Apostles Creed, the oldest, most comprehensive, and most universally accepted creed of Christendom, interesting from its antiquity, and still more from its general adoption by the Greek, Roman, and Protestant churches. It reads as follows: "I believe in God the Father Almighty (Maker of heaven and earth): and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, (dead,) and buried; (he descended into hell,) the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sit-teth on the right hand of (God) the Father (Almighty); from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy (catholic) church, (the communion of saints;) the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; (and the life everlasting.) Amen." The passages enclosed in parentheses are additions to the original form, which was complete by the middle of the 2d century. The nucleus of the creed is supposed to have been the formula of baptism, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," to which the other articles were appended, the whole forming a brief summary of historical statements from the New Testament in regard to the Father, Son, and Spirit. The creed is rather an epitome of recorded facts than a system of speculative opinions, and was never designed nor used to express the philosophical thoughts of the church.

The impression that this venerable symbol was regarded as a secret formula, part of the disciplina arcani, is erroneous. The tradition that it was made by the apostles themselves, who at a meeting in Jerusalem contributed each an article toward an authentic, compendious, and unchangeable rule of faith, rests upon no historical evidence.