Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1867-10-17
LITERARYi

and history OF the formula 30 universally kn0Wl
and accepted, throughout christendom, as the A
postle' creed; the common impression being tina
at least the substance dates from period border
ing on the Apostolic, if not the actual composition
of the Apostles themselves. Indeed, there is
tradition found in some of Saint Augustine ser
mons-which assigns each separate clause of tn
creed to one or other of the Apostles by name
This vague view is unworthy Of the importance Q
that ancient landmark, which, next to the scrip
lures, embodies in fixed and authentic shape
that rule and profession of the christian faith whic
is accepted so universally BY Christians as the hea
of their doctrine and belief t7. ~ .eaj3 isd
The creed as we have it, was, at no time entiret
new, nor was it the compositionof any one autho
or body of authors, nor men of any one period
It is the final development of a series of changes
the expansion of number of antecedent and in
complete formulas. s...'I IN.
The common root of the whole was the profes
sion of faith demanded of the neophyte in bar
tism-the earliest and simplest type of which
supplied by the case of the Ethiopian Eunuch
With the growth Of the church, the variety q
usages and the diversity of the points of faith, pre-
fessions of greater precision would inevitably com
into use. 80: 9.-H ...a.. -.aesas .os-sI
The baptismal profession had in it always some
what of secret formula, analogous to the paga
rites Of initiation. 1t was forbidden to put it il
writing. Out of the general accord in the baptis
NAL formula, about the beginning of the third cen
tury, sprang the Apostles Greed. In the mos
rudimentary form we find it in Tertulian. II be
leve in the Father, the Son.. the Holy Ghost ant
in the Sacred Church." In St Cyprian, we fnt
that the form established in proconsuar Africa, ii
his time, had been enriched by the articles Of "tht
remission of SINS and 'the life everlasting through
the holy church" Up to this time, what mors
strikes us as common to all forms, of the creed, il
the absence of the article of the descent int
hell" of which the earliest trace is in the creed o.
Aouileia, about the end of the 4th century. Un
til the fifth or sixth century there were manifold
discrepancies not only in form or in isolated terms
of expression, but in grave and fundamental prin
ciples between the creeds of the different churches
at Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome, &C., evidence o.
the floating and plastic state Of the christian faith
The history of these successive phases is in truth
tantamount to a summary of the state and pro
gess of dogmatic belief in the church, in the be
ginning of the sixth century St. Augustine gave
it the shape which it bears at the present day,
though it received some final touches from those
who succeeded him in the African church.
The Apostles creed, as we have it, may be re.
garded as exclusively the formula of the Iain
churches. In the East, it never took much hold.
The forms in use at Jerusalem, Alexandra and
Antioch in the 3rd and 4thcenturies, were replaced
by the creed of Nicaea and Constantinople. Some
doubt exists as to the time when the Apostles
creed became part of the English ritual It was
certainly in common use at the time that Bishop
Osmund compiled the ''use Of Sarium" about
1885. ............J.... .-
The most interesting work on this subject is one
recently published by Michel Nicholas.