What Did Rome Change?

The Filioque and the Sabbath

This page compares two Western claims that lacked ecumenical authorization: the filioque addition to the Creed, and the later claim of authority to treat Sunday as replacing the seventh-day Sabbath. The histories are not identical. One entered Roman worship after a long Western history; the other joined imperial law, local synods, and later Latin claims.

The First Change: The Creed

The Nicene Creed, formulated at the First and Second Ecumenical Councils (325 and 381 AD), states that the Holy Spirit “proceedeth from the Father.” This quotes Christ directly (John 15:26). In the sixth century, churches in Spain began adding the Latin word filioque (“and the Son”). In 1014 AD, Pope Benedict VIII inserted the addition into the Roman liturgy. The Eastern churches never accepted it, and the filioque became one of the chief theological causes of the breach between East and West.

The Second Change: The Day

The Fourth Commandment declares the seventh day (Saturday) as the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8–11). No New Testament verse transfers this sanctity to Sunday. Constantine’s civil Sunday law came in 321 AD. A fourth-century local synod at Laodicea later forbade Christians to Judaize by resting on Saturday. Later Catholic catechetical writers presented Sunday observance as evidence for Church authority over Protestant Bible-only claims. The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1930) states: “We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”

The Pattern

The pattern is authority asserted apart from the whole Church. The Orthodox Church preserved the original Creed, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church preserved seventh-day Sabbath practice in a fuller form. The Creed remained in the East, and the seventh day remained with special force in Ethiopia; neither apostolic witness disappeared everywhere.

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