Athanasius and His Creed

From Did Calvin Murder Servetus? By Stanford Rives

"To give it an aura of ancient origin. it was named after Athanasius who lived in the 4th Century. However, it is a creed never mentioned by 'Athanasius nor his contemporaries.' ('Athanasian Creed,'. Wikipedia.) It first appears in Charlemagne's court in 802 A.D. There is no known creed by this name predating 802 A.D. And the evidence such a trinitarian creed was in use in Spain or
France previously in the 5th-6th century is sketchy and conjectural...Regardless, the creed was not even used by the Popes at Rome until the 11th Century. See, 'Trinity Sunday-First Sunday After Pentecost.' at http://www.historictrinity.org/Trinsuncreeds.html (Historic Trinity Lutheran Church)(2/20/2008). The New Encyclopedia Britannica gives some credence to the germs of the creed existing under another name prior to the 800's. It comments: 'The creed was unknown to the Eastern [Orthodox] Church until the l2th centu1y. Since the 17th century, scholars have generally agreed that the Athanasian Creed was not written by Athanasius (died 373) but was probably composed in southern France during the 5th century .... The creed's influence seem to have been primarily in southern France and Spain in the 6th and 7th centuries. It was used in the liturgy of the church in Germany in the 9th century and somewhat later in Rome.' As Gibbon noted in anticipation 'St.  Athanasius is not the author of the creed which we so frequently read in our churches') and it does not appear to have existed within a century of his death. (Gibbon, Rise and Fall. etc. (1843)

As Schaff states in the American Presbyterian Review Vol 4 (Jan-Oct 1866) at 592. the name Athanasius is a 'designation which cannot be traced beyond the eighth century" and "Athanasius was [not] really the author.'

This means the doctrine of the trinity did not exist in any creed used by the Roman church until the 11th century."

Gibbon also adds in his Memoirs of My Life (p.71):

"The three following truths, however surprising they may seem, are now universally acknowledged: 1. St. Athanasius is not the author of the creed which is so frequently read in our churches. 2. It does not appear to have existed within a century after his death. 3. It was originally composed in the Latin tongue, and consequently in the Western Provinces. Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was so much amazed by this extraordinary composition that he frankly pronounced it to be the work of a drunken man."

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