The Apostles’ Creed

The first to place the three creeds, the Apostolic, the
Nicene-Constantinopolitan, and the Athanasian, side by side, as a full
expression of the ecumenical confessions in the Church (with the
addition of the Te Deum Laudamus) was probably Luther. Certain it is
that it was only after his time, that is, after the second half of the
sixteenth century, that Protestants first spoke definitely of the three
ancient symbols. Yet it is also certain on the other hand that in the
West these very three symbols had been in use in the churches, and had
enjoyed great consideration, at least as much as five centuries
earlier. [2] In the strict sense of the word, however, the predicate
"ecumenical" applies only to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, for
in the Eastern Church neither the Apostolic nor the Athanasian
confession of faith has at any time received official recognition. [3]
Indeed, the Eastern Church has at no time traced any creed to an
Apostolic origin, or designated any as Apostolic in the strict sense of
the word. [4] In the West, on the other hand, the three symbols form
part of the confessional writings of the main Church, and the shortest
of them (Symbolum minus) bears the very name "Apostolicum." But we also
find the name "Apostolic" here and there established and in use in the
West as a designation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed; [5] nor
is this only among Greeks who had become latinised. The three chief
churches of the West possess the Symbolum Apostolicum in a form which
agrees in all essential points ("Textus Receptus"). We shall therefore
have to begin by treating of the origin of the creed in this form.