pendeth[1] from the Son, and hath His being dependent[2] from the Father as its cause, whence also He proceedeth."[3] The latter part of this sentence would appear to favour the Eastern view. Nevertheless in another place Basil writes, "God generates, not as man, but truly generates. And that which is generated of Him sends forth the Spirit through His mouth."[4] On the other hand, Gregory Nazianzen definitely asserts that the Spirit proceeds from the Father only.[5]
Ambrose appears to be the first to teach in express terms that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Thus he writes, "The Holy Spirit also when he proceeds from the Father and the Son,[6] is not separated from the Father, is not separated from the Son";[7] and Epiphanius frequently teaches that the Holy Spirit is from both.[8]
Augustine frequently teaches that the procession is from both the Father and the Son.[9] As yet, however, nobody had ventured to tamper with the venerated creed so as to insert this idea into it. As far as has yet been pointed out, "the first known instance in which the Filioque was inserted into the Processional Clause of the Symbol"[10] is at the third council of Toledo (a.d. 589). It reappears in the fourth (a.d. 633) and sixth (a.d. 638) councils of Toledo. The doctrine was received in England at the council of Hatfield (a.d. 680). Passing on to the eighth century, we find Tarasius in his letter announcing his elevation to the patriarchate of Constantinople writing of the Holy Spirit as "proceeding from the Father through the Son"—the Greek doctrine. This expression was
- ↑ ἤρτηται.
- ↑ ἐξημμένον.
- ↑ Epis. xxxviii. 8.
- ↑ Adv. Eunomium.
- ↑ Orat. 1; De Filio, 1.
- ↑ Cum procedit a Patre et Filio.
- ↑ De Sp. S. i. 10.
- ↑ παρά (Ancor. lxvii.), ἐξ (Hær. lxxiv. 7) of Both, and παρά of the Father, but ἐξ of the Son (Ancor. viii. 9).
- ↑ e.g. Trin. xv. 48 and passim.
- ↑ Howard, The Filioque and the Schism, pp. 18, 19—a book to which I am indebted for much information on this subject, and the quotations given above.
