The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-29
HOW THE CREEDS WERE MADE
THE TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF
THE APOSTLES CREED.

From the New York Sun.
The General Assembly of the Presby-
serian Church in this country has
adopted a revision of the old West
minister Confession of Faith and has
referred the creed thus accepted to the
various Presbyteries for their consid-
Grafton. The creed in its new form was
presented to the convention by a COM
mittee which had been discussing the
changes for a year or more and was
adopted with a light heart; only two
negative votes were cast against it,
and those were recorded amid jeers
and laughter.
According to a student of the history
of creeds the other synods of Christen-
dom were not made so rapidly as was
this revision. Creeds are compromises,
some one has said; and in reaching
the middle path of compromise it is
not uncommon to pass through stony
ground and to arrive in no mood for
cheers and laughter.
The great creed of the Western
Church in all its denominations and
sects is the Apostles Greed. Catholic
tradition says that this was composed
by the Apostles on the day of Pente-
cost to secure unity of teaching. Ac-
cording to the story, each apostle con-
tributed one article, the entire creed
being made up thus:
Peter began by saying: II believe in
God the Father Almighty" and John
continued: Maker of Heaven and
Earth" James followed: And in Jesus
Christ, His Only Son, our Lord" then
Andrew; who was conceived by the
Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary"
Phillip: Suffered under Pontius PLATE.
was crucified, dead and buried"
Thomas continued with: "And the
third day He rose again from the
dead Then came Bartholomew,
whose contribution was: He assembled
into Heaven and sitteth at the right
hand of God the Father" and Mat
thew: From thence he shall come to
judge the quick and the dead" James
the Less began the final section: IT
believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy
Catholic Church," Simon Zelotes fol-
lowed: THE communion of saints, the
forgiveness of SINS" Jude: 1.-THE resur-
rection of the body" and Matthias, the
recently chosen apostle, ended with:
And the life everlasting"
The second great creed of the Church
IS the Nicene, more popular in the
eastern than in the Western Church.
In its original form it was adopted at
the great council held at Nicaea. in
Blthynia, in A. D. 1926, at the orders
or Constantine to devise a way to set
tie the Arian controversy. This con-
troVersy was over the question of the
trinity, the followers of Arius holding
fhat the Son was not absolutely coeter-
nal with the Father; that there had
been time, however brief when the
Son had not existed. Wherever the
adherents of this heresy or of the or
thodox view were in the majority they
prosecuted their opponents Athanasi-
us, archbishop of Alexandria, was ex-
PEELED from his throne by the Arians
five separate times. Arius himself.
when the pendulum swung, the other
way. was banished to Illyricum, where
he died.
To the fact that Constantine opposed
the Arian heresy is due. probably, that
the Council of Nicaea decided against
Arius and his tenets. The council was
not peaceful meeting. 1t sat under
the Emperors guards, and Constantine
himself frequently attended it. always
as a peaceful disciple in appearance.
but naturally not without influencing
even his teachers. The discussions
WIZ NApAChAs Oilc NIeeu PROPOSED WAS
seized and actually, not figuratively.
torn to pieces by the orthodox major
ity; and the council did not decide even
In favor of the Trinity until the EN-
peror compelled it to do so by threaten
ing to Danish dissenters.
The Nicene creed was finally adopt
ed; not as it stands to-day, however,
for it ended abruptly with the words
evidencing belief lin the Holy Ghost"
The council of Constantinople added the
words now part of the creed, but re-
tanned the single procession" of the
Holy Ghost; that is, recognized that
person of the Trinity as coming from
the Father only. In this form the Nj
Gene is the creed of the Orthodox Greek
Church.
AT the Council of Toledo, held in $50.
the double procession" of the Holy
Ghost was recognized Economically for
the first time. This is the dogma that
the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Faith
er and the Son. The insertion of the
single Latin word filioque C'and from
the SOM, which recognized this dou-
BILE procession, caused the division be-
tween the Eastern and the Western
which endures to this day.
The other great creed, called the
Athanasian, is not now ascribed to St
Athanasius, but it probably sets forth
the belief of that chief opponent of
Arianism, and is accepted by the West
ern churches as a valuable symbol of
their belief.
The great council of the Church
which sat at Trent, in the Austrian
Tyrol, from Dec. Is, 1545, to Dec 4,
1868, with Interruptions sometimes last
ing for years. enacted the Tridentine
DEGREES, which set forth the positive
doctrines of the Catholic Church, and
paved the way for the Tridentine
Creed, otherwise known as the Greed
of Plus " More recent unfoldings of
Catholic dogma have been the defini-
ton of the Immaculate Conception by
Pope Plus TX. on Dec. s, 1854. and the
decree of the Vatican Council of 1869
10 which proclaimed the dogma of
the infallibility of the Pope in matters
of religion. Seven hundred and nine
teen prelates of the Catholic Church
met in the basilica OF the Vatican on
Dec. 8, 1869, to cosider whether the
infalhbility of the Pope in all matters
of religion should be proclaimed as
dogma of the church. OF these Bish-
ops by far the greater part We're in
favor of the immediate proclamation
of the proposed decree; the dissenti-
ents opposed ii as inopportune, while
a few did not consider that il should
be proclaimed at all. Even in spite
of its practical unanlmity the council
was not always wholly peaceful
On March %, 1870. Bishop Stress
mayer objected to tho proposed rule
by which matters were to be decided
by majority. when he was interrupt
ed by shouts, Come down from the
tribune! You are hereticl Let us con-
denim HIM" Several Bishops threat
ened Strossmayer, shaking their fists
IN his face; and when Bishop Place OF
Marseilles exclaimed. II do not con-