St. Gregory of Nyssa on the Filioque

St. Gregory of Nyssa on the Filioque

According to St. Gregory of Nyssa,

"It is as if a man were to see a separate flame burning on three torches (and we will suppose that the third flame is caused by that of the first being transmitted to the middle, and then kindling the end torch ), and were to maintain that the heat in the first exceeded that of the others; that next it showed a variation from it in the direction of the less; and that the third could not be called fire at all, though it burnt and shone just like fire, and did everything that fire does. But if there is really no hindrance to the third torch being fire, though it has been kindled from a previous flame, what is the philosophy of these men, who profanely think that they can slight the dignity of the Holy Spirit because He is named by the Divine lips after the Father and the Son?"

(On the Holy Spirit, Against the Macedonians)

Elsewhere he writes,

"one is the Cause, and another is of the Cause; and again in that which is of the Cause we recognize another distinction. For one is directly from the first Cause, and another by that which is directly from the first Cause; so that the attribute of being Only-begotten abides without doubt in the Son, and the interposition of the Son, while it guards His attribute of being Only-begotten, does not shut out the Spirit from His relation by way of nature to the Father."

(On "Not Three Gods")


St. Gregory is talking about the Spirit's eternal origin. If the Holy Spirit received His substance from the Son (not merely that He shares the same substance with the Son), then the Son enjoys some manner of eternal causality, which is exactly what the Latin doctrine holds.