(A.D. 444.)
[Roman Martyrology. The Greeks celebrate the memory of S. Cyril on
June 9th, and commemorate him together with S. Athanasius on June
18th. Authorities: Socrates, Sozomen, Marius Mercator, the Acts of
the council of Ephesus, and his own letters and treatises &c.]
This great champion of the faith has been attacked by modern writers as
passionate and intolerant; it is true that he was guilty of several
errors in administrating his patriarchate, and that his impetuosity gave
the impulse which led to serious violation of justice. But we must
remember that no man, not the greatest of saints, is without
imperfection of character, and that the greatest of saints are they who,
having serious natural defects, have mastered them by their faith and
self-control. S. Cyril began his patriarchate under disadvantageous
circumstances. He was the nephew of Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria,
Chrysostom's worst enemy, a man devoid of principle, wholly given up to
pride of station; on October 15th, 412, he closed his episcopate of
twenty-seven years; a melancholy instance of great powers rendered
baneful to the Church by a worldly spirit and a violent temper. He was
succeeded by his nephew Cyril. The evil of his uncle's example hung
about him for some time, obscuring the nobleness which was to shine out
afterwards. He desired above all things the ascendancy of the Church; as
to the means of obtaining which, he had fewer scruples than became a
minister of Him who rebuked the attack on Malchus. He closed the
Novatian church, took away its sacred ornaments, and deprived its Bishop
of his property. The Jews of Alexandria--a powerful body during many
centuries--had procured the disgrace and punishment of Hierax, an
admirer of Cyril's sermons. Cyril, naturally indignant, menaced the
chief of their community; the Jews' revenge was to raise a cry at
midnight, "The Church of S. Alexander is on fire!" and to massacre those
Christians who rushed out to save their church. Cyril appears to have
made up his mind that the Christians must right them, without expecting
justice from the praefect Orestes, and he organized at daybreak a force
which attacked the synagogues, expelled the Jews from Alexandria, and
treated their property as rightful spoil. Orestes, exasperated at this
hasty and lawless vengeance, would not listen to the explanations which
Cyril offered; and the archbishop, after vainly holding out the Gospels
to enforce his attempts at a reconciliation, gave up all hopes of peace.
Five hundred monks of Nitria, inflamed by a furious partisanship,
entered the city and reviled the praefect as a pagan. "I am a Christian,"
he exclaimed; "Atticus of Constantinople baptized me." A monk named
Ammonius disproved his own Christianity by throwing a stone at the
praefect, which inflicted a ghastly wound. He was seized, and expired
under tortures; but Cyril so miserably forgot himself as to call this
ruffian an "admirable" martyr, a proceeding of which he was afterwards
heartily ashamed. Then followed a darker tragedy. Hypatia, a learned
lady, and teacher of philosophy, and a heathen, who had great influence
in the city in opposing Christianity, was supposed to have embittered
Orestes against Cyril; and some fiery zealots, headed by a reader of the
church, named Peter, dragged her from her house and tore her to pieces,
limb from limb. Cyril was no party to this hideous deed,[128] but it was
the work of men whose passions he had originally called out. Had there
been no onslaught on the synagogues, there would have been no murder of
Hypatia. The people of Alexandria were singularly fiery and given to
civil contensions. Gibbon says of them, "The most trifling occasion, a
transient scarcity of flesh or lentils, the neglect of an accustomed
salutation, a mistake of precedency in the public baths, or even a
religious dispute, were at any time sufficient to kindle a sedition
among that vast multitude, whose resentments were furious and
implacable."[129] A ferocious civil war which lasted twelve years, and
raged within the city, till a considerable portion had been reduced to
ruins in the reign of Valerian, had originated in a dispute between a
soldier and a townsman about a pair of shoes.
Cyril had inherited all his uncle's violent prejudice against S. John
Chrysostom. Pope Innocent had not been able to procure the vindication
of his memory at Constantinople. But soon after his death, Atticus his
successor, a good man, but weak and timid, and a declared enemy to
Chrysostom, who had resisted the Pope's exhortation, yielded to the
popular feeling, and to the advice of the Emperor Theodosius, who
thought that "for peace and unity there would be no harm in writing a
dead man's name on a diptych," _i.e._, on the table of names of the
departed prayed for at the Mass. Atticus excused himself for this
compliance in a letter to Cyril, in which he observed that, in these
Eucharistic commemorations, laymen as well as bishops were included. The
nephew of Theophilus was not likely to be thus appeased; and he
extracted from the messengers of Atticus the confession that Chrysostom
was now commemorated as a Bishop. In his view, Chrysostom was simply a
man who had forfeited the episcopate; and he called upon Atticus to
"expunge from the sacerdotal catalogue the name of one who was no
minister," distinctly intimating that unless he resolved to uphold the
authority of the Council of the Oak,[130] he would forfeit the communion
of the patriarchate of Alexandria.
But as time passed, Cyril thought better of this, and regretted his
violence and prejudice. Isidore of Pelusium, a pious abbot, wrote to
him, "Put an end to these dissensions, lest you incur the judgment of
God," and urged him not to make a perpetual schism in the Church by
refusing to commemorate Chrysostom. He placed the name of Chrysostom on
his diptychs, and immediately was received into communion with Rome from
which he had been estranged by his adherence to the prejudices of his
uncle.
Atticus, patriarch of Constantinople, was succeeded in 426, by Sisinius,
who died on Christmas Eve, 427. Nestorius, a Syrian bred in Antioch, of
high reputation and great powers as a speaker, ascetic and studious in
his habits, was consecrated to the see on April 10th, 428. His first
sermon indicated a feverish polemical zeal. "Give me," he exclaimed,
addressing the Emperor, "give me the earth clear of heretics, and I will
give you heaven in return! Help me to overthrow the heretics, and I will
help you to overthrow the Persians." He began his episcopate by
attacking an Arian meeting-house; the Arians set fire to it in their
despair; the flames caught other buildings, and the new patriarch
received the ominous name of "the Incendiary." The early violence of
Cyril ought neither to be extenuated nor exaggerated; but there was
somewhat less of provocation for the persecuting zeal of Nestorius.
Shortly before Christmas, 428, a priest named Anastasius, whom the new
archbishop had brought from Antioch, was preaching in S. Sophia. In the
sermon he said, "Let no one call Mary the Mother of God; for she was a
human creature, of whom God could not be born." Nestorius was present
and approved; and on Christmas Day he himself began a short course of
sermons, in which he called the title heathenish, and spoke of Mary's
Son as a mere man, the instrument employed, and the vesture worn by God.
Eusebius, a lawyer in the city, stood up in full church, and proclaimed
that the Eternal Word Himself was born after the flesh. Nestorius
denounced this doctrine; "It was not the Word that was born," said he;
"It was only the _man_ Jesus."
Soon after, on a festival in honour of the Virgin, probably the
Annunciation, a certain Bishop Proclus preached in the great church
before Nestorius. After speaking of S. Mary in glowing language, as the
bush burning and unconsumed, the cloud that bore the cherub-throne,
Gideon's fleece filled with heavenly dew, he passed to the practical
bearings of the Catholic doctrine. "If the Word had not dwelt in the
womb, Flesh had never sat down on the holy throne. It was necessary,
either that the doom of death should be executed on all, for all have
sinned, or that such a price should be paid in exchange as could fully
claim the release. Man could not save, for he was under the pressure of
the debt of sin. An angel could not redeem humanity, for he had lacked
such a ransom as was needed. One only course remained, that the sinless
God should die for sinners. It was God who out of His compassion became
Man. We do not proclaim a man deified, but we confess a God Incarnate.
The Self-same was in the Father's bosom, and in the Virgin's womb; in a
mother's arms, and on the wings of the wind. He was adored by angels,
while He sat at meat with publicans. The servant buffeted Him, and
creation shuddered. He was laid in the tomb, and he spread out the
heavens as a curtain. O the mystery! I see the miracles, and I proclaim
the Godhead; I see the sufferings and I declare the Manhood." Nestorius
rose from his throne and rebuked the preacher. He said that to speak of
God as virgin-born was erroneous, and in after sermons he argued that
God who "held the circle of the earth" could not be wrapt in
grave-clothes; that the Sustainer of all things could not rise from the
dead. Christ, he said, was a sinless man, the image of the Godhead
through His goodness; and that as a child was of the same nature as its
mother, therefore that Christ could not be divine as Mary was not
divine. He allowed to Christ _a_ divinity, but not _the_ divinity,
placing Him rather as chiefest of saints than as God. It was Arianism
under another form.
His sermons caused a great excitement at home as well as abroad. Men saw
that the question was no strife of words; laymen who felt that Catholic
truth was their inheritance, no less than that of the clergy, shrank
from the communion of a bishop who made void the Incarnation. Clergy
began to preach against him, "They are croaking frogs," said Nestorius,
and he obtained an imperial order to silence them. A priest began to
celebrate in private, an abbot and a monk told Nestorius to his face
that he was in error, and were savagely beaten and imprisoned for so
doing. A monk who dared to denounce him as a heretic was scourged and
exiled. Among his supporters a bishop named Dorotheus was the chief.
When he preached his heresy, the congregation uttering a cry of
indignation, rushed out of church, but Nestorius proceeded with the
service, and administered Communion to the preacher.
The careful circulation of the archbishop's sermons brought them into
the hands of the Egyptian monks. Cyril strove to undo their effect by a
letter addressed to the monks, about the end of April, 429. They would
have done better, he said, by abstaining from the controversy; but it
was necessary as things stood, to impress on them the positive truth.
Since Christ was Emmanuel, since He who was in the form of God assumed
the form of a servant, since the Son of Man was adorable, since the Lord
of glory was crucified, it was impossible to divide the persons, and
separate the manhood from the Godhead. To sum up all in one simple
formula; "If our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how can His Mother, the holy
Virgin, be _not_ Mother of God?" He guarded himself from
misrepresentation by clearly confessing that it was from Mary that
Christ derived His human nature, but that it was not from her that He
derived His divine nature. He was God, from her He received His
humanity, but to her He was not indebted for His Godhead.
About Midsummer he wrote his first letter to Nestorius, urging him not
to produce scandal and a schism by asserting that God dwelt in Christ
instead of proclaiming the Catholic doctrine that Christ was God. In
February, 430, S. Cyril wrote his second letter to Nestorius--the great
Epistle which received in subsequent councils a formal sanction from the
Church. He set forth his faith in the clearest terms, insisting on a
real, not a merely moral union of God and Man in Christ. Nestorius
replied, showing a strange confusion of mind in the matter, which
contrasts painfully with the bright, crisp, and lucid style of Cyril. He
was ready to allow that Christ was an association of God with the man,
Jesus; but he would not admit that God and man made one Christ.
Now it was that Cyril shone as a bright star in the firmament of the
Church, proved a pillar in the house of God, sustaining the truth. For
this God had raised him up, to maintain in the face of heresy, the Unity
of the Person in our Blessed Lord. What S. Athanasius had done for the
Church when assailed by Arianism, Cyril was called to perform when she
was beaten by Nestorianism. "I care not for distress, or insult, or
bitterest revilings," said he in a letter to his clergy, "Only let the
faith be kept safe."
[Illustration: S. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA.
After the Picture by Dominiquin in the Church of Grotto
Ferrata, Rome.
Jan. 28.]
Early in August a council met at Rome. Pope Celestine
quoted a stanza from the Christmas hymn of S. Ambrose:--
"Redeemer of Earth's tribes forlorn.
Come, show Thyself the Virgin-born;
Let every age the marvel greet--
No common birth for God were meet."
"Thus," he added, "Our brother Cyril's meaning, when he calls Mary, the
mother of God, entirely agrees with _Talis decet partus Deum_." He cited
S. Hilary and S. Damasus as teaching the same doctrine of One Christ;
and the council pronounced Nestorius guilty of heresy. On August 11th,
he wrote to Cyril, accepting his doctrinal statements, and giving him an
important commission. "Join the authority of our see to your own, and
freely occupying our place, execute this sentence with strictness and
rigour; so that, unless in ten days time from this monition, he condemns
in writing his unholy doctrine, and assures us that he holds that faith
concerning the birth of Christ our God, which is held by the Roman
Church, and by your Holiness' Church, and by all who belong to our
religion, your Holiness may provide for his Church, and let him know
that he must needs be cut off from our body."
On the 19th of November, the emperor Theodosius, at the request of
Nestorius and his opponents, summoned a general council to meet at
Ephesus at the ensuing Pentecost. Besides the circular letter, Cyril
received a private one, angry in tone, from the emperor, asking, "Why
have you despised us, and raised all this agitation, as if a rash
impetuosity were more befitting than accurate inquiry, or audacity and
versatility more pleasing to us than good taste and simple dealing." In
a council held at Alexandria, Nestorius was declared heretical, and was
excommunicated.
On Sunday, December 7th, four bishops entered the cathedral of
Constantinople, during the time of service, and presented to Nestorius
the letters of Celestine and Cyril excommunicating him.
About four or five days before Whit-sunday, which in 431, fell on June
7th, Cyril reached Ephesus, accompanied by fifty bishops, and found that
Nestorius had arrived with sixteen before him. The Roman legates,
Arcadius and Projectus, bishops, with Philip, a priest, were on their
way. Pope Celestine had already expressed to Cyril his opinion, that if
Nestorius were minded to repent, he should by all means be received,
notwithstanding the sentence already pronounced by Rome and Alexandria.
The bishops of the patriarchate of Antioch had not yet arrived. The
church of Africa devastated by the Vandals could send no prelate; but
Capreolus of Carthage wrote, entreating the bishops to maintain the
ancient doctrine.
Hostilities were, in one sense, commenced between the parties before the
opening of the council. Memnon, bishop of Ephesus, excluded the
Nestorians from the churches, so that they had no place wherein to
celebrate Pentecost, or to say matins and vespers.
Acacius, bishop of Melitene, endeavoured to convert Nestorius. A bishop
of the Nestorian party said to him, "The Son who suffered is one, God
the Word is another." Acacius withdrew in horror; but another saying
that fell from Nestorius impressed itself yet more indelibly upon every
Catholic heart. On June 19th, some prelates were arguing with him on the
divinity of Jesus. "For my part," said he, several times over, "I cannot
say that a child of two or three months old was God." Thus he declared
his disbelief in the foundation doctrine of Christianity.
On Sunday, June 21st, a fortnight had elapsed from the time fixed for
the meeting of the council. The Bishops were weary of waiting; illness
and even death, had appeared among them; and John, patriarch of Antioch
had not arrived. The majority therefore sent a message to Nestorius,
telling him that the council should begin, next day. On Monday, June
22nd, when 198 Bishops assembled in S. Mary's Church, he personally
remonstrated against the council being opened till the Bishops of the
patriarchate of Antioch had arrived. It was in vain; Cyril and the
majority absolutely refused to delay. On the episcopal throne, in the
centre of the assembly, were laid the Gospels; the Bishops sat on each
side; Cyril, as highest in rank, and as holding the proxy of Coelestine,
until the arrival of the Roman legates, presided in the assembly. It
would have been better if some other bishop had discharged this office;
but it appears that Cyril's part in the proceedings was mainly that of a
producer of evidence, and that he called on the council to judge between
himself and Nestorius. A second citation was then directed to Nestorius;
but soldiers with clubs denied the deputies access to his presence, and
he sent out word that he would attend when all the bishops had reached
the city.
A third message was then dispatched to him; care being taken to treat
him simply as an accused bishop, not as a condemned heretic. Again the
rude sentinels thrust back the deputies. "If you stand here all night,
you will get no satisfaction; Nestorius has ordered that no one from
your council shall enter." They returned to S. Mary's. "Nestorius," said
the Bishop of Jerusalem, "shows a bad conscience. Let us now proceed to
compare all recent statements with the creed of Nicaea."
When the great confession had been read, then the second letter of
Cyril to Nestorius, and extracts from the sermons of the accused, the
fathers proceeded to depose and excommunicate Nestorius, in the name of
"our Lord Jesus Christ whom he has blasphemed." The sentence was signed
by all the bishops; the first signature being, "I, Cyril, Bishop of
Alexandria, subscribed to the judgment of the council." It was now late
in the summer evening. The bishops, on issuing from the church, were
welcomed with loud applause by the people, who had thronged the streets
all day. Torches and perfumes were burnt before them, as they proceeded
to their several abodes; and thus ended the memorable first session of
the council of Ephesus. It is interesting to think that while the
bishops were going home that night, after a day of intense excitement,
Paulinus of Nola was calmly giving up his soul. His last words, breathed
forth in a low chant at the hour of vespers, were those of Psalm cxxxi.
17, (cxxxii.) _Paravi lucernam Christo meo_. "I have prepared a lamp for
my Christ."
On Saturday, June 27th, John of Antioch arrived with fifteen Bishops.
The council sent deputies to his lodging: he consented to see them, but
permitted Count Irenaeus, a friend of Nestorius, to beat them cruelly.
Dusty and travel-stained as he was, John proceeded to assemble a
conclave of the partisans of Nestorius, numbering forty-three Bishops,
and deposed Cyril of Alexandria, and Memnon of Ephesus.
Theodosius, the emperor, prejudiced in favour of Nestorius, and
thinking, perhaps not without reason, that the prelates of Antioch
should have been awaited before the opening of the council, wrote on
June 29th, in severe terms, ordering that no bishop should leave Ephesus
until the doctrinal question had been fairly scrutinized, and declaring
the proceedings null.
And now the Roman legates arrived, and the second session was held in
Memnon's house, July 10th. Celestine's letter to the council, dated May
8, expressed full confidence that the council would join with the
legates in executing what Rome had already decided was good. The bishops
answered by applause, "One Coelestine, one Cyril, one faith of the
council, one faith of the world!"
Next day, in the third session, the council wrote to the emperor that
the whole Church was against Nestorius; and in a fourth session John,
patriarch of Antioch, who supported the heretic, was deposed and
excommunicated. The emperor then sent his high-treasurer, Count John, to
compose the differences in a summary manner. On his arrival he at once
arrested Cyril, Memnon, and Nestorius, and soldiers were stationed at
the doors of their bed-rooms, to keep them close prisoners.
The bishops of the council, in a letter to the clergy of Constantinople,
described the distress which they were enduring. "We are killed with the
heat, the air is unhealthy, there is a funeral nearly every day, the
servants are all gone home sick; but if they make us die here, we will
not alter what Christ has through us ordained." Many of the bishops were
very ill; some had been obliged to sell all that they had, in order to
pay their expenses. Cyril wrote also, but there was a difficulty in
getting these letters carried to their destination. The Nestorians of
Constantinople beset the ships and the roads, and would allow no
ordinary messenger to enter the city. It was determined to give them
into the care of a beggar, who might carry them in the hollow of a cane
on which he leant. This ingenious device succeeded. The clergy of
Constantinople received the sentence of deposition pronounced on their
patriarch, and the letters of Cyril and the council. The clergy openly
addressed the emperor on behalf of Cyril. There was a great stir among
the monks, who were for the most part determined enemies of
Nestorianism. The aged abbot Dalmatius had not left his monastery for
nearly fifty years. The emperor had vainly striven to make him take a
part in the processional services during earthquakes. But now he felt,
as he expressed it, that in a cause which so truly belonged to God he
could not be inactive. He issued forth, at the head of a solemn train of
monks and abbots, chanting in two choirs, which moved towards the
palace; the abbots were at once admitted to the presence of Theodosius,
and he having read the letter of the council, said, "If these things are
so, let the Bishops come hither." "They are prevented," said Dalmatius.
"No they are not," said the emperor. "They are under arrest," persisted
the abbot. The conference ended to the satisfaction of the abbots; they
came forth, and directed the multitude without to proceed to a large
church at the extremity of the city. Again the procession swept onwards;
monks, bearing wax tapers, led the psalmody, without which in those days
no great religious movement was conceivable; and the inspiring, "O
praise God in His holiness," was thundered forth as they approached
their destination. The church was thronged with eager listeners;
Dalmatius caused the letter of the council to be read, and then
described the interview with Theodosius. Dalmatius might well write to
the council, "I have not neglected your wishes." His interposition was a
great event; he had proved too many for the Nestorians. By his simple
devotion and impressive firmness, the old recluse had given force and
unity to a great mass of public feeling, and broken the spell by which a
party had bound the emperor.
It is unnecessary to follow the tangled threads of party strife much
further. Theodosius confirmed the decree of the council, and on Sunday,
Oct. 25th, 431, a new patriarch was consecrated to fill the room of
Nestorius. John of Antioch had been led astray by party feeling, and in
faith he had not been really heretical; his mind like that of other
supporters of Nestorius was bewildered, and fearing lest Cyril should
fall in the opposite error, that of Apollinaris, which lost one nature
in the other, making of Christ but one nature, he had adopted the side
of Nestorius. Now he was reconciled to Cyril, who gladly met him
halfway, and by mutual explanation blew away the dust of strife, and
found that their faith was identical. John sent Paul, Bishop of Emesa,
to Alexandria with this confession, "We confess our Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God, to be perfect God and perfect Man, of a
reasonable soul and a body; before the ages begotten of the Father
according to His Godhead, but for us and for our salvation, in the
latter days, born of the Virgin Mary according to His Manhood; of one
essence with the Father as to Godhead, of one essence with us as to
Manhood. For there took place an union of two natures; wherefore we
confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According to this notion of the
union without confusion, we confess Holy Mary to be Mother of God,
because God the Word was incarnate and made man, and from His very
conception united to Himself the temple taken from her."
This formulary Cyril gladly accepted as orthodox, and then, and not till
then, Paul of Emesa was permitted to attend the church service, and
invited to preach, as a Catholic Bishop, on Christmas Day. The scene
that ensued was a very striking one. He began with the angelic hymn,
proceeded to Isaiah vii. 14, and then pronounced the momentous words,
"Thus Mary, Mother of God, brings forth Emmanuel!" The church rang with
joyful cries; "Lo, this is the faith! 'Tis God's gift, orthodox Cyril!
This is what we wanted to hear!" Paul resumed, and presently enforced
both sides of the great verity. "A combination of two perfect natures, I
mean Godhead and Manhood, constitutes for us the one Son, the one
Christ, the one Lord." Again the people shouted applause; "Welcome,
orthodox Bishop, the worthy to the worthy!"
S. Cyril died in June, 444, after a pontificate of thirty-two years,
during the last fifteen of which he may be said to have as truly lived
for the truth of the unity of the two natures in Christ, as his
mightiest predecessor, S. Athanasius, had lived for the truth of the
Divinity of Christ. Doubtless, the fiery spirit, which Cyril could not
always restrain, impelled him, during this great controversy, into some
steps which show that he was not an Athanasius. But modern critics of
his character have said more than enough on this point, and too little
on points of a different kind. Historical justice can never demand that
we should take the hardest possible view of his conduct at the opening
of the council of Ephesus, and ignore the noble unselfishness, the
patience in explaining over and over again his own statements, the
readiness in welcoming substantial agreement on the part of others, in a
word, the "power, and love, and command" which made him a true minister
of peace in the reunion of 433. We need not dwell on other instances in
which he showed a remarkable forbearance, as when he bore without
irritation the schooling of S. Isidore; on his care for the due
probation of aspirants to the priesthood, his depth and acuteness as a
dogmatic theologian, his faith and thankfulness when treated as a
deposed prisoner. The way _not_ to understand him is to substitute a
haughty and heartless dogmatist for the ardent, anxious, often the
deeply suffering man, who, against an opponent strong in sophistry, in
court influence, and in church power, persevered in defending the simple
truth of the Scriptural and Nicene mystery, that "the one Lord Jesus
Christ was very God of very God, who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven, and was incarnate, and was made Man."[131]
[Illustration: S. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. After Cahier.
Jan. 28.]