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Translated by P. E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 115 Pages
Page 18
The outward change was sudden, Vincentius too says,
'[77][ ]What a temptation was that lately, when this unhappy Nestorius, suddenly changed from a sheep to a wolf, began to rend the flock of Christ, when they too who were torn, in great part still believed him to be a sheep, and so the more easily fell into his jaws!'
Theodoret [][78] , who had for so many years defended him, after he had once condemned him at Chalcedon, spoke more severely of him than any other writer. Theodoret was of an affectionate disposition. The great bane of his life was, that he would believe any evil of S. Cyril, rather than suspect his former friend Nestorius to be in the wrong. Under this prejudice, he believed S. Cyril to be an Apollinarian which he was not, rather than suspect Nestorius to be the heretic which he was. When then S. Leo espoused his cause against the worthless successor of S. Cyril, Dioscorus, and shewed at once how the two opposite heresies of Eutyches and Nestorius were equally inconsistent with Catholic truth, his eyes may have been opened, and he may have felt towards Nestorius as the occasion to him of an almost lifelong error, from which he was rescued by his own deposition and disgrace. Nestorius too had, as far as was known, died unrepentant in an heresy which denied the Incarnation. His later account of Nestorius is,
'[79] From the first, Nestorius shewed what he was going to be all his life through: that he cultivated a mere popular eloquence, eliciting empty applause and attracting to himself the unstable multitude; that he went about, clad in a mourning garment, walking heavily, avoiding public throngs, seeking by the pallor of his looks to appear ascetic, at home mostly given to books and living quietly by himself. He went on to advanced age enticing the many by such habits and counterfeits, seeking to seem to be a Christian rather than to be one, and preferring his own glory to the glory of Christ.'
The course of his heresy Theodoret describes in summary.
'[79] The first step of his innovation was that we must not confess the Holy Virgin who bare the Word of God having taken flesh of her, to be Theotocos, but Christotocos only, whereas the heralds of the orthodox faith long ago (tw~n pa&lai kai\ pro&palai) taught to call her Theotocos, and believe her the Mother of the Lord.'
Then he mentions the plea of Nestorius,
'that the name Christ signifies the two Natures, the Godhead and Manhood of the Only-Begotten, but that of God absolutely the simple and incorporeal essence of God the Word; and that of man the human nature alone; therefore it is necessary to confess the Virgin to be Christotocos and not Theotocos, lest unawares we say that God the Word took the beginning of His Being from the holy Virgin, and so should be obliged consistently to confess that the Mother was older than He Who was born of her.'
78. [h] Haeret. Fab. iv. 12. Leontius (A. D. 610.) quotes this work in proof how Theodoret held Nestorius in abhorrence, (against a spurious correspondence between Theodoret and Nestorius in which they were made to acknowledge each other) de sectis. iv. 5. Photius (cod. 56.) says of this work of Theodoret, which he had read, 'he goes down to Nestorius and his heresy, pouring upon him unmingled censure. He goes on also to the Eutychian heresy,' (the two last chapters of the ivth. book.) No one attends now to Garnier's paradox that the account of Nestorius was substituted from a younger Theodoret for the original statement of Theodoret, while the account of Eutyches connected with it is to be from Theodoret himself.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/against-nestorius.asp?pg=18
