Chapter VIII. On the acclamation of the choir through the Symbol, and what is said by that name?

CHAPTER VIII.

On the acclamation of the choir through the Symbol, and what is said by that name?

1. But the acclamation of the choir follows on the part of all through I believe in God, or I believe in one God, the Father almighty. Because now, instructed by the Evangelist, they hear Peter in the first canonical epistle, 3:15: Always ready unto satisfaction for everyone asking you for a reason concerning the hope that is in you. For hope here is called the thing hoped for, and this is not in us except through faith, because faith opens the eyes to things to be hoped for, hope raises them up, charity fixes them. Hebrews 11:1: Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the argument of things not appearing. And therefore the instructed people now cries out what it believes with the whole heart.

But it is objected to the contrary, because according to this it would not be the perfecter of holiness, namely the priest or bishop, who ought to begin the symbol, but someone from the people, or at least from the choir.

But to this one must say that the perfecter of holiness begins for this reason, so that he may show that faith is a gift of God, and that good things proceed from God into the people in an ordered way through the perfecters of holiness by the steps of the Church, as the Psalmist says, Psalm 132:2: Like ointment upon the head, which descends into the beard, the beard of Aaron, which descends into the hem of his garment; as in 1 Corinthians 14:40: But let all things be done honorably and according to order, namely among you. And therefore Dionysius says in the book On the Celestial Hierarchy that the law of divinity is to lead back through first things the middle things and through middle things the last things.

[Marginal label: Why does the priest begin the Creed?] When the perfecter of holiness begins the symbol, immediately the choir sings together, so that it may show that all receive and have received that faith working through love through him who is the instructor of perfection, as if each one were saying concerning himself, Judges 5:3: I am, I am the one who will sing to the Lord; I will sing a psalm to the Lord God of Israel.

2. [Marginal label: What is Symbol?] But here concerning the symbol three things must be noted, namely what is said by the name, what the division of the symbol is, and why several symbols were made.

To the first, however, we say that symbol in Greek is the same as collation in Latin, and it is said by composition from σών, which is with, and βύλη, which is a part chewed once in the mouth or in the cheek, because each of the Apostles placed in it a bolus, that is, an article perfected for a long time by the chewing of meditation. For when the Apostles were to be divided into the whole earth for preaching, they assembled at Jerusalem, and there they conferred the articles of the faith that they were going to preach, so that they might preach uniformly and there might not be schisms among them. 1 Corinthians 1:10: I beseech you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, and that there not be schisms among you. Galatians 2:2: I went up to Jerusalem and conferred with them, that is, with Peter and James, the Gospel that I preach among the Gentiles, lest perhaps I might run or had run in vain. This therefore is the reason for the name.

But this symbol is also called faith.

3. [Marginal label: The threefold acceptance of faith.] But faith is said in three ways, namely that by which one believes in God, and it is the form that is a light infused by God through which someone has assented to the first truth on account of itself and above all things, which truth nevertheless he does not comprehend by reason. Hebrews 11:1: Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the argument of things not appearing. Substance there is called by the Apostle foundation, because it founds in us the things to be hoped for in grace and glory and pardon, which otherwise were not founded in us by immovable assent, unless God, by his light revealed to us or to the fathers, founded such things in us; because unless he infused his light for this, we would doubt concerning such things or would wholly deny them. 1 Corinthians 3:11: No one can lay another foundation besides that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. The Gloss of Ambrose: "This is the faith of Jesus Christ." And because through faith a human being consents to such things that are above reason with firm and immovable and undoubted assent, therefore faith is called the argument of things not appearing, that is, arguing, that is, convincing the mind concerning things not apparent to reason; because as Richard of Saint Victor says, and Hilary before him: "Faith is above reason, and below the understanding of truth that we will have by open contemplation of God in the homeland." Hence Dionysius says in the book On the Divine Names that faith is a light placing believers, through the assent of the mind, in the truth that is concerning God, and placing truth in believers ¹. This therefore is faith, the habitual virtue by which one believes in God.

4. [Marginal label: What is an article?] Again, faith is that which is believed, namely that God is three and one, and that the only-begotten of God was conceived and born from the Virgin Mary, and that he suffered, and the other things of this sort that the holy Church believes. And thus faith is called an article.

But an article, as Richard of Saint Victor says, is the least credible thing binding us to believe; for just as the human body is composed from joints, so that in any joint two things are joined, each of which is a joint, as appears in a finger, in which through two joints three joints are joined, so in the Catholic faith the members are composed articulately, from which the Catholic faith is composed. And this composition is called symbol. And just as in the body, wherever there is a bending and junction of two things, there is not one joint but several, so also in the symbol, where the thing is one and pertains to one thing, there is one article. And where the thing is bent into diverse things and is composed from several things, there is not one article but several, as when I say the only-begotten Son who was conceived of the Virgin Mary. For there one thing to be believed is that by which Christ is the only-begotten of God by eternal generation, and another by which he was conceived according to the flesh, and therefore these two are articles.

But when article is called the least credible thing, it ought not to be understood as simply least, but least in such a way that it is not further divided in the resolution and division of the symbol. Just so in the body of a human being there is a large organ, which is the thigh or leg; and nevertheless, because in the division of the body it is divided only into two members, therefore it is called a joint of the body. But it is said to bind to believing for this reason, because it is required for salvation that it be believed, and unless it is believed, a human being cannot be saved. Mark 16:16: He who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but he who has not believed will be condemned.

5. [Marginal label: Faith has antecedents, conclusions, and consequents.] Faith said in this way has antecedents, which are principles through which it is proved; it also has things believed, which are, as it were, conclusions elicited from those antecedent principles; and it has consequents, which are, as it were, further conclusions had from those conclusions, which are called corollaries by the Philosophers.

But the antecedents are such as that God exists, and that he is truthful in what is said, and that what has been revealed by him has immovable truth, and that Scripture has been revealed by him; and therefore the authority of Scripture is greater than every perspicacity of human talent; and therefore Scripture is to be believed in all things in which it might even seem to say something beyond human reason. Hebrews 11:6: It is necessary for the one approaching God to believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder to those seeking him. For just as in philosophy, concerning a principle, that it exists is left and supposed, so also concerning these things it is not required, but is supposed that they are thus, that is, that they are most certainly true.

But the conclusions proved through Scriptures and revelations are the articles of faith, which, elicited from Scripture and received through revelation, the Apostles proposed to us to be believed; concerning these we will speak in the exposition of the symbol.

The consequents are such as those that pertain to the determination and explanation of articles. For instance, if the article is that Christ was incarnate, it is consequent that he was incarnate from some mother and by someone working; and thus it is believed that he was incarnate from the Virgin Mary in the time of Caesar Augustus and by the Holy Spirit working. And if I believe eternal life, it is consequent that eternal life is received by those worthy of life, and that one who is dead in sin is not worthy of life, and that certain sins bring in that death. And if it is consequent that fornication and adultery and theft and other things that the Lord condemns with death also impede eternal life, then they are mortal sins. And thus it is easy to see in all things.

This therefore is the faith that is believed, whether because it is believed in antecedent principles and conclusions and in consequents from these. And one who believes those things in this way is called faithful and Catholic. But one who does not believe those things or some one of them is called unfaithful and heretical: unfaithful indeed because he does not have faith; but heretical, in Greek, in Latin is an assertor and defender of his own sect, because he follows his own fantasies of errors and prefers them to divine authority.

This faith is called Catholic and Apostolic, as Boerius says in the book On Two Natures in One Person of Christ. It is called Catholic for two causes: namely because its principles are true not particularly but universally, without any exception; and for another cause, because it is to be held universally and not particularly in the whole world. This was not the old law, because none were bound to it except those who were in the houses of the Patriarchs; and when those who were within were separated from the house of the Patriarch, from then on they were not bound to the observance of the law, as the Gloss of the Apostle says on the epistle to the Romans. But it is called Apostolic because it was issued by the collation of the Apostles through the articles, with each of the Apostles contributing something in it.

6. Third, faith is said to be that by which one goes into God through the devotion of faith and the progress of good merits. And this is the faith that works through love. Galatians 5:6: Faith that works through charity, when namely from faith I assent to the truth of things to be believed, and through devotion in it with heart, mouth, and work I tend so that I may come to those things that I believe.

From these things that have now been said, it is clear that one who believes and works badly has faith said in the first way; and one who believes and works according to this has faith said in the third way. And hence it is that certain persons are in the number of the faithful in the Church by number alone, but others by number and merit. Titus 1:16: They confess that they know God, but by deeds they deny him.

From the things said it is also clear that faith which is believed is very broad, since it comprehends in itself the antecedents of faith, and the conclusions, and the consequents. It is also clear that an article, which is a certain credible thing like a conclusion, is one thing, and the determination of an article, which is from consequents, is another thing.