Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/597

Rh C K E E D S 563 centres of ecclesiastical activity which marked the age of Charlemagne, the Quicunque, if known anywhere, may be supposed to have been known and recognized. All the prominent characters of Western Christendom the Emperor Charles himself, and his two chief counsellors Alcuin and Paulinus of Aquileia took part more or less in these councils. Paulinus was &quot; the episcopal soul of the Council of Frankfort, and president as well as soul of that of Friuli. No movement could have taken place in Italy, France, or Germany in matters ecclesiastic, nor any document have been set forth of such importance as the Quicunque, that could have escaped the knowledge of Paulinus and Alcuin.&quot; In these circumstances the absence of all allusion to the Quicunque in the records of these councils is fatal to the idea of its authoritative acceptance as a creed at that time. Not only so, but a form of faith which is found in the records of the Council of Frankfort, and w r hich is supposed to have been composed either by Paulinus himself or under his guidance, shows by its language that he could not have been familiar with any such document as the Quicunque, for the obvious reason that it would have served his purpose better than the form which he uses. In this document &quot; he deals both with the doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation, and puts his expressions on one occasion into the exact language used in the Athanasian Creed, which language was, no doubt, current in a separate form long before ; but he never attains to anything like the precision which is exhibited in the creed, and which, had it been known to him, must have commended that work to his use. And there is not to be found the slightest notice of Athanasius in the whole proceedings of the council.&quot; From a further document of the same council, a synodical letter which the bishops of Gaul and Germany addressed to those of Spain, it is also evident that they were equally with Paulinus ignorant of any such authoritative exposition of the Catholic faith as the Quicunque. And to complete the evidence on the subject there is a letter of Charlemagne himself to the bishops of Spain, which indicates with equal clearness that, while his mind was full of many expressions similar to those in the creed, he yet had no knowledge of such an authoritative document to which he could appeal in advising them as to the details of the Trinitarian doctrine. In summing up the subject we cannot do better than quote the words of Mr Lumby, whom we have already so f?.r quoted : &quot;The evidence which presents itself two years later seems to make it more clear that the Quicunque was unknown to the great minds of the West. The council of Friuli met 796 A.D., and, as we have before said, its assembly was for the discussion of the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. The president and summoner of the council was Paulinus, and it is with his speech that we are concerned. After some preamble, in which he observes that his first idea is to set forth the very text of the creed as a law and rule for the direction of their proceedings, he goes on to consider what the next step is to be. And he would first clear away some objec tions. _ For I believe, says ho, that in the records of some synods it is laid down. . . that no one may lawfully teach or frame another symbol of our faith. Far be it from us, as far be it from every faithful heart, to frame or teach another symbol or faith, or in another manner than they (the holy fathers of Xicaea) appointed. But according to their tncaniny we have decreed to deliver in cxj)osi- tion these matters which haply on account of the brief statement of the truth are less understood by the simple and unlearned than they ought to be. Here then ia the definite confession of a want which the Quicunque would have supplied. The symbol by itself is too com pendious it needs exposition the unlearned and simple do not sufficiently understand it ; and for their sakes a longer and more explanatory treatise is to be prepared, adhering to the meaning of the fathers,- who put forth the full creed. In half a century or little, more after these words were uttered, it can be shown that, our form of the Athanasian Creed was known and used and looked upon as a most satisfactory exposition of the doctrines in debate at Friuli. Can it be believed, that if it had been known to Paulinus and the fathers there assembled, they would not have welcomed it as a most excellent comment on the Trinity and the Incarnation, and as the most opportune solution of all their difficulties ? &quot; The address or exposition with which Paulinus followed up his announcement is then given. It is too long to insert here, but it lays down the lines on which the Quicunque may be said to have been fashioned. &quot; Many attributes and qualities are predicated of the Father, then a repetition of the same, and their predication of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, not indeed in the detached way in which each separate predication is dealt with in the Quicunque, but yet evidently a step in the direction of that greater elaboration and distinctness.&quot; The results, therefore, of the most recent investiga tions into the subject may be stated as follows. In the very end of the 8th century the Quicunque is unknown as a creed-document. It is nowhere men tioned at synods whose special business was to discuss the subject matter which it afterwards sets forth with such elaborate and authoritative detail. But during this century there are found in separate forms two documents which, when combined, constitute the framework of our present creed. The discussions of the time had a tendency to bring forward all contributions towards the explanation or fuller settlement of the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. Addresses like those of Paulinus, and the correspondence betwixt him and Alcuin and Charlemagne himself, all point to the necessity of some authoritative exposition of the old and simpler creed. The demand seems to have created the supply; and accordingly, before the end of the following century, in its third quarter there is evidence of the existence of the Athanasian symbol in the very words as nearly as possible which are now used. This evidence is found in a prayer- book of Charles the Bald, written about 870. &quot; The Quicunque then had not only been compiled, but had by this time made itself reputation enough to be included in the service-book. If twenty years be allowed for the gaining of acceptance, the date is carried back to the middle of the century, or 850 A.D.&quot; But there are two earlier MSS., showing more variations from the present form than is presented by the copy in the prayer-book of Charles the Bald. These point to an earlier stage of growth in the document, and the limits of the period during which the two parts of the Quicunque, previously, as we have seen, in separate existence, were probably combined and moulded into a creed claiming general acceptance, may be therefore carried back to the first quarter of the century, 800-825. The creed, in short, appears to have been the response of the Christian consciousness of the age immediately follow ing that of Charlemagne to the necessity for such au authoritative exposition of the faith to which this age everywhere testifies. So far, of course, there is no question of imposture in its origin. Imposture is not the name to give to such a natural and inevitable result of the working of the mind of the Western Church towards a more elaborate and detailed confession of its Trinitarian faith. The imposture consists not in the rise of the creed, nor yet in the acceptance of its ambitious forrnulse, but in the ascription of it, probably not without the concurrence of the heads of the church, to a name with which it must have been known to have nothing to do. This was done, no doubt, with the view of securing to it credit and authority, and was supposed to be justified by its special doctrinal import, but it was none the less an assumption, the fictitious character of which could hardly have been unknown to those who first used the creed and gave it currency in the church. With the adoption of the &quot; Athanasian&quot; symbol the creed-