FILIOQUE

FILIOQUE. This Latin phrase means “and (from) the Son,” and refers to a late Western Latin interpolation into the third part of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (q.v.), specifically to the clause on the procession of the Holy Spirit (q.v.). The phrase was added to the text of the Creed by the Spanish Church at the Council of Toledo in 589, then two centuries later found its way to the imperial chapel of Charlemagne (q.v.) at Aachen, and thence to Rome (q.v.) at the beginning of the 11th c. Never accepted by the Orthodox Church, the filioque-together with the understanding of papal primacy-remains the most important, single theological issue dividing the Western and Eastern Churches. (See Carolingians; Holy Spirit; Trinity.)