The Filioque

Two words added to the Creed in the West, and a thousand years of disagreement over them.

The filioque is the Latin phrase "and the Son", added in the West to the Creed's article on the Holy Spirit, who "proceeds from the Father" (John 15:26). It first appeared at the Third Council of Toledo in 589 and entered the Creed used at Rome in 1014. The Orthodox Church confesses the Creed without it.

The Creed set forth at Constantinople in 381 says that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father", words drawn from Christ's own promise in John 15:26. In the Latin West the word filioque, "and the Son", was later added, so that the Western Creed says the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

The addition was first made at the Third Council of Toledo, in Spain, in 589, against the Arians. Its use spread in the Frankish church in the eighth century, and in 1014, under pressure from the Emperor Henry II, Pope Benedict VIII brought it into the Creed used at Rome. Together with the question of the pope's authority, it became one of the chief causes of the Great Schism of 1054.

The Orthodox Church objects on two grounds. The first is the Creed itself: it was given by councils of the whole Church, and the Orthodox Church holds that the Council of Ephesus in 431 forbade any change to it, so no one church may add to it. The second is the teaching: with the Fathers, the Orthodox Church confesses the Father as the one source of the Son and of the Spirit.

The Catholic Church, for its part, also holds the Father to be the "principle without principle" and first origin of the Spirit, and the Second Council of Lyon taught that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son "not as from two principles" but from one. It encourages the Eastern Catholic Churches to omit the filioque from the Creed.

Both churches accept St Maximus the Confessor, and his writings have been offered as common ground. The question remains a point of disagreement between East and West, and it is still discussed between them.

Questions about the Filioque

What does filioque mean?

Latin for "and the Son". In the Western Creed it makes the line on the Holy Spirit read that He proceeds "from the Father and the Son".

When was the filioque added to the Creed?

First at the Third Council of Toledo, in Spain, in 589. It spread among the Franks in the eighth century and entered the Creed used at Rome in 1014, under Pope Benedict VIII.

Why does the Orthodox Church not say the filioque?

Because the Creed belongs to the councils of the whole Church, and the Orthodox Church reads the Council of Ephesus in 431 as forbidding any change to it; and because the Orthodox Church confesses with the Fathers that the Spirit "proceeds from the Father" (John 15:26), the one source of the Son and the Spirit.

Did the filioque cause the Great Schism?

It was one of the chief causes, together with the authority of the pope. The separation between East and West was sealed in 1054.

More questions about the Orthodox Church, answered ›

“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.”

John 15:26 (King James Version, public domain)

In Orthros

Orthros keeps the Creed as the councils gave it, in its twelve articles, with catechesis on what each confesses, free to read, each with its source shown.