ATHANASIAN (iith'A-na'zhan ) CREED, TIIE. Often called the Quicunque, from its first Latin word. The longest of the three so-called ecumenical creeds, and the latest in time of composition. (See CREEDS AND CONFESSIONS and NICENE CREED.) It was long supposed that the Athanasian Creed was the work of the saint whose name it bears. Mediarval legend said that Athanasius wrote it while in exile in Rome, during the episcopate of Julius I. 1337-352), but since the Seventeenth Century this theory has been shown to be untenable. Among the arguments against it are these: The creed 'Was written in Latin, whereas .Athanasius spoke and wrote Greek ; it is nowhere mentioned by Athanasius, or by any of the other Greek fathers of the century after his death; it omits certain forms of statement which Athanasius was specially interested in maintaining, and includes others which were not formulated until a later time; and it appears first in the West, and never received the sanction of the Eastern Church at all. On the other hand. a study of the contents of this so-called creed, and a careful comparison of other document, make it appear probable that what we have is in fact not a creed at all, but rather an explication, or setting forth, first, of the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, and. sec ondly, of the person and work of Christ. The creed thus falls into two main divisions, the for mer clearly depending upon'the teaching of Saint Augustine, the latter upon the Christology of Chalcedon (q.v.). It may have been, wholly or in part, a sermon on the creed, such discourses being very common at that age of the Church. And indeed Hincinar of Rheims (Ninth Cen tury), expressly calls this creed sermonem Atha nasii de fide. Or it may have been regarded as a sort of hymn or chant, to be used in public wor ship, like that other great Christian piece, the Te Deum. We know that in the Middle Ages the Ouicunque was actually recited at Prime by the monks in the monasteries of Southern Gaul. This liturgical use of our symbol can be traced as far back as the Carolingian period, and the formula itself is doubtless still older. It is apparently referred to in the acts of the Synod of Autun (c.670 A.D.), and most modern scholars
are inclined to place its composition, or compila tion, in the Sixth Century.
Striking parallels, amounting sometimes to verbal identity, are found to the Athanasian Creed in a sermon falsely attributed to Angus tine, but really perhaps by Ctesarins of .Arles (ps. Augustine. 6'cri(to 244), in the Commonitory of Vincent, of Lerius (A.D. 434) , and in Aug,us tine's treatises on The Trinity and Christian, Doctrine. which are still older. At least one of the characteristic phrases of this creed was cur rent in the \Vest early in the Third Century (Tertullian: adv. Pras. "The Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, and each is God"). It would appear, therefore, that we hale to do, not with the work of any single writer, hut with a document which was produced gradually. perhaps put together from various sources, hut worked into a unity under Augustinian intluenee, and reaching its present form by the Sixth Century, probably in Southern Gaul.
At the beginning of the Athanasian Creed, and also at the end of each of its two divisions, occur damnatory clauses, pronouncing eternal doom upon all who do not accept the Catholic faith as here set forth. So as doctrine is concerned, the creed agrees with the theology of Western Christendom, including Protestantism. But ob jection has often been made, by some critics, to the ,vay in which the faith is here expressed, especially to its rigid form, its highly artificial refinements, its mathematical precision, the mi nute detail arising from its great length, and the damnatory clauses. Most Protestant churches do not make use of this creed, although it is re tained in the English Book of Common Prayer, and is appointed to he read in that Church on thirteen special days of the year. The American Episcopal Church has dropped it entirely.
For the text of the Athanasian Creed, consult the English Prayer Book, and Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vols. I. and II. (New York, 1884). Consult also: A. E. Burn, The Athanasian Creed and Its Early Commentators (Cambridge, 1896); G. D. W. Onimanney, Criti cal Dissertation on the Athanasian Creed (Ox ford, 1897).