THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
that the creed originally had its proper place in the solemn administration of baptism. There were different local developments of the cus- 2. The toms of the traditio symboli to the Rule of catechumens shortly before baptism; Faith. a redditio of the same, after catechetical exposition of the several articles, as a proof of their readiness for the sacrament; and an assent to the same in the midst of the act of baptism itself; but wherever the baptismal symbol was employed, it had, notwithstanding its personal form, a liturgical character. With this is connected the signification of the formula as a sacramentum, no doubt partly as the oath militant of the Christians, and partly as a sacred emblem signifying by its traditio the setting apart, once for all, of the believer as a Christian. From the very early time of the first conflict with a contrary belief (loosely Gnosticism, perhaps in its Marcionite form), the creed came to be used in the West as the " rule of faith." That from the middle of the second century the West considered the creed as a weapon against hostile attacks, as the standard given by God himself, is demonstrable. Not so certain but probable is the theory that the East adopted it before the end of that century in Asia Minor (perhaps in connection with Polycarp's journey to Rome) ; but that here originally the Scriptures had occupied the position of a rule of faith. This was their position in the rest of the East, which only gradually, in some places not till the fourth century, adopted a formulated creed. Especially with Origen it appears as though there was no creed and none was desired, but it was deemed better to meet various controversial needs by expedient formulas drawn up for each occasion. This method issued in the practise of councils of preparing consistent formulas, somewhat suggestive of the symbol. In the third century and numerously in the fourth, dogmatic resolutions resembling a (or the) symbol, and in part distinctly under the subsumption of such a one, were adopted at the councils. Such definitions were never designated as " symbols," unless, as in some instances, they were applied to baptismal use. In time, especially after the legislation of Justinian, the formula attributed to the joint action of the first two ecumenical councils, the so-called Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed (C; see Coxstantinopolitan Creed) came to hold the rank of a " symbol." It, then, in the East, though still in ultimate association with the Scriptures and with the " exposition of the faith " made by the whole seven ecumenical councils, came to be the rule of faith, as it is to this day in the Greek Orthodox Church. (The term ecumenical, strictly speaking, applies to C only, since neither the Apostolic nor the Athanasian creed ever obtained official recognition in the East.) Even if C thus presents the highest criterion for distinguishing between orthodox and heretical doctrine, it owes its special importance to the fact that it retained its position in the public services of baptism and the Eucharist. In the West also the idea of a " symbol " carried with it, until the Reformation, a reference to the liturgical use of a formula. The title passed from R, or the provincial " daughter-recensions " of R,
finally again to a single formula, the present text
of the Apostles' Creed (q.v.) as received to-day
by Roman Catholics and Protestants
3. Western alike (T). It was then extended to C, Develop- which in the West also, though only
ment. gradually and within limits, became the Eucharistic creed; and to the " Athanasian " Creed (q.v., and see revised translation below; called symbolum Quicunque from its opening word; hence Q). The Middle Ages speak of these as " the three symbols " — the phrase is first demonstrably found in Alexander of Hales, Summa, III., qu. 82, m. 5, introduction. T and C were compared usually as minus and major. Ludolf of Saxony (cf. Loofs, Symbolik, p. 58), in the fourteenth century, defining symbol as " a compendious collection of all things which concern salvation," says that " the first symbol was made for instruction in the faith, the second for explanation of the faith, and the third for defense of the faith." Occasionally the formula of the Lateran Council of 1215, the " Definition against the Albigenses and other heretics," is called the "fourth symbol"; this professes to offer a compendium of " the whole " faith, in formal adherence to T, but makes use of C and still more of Q, besides sanctioning the new developments of the Eucharistic doctrine. It may have been the obvious following of the structure of T that allowed the name of symbol to be applied to it, though it came to no liturgical use. In the same indefinite way, the name is applied to the Symbolum fidei a Leone IX propositum Petro episcopo, though this formula has a certain public use, being put in the form of questions for the examination of candidates for episcopal consecration. Similarly mention is made of the symbolum Tridentinum by which is meant " the profession of Tridentine faith prescribed by Pius IV." in 1564, and slightly enlarged by Pius IX. in 1877; it was recited by candidates for reception into the church until 1859, and is orally confessed and subscribed by those who are entering the teaching office, especially by priests (see Tridentine Profession of Faith).
It must now be remarked that theological development in the West, unlike that of the East, differentiated increasingly the conception of the rule of faith from that of the symbol. After
4. Change uncertainty had arisen in the fourth of Attitude century as to the sufficiency of the
in the symbol for the purpose of a rule of West. faith, and the Scriptures had begun, under the influence of the East, to be considered as part of it, Augustine not only took account of the new development, but also set bounds to it. He brought the symbol into such intimate connection with the Scriptures that he could speak of it as really representing in condensed form the whole of their teaching. Thus the Middle Ages held firmly to the thesis that the symbolum triplex was one and the same sum of faith in a threefold form, with varying degrees of explieitness. But while in the East the content of the Scriptures was more and more reduced to an equivalence with that of C, Augustine had shown how to get a deeper meaning from them for the words of the creed and to fill the latter with new import. Other influential