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→Ecclesiological Issues: The Bishop of Rome
== Ecclesiological Issues: The Bishop of Rome ==
But even more offensive to the Orthodox was that the Creed was changed without agreement of the whole Christian Church. The Creed was agreed at an Ecumenical Council and varied at another Ecumenical Council. The whole Church was seen to agree with the Creed as decided by the two True-believing Church Councils.
For the Bishop of Rome to unilaterally change the Creed without reference to an ecumenical council, was highly offensive to the other four patriarchates, and to all the eastern bishops, as it undermined the collegiality of the episcopacy. The bishops were brothers in Christ. Together they acted to properly understand the teachings of Christ. For any one bishop, whether of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, or Rome, or of Milan or Hippo or any other see for that matter, to go off and make changes on their own say so, was a supreme arrogance.
It demeaned all the other bishops.
Not one of the Eastern bishops was prepared to tolerate that.
The Eastern bishops then used the age old method of accusing their opponent of heresy, to try and effect a change, and to elevate their own status as true-believers and champions of correct Christian teaching.
Whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, or whether the Holy Spirt proceeds from the Father through the Son, became moot points. The Orthodox theologians, bishops, and people, were not prepared to consider that question, because the real problem for them was the shattering of collegiality and the supreme arrogance of Rome.
== Other Doctrinal Issues ==