OPPOSITION OF THE ORIENTALS.

653

gave audience to Candidian the imperial minister; who related his ineffectual efforts to prevent or to annul the hasty violence of the Egyptian. With equal haste and violence, the Oriental synod of fitty bishops degraded Cyril and Memnon from their episcopal honors, condemned, in the twelve anathemas, the purest venom of the Apollinarian heresy, and described the Alexandrian primate as a monster, born and educated for the destruction of the church." His throne was distant and inaccessible; but they instantly resolved to bestow on the flock of Ephesus the blessing of a faithful shepherd. By the vigilance of Memnon, the churches were shut against them, and a strong garrison was thrown into the cathedral. The troops, under the command of Candidian, advanced to the assault; the outguards were routed and put to the sword, but the place was impregnable: the besiegers retired; their retreat was pursued by a vigorous sally; they lost their horses, and many of the soldiers were dangerously wounded with clubs and stones. Ephesus, the city of the Virgin, was defiled with rage and clamor, with sedition and blood; the rival synods darted anathemas and excommunications from their spiritual engines; and the court of Theodosius was perplexed by the adverse and contradictory narratives of the Syrian and Egyptian factions. During a busy period of three months, the emperor tried every method, except the most effectual means of indifference and contempt, to reconcile this theological quarrel. He attempted to remove or intimidate the leaders by a common sentence of acquittal or condemnation; he invested his representatives at Ephesus with ample power and military force: he summoned from either party eight chosen deputies to a free and candid conference in the neighborhood of the capital, far from the contagion of popular frenzy. But the Orientals refused to yield, and the Catholics, proud of their numbers and of their Latin allies, rejected all terms of union or toleration. The patience of the meek Theodosius was provoked, and he dissolved in anger this episcopal tumult, which at the distance of thirteen centuries, assumes the venerable aspect of the third ecumenical council." "God is my witness," 46 Ο δὲ ἐπ' ὀλέθρῳ τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν τεχθεὶς καὶ τραφείς. After the coalition of John and Cyril, these invectives were mutually forgotten. The style of declamation must never be confounded with the genuine sense which respectable enemies entertain of each other's merit, (Concil. tom. iii. p. 1244).

47 See the acts of the synod of Ephesus in the original Greek, and a Latin version almost contemporary, (Concil. tom. iu. pp. 991-1332, with the Synodicon adversus Tragedian Ireni, tom. iv. pp. 235-497), the Ecclesiastical Histories of

said the pious prince, "that I am not the author of this "confusion. His providence will discern and punish the "guilty. Return to your provinces, and may your private "virtues repair the mischief and scandal of your meeting." They returned to their provinces; but the same passions which had distracted the synod of Ephesus were diffused over the Eastern world. After three obstinate and equal campaigns, John of Antioch and Cyril of Alexandria condescended to explain and embrace: but their seeming re-union must be imputed rather to prudence than to reason, to the mutual lassitude, rather than to the Christian charity, of the patriarchs.

Victory of

The Byzantine pontiff had instilled into the Cyril, royal ear a baleful prejudice against the character A. D. 431-435 and conduct of his Egyptian rival. An epistle of menace and invective," which accompanied the summons, accused him as a busy, insolent, and envious priest, who perplexed the simplicity of the faith, violated the peace of the church and state, and, by his artful and separate addresses to the wife and sister of Theodosius, presumed to suppose, or to scatter, the seeds of discord in the imperial family. At the stern command of his sovereign, Cyril had repaired to Ephesus, where he was resisted, threatened, and confined, by the magistrates in the interest of Nestorius and the Orientals; who assembled the troops of Lydia and Ionia to suppress the fanatic and disorderly train of the patriarch. Without expecting the royal license, he escaped from his guards, precipitately embarked, deserted the imperfect synod, and retired to his episcopal fortress of safety and independence. But his artful emissaries, both in the court and city, successfully labored to appease the resentment, and to conciliate the favor, of the emperor. The feeble son of Arcadius was alternately swayed by his wife and sister, by the eunuchs and women of the palace: superstition and avarice were their ruling passions; and the orthodox chiefs were assiduous in their endeavors to Socrates, (1. vii. c. 34), and Evagrius, (l. i. c. 3, 4, 5), and the Breviary of Liberatus (in Concil. tom. vi. pp. 419-459, c. 5, 6), and Memoires Eccles. of Tillemont, (tom. xiv. pp. 377-487.)

*

*

48 Ταραχήν, (says the emperor in pointed language), τό γε ἐπὶ σαυτῳ καὶ χωρισμὸν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ἐμβέβληκας * * * ὡς θρασυτέρας ὁρμῆς πρέπουσες μᾶλλον ἢ ἀκριβείαις καὶ ποικιλίας μᾶλλον τούτων ἡμῖν ύσης ἤπερ ἀπλότητος * * * παντὸς μᾶλλον ἢ ἱέρεως ** τά τε τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν, τά τε τῶν βασιλέων μέλλειν χωρίζειν βούλεσθαι, ὡς οὐκ οὔσης ἀφορμῆς ἑτέρας Evdokiμnoεwe. I should be curious to know how much Nestorius paid for these expressions, so mortifying to his rival.

THE THRONE ASSAULTED WITH GOLD.

655

alarm the former, and to gratify the latter. Constantinople and the suburbs were sanctified with frequent monasteries, and the holy abbots, Dalmatius and Eutyches," had devoted their zeal and fidelity to the cause of Cyril, the worship of Mary, and the unity of Christ. From the first moment of their monastic life, they had never mingled with the world, or trod the profane ground of the city. But in this awful moment of the danger of the church, their vow was superseded by a more sublime and indispensable duty. At the head of a long order of monks and hermits, who carried burning tapers in their hands, and chanted litanies to the mother of God, they proceeded from their monasteries to the palace. The people were edified and inflamed by this extraordinary spectacle, and the trembling monarch listened to the prayers and adjurations of the saints, who boldly pronounced, that none could hope for salvation, unless they embraced the person and the creed of the orthodox successor of Athanasius. At the same time every avenue of the throne was assaulted with gold. Under the decent names of eulogies and benedictions, the courtiers of both sexes were bribed according to the measure of their power and rapaciousness. But their incessant demands despoiled the sanctuaries of Constantinople and Alexandria; and the authority of the patriarch was unable to silence the just murmur of his clergy, that a debt o. sixty thousand pounds had already been contracted to support the expense of this scandalous corruption. Pulcheria, who relieved her 49 Eutyches, the heresiarch Eutyches, is honorably named by Cyril as a friend, a saint, and the strenuous defender of the faith. His brother, the abbot Dalmatius, is likewise employed to bind the emperor and all his chamberlains terribili conjuratione. Synodicon, c. 203, in Concil tom. iv. p. 467.*

50

50 Clerici qui hic sunt contristantur, quod ecclesia Alexandrina nudata sit hujus causa turbelæ; et debet præter illa quæ hinc transmissa sint auri libras mille quingentas. Et nunc ei scriptum est ut præstet; sed de tua ecclesia præsta avaritiæ quorum nosti, &c. This curious and original letter from Cyril's archdeacon to his creature, the new bishop of Constantinople, s been unaccountably preserved in an old Latin version, (Synodicon, c. 203, Concil. tom. iv. pp. 465-468). The mask is almost dropped, and the saints speak the honest language of interest and confederacy.†

"

*Neander, (Hist. of Chris. 4. 164), quoting Harduin, says, that “Dalmatius was a writer in one of the imperial bureaux, and had a wife and children." He was persuaded by a venerated monk, Isacios, to join the fraternity, in which he obtained great influence and became Archimandrite. The emperor sometimes visited him in his cell; but never could prevail upon him to leave his solitude, even to take part in the public penitential processions, when the frequent earthquakes filled Constantinople with alarm. It was usual for new patriarchs to pay their respects to him. But Dalmatius refused to admit Nestorius, of whom he said, "An evil beast has come among us, to injure many by his doctrines." For eight and forty years he had never left his cell, till his hatred of the patriarch and the influence of Cyril moved him to the extraordinary effort here exhibited.-E. C. This letter from Epiphanius to Maximianus was preserved by Theodoret. (Neander. 4, 173.)-ENG. CH.

656

EXILE OF NESTORIUS.

brother from the weight of an empire, was the firmest pillar of orthodoxy; and so intimate was the alliance between the thunders of the synod and the whispers of the court, that Cyril was assured of success if he could displace one eunuch, and substitute another in the favor of Theodosius. Yet the Egyptian could not boast of a glorious or decisive victory. The emperor, with unaccustomed firmness, adhered to his promise of protecting the innocence of the Oriental bishops; and Cyril softened his anathemas, and confessed, with ambiguity and reluctance, a two-fold nature of Christ, before he was permitted to satiate his revenge against the unfortunate Nestorius."

Exile of Nestorius, A. D. 435.

52

The rash and obstinate Nestorius, before the end of the synod, was oppressed by Cyril, betrayed by the court, and faintly supported by his Eastern friends. A sentiment of fear or indignation prompted him, while it was yet time, to affect the glory of a voluntary abdication; his wish, or at least his request, was readily granted; he was conducted with honor from Ephesus to his old monastery of Antioch; and, after a short pause, his successors, Maximian and Proclus, were acknowledged as the lawful bishops of Constantinople. But in the silence of his cell, the degraded patriarch could no longer resume the innocence and security of a private monk. The past he regretted, he was discontented with

61 The tedious negotiations that succeeded the synod of Ephesus are diffusely related in the original Acts, (Concil. tom. iii. pp. 1339-1771, ad fin. vol. and the Synodicon, in tom. iv.), Socrates, (1. vii. c. 28, 35, 40, 41,), Evagrius, 1. 1. c. 6, 7, 8, 12), Liberatus, (c. 7-10), Tillemont, (Mēm. Eccles. tom. xiv. pp. 487-676). The most patient reader will thank me for compressing so much nonsense and falsehood in a few lines.

52 Αὐτοῦ τε αὖ δεηθέντος, ἐπετράπη κατὰ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἐπαναζεῦξαι μοναστήριον. Evagrius, 1. i. c. 7. The original letters in the Synodicon, (c. 15, 24, 25, 26), justify the appearance of a voluntary resignation, which is asserted by Ebed-Jesu, a Nestorian writer, apud Asseman, Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iii. pp. 299, 302.*

*Nestorius was deposed by an imperial edict; and, at his own humble request, was permitted to return to his monastery at Antioch-GERM. Ed.

The circumstantial narrative of Neander, (4, 166-170), gives a very different aspect to the fall of Nestorius. Wearied and harassed by the restless hostility of Cyril, he wrote to the imperial chamberlain, Scholasticus, saying, that if " the "maintenance of the true faith could be secured, he would gladly return to his "cloister and its blessed tranquillity." Obeying his sister Pulcheria and disturbed, by the insinuations of Cyril's bribed advocates, the weak Theodosius availed himself of this letter, and through the prætorian prefect informed Nestorius, but without any manifestation of unfriendly feeling, that "the necessary orders had been given for his returning, in the most convenient and de"sirable manner, to his cloister." In reply to this, the patriarch resigned his office, again commending to the emperor "the care of maintaining pure doctrine." There are no proofs of his having engaged in any intrigues after his retirement; but he had many friends in Constantinople; and after the death of his successor Maximianus the populace clamored for his restoration. This induced his enemies to obtain an order for his removal to a greater distance, and his subsequent persecution.-ENG. CH.

EXILE AND DEATH OF NESTORIUS.

53

657

the present, and the future he had reason to dread: the oriental bishops successively disengaged their cause from his unpopular name, and each day decreased the number of the schismatics who revered Nestorius as the confessor of the faith. After a residence at Antioch of four years, the hand of Theodosius subscribed an edict, which ranked him with Simon the magician, proscribed his opinions and followers, condemned his writings to the flames, and banished his person first to Petra in Arabia, and at length to Oasis, one of the islands of the Libyan desert." Secluded from the church and from the world, the exile was still pursued by the rage of bigotry and war. A wandering tribe of the Blemmyes or Nubians invaded his solitary prison: in their retreat they dismissed a crowd of useless captives; but no sooner had Nestorius reached the banks of the Nile, than he would gladly have escaped from a Roman and orthodox city to the milder servitude of the savages. His flight was punished as a new crime: the soul of the patriarch inspired the civil and ecclesiastical powers of Egypt; the magistrates, the soldiers, the monks, devoutly tortured the enemy of Christ and St. Cyril; and, as far as the confines of Ethiopia, the heretic was alternately dragged and recalled, till his aged body was broken by the hardships and accidents of

53 See the imperial letters in the Acts of the Synod of Ephesus, (Concil. tom. iii. pp. 1730-1735). The odious name of Simonians, which was affixed to the disciples of this τερατώδους διδασκαλίας, was designed ὡς ἂν ονείδεσι προβληθέντες αἰώνιον ὑπομένοιεν τιμωρίαν τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων, καὶ μήτε ζῶντας τιμωρίας, μήτε θανόντας ἀτιμίας ἐκτὸς ὑπάρχειν. Yet these were Christians ! who differed only in names and in shadow.

54 The metaphor of islands is applied by the grave civilians, (Pandect. 1. xlviii. tit. 22. leg. 7), to those happy spots which are discriminated by water and verdure from the Libyan sands. Three of these under the common name of Oasis, or Alvahat: 1. The temple of Jupiter Ammon. 2. The middle Oasis, three days' journey to the west of Lycopolis. 3. The southern where Nestorius was banished, in the first climate, and only three days' journey from the confines of Nubia. See a learned note of Michaelis, (ad Descript. Egypt. Abulfedæ, p. 21-34).*

I The Oasis of Sivah has been visited by Mons. Drovetti and Mr. Browne. 2. The little Oasis, that of El Kassar, was visited and described by Belzoni. 3. The great Oasis, and its splendid ruins, have been well described in the travels of Sir A. Edmonstone. To these must be added another Western Oasis, also visited by Sir A. Edmonstone.-MILMAN.

The most sensible meaning, assigned to the word Oasis, derives it from Ouah, the plural of Wah, Arab. for a dwelling; so that it denotes an inhabited spot in the desert. Herodotus mentions but one, which he calls an "island of the blest." The three named by Gibbon, were known in the time of Strabo. Many more have since been discovered, which Browne, Burckhardt, Belzoni and other travelers have described. There is no satisfactory evidence that they were ever used as penal solitudes, prior to the building of Constantinople. The first on record who sent refractory opponents there is Constantius, and the emperor Julian is said to have imitated him From that time, deportation to them was a punishment held to be second only to that of death. Justinian relaxed its severity into a “relegatio ad tempus." The Notitia Imperii proves that Roman garrisons were kept there.-ENG. CH.