The Horrendous Filioque: Chapter 1-2

Cyril and Theodoret

In the ninth Anathema against Cyril, Theodoret writes against the Filioque, Saint Cyril would respond in his defense:

"This is what the god-inspired Paul makes abundantly clear to us when he wrote, 'Those who are in the flesh are not able to please God; but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not possess the Spirit of Christ, then he does not belong to him.' As our savior said, the Holy spirit proceeds from God the Father and is not foreign to the Son, since everything is with the Father."
[St. Cyril of Alexandria; Defense of the Ninth Anathema against Theodoret]

Cyril describes what he means when the Spirit is not foreign to the Son in Thesaurus, Word 34, in which he writes:

"The Holy Spirit is not foreign to the essence of the Son, but is in Him and from Him and by some natural and living energy and, so to speak, a quality of the Divinity of the Son.."

[St. Cyril of Alexandria; Thesaurus 34, PG 75:581]

And also..

"Therefore, the Spirit is God, existing naturally in the Son from the Father, having all His energy. The Word was active in the victory over him (the devil) through the Spirit."
[St. Cyril of Alexandria; Ibid 34]

Naturally, Theodoret writes this:

"Their teaching was that.. the Holy Spirit is not of the Son, nor derives existence from the Son, but proceeds from the Father, and is properly stated to be of the Son, as being of one substance (consubstantial)."

[Heretic Theodoret; Letter 171]

Pope Damasus and the Anathemas

Pope Damasus of Rome, when writing his anathemas, had placed these certain sections:

"If anyone deny that the Holy Spirit is truly and strictly from the Father just as the Son is of the divine substance and very God, let him be anathema."

If anyone deny that the Holy Spirit is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, as also the Son of the Father, let him be anathema.

If anyone says that the Holy Spirit is created being or was made through the Son, let him be anathema."

[Pope Damasus of Rome; Anathemas 16-18, A Confession of the Catholic faith]