The old Latin translations of the works of this father were extremely
faulty, before the edition of Paris, by John Aubert, in 1638, in six
tomes, folio, bound in seven, which yet might be improved. Baluze and
Lupus have published some letters of this holy doctor, which had escaped
Aubert and Labbe. If elegance, choice of thoughts, and beauty of style
be wanting in his writings, these defects are compensated by the
justness and precision with which he expresses the great truths of
religion, especially in clearing the terms concerning the mystery of the
Incarnation. Hence his controversial works are the most valuable part of
his writings. His books against Nestorius, those against Julian, and
that called The Treasure, are the most finished and important.
His treatise On Adoration in Spirit and Truth, with which he begins his
commentary on the Bible, contains, in seventeen books, an exposition of
several passages of the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, (though not
in order,) in moral and allegorical interpretations.
In the thirteen books entitled Glaphyrs, _i.e._ profound or elegant, the
longer passages of the same books are explained allegorically of Christ
and his church.
In his commentaries on Isaiah, and the twelve lesser prophets, he gives
both the literal and allegorical sense.
On the Gospel of St. John, we have ten books entire, and fragments of
the seventh and eighth. In the old editions, the fifth, sixth, seventh,
and eighth books, which were entirely wanting, were patched up by
Clictou from the writings of other fathers: which, for want of reading
the preface, have been quoted by some as St. Cyril's. In this great work,
the {280} saint gives not only the literal and spiritual senses of the
sacred text, but likewise refutes the reigning heresies of that age,
especially those against the consubstantiality of the Son, as the
Eunomians. He also answers all the objections of the Manichees. He is
very clear in establishing in the holy sacrament of the altar the
reality of Christ's body contained in it and the holy sacrifice,
teaching that "the holy body of Christ gives life to us when received,
and preserves us in it, being the very body of life itself, according to
nature, and containing all the virtue of the Word united to it, and
being endued with all his efficacy by whom all things receive life, and
are preserved." (L. 4, in Joan. p. 324.) That we shall, by tasting it,
"have life in us, being united together with his body as it is with the
Word dwelling in it." (Ibid. p. 361.) That "as death had devoured all
human nature, he who is life, being in us by his flesh, might overcome
that tyrant." (Ibid. p. 272.) "Christ by his flesh, hides in us life and
a seed of immortality, which destroys in us all corruption," (Ibid. p.
363,) and "heals our diseases, assuaging the law of the flesh raging in
our members." (ibid. p. 365.) In the tenth look he is most diffusive and
clear on this sacrament, extolling its miraculous institution, the most
exalted of all God's mysteries, above our comprehension, and the
wonderful manner by which we are united and made one with him; not by
affection, but by natural participation; which he calls "a mixture, an
incorporation, a blending together; for as wax melted and mingled with
another piece of melted wax, makes one; so by partaking of his precious
body and blood, he is united in us, and we in him," &c. (L. 10, in Joan.
pp. 862, 863, item pp. 364, 365.) See the longer and clearer texts of
this doctrine in this book itself, and in the controversial writers upon
that subject. Also, in his works Against Nestorius, whom he confutes
from the blessed eucharist, proving Christ's humanity to be the humanity
of the divine Person. "This," says he, "I cannot but add in this place,
namely, that when we preach the death of the only begotten Son of God,
that is, of Jesus Christ, and his resurrection from the dead, and
confess his ascension into heaven, we celebrate the unbloody sacrifice
in the church, and do by this means approach the mystical benedictions,
and are sanctified, being made partakers of the sacred flesh and
precious blood of Christ, the Saviour of us all. And we do not receive
it as common flesh, ([Greek: me genoito],) God forbid; nor as the flesh
of man who is sanctified and joined to the Word by a unity of dignity,
or as having a divine habitation; but we receive it, as it is truly, the
life-giving and proper flesh of the Word." (Ep. ad Nestorium, de
Excommun. p. 72, t. 5, par. 2, and in Declaratione undecimi
Anathematismi, t. 6, p. 156.) In this latter place he speaks of it also
as a true sacrifice: "We perform in the churches the holy and
life-giving and unbloody sacrifice, believing the body which is placed,
and the precious blood to be made the very body and blood of the Word,
which gives life to all things, &c. He proves that it is only to be
offered in Catholic churches, in the only one house of Christ" (L. adv.
Anthropomorph. t. 6, p. 380.) He heard that some imagined that the
mystical benediction is lost if the eucharist is kept to another day;
but says, "they are mad; for Christ is not altered, nor his body
changed." (T. 6, p. 365, ep. ad Calosyrium.) In his fourth book on St.
John, (t. 4, p. 358,) he as expressly confutes the Jewish doubt about
the possibility of the holy sacrament, as if he had the modern
Sacramentarians in view.
To refute the whole system of Arianism, he wrote the book which he
called The Treasure, which he divided into thirty-five titles or
sections. He answers in it all the objections of those heretics, and
establishes from scripture the divinity of the Son of God; and from
title thirty-three, that of the Holy Ghost.
His book On the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, consists of seven
dialogues, and was composed at the request of Nemesm and Hermias. This
work was also written to prove the consubstantiality of Christ, but is
more obscure than the former. The holy doctor added two other Dialogues,
the eighth and ninth, On the Incarnation, against the errors of
Nestorius, then only known by report at Alexandria. He afterwards
subjoined Scholia, to answer certain objections; likewise a short book
On the Incarnation, in which he proves the holy Virgin to be, as she is
called, the Mother of God; as Jesus Christ is at the same time both the
Son of God, and the Son of man. By his skirmishes with the Arians he was
prepared to oppose and crush the extravagances of Nestorius, broached at
that time against the same adorable mystery of the Incarnation, of which
God raised our holy doctor the champion in his church; for by his
writings he both stifled the heresy of Nestorius in the cradle, and
furnished posterity with arms against that of Eutyches, says Basil of
Seleucia. (T. 4, Conc. p. 925.)
St. Cyril composed at Ephesus his three treatises On the Right Faith,
against Nestorius. The first is addressed to the Emperor Theodosius. It
contains an enumeration of the heresies against the Incarnation, namely,
of Cerinthus, Photinus, Apollinaris, and Nestorius, with a refutation of
each, especially the last. The second is inscribed to the princesses
Pulcheria, Arcadia, and Marina, the emperor's sisters, all virgins,
consecrated to God. This contains the proofs of the Catholic faith
against Nestorius. The third is a confutation of the heretics'
objections against it.
His five books against Nestorius, are the neatest and best penned of his
polemic writings. They contain a refutation of the blasphemous homilies
of that heresiarch, who yet is never {281} named in them; by which
circumstance they seem to have been written before his condemnation. St.
Cyril sent to Nestorius twelve Anathematisms against his errors. This
work was read in the council of Ephesus, and is entirely orthodox, yet
some censured it as favoring Apollinarism, or as denying the distinction
of two natures in Christ, the divine and human, after the Incarnation;
and the Eutychians afterwards strained them in favor of their heresy.
John, patriarch of Antioch, prepossessed against St. Cyril, pretended
for some time to discover that error in them; and persuaded Andrew,
bishop of Samosata, and the great Theodoret of Cyr, to write against
them. St. Cyril gave in his clear Explication of them to the council of
Ephesus, at its desire, extant, p. 145.
He also wrote, soon after that synod, two Apologies of the
Anathematisms; one against Andrew of Samosata, and other Oriental
prelates, who through mistake were offended at them; and the other,
against Theodoret of Cyr. And lastly, An Apologetic for them to the
emperor Theodosius, to remove some sinister suspicions which his enemies
had endeavored to give that prince against his sentiments in that work.
The Anthropomorphite heretics felt likewise the effects of St. Cyril's
zeal. These were certain ignorant monks of Egypt, who having been taught
by the elders, in order to help their gross minds in the continual
practice of the presence of God, to represent him to themselves under a
corporeal human figure, by which they at length really believed him to
be not a pure spirit, but corporeal, like a man; because man was created
to his image. Theophilus immediately condemned, and the whole church
exploded, this monstrous absurdity. St. Cyril wrote a letter to confute
it to Calosyrius, bishop of Arsinoe, showing that man is framed
according to the Divine image, not in his body, for God being the most
pure Spirit, can have no sensible figure, but in being endued with
reason, and capable of virtue. In the same letter he rejects a second
error of other ignorant monks, who imagined that the blessed Eucharist
lost its consecration if kept to the following day. He reprehends other
anchorets, who, upon a pretence of continual prayer, did not work at
certain hours of the day, making it a cloak of gluttony and laziness.
The saint has left us another book against the Anthropomorphites, in
which he proves that man is made to God's image, by bearing the
resemblance of his sanctity, by grace and virtue. So he says the angels
are likewise made to his likeness. He answers in this book twenty-seven
dogmatical questions put to him by the same monks.
He wrote, in the years 437 and 438, two Dogmatical Letters (pp. 51 and
52) against certain propositions of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, the
forerunner of Nestorius, though he had died in the communion of the
church.
The book on the Trinity cannot be St. Cyril's; for it refutes the
Monothelite heresy, not known before the year 620.
Julian the Apostate, while he was preparing for the Persian war, had,
with the assistance of Maximus and his other impious philosophers,
published three books against the holy gospels, which were very
prejudicial to weak minds; though nothing was advanced in them that had
not been said by Celsus, and fully answered by Origen in his books
against that philosopher, and by Eusebius in his Evangelical
Preparation. St. Cyril, out of zeal, composed ten books against Julian,
which he dedicated to the emperor Theodosius; and also sent to John of
Antioch to show the sincerity of his reconciliation. In this work he has
preserved us Julian's words, omitting only his frequent repetitions and
puerilities. Nor have we any thing else of that work of the Apostate,
but what is preserved here by St. Cyril. He begins by warning the
emperor against bad company, by which Julian fell into such extravagant
impieties. In the first book he justifies Moses's history of the world,
and proves with great erudition from profane history that its events are
posterior, and the heathen sages and historians younger than that divine
lawgiver, from whom they all borrowed many things. In the second, he
compares the sacred history of the creation, which Julian had pretended
to ridicule, with the puerilities and absurdities of Pythagoras, Thales,
Plato, &c., of whom Julian was an admirer to a degree of folly. In the
third, he vindicates the history of the Serpent, and of Adam's fall; and
retorts the ridiculous Theogony of Hesiod, &c. In the fourth, he shows
that God governs all things by himself, not by inferior deities, as
Julian pretended, the absurdity of which he sets forth: demonstrating,
likewise, that things are ruled by a wise free providence; not by
destiny or necessity, which even Porphyry and the wiser heathens had
justly exploded, though the Apostate adopted that monstrous doctrine. He
justifies against his cavils the history of the Tower of Babel: and in
his fifth book, the Ten Commandments; showing in the same, that God is
not subject to jealousy, anger, or other passions, though he has an
infinite horror of sin. Julian objected that we also adore God the Son,
consequently have two gods. St. Cyril answers that he is the same God
with the Father. In the sixth book he reports the shameful vices of
Socrates, Plato, and their other heroes of paganism, in opposition to
the true virtues of the prophets and saints. Julian reproached Christ
that he did not appear great in the world, and only cured the pool, and
delivered demoniacs in villages; he reprehended Christians for refusing
to adore the noble ensign, the gift of Jupiter or Mars; yet, says he,
you adore the wood of {282} the cross, make its sign on your forehead,
and engrave it on the porches of your houses ([Greek: To toutu saurou
proskuneite tzolon, eikonas autou skiagrafountes en to metopo, kai pro
ton opennatos eggrafontes.] L. 6, adv. Jul. t. 6, p. 194.) To which St.
Cyril answers, (p. 195:) We glory in this sign of the precious cross,
since Christ triumphed on it; and it is to us the admonition of all
virtue. This father says in another place, (in Isaiam, t. 4, p. 294:)
"The faithful arm and intrench themselves with the sign of the cross,
overthrowing and breaking by it the power, and every assault of the
devils: for the cross is to us an impregnable rampart." In this sixth
book he produces the open acknowledgment of Julian that the heathenish
oracles had all ceased; but this he ascribed to old age and length of
time. St. Cyril shows the extravagance of this supposition, and that the
true reason was, because the power of the devil had been restrained by
the coming of Christ. He mentions the same in his Commentary on Isaiah,
(t. 2, p. 596.) In the seventh book, he proves that the great men in the
true religion far surpassed in virtue all the heroes of paganism. In the
eighth and ninth, that Christ was foretold by the ancient prophets, and
that the Old and New Law are in substance the same. In the tenth he
proves, that not only St. John, but all the Evangelists, teach Christ to
be truly God. Julian objects, (pp. 333, 335, 339, and 350,) that we also
adore the martyrs and their sepulchres: "Why do you prostrate yourselves
at the sepulchres?--which it is to be believed your Apostles did after
the death of their Master, and taught you this art magic," (p. 339.) The
saint answers, We make an infinite difference between God and the
martyrs: which he had before told him, (l. 6, pp. 201 and 203,) where he
writes, "We neither call the martyrs gods, nor adore them with divine
worship; but with affection and honor reverence them: we pay them the
highest honors, because they contemned their life for the truth," &c.
We have in the second part of the fifth tome several Homilies and
Letters of this saint. It was ordained by the council of Nice that the
bishop of Alexandria, in which city chiefly flourished the sciences of
mathematics and astronomy, should at the end of every year examine
carefully on what day the next Easter was to be kept. They, by custom,
acquainted by a circular letter other bishops near them, and in
particular the bishop of Rome, that he might notify it to all the
prelates of the West. St. Cyril was very exact in this duty. Possevin
says he saw his paschal discourses in the Vatican library, for every
year of hie episcopacy, namely thirty-one, from the year 414. We have
but twenty-nine printed: those for 443 and 444 being wanting. He spoke
them to his own flock, as well as sent them to other bishops; and marks
in each the beginning of Lent, the Monday and Saturday in Holy Week, and
Easter-day, counting Lent exactly of forty days. In these paschal
homilies he exceedingly recommends the advantages of fasting; which he
shows (Hom. 1.) to be the "source of all virtues, the image of an
angelical life, the extinction of lust, and the preparation of a soul to
heavenly communications." He says, "If it seems at first bitter and
laborious, its fruits and reward infinitely compensate the pains; for
more should seem nothing for the purchase of virtue: even in temporal
things, nothing valuable can be obtained without labor and cost. If we
are afraid of fasting here, we shall fall into eternal flames hereafter;
an evil infinitely worse, and quite intolerable." In the following
homilies he extols the absolute necessity of this mortification, to
crucify in us the old man, and punish past irregularities; but shows it
must be accompanied with alms and other good works. In his latter
paschal discourses, and others extant, he explains the mystery of the
Incarnation against Nestorianism and other heresies. The ninth homily is
On the Mystical Supper, or Holy Banquet of the Communion and Sacrifice,
in which "the tremendous mystery is performed, and the Lamb of God
sacrificed, (p. 271;) in which (p. 272) the Eternal Wisdom distributes
his body as bread, and his saving blood as wine: the Maker gives himself
to the work of his own hands. Life bestows itself to be eat and drunk by
men," &c. At this divine table he cries out, (p. 376,) "I am filled with
dread when I behold it. I am transported cut of myself with astonishment
when I consider it," &c. He proves, against Nestorianism, (p. 318,) that
there is but one Person in Christ, because in this holy sacrament is
received his true body and blood: not the Divinity alone, which nobody
could receive, nor a pure man's body, which could not give life; but a
man made the Word of God--who is Christ, the Son of the living God, one
of the adorable Trinity. He remains the priest and the victim: he who
offers, and he who is offered. ([Greek: Oti autos menei hiereus kai
lusia, autos ho prosferon kai ho prosferomenos.] p. 378.) In the tenth
homily he pronounces an encomium of the blessed Mary, mother of God.
This was delivered at Ephesus, in an assembly of bishops, during the
council; for he apostrophizes that city, and St. John the Evangelist,
its protector. In it he calls the pope "the most holy Celestine, the
father and archbishop of the whole world, and the patriarch of the great
city Rome." (Ib. Encom. in St. Mariam. part 2, p. 384.) He more clearly
extols the supreme prerogative of the church of Rome, founded on the
faith of Peter; which church is perpetual, impregnable to hell, and
confirmed beyond the danger of falling. (Dial. 4, de Trinit. pp. 507,
508.) His eleventh homily is On the Presentation, or, as the Greeks call
it, [Greek: apantesis]. The meeting of the Lord in the Temple, and The
Purification of our Lady, in which he speaks of the lamp or candles used
on that festival. He has a pathetic Sermon on the Pains of {283} Hell:
he paints the terrors of the last Judgment in a manner which cannot fail
to make a strong impression upon all who read it. (Or. de Exitu animi,
et de secundo Adventu.)
The epistles which we have from his pen all relate to the public affairs
of the church, and principally those of Nestorius. His second letter to
that heresiarch, and his letter to the Orientals, were adopted by the
general councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, and are a rule of the
Catholic faith. His sixteenth letter is placed among the canons of the
Greek church. In it be recommends to the bishops of Libya and
Pentapolis, the strictest scrutiny of the capacity and manners of those
who are admitted to holy Orders; and the greatest solicitude and
watchfulness that no one die without baptism, if only a catechumen, and
the Holy Eucharist or Viaticum. See Beveridge.