10th Century Pontifical of Poitiers and Filioque Interpolation in Interlinear Latin

 This is the 10^th century Pontifical of Poitiers. In the section for Making of a Catechumen, at the giving of the Creed, we have the Creed written in Greek in Latin letters, and then, an interlinear Latin translation.

In the transliterated Greek it just reads (on fol. 55v) as:

“Ke is to Penuma to Agion to Kyrrion ke Zoopion to ek tu Patros ek Porreugomenon.”

[“And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life-Giver, from the Father Proceeding.”]

In the Latin interlinear text, however, we notice something curious. In the original Latin text it just reads as:

“Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et Vivificantem, ex Patre Procedens.”

[“And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life-Giver, from the Father Proceeding.”]

However, you notice that a later hand, with darker ink, has tampered with the text, so that we have the following emendation:

“Qui” added to before “ex” and “Filioque” added immediate after “Patre” and the original “procedens” has been erased, and the form “procedit” put in its place.

The Gelasian form of the Latin Symbol generally read simply as “ex Patre Procedens” or sometimes "Procedentem".

Nevertheless, the Pontifical was made in the 10^th Century in Poitiers, for the Bishop of that City, and the original 10^th Century text simply had the Credo in Greek (with the interlinear gloss having a faithful translation, absent a much later interpolation).

HOWEVER, if we go only to the page after the Greek Credo is completed (56v), things get even better. There, the Credo is to be recited formally in Latin (while the interlinear text in Latin was not a formal recitation), with the formal Latin Symbol / Credo in the relevant section saying:

“Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et Vivifcatorem, ex Patre Procedentem.”

“And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, from the Father Proceeding.”]

No interpolation was attempted. So, what happened? Well, whoever took the book, and much later interpolated the interlinear Latin, apparently didn’t do a very thorough job; he simply added the forbidden “Filioque” only to the interlinear, and left the formal Latin a page later uncorrupted!

When was the interlinear text corrupted? My guess is in the 11^th Century when other cataclysmic changes happened.