Filioque, a Latin term meaning "and from the Son," was added to the original Nicene Creed, and has been the subject of great controversy between Eastern and Western Christianity. The term refers to the Son, Jesus Christ, with the Father, as the one shared origin of the Holy Spirit. It is not in the original text of the Creed, attributed to the First Council of Constantinople (381), which says that the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father" without the addition "and the Son".
The Holy Spirit coming from both the Father and the Son, detail of the Boulbon Altarpiece, c. 1450. Originally from the high altar of the Chapelle Saint-Marcellin, Boulbon, France, now in the Louvre, Paris.
First Council of Constantinople with halo-adorned Emperor Theodosius I (miniature in Homilies of Gregory Nazianzus (879–882), Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Maximus the Confessor
John VIII Palaiologos by Benozzo Gozzoli
The Nicene Creed, also called the Creed of Constantinople, is the defining statement of belief of Nicene or mainstream Christianity and in those Christian denominations that adhere to it. The original Nicene Creed was first adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. In 381, it was amended at the First Council of Constantinople. The amended form is also referred to as the Nicene Creed, or the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed for disambiguation.
Icon depicting Constantine I, accompanied by the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325), holding the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. First line of main text in Greek: Πιστεύω εἰς ἕνα Θ[εό]ν, πατέρα παντοκράτορα, ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ κ[αὶ] γῆς,. Translation: "I believe in one God, the Father the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth."
The oldest extant manuscript of the Nicene Creed, dated to the 6th century
17th-century Russian icon illustrating the articles of the creed