Position · 589

Filioque

The teaching that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, expressed by adding filioque (“and the Son”) to the Nicene Creed.

Augustine had already taught a double procession. The phrase entered the creed in Spain, where the Third Council of Toledo (589) used it, and spread through the Frankish church. Rome adopted it in the creed during the 11th century. Thomas Aquinas gave it a systematic defence.

The Eastern churches objected both to the doctrine and to changing a creed agreed by an ecumenical council without one. The dispute was a central issue in the Great Schism of 1054. Protestant churches kept the Western form of the creed. The Eastern Orthodox position is Procession from the Father Alone.