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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 38
According to the statement of John, S. Cyril wrote to him two days before the opening of the Council, that the whole Council was awaiting his arrival. He meant then to wait for him. Moderns speak of S. Cyril as arbitrary; no one has ventured to say he was fickle. Something then must have intervened, which occasioned him to yield to the wish of the Bishops. The change would be explained, if S. Cyril had come in the meantime to know of the mind, in which the Antiochenes were coming to the Council. They made no secret of it. Their deputies may have informed S. Cyril. Theodoret, who was one of them, and who at that time used Nestorianising language which was condemned at the 5th General Council, says,
'[178] Before we departed to Ephesus, the blessed John wrote to the most-God-beloved Bishop Eutherius of Tyana, and Firmus of Caesarea, and Theodotus of Ancyra, calling these Chapters, teaching of Apollinarius. And at Ephesus our deposing him of Alexandria and him of Ephesus had for its ground the setting forth and confirmation of the Chapters. And there were many Synodical letters written to the Victorious Emperor, and the High Magistrates, and in like way to the people at Constantinople, and the most reverend Clergy. And moreover, when summoned to Constantinople, we had five resolutions in the presence of the Emperor himself, and we sent three protests to him subsequently.'
These charges were the pith of the different documents put forth by John's Conciliabulum. Of course, contravention of the Emperor's orders was put in the forefront; but no assembly, calling itself a Synod, could have deposed a Patriarch and a Bishop for neglecting or contravening the orders of an Emperor. The heresy alleged could be the only ground of deposition. John set forth this in the preamble which was accepted by his Conciliabulum.
'[179] I would that no one of those set apart as priests of God should be cast out of the Church. But since the excision of incurable members is necessary for the health of the whole body, it is meet that Cyril and Memnon should be deposed, as the chiefs of the past lawlessness and of the trampling upon Ecclesiastical ordinances and the pious decrees of our most pious Emperor, and on account of the heretical meaning of the aforesaid Chapters, and that those subject to them should be excommunicated, until, recognizing their offence, they anathematize the heretical Chapters of Cyril, and agree to abide by the holy faith set forth by the holy fathers assembled at Nice, not superadding any thing other than it or foreign to godliness, and come together according to the pious letter of our most pious Emperor and examine as brothers the subjects of enquiry, and establish the pious faith.'
This same note sounds throughout, in every document of John's Conciliabulum [180].
179. [o] Acta Conciliab. post Conc. Eph. Act. 1.
180. [p] The Synod speaks of 'the Chapters sent lately to Constantinople by Cyril, as agreeing mostly with the impiety of Arius, Apollinarius, and Eunomius;' 'the Sentence' states that the Synod was 'hurried by Cyril, in order that the Chapters which agree with the evil and ungodly doctrine of Apollinarius and Arms and Eunomius might not be enquired into.' The letter to the other Bishops of the Council whom they had excommunicated, says that they had 'abetted the lawless things done by Cyril of Alexandria and Memnon the Ephesian, and maintained intercourse with men of an heretical mind.' They tell the Emperor, that they had so done, 'until they cast out and anathematize the Chapters sent out by Cyril, full of the evil doctrine of Apollinarius and Eunomius and Arius.' John, in his own letter to the Clergy of Constantinople, says that the sentence was passed 'until they anathematize the heretical Chapters of Cyril the Alexandrian, and receive without guile the faith of the holy fathers gathered at Nice.' To the Senate in Constantinople, they speak of their 'ceasing from their heretical and evil doctrine and recovering the faith of the holy fathers of Nice,' as the condition of their being restored. To the people of Constantinople they say, that they 'do not refuse repentance to the deposed and excommunicate, but would open the doors of loving-kindness, if they will very speedily anathematize the Chapters sent out by Cyril, which are alien from the Apostolic and Evangelic teaching.' They still repeat in their Relation to the Queens, that they 'had deposed Cyril and Memnon, and removed them from the Episcopate, until they become conscious of their wounds and truly repent and anathematize the heretical Chapters of Cyril, agreeing with this impiety of Apollinarius etc.' (Acta Conciliabuli post Act. 1, Conc. Eph.) The like was repeated in the later Acta of the Conciliabulum and in Theodoret.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/against-nestorius.asp?pg=38
