XLVII.

g

CHAP. from the divinity of the Lord Jesus. The Blessed Virgin he revered as the mother of Christ, but his ears were offended with the rash and recent title of mother of God," which had been insensibly adopted since the origin of the Arian controversy. From the pulpit of Constantinople, a friend of the patriarch, and afterwards the patriarch himself, repeatedly preached against the use, or the abuse, of a wordi unknown to the apostles, unauthorised by the church, and which could only tend to alarm the timorous, to mislead the simple, to amuse the profane, and to justify, by a seeming resemblance, the old genealogy of Olympus. In his calmer moments Nestorius confessed, that it might be tolerated or excused by the union of the two natures, and the communication of their idioms: but he was exasperated, by contradiction, to disclaim the worship of a new-born, an infant Deity, to draw his inadequate similes from

k

8 La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 44-53. Thesaurus Epistolicus La Crozianus, tom. iii. p. 276-280), has detected the use of i diσorns and o xugios Inσous, which, in the ivth, vth, and vith centuries, discriminate the school of Diodorus of Tarsus and his Nestorian disciples.

hOsoToxos-Deipara: as in zoology we familiarly speak of oviparous and viviparous animals. It is not easy to fix the invention of this word, which La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 16) ascribes to Eusebius of Cæsarea and the Arians. The orthodox testimonies are produced by Cyril and Petavius (Dogmat. Theolog. tom. v. 1. v. c. 15. p. 254, &c.); but the veracity of the saint is questionable, and the epithet of soroxos so easily slides from the margin to the text of a Catholic MS.

i Basnage, in his Histoire de l'Eglise, a work of controversy (tom. i. p. 505), justifies the mother, by the blood, of God (Acts, xx. 28. with Mill's various readings). But the Greek MSS. are far from unanimous; and the primitive style of the blood of Christ is preserved in the Syriac version, even in those copies which were used by the Christians of St. Thomas on the coast of Malabar (La Croze, Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 347). The jealousy of the Nestorians and Monophysites has guarded the purity of their text.

¿ The Pagans of Egypt already laughed at the new Cybele of the Christians (Isidor. 1. i. epist. 54); a letter was forged in the name of Hypatia, to ridicule the theology of her assassin (Synodicon, c. 216. in iv. tom. Concil. p. 484). In the article of NESTORIUS, Bayle has scattered some loose philosophy on the worship of the Virgin Mary.

The avridoris of the Greeks, a mutual loan or transfer of the idioms or properties of each nature to the other-of infinity to man, passibility to God, &c. Twelve rules on this nicest of subjects compose the Theological Grammar of Petavius (Dogmata Theolog. tom. v. 1. iv. c. 14, 15. p. 209, &c.).

n

n

is.

the

and

La

area

vius

the

rgin

05),

rious

itive

those

abar

Nes

tians

icule

In

on the

pro

, &c.

nar of

1

XLVII.

the conjugal or civil partnerships of life, and to de- CHAP.
scribe the manhood of Christ as the robe, the in-
strument, the tabernacle of his Godhead. At these
blasphemous sounds, the pillars of the sanctuary were
shaken. The unsuccessful competitors of Nestorius
indulged their pious or personal resentment, the
Byzantine clergy was secretly displeased with the
intrusion of a stranger; whatever is superstitious or
absurd might claim the protection of the monks;
and the people was interested in the glory of their
virgin patroness. The sermons of the archbishop,
and the service of the altar, were disturbed by sedi-
tious clamour; his authority and doctrine were re-
nounced by separate congregations; every wind scat-
tered round the empire the leaves of controversy;
and the voice of the combatants on a sonorous theatre
re-echoed in the cells of Palestine and Egypt. It
was the duty of Cyril to enlighten the zeal and
ignorance of his innumerable monks: in the school
of Alexandria, he had imbibed and professed the in-
carnation of one nature; and the successor of Atha-
nasius consulted his pride and ambition, when he rose
in arms against another Arius, more formidable and
more guilty, on the second throne of the hierarchy.
After a short correspondence, in which the rival pre-
lates disguised their hatred in the hollow language
of respect and charity, the patriarch of Alexandria
denounced to the prince and people, to the East and
to the West, the damnable errors of the Byzantine
pontiff. From the East, more especially from An-
tioch, he obtained the ambiguous counsels of tolera-
tion and silence, which were addressed to both parties
while they favoured the cause of Nestorius. But the
Vatican received with open arms the messengers of
Egypt. The vanity of Celestine was flattered by the
appeal; and the partial version of a monk decided
1 See Ducange, C. P. Christiana, 1. i. p. 30, &c.

XLVII.

CHAP. the faith of the pope, who, with his Latin clergy, was ignorant of the language, the arts, and the theology of the Greeks. At the head of an Italian synod, Celestine weighed the merits of the cause, approved the creed of Cyril, condemned the sentiments and person of Nestorius, degraded the heretic from his episcopal dignity, allowed a respite of ten days for recantation and penance, and delegated to his enemy the execution of this rash and illegal sentence. But the patriarch of Alexandria, whilst he darted the thunders of a god, exposed the errors and passions of a mortal; and his twelve anathemas still torture the orthodox slaves, who adore the memory of a saint, without forfeiting their allegiance to the synod of Chalcedon. These bold assertions are indelibly tinged with the colours of the Apollinarian heresy; but the serious, and perhaps the sincere, professions of Nestorius have satisfied the wiser and less partial theologians of the present times.'

First
council of
Ephesus,

A.D. 431,
June-
October.

m

n

Yet neither the emperor nor the primate of the East were disposed to obey the mandate of an Italian priest; and a synod of the Catholic, or rather of the Greek church, was unanimously demanded as the sole remedy that could appease or decide this ecclesiastical quarrel. Ephesus, on all sides accessible by sea and

m Concil. tom. iii. p. 943. They have never been directly approved by the church (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 368-372). I almost pity the agony of rage and sophistry with which Petavius seems to be agitated in the vith book of his Dogmata Theologica.

■ Such as the rational Basnage (ad tom. i. Variar. Lection. Canisii in Præfat. c. ii. p. 11-23), and La Croze, the universal scholar (Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 16—20. De l'Ethiopie, p. 26, 27. Thesaur. Epist. p. 176, &c. 283. 285). His free sentence is confirmed by that of his friends Jablonski (Thesaur. Epist. tom. i. p. 193-201) and Mosheim (idem, p. 304. Nestorium crimine caruisse est et mea sententia); and three more respectable judges will not easily be found. Asseman, a learned and modest slave, can hardly discern (Bibliothec. Orient. tom. iv. p. 190-224) the guilt and error of the Nestorians.

• The origin and progress of the Nestorian controversy, till the synod of Ephesus, may be found in Socrates (1. vii. c. 32), Evagrius (1. i. c. 1, 2), Liberatus (Brev. c. 1—4), the original Acts (Concil. tom. iii. p. 551-991. edit. Venise, 1728), the Annals of Baronius and Pagi, and the faithful collections of Tillemont (Mem. Eccles, tom. xiv. p. 283—377).

XLVII.

land, was chosen for the place, the festival of Pente- CHAP. cost for the day, of the meeting; a writ of summons was despatched to each metropolitan, and a guard was stationed to protect and confine the fathers till they should settle the mysteries of heaven, and the faith of the earth. Nestorius appeared not as a criminal, but as a judge; he depended on the weight rather than the number of his prelates, and his sturdy slaves from the baths of Zeuxippus were armed for every service of injury or defence. But his adversary Cyril was more powerful in the weapons both of the flesh and of the spirit. Disobedient to the letter, or at least to the meaning, of the royal summons, he was attended by fifty Egyptian bishops, who expected from their patriarch's nod the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He had contracted an intimate alliance with Memnon, bishop of Ephesus. The despotic primate of Asia disposed of the ready succours of thirty or forty episcopal votes: a crowd of peasants, the slaves of the church, was poured into the city to support with blows and clamours a metaphysical argument; and the people zealously asserted the honour of the Virgin, whose body reposed within the walls of Ephesus. The fleet which had transported Cyril from Alexandria was laden with the riches of Egypt; and he disembarked a numerous body of mariners, slaves, and fanatics, enlisted with blind obedience under the banner of St. Mark and the mother of God. The fathers, and even the guards, of the council were awed by this martial array; the adversaries of Cyril and Mary were insulted in the streets, or threatened in

P

P The Christians of the four first centuries were ignorant of the death and burial of Mary. The tradition of Ephesus is affirmed by the synod (εvlɑ ö Θεολόγος Ιωάννης, και ἡ θεοτοκος παρθενος ἡ ἁγια Μαρια. Concil. tom. iii. p. 1102); yet it has been superseded by the claim of Jerusalem; and her empty sepulchre, as it was shown to the pilgrims, produced the fable of her resurrection and assumption, in which the Greek and Latin churches have piously acquiesced. See Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 48, No 6, &c.), and Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. i. p. 467-477).

XLVII.

q

r

CHAP. their houses; his eloquence and liberality made a daily increase in the number of his adherents; and the Egyptian soon computed that he might command the attendance and the voices of two hundred bishops. But the author of the twelve anathemas foresaw and dreaded the opposition of John of Antioch, who, with a small, though respectable, train of metropolitans and divines, was advancing by slow journeys from the distant capital of the East. Impatient of a delay which he stigmatized as voluntary and culpable, Cyril announced the opening of the synod sixteen days after the festival of Pentecost. Nestorius, who depended on the near approach of his eastern friends, persisted, like his predecessor Chrysostom, to disclaim the jurisdiction, and to disobey the summons, of his enemies: they hastened his trial, and his accuser presided in the seat of judgment. Sixty-eight bishops, twenty-two of metropolitan rank, defended his cause by a modest and temperate protest: they were excluded from the councils of their brethren. Candidian, in the emperor's name, requested a delay of four days: the profane magistrate was driven with outrage and insult from the assembly Condemna- of the saints. The whole of this momentous transtorius, June action was crowded into the compass of a summer's day: the bishops delivered their separate opinions; but the uniformity of style reveals the influence or the hand of a master, who has been accused of corrupting the public evidence of their acts and sub

tion of Nes

22.

4 The Acts of Chalcedon (Concil. tom. iv. p. 1405. 1408) exhibit a lively picture of the blind, obstinate servitude of the bishops of Egypt to their patriarch. * Civil or ecclesiastical business detained the bishops at Antioch till the 18th of May. Ephesus was at the distance of thirty days' journey; and ten days more may be fairly allowed for accidents and repose. The march of Xenophon over the same ground enumerates above 260 parasangs or leagues; and this measure might be illustrated from ancient and modern itineraries, if I knew how to compare the speed of an army, a synod, and a caravan. John of Antioch is reluctantly acquitted by Tillemont himself (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 386— 389).