Rule of faith in the early church

The rule of faith or rule of truth: the summary of apostolic teaching held by the church. Part of Tradition.

Epistle of the Apostles 5Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · The apostles list Christ's miracles, from Cana to the feeding of the five thousand, and read the five loaves as the five articles of the faith.
Against Heresies 1.9.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Like a cento stitched from Homer, the heretics' system reuses scriptural words for a foreign theme, which anyone who holds the rule of truth received in baptism will recognize.
Against Heresies 1.10.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Church's rule of faith confesses the Holy Spirit who foretold Christ's birth, passion, resurrection, ascension and return to judge and to give eternal life.
Against Heresies 1.10.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The one faith is kept alike by churches throughout the world, and neither eloquence nor weakness of speech adds to it or takes from it.
Against Heresies 1.10.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Greater understanding means explaining God's dispensation within the one faith, not inventing another God or a Pleroma of Aeons.
Against Heresies 1.22.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The rule of truth confesses one God who made all things by his Word and Spirit, the God of Abraham and Father of Jesus Christ; against it the heresies are easily shown to err.
Against Heresies 3.12.7Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Peter's preaching to Cornelius proclaimed the Son of God, anointed with the Spirit and Judge of all, without any other God; the church keeps this one faith worldwide.
Against Heresies 4.35.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Valentinians disagree among themselves about which Aeon any Scripture refers to, whereas the Church, holding the rule of truth, says the same things about the same words.
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Apology 47Tertullian · ca. 197 · The philosophers and poets drew on the older Scriptures and distorted them, as heretics have since distorted the Christian rule of truth; their judgment, Pyriphlegethon, and Elysium are copies of Christian teaching.
Prescription against Heretics 13Tertullian · ca. 203 · Tertullian states the rule of faith: one Creator God, his Word and Son born of the virgin Mary, crucified, risen, ascended, sending the Spirit, and coming to judge, with the resurrection of the flesh.
Prescription against Heretics 14Tertullian · ca. 203 · Within the rule of faith one may inquire freely, but faith, not skill in Scripture, saves; heretics who claim still to be seeking are not yet believers, and conferring with them only leads the blind into the pit.
Prescription against Heretics 26Tertullian · ca. 203 · Christ commanded the apostles to preach openly, and they feared no one; they did not keep a secret rule of faith for a few that differed from what they taught all.
Prescription against Heretics 36Tertullian · ca. 203 · Anyone may visit the apostolic churches, such as Corinth, Philippi, Ephesus, and Rome, where the apostles taught and died; Rome's faith, shared with Africa, is the one from which the heresies broke away.
On the Veiling of Virgins 1Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Tertullian argues that virgins should be veiled from puberty because truth, not custom, must rule; the rule of faith never changes, but discipline is being brought to maturity by the Paraclete.
Against Praxeas 2Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Against Praxeas, Tertullian sets out the rule of faith: one God under an “economy,” Father, Son, and Spirit, three in degree, form, and aspect but one in substance, condition, and power.
On First Principles 1.0.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The apostolic teaching affirms one God, Creator and giver of both Testaments; Jesus Christ, born of the Father before creation, truly incarnate, dead and risen; and the Holy Spirit, equal in honour and the same in both Testaments.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.5.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Although he has often set out the rule of truth elsewhere, Hippolytus will do so again here as the crown of the work.
Commentary on Romans 7.19Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains Isaiah’s “remnant” (stars of heaven, not sand of the sea), the “shortened word” as the double love commandment or the creed, and the “seed” left to Israel as Christ, sown in death to bear the Church as fruit.
Letter of the six bishops to Paul 1Anonymous · ca. 264–269 · Six bishops write to Paul of Samosata setting out the apostolic faith that the Son of God is God, begotten before the ages.
Church History 7.30.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The synod: since Paul has left the rule of faith, his conduct as an outsider need not be judged — yet they describe it.
Apology for Origen 1.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Pamphilus quotes Origen's summary of the apostolic rule of faith (On First Principles, preface) and his definition of a heretic from the lost Commentary on Titus, to show that Origen held the Church's teaching as the test of truth.
Against Marcellus 1.1.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · The church guards the Trinitarian faith received at baptism, and Paul warned against any bishop who perverts it.
Demonstration 1.19Aphrahat · 337-345
On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.8.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The church confesses one Father Almighty and the only-begotten Son, God from God, begotten before all ages, distinct from the Father.
Oration III Against the Arians 28Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius urges the Arians to stop echoing Christ's opponents and to read the Gospels by the rule of the church's faith: the Son is eternal as the Father's own offspring.
Catechetical Lecture 4.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Godliness needs both right doctrine and good deeds; Cyril gives a summary of doctrines before the Creed, beginning with the one God, maker of souls and bodies and Father of one Son.
Catechetical Lecture 5.12Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Creed, handed on by the Church and gathered from all Scripture, is to be memorized, kept secret from catechumens, and never exchanged for another teaching.
On the Trinity 2.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The catholic faith is a firm foundation and a universal remedy against all heresies: one unbegotten Father and one perfect, only-begotten Son, beyond time.
Letters to Serapion 1.28Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The church’s faith from the beginning is in one holy Triad, Father, Son, and Spirit, one in nature and activity, as Christ commanded in the baptismal formula.
Commentary on Philippians 3:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers must keep to the common rule of faith, not presume private revelations.
Commentary on Romans 10:9–10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The rule of faith is to believe that Jesus is Lord, raised and ascended with his body, and to confess it openly, not as the rulers who believed in secret.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.29.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · One who holds the rule of truth received at baptism recognizes Scripture but not the heresy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.30.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Church everywhere received from the apostles faith in one God the Father, Creator.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.21.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius begins his own statement of the church's faith against Marcus.
Chapter 8Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas urges the candidates to keep firmly the faith in the Trinity, the rule received by the apostles with the command to baptize.
Letter 120.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sets out the rule of faith on the Trinity, tells Consentius to reject every bodily image of God, and urges him to love understanding.
Letter 187.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God dwells even in immature believers who hold the common rule of faith in the Church, and will complete their understanding hereafter.
Sermon 186.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against those who say only that a son of man became Son of God, Augustine insists that the Son of God himself became son of man, as the creed confesses.
On Faith and the Creed 1Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Augustine explains that the brief Creed memorized by new Christians needs a fuller treatment to protect it against heretics.
On the Christian Struggle 15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · The church's brief creed teaches faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God and an eternal Trinity of one substance.
On Christian Doctrine 3.2Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Ambiguities of punctuation are resolved by the rule of faith, then by the context, and where neither decides, the reader may choose, as examples from John 1:1, Phil 1:22–24, and 2 Cor 7:1–2 show.
Apology against Rufinus 1.4Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome asks which faith Rufinus meant by "our faith," and promises to answer Rufinus's books once they are published.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 18.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Jews saw only Christ's flesh; as Word he is equal to the Father, and as flesh less than the Father: this is the Catholic rule by which all must be understood.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 98.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Believers must grow in understanding without abandoning the rule of faith, rejecting both those who deny Christ's humanity, the creation, or the Old Testament and those who know God truly yet turn from the one Mediator.
On Faith and Works 14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · The eunuch's short confession did not exclude further teaching: to “preach Jesus” includes both the whole creed and how believers must live.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.34Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Denying that nature was corrupted in Adam attacks the rule of faith itself; far from being purer before the law, humanity was then so sinful that the flood destroyed all but Noah's family.
Commonitory 28Vincent of Lérins · 434 · The consent of the fathers is to be used chiefly on the rule of faith and against new heresies, holding what all or most taught and setting aside any one teacher's private opinion.