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Its inclusion in the Creed is a violation of the [[canons]] of the [[Third Ecumenical Council]] in 431, which forbade and anathematized any additions to the Creed, a prohibition which was reiterated at the [[Eighth Ecumenical Council]] in 879-880. This word was not included by the [[First Ecumenical Council|Council of Nicea]] nor of [[Second Ecumenical Council|Constantinople]], and most in the [[Orthodox Church]] consider this inclusion to be a [[heresy]].
The ''filioque'' was first used in Toledo, Spain in 587 without the consultation or agreement of the [[Pentarchy|five patriarchs]] of the [[Church]] at that time and in direct violation of [[canons]] of the [[Third Ecumenical Council]] that prohibited unilateral alteration of the Creed by anything short of another [[Ecumenical Council]]. The purpose of its addition in Spain was to counter a [[heresy]] that was local to that region, probably some form of [[Arianism]]. The practice spread then to France where it was repudiated at the Gentilly Council in 767.
After generations of social upheaval, strong leadership appeared in the person of Pepin the Short, king of the Franks, and his son, [[Charlemagne]], crowned as emperor in 800. Charlemagne intended to restore the Roman Empire in the West, with himself in charge, to the chagrin of the leaders of the Eastern Roman Empire, whom he referred to as "Greeks" (and thus not Romans), despite the Roman capital being in the East and the continued use by Easterners of ''Roman'' to describe themselves. Charlemagne called for a council at Aix-la-Chapelle in 809 at which Pope [[Leo III of Rome|Leo III]] forbade the use of the ''filioque'' clause and ordered that the original version of the [[Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed]] be engraved on silver tablets displayed at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome so that his conclusion would not be overturned in the future.
Some historians have suggested that the Franks in the 9th century pressured the Pope to adopt the ''filioque'' in order to drive a wedge between the Roman Church and the other patriarchates. It is true that the ''filioque'' had come into wide use in the West and was widely thought to be an integral part of the Creed, while Rome, renowned for its stability in Orthodoxy, resisted. Similarly, unleavened bread had come to be thought of as normative for the [[Eucharist]]; diocesan priests were expected to be unmarried. In such cases, in the West, ancient tradition was forgotten. Contemporary usage was thought to be normative and authentic. In these matters of discipline, the influence of the Franks is certain. They intended to exalt Charlemagne, as the new Roman Emperor. The Catholic religion, as they knew it, was to be part of the package. Meanwhile, from ca. 726 to 843, the Eastern Roman Empire, under the thumb of successive emperors, was dominated by the heresy of [[iconoclasm]]. Both Franks and Greeks, in their own way, departed from ancient tradition. Unlike the East, however, where iconoclasm was repudiated at the [[Seventh Ecumenical Council]] and the use of icons later confirmed by the [[Theodora (the Iconodule)|Empress Theodora]], the West to date never recovered from its departure.
In 1054, however, the argument contributed to the [[Great Schism]] of the East and West, and the West went so far as to accuse the East of heresy for not including the ''filioque'' in the Creed. There were many other issues involved, in large part based on misunderstandings between Greek and Latin traditions, as well as the irascible temperament of the antagonists. These were Cardinal [[Humbert]] from Rome and Patriarch [[Michael Cerularius]] of Constantinople. In addition to the actual difference in wording and doctrine in the ''filioque'', a related issue was the right of the Pope to make a change in the [[Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed]] on his own, apart from an [[Ecumenical Council]].
===The Attempted reunions and the ''Filioque'' after the Schism===
In the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas was one of the dominant Scholastic theologians. He dealt explicitly with the processions of the divine Persons in his ''Summa Theologica''. While the theology of Aquinas and other Scholastics was dominant in the Western Middle Ages, for all its apparent clarity and brilliance, it remains theology, not official [[Roman Catholic Church]] teaching.
For much of the 14th century, there were two bishops, each claiming to be Pope, each excommunicating the followers of the other. The Great Western Schism concluded with yet a third individual claiming to be Pope and the Council of Constance. The East could hardly seek reconciliation with a Western Church divided among itself. (In the middle of the century, about a third of Western Europe died of the Black Death. People were more concerned about the plague than about Church unity.)
At the [[Council of Florence]], in the 15th century1439, Emperor [[John VIII Palaeologus]], Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople, and other bishops from the East travelled to northern Italy, in hope of reconciliation with the West, mainly in order to solicit military assistance to fend off the encroaching Turkish invaders. After extensive discussion, in Ferrara, then in Florence, they acknowledged that some Latin Fathers spoke of the procession of the Spirit differently from the Greek Fathers. Since the general consensus of the Fathers was held to be reliable, as a witness to common faith, the Western usage was held not to be a heresy and not a barrier to restoration of full communion. All but one of the Orthodox bishops present agreed and signed a decree of union between East and West, ''Laetentur Coeli'' in 1439. The one bishop who refused to sign and was later heralded as a Pillar of Orthodoxy by the Church was St. [[Mark of Ephesus]], who followed in the footsteps of the previous Pillar of Orthodoxy, St. [[Photius the Great]].
Officially and publicly, Rome and the Orthodox Church were back in communion. However, the reconciliation achieved at Florence was soon destroyed, founded as it was on a compromise of faith. Numerous Orthodox faithful and bishops rejected the union. Moreover, after the Turks [[Fall of Constantinople|conquered Constantinople in 1453]], they fostered separation from the West, which remained an adversary to Islamic political and military dominance. Furthermore, the patriarch, Gennadius, was also one of the bishops who had repudiated the reunion of Florence on his own initiative.
Finally, the theology of rationalistic Western Scholasticism predominated among the Latin theologians and bishops and so obscured the biblical, patristic perspective long advocated by the East, in which the Spirit is said to proceed "from the Father" (as in the [[Gospel of John|John]]15:26) or, more oftenrarely, "from the Father ''through '' the Son" (as in some of the Fathers). Many of the The Eastern bishops had not imbibed the rationalist intellectualism of the West, and so were unconvinced by the highly abstract and convoluted arguments of the Scholastics. Hence, the agreement of Florence, intellectually, represented in many respects an imposition of Scholastic theology.
Undeniably, the ''filioque'' controversy was at least officially resolved, for both Orthodox and Catholic. However, because of the historical situation and because of the different ecclesiologies of the East and West (i.e., —in the East, the whole Church is seen as the guardian of faith, while for the West, the Magisterium maintains the faith), —this resolution was neither fully received nor permanently sustained.
===Recent discussions and statements===Dialogue on this and other subjects is continuing. The ''filioque'' clause was the main subject discussed at the 62nd meeting of the [[North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation]], which met at the Hellenic College/[[Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology ]] in Boston from [[June 3 ]] through [[June 5]], 2002, for their spring session. As a result of these modern discussions, it has been suggested that the Orthodox could accept an "economic" ''filioque'' that states that the Holy Spirit, who originates in the Father alone, was sent to the Church "through the Son" (as the [[Paraclete]]), but this is not official Orthodox doctrine. It is what the Greeks call a ''[[theologoumenon]]'', a theological opinion. (Similarly, the late Edward Kilmartin, S.J., proposed as a ''theologoumenon'', a "mission" of the Holy Spirit to the Church.)
Recently, an important, agreed statement has been made by the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, on [[October 25]], 2003. This document ''The Filioque: A Church-Dividing Issue?'', provides an extensive review of [[Scripture]], history, and [[theology]]. Especially critical are the recommendations of this consultation, for example:
#That all involved in such dialogue expressly recognize the limitations of our ability to make definitive assertions about the inner life of God.
#That the Catholic Church, following a growing theological consensus, and in particular the statements made by Pope Paul VI, declare that the condemnation made at the Second Council of Lyons (1274) of those "who presume to deny that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son" is no longer applicable.
In the judgment of the consultation, the question of the ''filioque'' is no longer a "Church-dividing" issue, one which would impede full reconciliation and full communion, once again. It still stands for the bishops and faithful of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches to review this work and to make whatever decisions would be appropriate.
==The ''Filioque'' as heresy==