The Athanasian Creed as a Psalm

(after using this "Creed" on Trinity Sunday I am led to ponder...)
Together with the text of “The Creed of Athanasius” (Quicunque Vult) in The Book of Common Prayer (1662) there is a rubric which instructs that this Creed be used on certain feast days instead of the Apostles’ Creed at Morning Prayer. Regrettably this ancient confession of faith has never been printed in editions of the American editions of The Book of Common Prayer in 1789, 1892 & 1928, but it does come in an appendix in very small typeface in the 1979 Prayer Book of the ECUSA.

We now know that this “Creed” is not by Athanasius of Alexandria but was composed in Gaul in the fifth century during the period when a minority who held to Nicene orthodoxy had to hold firm to the doctrine which they had received because of the aggressive Arianism of those (Goths/Vandals) who were invading the Roman Empire from northern Europe. The association of the name of Athanasius is because of his stand for orthodox belief concerning the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ against Arianism.

If we look at the Latin versions of this “Creed” as they appear in medieval sources such as The Sarum Breviary, it is called, “Psalmus, Quicunque Vult” (the last two words being the first two Latin words of the text). It was then treated liturgically exactly like a psalm; it had its varying antiphons, and was followed by the Gloria Patri.

This liturgical use is still to be seen in The BCP (1662) where it is divided into verses like the Psalms, and each verse is punctuated with the music symbol, for the guidance of the choir, which is represented by a colon -- : and it ends with the “Glory be to the Father….”

If today we could see this Latin composition as a Christian (doctrinal) Psalm and recover the singing of it in an improved and more accessible translation to that in the BCP (1662) then perhaps we would see current opposition to its use diminish and at the same time Christians learning from it more thoroughly and carefully the great doctrines of The Trinity and The Person of Christ. (Note there is an improved translation prepared by the English Bishops in 1872 – Report of the Committee of Bishops on the Revision of the Text and Translation of the Athanasian Creed, and see also the most useful book, The Athanasian Creed by J N D Kelly.)

There was a tradition in the Church of England (and perhaps in Canada and Australia) in the 19th and 20th centuries of chanting/singing this “Creedal Psalm”. Does anyone have recollection or knowledge of this and access to the music used?

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.),
Christ Church, Biddulph Moor & St Anne's, Brown Edge