first inserted the clause Filioque in the Latin version of the Nicene Creed.^581 Other Spanish synods
of Toledo did the same.^582
From Spain the clause passed into the Frankish church. It was discussed at the Synod of
Gentilly near Paris in 767, but we do not know with what result.^583 The Latin view was advocated
by Paulinus of Aquileja (796),^584 by Alcuin (before 804), and by Theodulf of Orleans.^585 It was
expressed in the so-called Athanasian Creed, which made its appearance in France shortly before
or during the age of Charlemagne.^586 The clause was sung in his chapel. He brought the matter
before the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 809, which decided in favor of the double procession.^587
He also sent messengers to Pope Leo III., with the request to sanction the insertion of the clause in
the Nicene Creed. The pope decided in favor of the doctrine of the double procession, but protested
against the alteration of the creed, and caused the Nicene Creed, in its original Greek text and the
Latin version, to be engraved on two tablets and suspended in the Basilica of St. Peter, as a perpetual
testimony against the innovation.^588 His predecessor, Hadrian I., had a few years before (between
792 and 795) defended the Greek formula of John of Damascus and patriarch Tarasius, that the
Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son.^589 But the violent assault of Photius upon the Latin
doctrine, as heretical, drove the Latin church into the defensive. Hence, since the ninth century,
the, Filioque was gradually introduced into the Nicene Creed all over the West, and the popes
themselves, notwithstanding their infallibility, approved what their predecessors had condemned.^590
The coincidence of the triumph of the Filioque in the West with the founding of the new
Roman Empire is significant; for this empire emancipated the pope from the Byzantine rule.
(^581) Mansi, IX. 981: "Credimus et in Spiritum S., dominum et vivificatorem, ex Patreet Filioprocedentem," etc. On the
third Synodus Toletana see Hefele, III. 48 sqq.
(^582) The fourth Council of Toledo (633) likewise repeated the Creed with the Filioque, see Hefele III. 79. All the other
Councils of Toledo (a.d.638, 646, 655, 675, 681, 683, 684, 688, 694) begin with a confession of faith, several with the unaltered
Nicene creed, others with enlarged forms.
(^583) Hefele, III. 432.
(^584) At a synod in Forumjulii (Friaul), at that time the seat of the bishops of Aquileja. Hefele, III. 718 sq.
(^585) Alcuin wrote a book De Processione S. Spiritus (Opera, ed. Migne, II. 63), and Theodulf another, at the request of
Charlemagne (Migne, Tom. 105).
(^586) Ver. 23: "Spiritus Sanctus a PatreEtFilio: non factus, nec creatus, nec genitus: sed procedens." For this reason the
Greek church never adopted the Athanasian Creed. Most Greek copies read onlyἀποτου̑πατρός, and omit et Filio."
(^587) It is uncertain whether the Synod also sanctioned the insertion of the Filioque in the creed. Pagi denies, Burterim,
Hefele (III. 751), and Hergenröther (I. 698) affirm it. The Synod of Arles (813) likewise professed the double procession, Hefele,
III. 757.
(^588) Mansi, XIV. 18; Baronius, ad arm. 809; Gieseler, II. 75 (Am. ed.); Hefele, III. 754; Hergenröther, Photius, I. 699 sqq.
The fact of the silver tablets weighing nearly one hundred pounds, is related by Anastasius (in Vita Leonis III.), and by Photius
(Epist. ad Patriarch. Aquilej.), and often appealed to by the Greek controversialists. The imperial commissioners urged that the
belief in the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son was necessary for salvation; but the pope replied that other things were
necessary for salvation, and yet not mentioned in the creed. He also advised to omit the signing of the clause in the imperial
chapel; all other churches in France would follow the example of omission, and thus the offence given would be most easily
removed.
(^589) In his defence of the second council of Nicaea against the Libri Carolini, which had charged Tarasius with error. See
Migne’s Opera Caroli M., II. 1249.
(^590) Pope John VIII., in a letter to Photius, condemned the Filioque; but this letter is disputed, and declared by Roman
Catholic historians to be a Greek fabrication. See above, p. 315, and Hefele, IV. 482. It is not quite certain when the Roman
church adopted the Filioque in her editions of the Nicene Creed. Some date it from Pope Nicolas, others from Pope Christophorus
(903), still others from Sergius III. (904-911), but most writers from Benedict VIII. (1014-1015). See Hergenröther, Photius,
I. 706.