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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 47
Controversy was not his natural element. Cassiodorus counts him among those who were said [241] at least to have commented on the whole of Holy Scripture. His Commentaries are the largest portion of His extant works, yet these are but a part of a larger whole [242]. From these peaceful meditations on God's word he was roused by the disturbance of his monks through writings of Nestorius.
It has been noticed already [243] that types of our Lord were the chief object of interest to him in his first book on the Pentateuch, 'on the adoration in spirit and in truth:' his faith in the Incarnation and our union to God through It, are naturally prominent, as indeed it gleams through everywhere [244]. His was the exact contrary of the mind of Theodore of Mopsuestia of the Antiochene school: as has been said of our Bishop Horne and another, 'the one sees Christ every where, the other no where.' A mind which so meditates on God's word, not on particular expressions, but on the whole, is not that of the fierce controversialist which some of late have pictured him.
* * *
It remains only to collect what has been said as to the contents of this volume.
i. The Five books against Nestorius. 'These,' it has been said [245], 'may be well called, a Defence of S. Proclus. For S. Cyril in it mainly answers the sermons preached by Nestorius against S. Proclus. For the first two books are on the Virgin being Θεοτόκος, and the term 'birth' ascribed to God; the third is of His being our Priest, Who is God; the fourth and fifth are for the most part on God suffering and dying.'
S. Cyril himself says that he undertook the work with reluctance, but that the homilies were written in a popular and attractive style and were full of heavy accusations against the doctrines of the truth, and left him no choice [246]. Nestorius is not named in it. Hence it has been inferred that the work was written before the Council of Ephesus [247]. Photius notices that 'in the first book, he refutes six heads of the blasphemies of Nestorius; in the second, 14; in the third, 6; in the fourth and fifth, 7 each.' He adds [248] that 'his mode of interpretation is framed according to his wonted way of expression, yet brought down to a lower style.'
ii. The Scholia are said by Photius to 'contain much which is useful.' S. Cyril, with his wonted simplicity, speaks of them as '[249] brief expositions of the dispensation of Christ, very good and useful.' A modern writer says, '[250] The value of the work may be inferred from this, that scarce any subsequent writer, who employed the authority of Cyril in explaining the mystery of the Incarnation, failed to take a passage or more from the Scholia.' This work also was quoted, with two other passages of S. Cyril, among the testimonies from the books of Catholic fathers, appended to the Epistle of S. Leo to the Emperor Leo [251].
241. [c] 'Ferunt.' Cassiod. Praef. ad Institt. init.
242. [d] His Commentaries on select passages of the Pentateuch, on Isaiah, the Minor Prophets, S. John, are known to all, as forming four out of the seven volumes of his works. Besides these, much of the Commentary on the Gospel of S. Luke has been preserved in the Syriac [published with a translation by Dr. Payne Smith]. Fragments of the Commentary of the Epistles to the Romans, the Corinthians, and the Hebrews were recovered from Catenae by Cardinal Mai and Dr. Cramer. The Collection, weeded of some passages wrongly ascribed to S. Cyril (as is the wont of Catenae), was edited by my son: some things were added from a MS. of Mount Athos, and the Syriac MSS. in the British Museum [S. Cyril. in D. Joan. Evang. Vol. iii. Oxon.]. Various old authorities say that he also wrote a Commentary on S.Matthew, (Tillemont, S. Cyr. d'Alexandrie Art. 158. v. fin). [The fragments on the Acts and Catholic Epistles, published by the Abbe Migne, did not appear to my son to furnish evidence of having formed a part of a regular Commentary l. c. p. 441. 445]. Of the O.T. large fragments of the Commentary on the Psalms and fragments of a Comm. on Jeremiah have been recovered by Card. Mai. It is certain that he wrote a Commentary on Ezekiel. There are not a few fragments of his Comment. on the Canticles. He also wrote on the book of Wisdom. (See Card. Mai Bibl. Nov. Patr. T. iii. Praef.)
245. [g] Garnier, Pref. to 'the fifth Sermon of Nestorius de Deo nato et Virgine Qeoto&kw|, the second against S. Proclus,' in his edition of Marius Mercator P. 2. p. 29.
247. [i] Tillemont Art S. Cyrille d'Alex. c. 156.
249. [k] Common. ad Eulogium. Conc. Eph. P. 3. n. 37.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/against-nestorius.asp?pg=47
