Section 04: The Filioque Debates

The dogmatic heart of the council and of Mark’s stand. These files set out the two distinct Filioque questions debated at Ferrara and Florence: first, the canonical question of whether the Latin Church had any right to add the words “and the Son” to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed — Mark’s chosen ground, on which the conduct of the Latins stood condemned regardless of the doctrine’s truth; and second, the doctrinal question of the procession of the Holy Spirit itself, where the Orthodox Church’s teaching of procession from the Father alone, the monarchy of the Father, and the Palamite reading of “through the Son” met the Latin doctrine of double procession from a single principle.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox / Byzantine

Contents

File Topic
The Addition to the Creed The canonical argument: the original Creed of 381; the Western interpolation and its history (Toledo, the Franks, Rome 1014); the canon of Ephesus 431 forbidding “another faith”; Mark’s case that the addition was uncanonical and unilateral regardless of its truth; the Latin reply
East and West on the Spirit The doctrine: procession from the Father alone and the monarchy of the Father; the distinction of eternal procession, eternal manifestation “through the Son,” and temporal mission; the Latin doctrine of double procession; the Palamite and Maximian background; the florilegia and the corruption charge

How to Use

  • Read The Addition to the Creed for the canonical and historical argument Mark chose to fight first; read East and West on the Spirit for the underlying doctrine of the Trinity at issue.
  • For the broader Orthodox doctrine of the Spirit, see Pneumatology. For the ninth-century classical statement of the case, see St. Photius the Great.

Cross-References

References

  • See the collection README for the principal sources; each content file carries its own full reference list.