(c) THE APOSTLES' CREED, ACCORDING TO RUFINUS AND FORTUNATUS. A.D. 390-570.

Ecclesia Aquilejensis. Venantius Fortunatus.

Circ. A.D. 390. [50]

Circ. A.D. 570. [51]

Credo in Deo Patre omnipotente [invisibili et impassibili]. [52]

Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem.

Et in Jesu Christo, unico Filio ejus, Domino nostro;

Et in Jesum Christum, unicum Filium;

qui natus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine;

crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato, et sepultus;

crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato;

[descendit in inferna]; [53]

descendit ad infernum;

tertia die resurrexit a mortuis;

tertia die resurrexit;

ascendit in cælos;

ascendit in cælum;

sedet ad dexteram Patris;

inde venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos.

judicaturus vivos et mortuos.

Et in Spiritu Sancto;

Credo in Sancto Spiritu ; [54]

sanctam ecclesiam;

remissionem peccatorum;

[hujus] [55] carnis resurrectionem.

resurrectionem carnis.

[50] Taken from Rufinus (d.410), Expos. Symboli Apost. (in Cyprian's Op., ed. Fell, Appendix, pp. 17 sqq.; also in Jerome's Works). Comp. Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, etc., pp. 30 sqq.; Denzinger, Enchirid., p. 2; and Heurtley, Harmonia Symb., pp. 26 sqq. Hahn and Heurtley add the chief comments of Rufinus. He gives it as the Creed of the Church of Aquileja, where he was baptized (' illum ordinem sequimur, quem in Aquilejensi ecclesia per lavaori gratiam suscepimus '). There are, however, two other Creeds used in the churches of the province of Aquileja, of uncertain (possibly of earlier) date, which are more in harmony with the old Roman form, and omit invisibili et impassibili in the first article, hujus before carnis in the last article, and the clause descendit ad inferna. They were found and first published by De Rubeis (Venice, 1754), in his Dissertationes ... de Liturgicis Ritibus Ecclesiæ Forojuliensis, pp. 242, 243, 249; then by Walch. l.c. p. 54 sq.; Hahn, p. 39; and Heurtley, pp. 30 sqq.

[51] From the Expositio Symboli of Venantius Honorius Clemens Fortunatus, an Italian presbyter, afterwards Bishop of Poitiers in France, d. about 600. He follows Rufinus very closely, and evidently made use of his Exposition. See Hahn, l.c. p. 33, and Heurtley, pp. 54-56. The Commentary on the Athanasian Creed, which Muratori and Waterland ascribe to the same author, is by an unknown Fortunatus of a later age. See Vol. I. pp. 34-37.

[52] This is the oldest reading, as also in Jesu Christo, and in Spiritu Sancto. So Vallarsius (ed. of Jerome), Baluze (the Bened. editor of Cyprian), Walch, and Hahn. Other copies correct the ablative into the accusative: in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, invisibilem et impassibilem, in Jesum Christum. So the first printed ed. of 1468, the Bened. ed. of Jerome, Pamelius, Fell, Heurtley. On the article on the Holy Spirit, the majority of authorities agree in reading the ablative, which is confirmed by Fortunatus. The addition of the attributes invisible and impassible, which are not found in any other form, have a polemical reference to the heresy of the Patripassians and Sabellians, as Rufinus remarks (§ 5).

[53] Rufinus (§ 18): 'Sciendum sane est quod in Ecclesiæ Romanæ Symbolo non habetur additum "Descendit ad inferna:" sed neque in Orientis Ecclesiis habetur hic sermo: vis tamen verbi eadem videtur esse in eo quod "sepultus" dicitur.'

[54] Here Venantius adheres to the old Aquileian form, while in the first and second articles he uses the accusative. So also in his Commentaries: ' Ergo una divinitas in trinitate, quia dixit Symbolum; Credo in Deum Patrem, et in Jesum Christum, et in Spiritu Sancto. ' See Hahn, p. 36; Heurtley, p. 55.

[55] The exceptional hujus is thus explained by Rufinus (§ 43): ' Ita fit ut unicuique animæ non confusum aut extremeum corpus, sed unum quod habuerat reparetur; ut consequenter possit pro agonibus præsentis vitæ cum anima sua caro vel pudica coronari, vel impudica puniri. '

(d) AN OLD ITALIAN (Pseudo-Ambrosian) FORM OF THE APOSTLES' CREED. About A.D. 350.

Credimus in Deum Patrem omnipotentem,

We believe in God the Father Almighty,

sæculorum omnium et creaturarum regem et conditorem.

Ruler and Creator of all ages and creatures.

Et in Jesum Christum, Filium ejus unicum, Dominum nostrum;

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord;

qui natus est de Spiritu Sancto et ex Maria Virgine;

who was born of the Holy Ghost and from the Virgin Mary;

qui sub Pontio Pilato crucifixus et sepultus;

who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried;

tertia die resurrexit a mortuis;

on the third day he rose from the dead;

ascendit in cælas;

ascended into the heavens;

sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris;

sitteth on the right hand of God the Father;

inde venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos.

from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

Et in Spiritum Sanctum;

And in the Holy Ghost;

et sanctam ecclesiam catholicam;

and the holy Catholic Church;

remissionem peccatorum;

the remission of sins;

carnis resurrectionem.

the resurrection of the flesh.

NOTES.

1. This baptismal creed was copied, together with an Exhortatio sancti Ambrosii ad neophytos de Symbolo, by Dr. Caspari from two MSS. in the Vienna Library, and published in the second volume of his Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, Vol. II. (1869), pp. 128 sqq. It is inserted in this Exhortation, not in broken fragments, as is usual with ante-Nicene writers, but continuously, with a connecting itaque after credimus (p. 134). The Exhortation was directed against the heresy of Arianism, and borrows an expression ( Deus de Deo, lumen de lumine ) from the Nicene Creed, but makes no allusion to the Pneumatomachian controversy and its settlement in 381. It seems, therefore, to belong to the middle of the fourth century (350-370). Caspari denies the authorship of Ambrose (who was opposed to committing the creed to writing), and is inclined to assign it to Eusebius of Vercelli or Lucifer of Cagliari, in Sardinia, where the symbol may have been in use.

2. The symbol resembles the older Italian forms of Rome, Milan, and Ravenna. With the Roman it omits the articles descendit ad inferna , communionem sanctorum , and vitam æternam; but, unlike the Roman, it has catholicam after ecclesiam , and the peculiar clause sæculorum omnium et creaturarum regem et conditorem. A similar addition occurs in the Symbol of Carthage ( universorum creatorem, regem sæculorum, invisibilem et immortalem ).

3. Other Italian forms of the Western Creed, see in Hahn, pp. 6 sqq.