I have no desire to argue. We all worship in imperfect knowledge and with imperfect ability to describe the Divine. That's why the wise orthodox Fathers of the Unidivided Church left the Mystery of God to remain a Mystery, but at the same time to proclaim a universal truth: that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father and the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father, the manner and the "mechanisms" of this being unknown to us.
The Filioque was inserted to combat Arianism, but also because some Fathers specualted as to "how" the Trinity "operates". That in itsef is not heresy but speculation. We can still speculate on it and are nowehere nearer to knowing it, and Arianism is no longer an issue, so why bother? It's the indsertion of it into the Creed in the 11th century, contrary to everything the Unidivided Church established as Orthodox prior to that that, that remains the unrepenetent offense.
The Church spoke in one voice and said: this is the Creed, this is what we believe; nothing can be added or subtracted to it unless it is done by another Ecumenical Council. Amen. Your Church decided otherwise and now we are supposed to "debate" this? If you steal something, it is wrong even if your motives were noble. Just do what Graves said: Repent and you will be forgiven.
Of course we dropped Greek, we could not speak it any longer!
And how many Germans understood Latin in Luther's time? But the Roman Church insisted, as it does to this day that Latin is the universal language of the Church and should be favored. There is a whole group of "trads" who insist on it. How many Roman Catholics speak or even understand Latin today? You don't see double standards here? Apparently not.
Latin was still the language of university instruction until as late as the 18th cent
Little good did that do to the multitutes who sat in RC churches and listed to something they didn't understand. And it took the Vatican 200 years (middle of the 20th century) since the 18th c. to admit that a language other than Latin is okay? The East knew that for 2,000 years. The only reason Greek was the language of the Church is because it was the only liturgical language of the Gentiles, sufficiently developed to express litrurgical complexities, but the East never poposed that Greek was the "universal" languge of the Church, as your Church did for Latin.
No, the division was, and is, caused by the Greeks refusing to seek redress within the Church and presuming that they alone were the guardians of orthodoxy
Redress? Please specfy what did the Greeks add and or subtract form the Faith. What are our innovations and additions that need to be redressed?
We are not the only guardians of Orthodoxy. We never claimed that. There are multitudes of Greek Fathers who glorified the Pope and western Fathers. The Greeks honor many Popes, in fact and the Church of the West was condiered fully Orthodox in liturgy and everything esle. Iconoclasm was defeated thanks to the Orthodoxy of Rome at that time. How can you say that the Greeks find fault but no merit in the West? That is completely false! If you want the list of issues cited by the Greeks that needed a redress, read the Patriarchal Encyclical of the Eastern Fathers of 1895 (in fact Agrarian posted in today along with the series of previous ones).
I have never accused the Greeks adding or subtracting from the faith, rather I deny the charge that the Latins have. Nor have I said that any innovations of the Greeks need redress. My point was that if the Greeks thought that the alleged innovations or abuses of the Latins needed redress this should have been done as it was in the past, through an ecumenical council of all the Church's bishops and not by the unilateral anathema of Patriarch Michael.
We are not the only guardians of Orthodoxy. We never claimed that.
In 1054 you did. And today you disallow the possibility of the Latin bishops joining with the Greek to resolve the issue.
Actually, throughout history, the Germans were more insistant on retaining Latin than Rome was. Had they proposed retaining their original Gothic, it would probably have been granted to them. You have your history backwards. Latin was not imposed and insisted upon by Rome. Rather, the various peoples of the West wanted to use Latin to show union with Rome.
Little good did that do to the multitutes who sat in RC churches and listed to something they didn't understand.
More people understood it than you think. Latin is still very close to Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Vlach, and French. Most people in the German and Celtic and Slavic lands knew enough Latin to know the rudiements of the Mass and prayers, and could sing their responses. Confession and Marriage vows, of course, were in the vernacular.
And it took the Vatican 200 years (middle of the 20th century) since the 18th c. to admit that a language other than Latin is okay?
No, the Roman Church admitted Slavonic as long ago as the times of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, and it has been in continuous useage in Dalmatia and Moravia since then.
Additionally, the Roman Church has always been in union with the Italo-Greeks of Calabria and Sicily, had no problem with the Punic of the countryfolk of Africa, the Coptic of Egypt, the Aramaic of Lebanon, Syria, and Assyria, or the Armenian tongue, or many others.
The Council of Trent admitted the liceity of the vernacular, but thought it inopportune at that time to admit it.
The East knew that for 2,000 years. The only reason Greek was the language of the Church is because it was the only liturgical language of the Gentiles, sufficiently developed to express litrurgical complexities, but the East never poposed that Greek was the "universal" languge of the Church, as your Church did for Latin.
The Church of the Roman Imperial Diocese of the East used Aramaic, not Greek, from the beginning, and it was in this language that the Gospel of Matthew, and in all probability, the Epistle to the Hebrews were written in. Latin was used from time immemorial in Africa, and came into useage in Rome and Italy by AD 200-250.
Greek never held a universal placeof useage.