Expositio super symbolum Apostolorum

The integrity of all knowledge consists in two things: in the knowledge of those things that assist a purpose and in the knowledge of those things that hinder a purpose. This is clear enough in the academic disciplines. For dialectic consists in the knowledge of the sophistical topics that hinder the office of the dialectician, and in the knowledge of the topics and maximal propositions that assist that office.

Likewise the integrity of twofold theology consists in these same two things. For theology is twofold: a higher or heavenly theology, which promises knowledge of divine things, and a lower or subcelestial theology, which teaches the formation of morals. The higher theology has its aids, that is, the articles of faith, and its hindrances, that is, heresies. The one is contemplated for choosing, the other for fleeing. For we would not flee evil unless we had known it. Likewise the lower theology contemplates certain things for fleeing, such as the vices, and certain things for choosing, such as the virtues.

Considering the aforesaid, therefore, the foremost leaders of the Christian religion, namely the apostles, produced a certain compendium of the Christian faith, which is called the Creed, by which the weakness of Christians is strengthened and the perversity of heretics is weakened.

In this Creed twelve portions of the Christian faith are contained, which are therefore called articles because, just as joints (articuli) compose a body, so these portions, like joints, constitute the catholic faith. They were composed by the apostles in such a way that each contributed a single one: one composed one article, another composed another.

Hence too, on their feast days, the Creed composed at the Council of Nicaea, which is equivalent to the apostolic Creed and is derived from it as from a source, is customarily sung, to signify that the apostles first devised the Creed from which the Nicene and the others emanated. But if it is asked why that first one is not sung in church, but rather the Nicene, we may answer that in the Nicene many things were added for the sake of supplementing and expounding, on account of the heresy that was then arising, or its multitude.

Since, then, the apostolic Creed is included in the Nicene, and in it more things have been made explicit and expounded, it is therefore held as the solemn one in the church. But on the feast days of martyrs and other saints it is not sung. The feasts of the blessed Mary are excepted, and in certain churches on the feasts of the blessed Mary it is customarily sung, because she is believed to have been present at its composition.

Treating of this Creed, let us see first in how many ways it is spoken of; second, in what sense it is taken here; third, whence it is named; fourth, what the articles are and what their meaning is, and which was composed by which apostle; fifth, also how the portions of the Nicene Creed may be reduced to the articles of this one, so that there are neither more nor fewer. Let us take up each point we have mentioned.

"Symbol" is sometimes said to mean the sign of a sacred thing. Hence in the Hierarchy, "symbolic" utterances are said to be utterances signifying sacred things. "Symbol" is also said of a collection of portions that certain people bring to feast together, which is called by the common people a confraternity. Hence Solomon: "Let those who make symbols be brought to confusion, confraternity." Hence, by transference, the collection of the articles of faith is called a Creed (symbolum), in which, as in a symbol, the diverse portions of the Christian faith that the apostles composed are contained. The first article, then, is:

I believe in God... up to and in Jesus Christ.

It takes its beginning from that article which turns upon the Father because the Father is the creator of all things, the author of the Son by generation, and of the Holy Spirit by spiration. Peter therefore says: