or Gallic, or Spanish church in the sixth or seventh century. Harvey recently, but quite groundlessly, has dated the composition back to the year 401, and claims it for the bishop Victricius of Houen (Hist, and Tlieol. of the Three Creeds, vol. ii. p. 683 f.). He thinks that Augustine quotes from it, but this father nowliera alludes to such a symbol ; the author of the Creed, on the contrary, has taken sov. ei-al ]iassages from Augustine, De Trinitate, as well as from Yinceniius of Lerinum and other sources. Comp, the notes to the Creed above, and my treatise, p. 596 ft".
• Ou Ibis agreement of the symbolical boolcs of the Evangelical churches witL the Athanasianum, comp. my treatise, 1. c. p. 610 if. Luther considcra this Creed