The Church in the Early Middle Ages by G.R. Evans

Author:G.R. Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857735560
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

The Filioque

The desire for unity of order and life expressed in the search for a commonly agreed date for Easter was important, but most important of all in the Greek-speaking part of the Church was the preservation of unity of faith. Theologically speaking, of the key issues which were to be crystallized as Church-dividing in the schism of 1054, and which were already rumbling some centuries earlier, the most important was the Filioque (‘and the Son’), the clause which had been added to the Nicene Creed.

The date and provenance of the Nicene Creed was easily established. It was the declaration of the faith made by the Council of Nicaea in 325 in an effort to resolve the Christological disputes which were the subject of the Arian controversy:

I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God, Begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven; and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead: whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remissions of sins. And I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

The Apostles’ Creed was another matter. It emerged from ancient liturgical usage and the legend grew up that it was the work of the Apostles. The word symbolum for ‘creed’ was taken literally in its Greek meaning, as though the Apostles had actually sat together round a table and put it together by contributing a clause each:

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into Hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father. From thence he shall come again to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of saints, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

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