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Edited from a variety of translations (mentioned in the preface) by H. R. Percival. Cf. The Symbol of Faith (Creed), as Defined by the Second Ecumenical Council, Bilingual - Greek / English - text, translated by Elpenor.
THE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS Resources Online and in Print
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34 Pages
Page 6
Historical Excursus on the Introduction into the Creed of the Words "and the Son."
The introduction into the Nicene Creed of the words "and the Son" (Filioque) has given rise to, or has been the pretext for, such bitter reviling between East and West (during which many statements unsupported by fact have become more or less commonly believed) that I think it well in this place to set forth as dispassionately as possible the real facts of the case. I shall briefly then give the proof of the following propositions:
1. That no pretence is made by the West that the words in dispute formed part of the original creed as adopted at Constantinople, or that they now form part of that Creed.
2. That so far from the insertion being made by the Pope, it was made in direct opposition to his wishes and command.
3. That it never was intended by the words to assert that there were two 'Archai in the Trinity, nor in any respect on this point to differ from the teaching of the East.
4. That it is quite possible that the words were not an intentional insertion at all.
5. And finally that the doctrine of the East as set forth by St. John Damascene is now and always has been the doctrine of the West on the procession of the Holy Spirit, however much through ecclesiastico-political contingencies this fact may have become obscured.
With the truth or falsity of the doctrine set forth by the Western addition to the creed this work has no concern, nor even am I called upon to treat the historical question as to when and where the expression "and the Son" was first used. For a temperate and eminently scholarly treatment of this point from a Western point of view, I would refer the reader to Professor Swete's On the History of the Doctrine of the Procession of the Holy Spirit. In J. M. Neale's History of the Holy Eastern Church will be found a statement from the opposite point of view. The great treatises of past years I need not mention here, but may be allowed to enter a warning to the reader, that they were often written in the period of hot controversy, and make more for strife than for peace, magnifying rather than lessening differences both of thought and expression.
Perhaps, too, I may be allowed here to remind the readers that it has been said that while "ex Patre Filioque procedens" in Latin does not necessitate a double source of the Holy Spirit, the expression ekporeuomenon ek tou patros kai ek tou Huiou does. On such a point I am not fit to give an opinion, but St. John Damascene does not use this expression.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/ecumenical-councils/second.asp?pg=6
