Forms: 1 creda, 2–6 crede, 5–6 Sc. creid(e, 6–7 creede, 7– creed. [OE. créda, ad. L. crēdo I believe: see CREDO.
(Cf. Pogatscher Lehnworte im Altengl. § 137.)]
1. A form of words setting forth authoritatively and concisely the general belief of the Christian Church, or those articles of belief which are regarded as essential; a brief summary of Christian doctrine: usually and properly applied to the three statements of belief known as the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. (The Creed, without qualification, usually = the Apostles’ Creed.)
a. 1000. in Thorpe, O. E. Hom., II. 596. Se læssa creda. Ibid., 274. Ælc cristen man sceal æfter rihte cunnan his credan.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 25. Þe salm þe me clepeð crede.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 20. Þus doð … iðe Crede et tis word ‘natus ex Maria uirgine.’
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 8. Y can nohȝt my Crede.
c. 1440. Capgrave, Life St. Kath., Prol. 167. Þis athanasius … ȝef it wer he Þat made þe psalme qwech we clepe þe crede.
1483. Caxton, Cato, C ij. The thre credes the whyche our moder holy chirche singeth.
1533. Gau, Richt Vay, To Rdr. (1888), 5. Thay suld leir the chrissine faith as it is contenit in the creid.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 495. The Scripture asserting no such thing … nor any of the Three Creeds.
1782. Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., II. III. 119. It had been the custom to repeat the creed only the day preceding Good Friday.
1891. Gardiner, Hist. Gt. Civ. War, III. 256. Atheism or blasphemy contrary to the doctrine of the three Creeds.
b. A repetition of the creed, as an act of devotion.
1425. Ord. Whittington’s Alms-house, in Entick, London (1766), IV. 354. xv Pater Nosters, and thre credes.
1808. Scott, Marm., I. xxvi. Before his beads Have marked ten aves and two creeds.
c. More generally: A formula of religious belief; a confession of faith, esp. one held as authoritative and binding upon the members of a communion.
1676. Marvell, Gen. Councils, Wks. 1875, IV. 124. That we should believe ever the more for a Creed, it cannot be expected.
1833. Declar. of Faith, &c. in Congregational Year-Bk., Disallowing the utility of creeds and articles of religion as a bond of union.
1845. Sarah Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., III. 269. The Wittenberg reformers took, as basis of their creed, the Schwabach articles.
1884. R. W. Dale, Manual Congreg. Princ., IV. iii. 186. Nor is it consistent with Congregational principles for a particular church to draw up a Creed and to require its acceptance by candidates for membership.
2. An accepted or professed system of religious belief; the faith of a community or an individual, esp. as expressed or capable of expression in a definite formula.
[1563. N. Winȝet, trans. Vincentius Lirinensis, Ded. Wks. 1890, II. 8. We and al wtheris professing our commoun crede.]
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 194. This is my stedfast Creede, my faith, and all my trust.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., iv. 705. Nature is Christian … And bids dead matter aid us in our creed.
1857. Kingsley, Lett. (1878), I. 257. Every man is better and worse than his creed.
1860. Whittier, Quaker Alumni, xxxii. The creed may be wrong, but the life may be true.
1874. Green, Short Hist., v. 229.
b. transf. A system of belief in general: a set of opinions on any subject, e.g., politics or science.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., II. ii. 51. I loue him not, nor feare him, there’s my Creede.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 72. If the Sex cannot, much lesse can Conception be discerned, though it be part of the peoples Creed it may.
1733. Lady Bolingbroke in Swift’s Lett. (1766), II. 175. As to your creed in politics, I will heartily and sincerely subscribe to it.
1770. Junius Lett., xli. 210. A declaration of your political creed.
1800. Med. Jrnl., III. 378. Dr. Gren has merely stated the grounds of his favourite chemical creed.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Old Age, Wks. (Bohn), III. 132. The cynical creed … of the market.
c. Belief, faith (in reference to a single fact). rare.
1819. Byron, Juan, I. cvi. Her creed in her own innocence.
1838. H. G. Knight, Normans in Sicily, 340, note. It was the creed of the Greek, but not of the Roman, Church, that St. Catherine was a king’s daughter.
3. Comb., as creed-bond, -bound adj., -maker, -making, -monger, -mongering, -subscription.
1736. Chandler, Hist. Persec., 108. A kind of Creed-maker general.
1782. Cowper, Hope, 393. My creed (whatever some creed-makers mean By Athanasian nonsense or Nicene).
1856. Whittier, Trinitas, xiii. Old pages, where (God give them rest!) The poor creed-mongers dreamed and guessed.
1879. Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, xiii. 332. A shade of Creed-reciting belief.
1880. Fraser’s Mag., Nov., 703. The Creed-making power in any creative sense is lost to the Church.
