Filioque

==== Alexandrian Fathers ====

[[Cyril of Alexandria]] provides "a host of quotations that seemingly speak of the Spirit's 'procession' from both the Father and the Son". In these passages he uses the Greek verbs {{lang|grc|προϊέναι}} (like the Latin {{lang|la|procedere}}) and {{lang|grc|προχεῖσθαι}} (flow from), not the verb {{lang|grc|ἐκπορεύεσθαι}}, the verb that appears in the Greek text of the Nicene Creed.{{sfn|Siecienski|2010|pp=48–49}}

{{Blockquote|text=Since the Holy Spirit when he is in us effects our being conformed to God, and he actually proceeds from the Father and Son, it is abundantly clear that he is of the divine essence, in it in essence and proceeding from it|author=Saint Cyril of Alexandria|source=Treasure of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, thesis 34}}

Epiphanius of Salamis is stated by Bulgakov to present in his writings "a whole series of expressions to the effect that the Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, out of the Father and the Son, from the Father and out of the Son, from Both, from one and the same essence as the Father and the Son, and so on". Bulgakov concludes: "The patristic teaching of the fourth century lacks that exclusivity which came to characterize Orthodox theology after Photius under the influence of repulsion from the Filioque doctrine. Although we do not here find the pure {{lang|la|Filioque}} that Catholic theologians find, we also do not find that opposition to the {{lang|la|Filioque}} that became something of an Orthodox or, rather, anti-Catholic dogma."{{sfn|Bulgakov|2004|pp=81–82}}{{efn|name=Epiphanius|The longer form of the creed of Epiphanius (374) included the doctrine: {{lang|grc|ἄκτιστον, ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον καὶ ἐκ τοῦ υἰοῦ λαμβανόμενον}} ("uncreated, who proceeds from the Father and is received from the Son").{{refn|Epiphanius of Salamis, ''Ancoratus'', cap. 120 ({{harvnb|DH|2012|loc=n. 44}}; [[s:Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/The Second Ecumenical Council/The Holy Creed|NPNF2 14:164–165]]).}}}}

Regarding the Greek Fathers, whether Cappadocian or Alexandrian, there is, according to Siecienski, no citable basis for the claim historically made by both sides, that they explicitly either supported or denied the later theologies concerning the procession of the Spirit from the Son. However, they did enunciate important principles later invoked in support of one theology or the other. These included the insistence on the unique hypostatic properties of each Divine Person, in particular the Father's property of being, within the Trinity, the one cause, while they also recognized that the Persons, though distinct, cannot be separated, and that not only the sending of the Spirit to creatures but also the Spirit's eternal flowing forth ({{lang|grc|προϊέναι}}) from the Father within the Trinity is "through the Son" ({{lang|grc|διὰ τοῦ Υἱοῦ}}).{{sfn|Siecienski|2010|pp=33–34}}