As approved in amplified
form at the Council of Constantinople (381), it is the profession of
the Christian Faith common to the Catholic Church, to all the Eastern
Churches separated from Rome, and to most of the Protestant
denominations.
Soon after the Council of
Nicaea new formulas of faith were composed, most of them variations of
the Nicene Symbol, to meet new phases of Arianism. There were at least
four before the Council of Sardica in 341, and in that council a new
form was presented and inserted in the Acts, though not accepted by the
council. The Nicene Symbol, however, continued to be the only one in
use among the defenders of the Faith. Gradually it came to be
recognized as the proper profession of faith for candidates for
baptism. Its alteration into the Nicene-Constantinopolitan formula, the
one now in use, in usually ascribed to the Council of Constantinople,
since the Council of Chalcedon (451), which designated this symbol as
"The Creed of the Council of Constantinople of 381" had it twice read
and inserted in its Acts. The historians Socrates, Sozomen, and
Theodoret do not mention this, although they do record that the bishops
who remained at the council after the departure of the Macedonians
confirmed the Nicene faith. Hefele (II, 9) admits the possibility of
our present creed being a condensation of the "Tome" (Greek tomos),
i.e. the exposition of the doctrines concerning the Trinity made by the
Council of Constantinople; but he prefers the opinion of Rémi
Ceillier and Tillemont tracing the new formula to the "Ancoratus" of
Epiphanius written in 374. Hort, Caspari, Harnack, and others are of
the opinion that the Constantinopolitan form did not originate at the
Council of Constantinople, because it is not in the Acts of the council
of 381, but was inserted there at a later date; because Gregory
Nazianzen who was at the council mentions only the Nicene formula
adverting to its incompleteness about the Holy Ghost, showing that he
did not know of the Constantinopolitan form which supplies this
deficiency; and because the Latin Fathers apparently know nothing of it
before the middle of the fifth century.
The following is a literal
translation of the Greek text of the Constantinopolitan form, the
brackets indicating the words altered or added in the Western
liturgical form in present use:
I believe in one God, the
Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible
and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of
God, and born of the Father before all ages. God of true God of made,
consubstantial to the Father, by whom all things were made. Who for us
men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And was incarnate of
the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary and was made man; was crucified
also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried; and the
third day rose again according to the Scriptures. And ascended into
heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come again with
glory to judge the living and the dead, of whose Kingdom there shall be
no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds
from the Father and the Son, who together with the Father and the Son
is to be adored and glorified, who spoke by the Prophets. And one holy,
catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission
of resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen."
In this form the Nicene
article concerning the Holy Ghost is enlarged; several words, notably
the two clauses "of the substance of the Father" and "God of anathemas;
ten clauses are added; and in five places the words are differently
located. In general the two forms contain what is common to all
thebaptismal formulas in the early Church. Vossius (1577-1649) was the
first to detect the similarity between the creed set forth in the
"Ancoratus" and the baptismal formula of the Church at symbol is a
revision of the Jerusalem formula, in which the most important Nicene
statements concerning the Holy Ghost have been inserted. The author of
the revision may have been St. Cyril of Jerusalem (315-386). Various
hypotheses are offered to account for the tradition that the
Niceno-Constantinopolitan symbol originated with the Council of
Constantinople, but none of them is satisfactory. Whatever be its
origin, the fact is that the Council of Chalcedon (451) attributed it
to the Council of Constantinople, and if it was not actually composed
in that council, it was adopted and authorized by the Fathers assembled
as a true expression of the Faith. The history of the creed is
completed in the article Filioque.
Written by J. Wilhelm. Transcribed by Fr. Rick Losch.
The Catholic Encyclopedia,
Volume XI. Published 1911. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil
Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur.
+John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
