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that the creed originally had its proper place in the

solemn administration of baptism. There were dif

ferent local developments of the cua

z. The toms of the traditiio symboli to the

Rule of catechumens shortly before baptism;

Faith. a redditio of the same, after catechet

ical 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 Chris

tians, and partly as a sacred emblem signifying by

its troditio the setting apart, once for all, of the be

liever 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 cen

tury 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 (per

haps in connection with Polycarp'a 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 cen

tury, 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 legis

lation of Justinian, the formula attributed to the

joint action of the first two ecumenical councils, the

so-called Niceno-Conatantinopolitan creed (C; see

CONSTANTINOPOLITAN 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 Or

thodox Church. (The term ecumenical, strictly

speaking, applies to C only, since neither the Apos

tolic nor the Athanasian creed ever obtained official

recognition in the East.) Even if C thus presents

the highest criterion for distinguishing between or

thodox 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 epis copo, 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 PROFE$sION 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 explicitness. But while in the East the content of the Scriptures was more and more ieduced 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