What does the Nicene Creed say about the Holy Spirit?

Answer 1

A:

By the third century, the Holy Spirit was beginning to be seen as a definite third force in Christian theology. The Nicene Creed, first promulgated at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and modified at the First Council of Constantinople in 381, states that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father." It does not say explicitly that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son as well as the Father. The third Ecumenical Council, the Council of Ephesus in 431, forbade any further changes to the Creed, except by another such council. By this time, then, the text of the Nicene Creed had acquired a certain definitive authority of ecumenical value and importance.

The phrase "and the Son" (in Latin filioque) was first added to the Nicene Creed at the Synod of Toledo in Spain in 447, but this only had local effect. In the ninth century, Pope Leo III (795-816) agreed with the filioque theologically but was opposed to adopting it in Rome, and had the traditional text of the Creed, without the filioque, displayed publicly. In 1054, the filioque became an issue when Pope Leo IX added it to the Nicene Creed without the consent of a Council of the entire Christian Church. Henceforth, in Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches, the Nicene Creed says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, but the Orthodox Churches retain the original text in which the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.