The rule of faith (, ) is the name given to the ultimate authority or standard in religious belief. It was used by Early Christian writers such as Tertullian. The phrase is sometimes used for early creeds. Meaning As a standard for adherence to orthodoxy, rule of faith originally referred to the Old Roman Symbol, which was an earlier and shorter version of the Apostles' Creed and other later statements of faith. As a historical standard for adherence to orthodoxy, rule of faith may also refer to other statements of faith including the Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, Augsburg Confession, Articles of Dort, Westminster Confession and others, the inner light of the spirit, as among mystics. The rule of faith is the name given to the ultimate authority or standard in religious belief, such as the Word of God (Dei verbum) as contained in Scripture and Apostolic Tradition, as among Catholics; theoria, as among the Eastern Orthodox; the Sola scriptura (Bible alone doctrine), as among some Protestants; the Wesleyan Quadrilateral of faith, which held that Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, as among other Protestants; and reason alone, as among Rationalist philosophers. Second century usage In the early church, Irenaeus was writing in the second century about the "rule of faith" or "rule of truth." In Against Heresies 1.9.4 he talks about it being received by baptism and continues, in the next chapter, to explain: Elsewhere, in the preface to his The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, Irenaeus reiterates the need to "hold the rule of the faith without deviation." He goes on again to express the rule of faith across three points or articles: Third century usage Tertullian uses the phrases "rule of faith" and "rule of truth": Catholic usage Pope Pius XII in Humani generis used the term analogy of faith to say that Holy Scripture should be interpreted according to the mind of the Church, not that the teaching of the Church and Fathers should be interpreted by some theorised norm of the Scriptures. In the Catholic Church, the Bible and sacred tradition (that is, things believed to have been taught by Jesus and the apostles that were not recorded in the Bible but were transmitted through the church) are considered a rule for all believers for judging faith and practice. The current Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "all that has been said about the manner of interpreting