St Cyril of Alexandria Against Nestorius (Part 1 of 2)

Translated by P. E. Pusey

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This Part: 115 Pages

Page 25

To S. Cyril he says,

'[115][ ]Know that those hast been deceived by the Clerks of thine own persuasion, who have been deprived here by the holy Synod, because they were minded as the Manichees.'

S. Cyril in the Synodal letter [116] from Alexandria, announcing his impending excommunication, mentions those whom Nestorius had excommunicated or degraded, as he had 'indicated to Celestine the most holy Bishop of Great Rome and our fellow-bishop.' S. Celestine also requires as a condition of Communion that he should '[117] restore to the Church all excluded for the sake of Christ its Head.' In his letter to John of Antioch he supposes that this may have been done by others also.

Within Constantinople Nestorius was opposed by those whose position secured them from his aggression: by S. Proclus, appointed Bishop of Cyzicus, whom the Cyzicans declined, wishing to appoint their own Bishop, and who remained a Bishop without a see; and by Eusebius of Dorylaeum, who

'[118] being of great piety and skill among the laymen, having gathered within himself no mean learning, was moved with fervent and devout zeal, and said with piercing cry, that the Word Himself Who is before the ages endured a second Generation by that after the flesh and from a woman.'

Nestorius answered him by speaking of the 'pollution' of these wretches and saying, "that if there were two births, there must be two sons," i. e. that our 'one Lord Jesus Christ' 'could not be Begotten of the Father before all worlds' and yet 'for us men and for our salvation' be born of the Virgin Mary.

Leontius [119] says that Eusebius was also said to be the author of the parallel between Paul of Samosata and Nestorius.

Different accounts are given of the way in which the minds of the people were affected. S. Cyril says that on the Anathema pronounced by Dorotheus,

'[120] There was a great cry from all the people, and a running out [of the Church.] For they would not communicate with those so minded. And now too the people of Constantinople remain out of communion, except some of the lighter sort and his flatterers. But nearly all the monasteries and their Archimandrites and many of the senate do not communicate: fearing lest they should be wronged as to his faith and that of those with him, whom he brought when he came up from Antioch, who all speak perverse things.'

115. [v] ad S.Cyril. Ep. 5. p. 29.

116. [x] Conc. Eph. P. i. n. 26.

117. [y] Ep. ad Nest. fin. 

118. [z] See below ad Nest. i. 6. pp. 25, 26.

119. [a] Cont. Nest. et Eutych. L. iii. He says 'ut aiunt.' 

120. [b] Ep. ad Celest. Conc. Eph. P. 1. n. 16.

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