Expositio super symbolum Apostolorum

I believe in God the Father almighty.

Here it should be noted that there is one faith of knowledge, by which we believe that God exists, which even demons have, and they tremble.¹ And this is "to believe God exists." There is another faith of consent, by which we believe God and his words. Only the faithful have this, namely to believe God. There is another faith of confidence, namely to believe in God, which only the just have. For to believe in God is to tend toward him by faith and charity.

Hence it is asked whether the sinner who is in the church in number but not in merit, in name but not in devotion, in place but not in soul, in body but not in mind, lies when he says "I believe in God." To this we answer as follows: in utterances of this kind, namely in the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, the faithful one speaks not in his own person but in the person of the general church, and so he does not lie. Hence too in the Mass the priest does not say "I pray" in the singular but "let us pray" in the plural.

Or we can say that if a sinner speaks this in his own person, he is either sinning under God or against God. He sins under God who, although he is held under the sin of a wicked habit, nevertheless grieves that he is under sin and applies himself to fasting and almsgiving, saying with the prophet, "I have longed to desire your justifications,"² and with the apostle, "To will is present with me, but to accomplish what is good I do not find."³ Such a one in a certain way believes in God because by a certain natural piety he tends toward God, and he can say: I long to believe in God. But he who is obstinate and thus sins against God, if he says this in his own person, lies and sins. Of such a one it is said: he who prays without devotion asks judgment upon himself.

By what follows, "in God" in the singular, and not "in gods," the error of the pagans and the heresy of the semi-Arians is refuted. For the pagans, given over only to the mirrors of the senses and not relying on the guidance of reason, considering only visible things, did not, through the things that were made, comprehend the invisible; rather they called only the inner causes, namely the powers of things, "god." Thus they called the power of creating wine Bacchus, the power of producing crops Ceres, and so on.

The theologians, however, led by a deeper investigation of reason and aided by divine inspiration, comprehended the invisible through the things that were made, considering that there is one true cause, the most causal of all causes, and one form, the most formal of all forms, from which every cause and every form proceeds.

By this word, then, when it is said "I believe in God," the pagans and the heresy of the semi-Arians are confounded. For the latter said that there are three properties in three persons, and they said the three persons were one God by reason of conformity, not of unity.

The Father almighty.

In this a threefold fatherhood is suggested: the fatherhood of creation, of re-creation, and of generation. Of creation, I say, because God is said to be the father of all things. By this the error of Epicurus is refuted, who said that no one was the father of all things, but that the world had its beginning from the void and from atoms.

The fatherhood of re-creation is also suggested, by which God is said to be the father of the just through re-creation. By this the Pelagian heresy is confounded, which says that man is justified by free will and not by the grace of God.

The fatherhood of generation is also suggested, because he is the father of his only-begotten Son. By this the heresy of Arius is refuted, who taught that Christ was the adopted son of God. It follows:

Almighty.

Although the three persons are one omnipotence, one almighty, nevertheless this name, "power," is not appropriated as the very thing named to the Father for many reasons. Either because whatever exists has its being from the Father, through creation, as does any creature, or through spiration, as does the Holy Spirit, or through generation, as does the Son; or so that the Father might not be believed to be less powerful than the Son when it is heard that he is the Son's father, since in carnal generation a father worn down by old age is usually less powerful than his son.

God is said to be almighty because he can do all things whose doing is a power. We say this to distinguish from sins, whose doing is a weakness. God is also called almighty because he can do all things that it is fitting for him to be able to do. I say this against the heretics who taught that Christ was not almighty because, although he willed all to be saved, he did not save all, though envy is far removed from him. Nor did he do all the good things it would be good to do. For if he could do them, he would do them. It follows:

Creator of heaven and earth,

that is, of spiritual and corporeal things. By this especially the error of the Manichean is refuted, who taught that only spiritual things were from God and asserted that corporeal things were made by the prince of darkness. Or by "heaven" are understood those luminaries that are above the moon, and by "earth" those that are below.

By this the error of those is confounded who said that God has no care for these lower things, since they are moved by various motions and act by chance, and are not created by God. But those things that are above the moon, because they are unchangeable and hold the highest peace in the highest place, they said are ruled by God and were made by him.

And note that it says "creator," not "maker." For to create is one thing, to procreate another, and to make another. For there is a threefold craftsman: the divine craftsman, the natural craftsman, and the human craftsman. God, who is the highest craftsman, works from nothing, not by means of a lower cause but by his own authority alone. Hence in his operation neither does matter precede form nor form matter; rather, in one and the same moment matter is supplied to form and form is impressed upon matter.

Hence the creation of the soul is properly called his work because the soul is not made from anything but is created from nothing. Hence the working of God is properly called creation, as it were a concretion; created works, as it were things concreted; the worker, a creator, as it were one working concretely.

Nature is placed in the second rank because it imitates the one who works, but from preexisting matter. For nature is a power placed in lower causes, producing like things from like. The work of nature, then, is said to be that which comes about through the ministry of lower causes, such as heat, moisture, and the like. The working of nature, then, is called procreation, as it were a creation carried forward from preexisting matter; its work is a procreated thing, and it itself a procreator. Man, however, imitating from afar the footsteps of these craftsmen, works upon preexisting matter, whose working, so to speak, can be called making; his work, a made thing; the worker, a maker.

By this, then, that God is called creator, the error of two men is refuted, namely of Plato and of Aristotle. For Plato said that there are three coeternal principles of things: the supreme principle of things, which he called *** that is, the universal God, or *** that is, the first father. He also spoke of a primordial matter in which he worked, which he called hyle, and the notions of eternal things according to which he worked, which he called ideas.

Aristotle said there are two eternal principles of things: form and matter; and a third, the working cause, calling this matter itself the world with its form, which he believed to have been made from eternity. He called "form" the wisdom of the highest craftsman. He called the "working cause" the highest craftsman, whom he believed to have worked in the world from eternity. The error of these men, then, is refuted when it is said "creator of heaven and earth."

And it should be known that this article was composed by the foremost of the apostles, namely Peter, and it is the first. To this article is reduced the first article of the Nicene Creed, in which it is said "I believe in one God." That article was composed for supplementing and adding, and for expounding and for weakening heresies. For where it says "I believe in one God," a supplement was made; where the exposition of visible things is added, an addition was made; and thus a weakening of the heretics.

Here it is asked whether these belong to one article or to several. For it seems to belong to a different article to believe that God is one and to believe that he is the almighty Father, or the creator of heaven and earth. To this we answer that all those things that are in the catholic faith so cohere with one another that one is understood in the other. Since, therefore, it is the same thing to believe in the almighty Father and in the creator of heaven and earth, we say that these belong to one article.