RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Sword Symbolics
efforts of the priesthood to Romanize or to break up the public schools, or, where neither can be done from want of power, to neutralize them by parochial schools in which the doctrines and principles of Trent and the Vatican are inculcated upon the rising generation. The encyclical Pascendi gregis (ut sup.) sounds almost like a continuation of the Syllabus, being a condemnation of " Modernism " (q.v.). The text of the encyclical is given in The Programme of Modernism (ut sup.).
P. ScHAFPf. D. S. ScHAFF.
Bibliography: The text is most convenient of access in Schaff, Creeds, ii. 213-233; it is also in Acta et decreta concilii Vaticani, Freiburg, 1871, and in W. E. Gladstone, Rome and the Newest Fashions in Religion, London and New York, 1875 (containing three tracts of Gladstone on the subject, the text of the Syllabus, and a history of the Vatican Council). On the subject consult besides the literature named in the text." Pronier, La Liberte religieuse et le Syllabus, Geneva, 1870; Cardinal H. E. Manning, The Vatican Decrees in their Bearing on Civil Allegiance, ib. 1875 (reply to Gladstone, ut sup.); Cardinal J. H. Newman, Letter to the Duke of Norfolk on Occasion of Mr. Gladstone's Recent Expostulation, ib. 1875; and much of the literature under Infallibility; Ulthamontanism; and Vatican Council.
SYLVESTER. See Silvester.
SYLVESTRINS: A Roman Catholic congregation under Observantine Benedictine rule, established by Silvestro Gonzelini (b. at Osimo, 9 m. s.
of Ancona, 1170 or 1174; d. at his monastery on Monte Fano near Fabriano, 45 m. s.w. of Ancona, Nov. 26, 1267). After studying at Padua and Bologna and being canon in his native city, he retired, about 1227, to the Grotta fucile near Osimo. Here his piety attracted so many pupils and followers, that about 1231 he established a monastery for them on Monte Fano. The congregation was approved by Innocent IV (June 27, 1247), and spread especially in Umbria, Tuscany, and Ancona. In 1662-67 the Sylvestrins were united with the order of Vallombrosa, and in 1688 their rule was revised, approval being given by Alexander VIII. in 1690. The congregation was directed by a general, elected by the chapter general quadrennially, and represented at Rome by a procurator-general, whom he appointed triennially. The habit is dark blue, and that of the general, who may wear episcopal vestments, is violet. The order is now very small in numbers, although it "has monasteries in Rome and other parts of Italy, and an active mission in Ceylon. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: S. Fabrini, Breve Chronica delta Congregazione dei Monachi Silvestrini, Camerino, 1618, new ed., ed. A. Morosi and A. Lucantovi, Rome, 1706; the " Constitution " was printed at Camerino, 1610, and Rome, 1690; Helyot, Ordres monastiques, vi. 170 sqq.; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, i. 277-279; KL, xi. 1039-Hll.
I. Creeds and Confessions.
Original Idea of Symbol (§ 1). The Rule of Faith (§ 2).
SYMBOLICS.
Western Development (§ 3). Change of Attitude in the West (§ 4). Post-Reformation Creeds (§ 5).
II. Comparative Symbolics.
Nature, Scope, and History (§ 1). Konfessionskunde (§ 2).
I. Creeds and Confessions: The term symbol is used in a twofold sense; for the pictorial representation of religious ideas (see Mysi. Original tagogical Theology; Symbolism, Idea of Ecclesiastical), and for the au- Symbol. thoritative ecclesiastical formulations of religious doctrines. This article is to be restricted to the latter class of symbols, otherwise styled the church creeds or confessions. From them the theological discipline styled " symbolics " and mostly pursued in Protestantism has derived its name. The custom of designating as symbols the formulas by which Christian faith has expressed itself in history took its origin in referring to that formula as a symbol by which, in the ancient Church, the candidates for baptism were wont to confess their faith. It began with " I believe," being therefore decidedly individual and personal. Of its many names one was simply that of " the faith." In the East " the lesson " {to mathema) was sometimes employed, but seldom " the confession of faith." The designation of the baptismal confession as " symbol " originated in the West; in the East it appeared relatively late. The term is first found in Tertullian (Adv. Marcionem, v. 1). The Latin Church borrowed the term from the secular Greek. Derived from symballein (" to compare "), symbolon may be applied to whatever signifies a means of recognition or identification, a sign, a watchword, a comparison or agreement. The equivalents in Latin are signum, nota, indicium, pactum; some of the older Latin theolo-
gians, such as Rufinus, rendered it by collatio, confusing the Greek symbols and symbolon. The latter attached his interpretation to the legend that the primitive creed was composed jointly by the Apostles, each contributing one sentence. Cyprian (Epist, lxix [lxxv.] 7; Eng. transl., ANF, v. 399) is a sure witness of the application of " symbol " to the baptismal confession. In what sense it was applied is open to explanation; it was probably used as a general token of recognition, although different views are held on this point, according to the diverse theories of the origin of the creed itself. The view of the present writer is that all the formulas found in the primitive Church go back to the creed known as the old Roman (designated as R in this article); that this creed was composed in Rome at one time, as the expression of the summary of faith at the period of its date, probably about 100, but rather earlier than later; and that it was composed for liturgical and catechetical purposes, but not as the outcome of polemical antagonism to heresy, as is the view advocated by A. C. McGiffert (The Apostles' Creed, New York, 1902). The latter considers R the fundamental formula, indeed, but one composed by the Roman Church during the struggle with Marcion. Loofs doubts the hypothesis of a single " mother-formula," and traces the custom of making the catechumens recite a creed (which was substantially the same everywhere, though not identical in phraseology) to Asia Minor, if not to the primitive churches of Palestine and Syria.
It may at least, however, be taken as proved
Symbolics