XLVII. CHAP. mands defpoiled the fanctuaries of Conftantinople and Alexandria; and the authority of the patriarch was unable to filence the just murmur of his clergy, that a debt of fixty thousand pounds had already been contracted to fupport the expence of this scandalous corruption ". Pulcheria, who relieved her brother from the weight of an empire, was the firmest pillar of orthodoxy; and fo intimate was the alliance between the thunders of the fynod and the whispers of the court, that Cyril was affured of fuccefs if he could difplace one eunuch, and substitute another in the favour of Theodofius. Yet the Egyptian could not boast of a glorious or decifive victory. The emperor, with unaccustomed firmness, adhered to his promife of protecting the innocence of the Oriental bishops; and Cyril foftened his anathemas, and confeffed, with ambiguity and reluctance, a twofold nature of Christ, before he was permitted to fatiate his revenge against the unfortunate Neftorius " Clerici qui hic funt contriftantur, quod ecclefia Alexandrina pudata fit hujus causâ turbela: et debet præter illa quæ hinc tranfmiffa fint auri libras mille quingintas. Et nunc ei fcriptum eft ut præftet; fed de tuâ ecclefia præfta avaritiæ quorum nofti, &c. This curious and original letter, from Cyril's archdeacon to his creature the new bishop of Conftantinople, has been unaccountably preserved in an old Latin version (Synodicon, c. 203. Concil. tom. iv. p. 465468.). The mafk is almost dropped, and the faints speak the honeft language of intereft and confederacy. t 1 The tedious negotiations that fucceeded the fynod of Ephefus are diffusely related in the original Acts (Concil. tom. iii. p. 1339 -1771. ad fin. yol. and the Synodicon, in tom. iv.), Socrates (1. vii. c. 28. 35. 40, 41.), Eyagrius (1, i. c. 6, 7, 8. 12.), Liberatus (c 7-10.), Tillemont (Mem Ecclef. tom. xiv. p. 487676.). The moft patient reader will thank me for compreffing fo much nonfenfe and falfehood in a few lines. The XLVII. Neftorius, The rash and obftinate Neftorius, before the CHAP. end of the fynod, was oppreffed by Cyril, betrayed by the court, and faintly fupported by his Eaftern Exile of friends. A fentiment of fear or indignation A. D. 435 prompted him, while it was yet time, to affect the glory of a voluntary abdication "2; his wifh, or at leaft his request, was readily granted; he was conducted with honour from Ephesus to his old monastery of Antioch; and, after a fhort paufe, his fucceffors, Maximian and Proclus, were acknowledged as the lawful bishops of Conftantinople. But in the filence 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 the prefent, and the future he had reason to dread: the Oriental bishops fucceffively difengaged their cause from his unpopular name, and each day decreased the number of the fchifmatics who revered Neftorius as the confeffor of the faith. After a refidence at Antioch of four years, the hand of Theodofius fubfcribed an edict ", which ranked him with Simon the magician, profcribed his opinions and followers, con 52 Αυτό τε αυδηθεντα, επετράπη κατα το οικέσον επαναζευσαι μοναστηριον. Evagrius, l. i. c. 7. The original letters in the Synodicon (c. 15. 24, 25, 26.) justify the appearance of a voluntary resignation, which is afferted by Ebed-Jefu, a Neftorian writer, apud Affeman, Bibliot, Oriental. tom. iii. p. 299. 302. 53 See the Imperial letters in the Acts of the Synod of Ephefus (Concil. tom. iii. p. 1730-1735. The odious name of Simonians, which was afixed to the difciples of this τερατώδες διδασκαλίας, Was defigned αν ονείδεσι προβληθεντες αιωνιον ὑπομενοιεν τιμωρνιαν των αμαρτημάτων, και μητε ζωντας τιμωρίας, μητε θανόντας ατιμίας εκτό υπαρχειν. Yet thefe were Christians! who differed only in names and in fhadows. demned A CHAP. demned his writings to the flames, and banifhed XLVII. his perfon first to Petra in Arabia, and at length to Oafis, one of the islands of the Libyan defert ". 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 folitary prifon in their retreat they difmiffed a crowd of useless captives; but no fooner had Neftorius reached the banks of the Nile, than he would gladly have escaped from a Roman and orthodox city to the milder fervitude of the favages. His flight was punished as a new crime; the foul of the patriarch inspired the civil and ecclefiaftical powers of Egypt; the magistrates, the foldiers, the monks, devoutly tortured the enemy of Chrift 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 these reiterated journies. Yet his mind was ftill independent and erect; the prefident of Thebais was awed by his paftoral letters; he furvived the Catholic tyrant of Alexandria, and, after fixteen years banifhment, the fynod of Chalcedon would perhaps have restored him to the honours, or at least to the 54 The metaphor of islands is applied by the grave civilians (Pandect. 1. xlviii. tit. 22. leg. 7,) to thofe happy spots which are difcriminated by water and verdure from the Libyan fands. Three of thefe under the common name of Oafis, or Alvahat: 1. The temple of Jupiter Ammon. 2. The middle Oafis, three days journey to the west of Lycopolis. 3 The fouthern, where Neftorius was banished, in the first climate, and only three days journey from the confines of Nubia. See a learned Note of Michaelis (ad Defcript. Ægypt. Abulfedæ, p. 21–346 commu communion, of the church. The death of Nef. torius prevented his obedience to their welcome fummons "; and his disease might afford fome colour to the scandalous report, that his tongue, the organ of blafphemy, had been eaten by the worms. He was buried in a city of Upper Egypt, known by the names of Chemnis, or Panopolis, or Akmim 56 ; but the immortal malice of the Jacobites has perfevered for ages to caft ftones against his fepulchre, and to propagate the foolish tradition, that it was never watered by the rain of heaven, which equally defcends on the righteous and the ungodly 57. Humanity may drop a tear on the fate of Neftorius: yet justice must observe, that he fuffered the perfecution which he had approved and inflicted 58. 55 The invitation of Neftorius to the fynod of Chalcedon, is related by Zacherias, bishop of Melitene (Evagrius, 1. ii. c. 2. Affe man. Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 55.), and the famous Xenaias or Philoxenus, bishop of Hierapolis (Affeman, Bibliot Orient. tom. ii. P. 40, &c.), denied by Evagrius and Affeman, and ftoutly maintained by La Groze (Thefaur. Epiftol. tom. iii. p. 181, &c.). The fact is not improbable; yet it was the intereft of the Monophofites to spread the invidious report; and Eutychius (tom. ii. p. 12.) affirms, that Neftorius died after an exile of seven years, and confequently ten years before the fynod of Chalcedon. 56 Confult d'Anville (Memoire fur l'Egypte, p. 191.), Pocock (Description of the Eaft, vol. i. p. 76.), Abulfeda (Defcript. Egypt. p. 14.) and his commentator Michaelis (Not. p. 78-83.), and the Nubian Geographer (p. 41.), who mentions, in the xiith century, the ruins and the fugar-canes of Akmim. 57 Eutychius (Annal, tom. ii. p. 12.) and Gregory Bar-Hebræus, or Abulpharagius (Affeman, tom. ii. p, 316.), represent the credulity of the xth and xiiith centuries. 58 We are obliged to Evagrius (1. i, c. 7.) for some extracts from the letters of Neftorius; but the lively picture of his sufferings is treated with infult by the hard and stupid fanatic. CHA P. XLVII. СНАР. Herefy of The death of the Alexandrian primate, after a reign of thirty-two years, abandoned the Catholics to the intemperance of zeal and the abuse of vicA D.448. tory 59. The monophyfite doctrine (one incarnate nature) was rigorously preached in the churches of Egypt and the monafteries of the Eaft; the primitive creed of Apollinaris was protected by the fanctity of Cyril; and the name of EUTYCHES, his venerable friend, has been applied to the fect most adverse to the Syrian herefy of Neftorius. His rival Eutyches was the abbot, or archimandrite, or fuperior of three hundred monks, but the opinions of a fimple and illiterate reclufe might have expired in the cell, where he had slept above feventy years, if the refentment or indifcretion of Flavian, the Byzantine pontiff, had not expofed the fcandal to the eyes of the Chriftian world. His domeftic fynod was inftantly convened, their proceedings were fullied with clamour and artifice, and the aged heretic was furprised into a feeming confeffion, that Christ had not derived his body from the substance of the Virgin Mary. From their partial decree, Eutyches appealed to a general council; and his caufe was vigorously afferted by his godfon Chryfaphius, the reigning eunuch of the palace, and his accomplice Diofcorus, who had 19 Dixi Cyrillum dum viveret, auctoritate fuâ effeciffe, ne Eutychianifmus et Monophyfitarum error in nervum erumperet : idque verum puto... aliquo... honefto modo vody cecinerat. The learned but cautious Jablonski did not always speak the whole truth. Cum Cyrillo lenius omnino egi, quam fi tecem aut cum aliis rei hujus probe gnaris et æquis rerum æftimatoribus fermones privatos conferrem. (Thefaur. Epiftol. La Crozian tom. i. p. 197, 198.), an excellent key to his differtations on the Neftorian controversy! fucceeded ३ |