Credence is a formal word for accepting something as true — not religious faith, but treating a claim, a story, or a piece of news as believable. English almost never uses it as a thing you “have.” The usual patterns are give credence to and lend credence to: to treat something as true, or to make it easier to believe. If new facts lend credence to a rumour, they make the rumour sound more possible. In everyday talk people just say believe or take seriously; credence sounds stiff, like news or academic writing. Though actually, there is an older, rarer church sense: a credence table is a small side table. That “trust” idea is also how this word is a doublet of credenza, the furniture word — two descendants of the same Latin root. Students almost always meet the “accept as true” sense.